For years, pharmaceutical manufacturers relied on static research cycles. Advisory boards, annual payer interviews, and one-time market surveys shaped pricing, access, and contracting strategies. The strategy was to gather input once, align internally, and move forward with launch or portfolio plans.
That model no longer works.
The pace of today’s market access environment has outstripped the cadence of traditional research. Policy changes like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) Executive Order are reshaping global pricing in real time. Payers and providers are responding with new contracting strategies, shifting evidence requirements, and rapidly evolving coverage policies. Manufacturers who wait months for a new round of feedback are already behind.
Why Annual Research Falls Short
- Policy moves faster than your advisory board: By the time an annual panel meets, new rules on rebates, importation, or value frameworks may already be in place.
- Competitors adapt in real time: Launch timing, contracting offers, and messaging strategies are changing week by week. Waiting months to validate assumptions risks losing competitive position.
- Evidence expectations evolve mid-stream: Payers are increasingly vocal about which endpoints matter. If you aren’t testing assumptions continuously, you risk preparing evidence that doesn’t resonate.
The Case for Iterative, Agile Insight
High-performing market access teams are no longer relying on one-and-done research. Instead, they’re building insight engines for continuous, iterative feedback that evolves as the market shifts.
Key elements of this new model include:
- Ongoing payer and provider engagement: Insight loops that allow new questions to be asked as soon as new variables emerge.
- Rapid turnaround: Answers delivered in days, not months, so internal strategy can pivot quickly.
- Integrated tools: Platforms that combine qualitative dialogue with quantitative modeling, helping teams validate pricing, contracting, and value stories side by side.
- Collaboration across functions: Commercial, medical, HEOR, and policy teams aligned on a single, evolving picture of market reality.
What Winning Teams Do Differently
The manufacturers setting the pace today have shifted their mindset from projects to processes. Insight is an ongoing capability, not an activity tied to a single launch meeting.
They:
- Treat payer feedback as a continuous dialogue rather than a one-off event.
- Build real-time checkpoints into launch and portfolio planning.
- Use iterative testing to validate not only strategy, but also the assumptions behind it.
- Embrace agility, understanding that the “right answer” today may need to evolve tomorrow.
The Bottom Line
Annual research cycles made sense when markets moved more slowly, but not in today’s environment, where pricing, policy, and competitive dynamics shift overnight.
The new normal in market access requires insight that is faster, iterative, and always evolving. Teams that build agile feedback loops will be the ones ready for what’s next.