research poster by IHS Healthcare and Pharma for ISPOR 2012: Joint Working between pharma and NHS in the United Kingdom

1. A Survey of “Joint Working” Between the
Pharmaceutical Industry and the National
Health Service in the United Kingdom
Lockwood C, Marinoni G, Ando G (IHS, London, United Kingdom)
Introduction Figure 2. Segmentation of NHS joint-working projects by therapeutic area
Source: IHS secondary research
“Joint-working” between the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS
has emerged as a high-profile policy initiative in the United
Kingdom (UK). Spearheaded by the Department of Health (DH),
ABPI, and other stakeholders, this agenda has been influenced by
the NHS quality/productivity drive, which has increasingly
prompted health-service managers to consider external support
as a means to plug the resources gap.
Objectives
This study sought to characterise the current landscape for Joint- “Other” includes allergy, central nervous system, dermatology, drug addiction, long-term conditions, nephrology, nutrition, ophthalmology,
working in the UK by surveying the types of projects being smoking cessation, urology, and vaccines
undertaken by industry and the NHS. In terms of classification, those projects identified uniquely as
Service Development initiatives accounted for the largest single
Methods category, at 25% (42 projects) (Table 1). To ascertain whether a
correlation between Respiratory and Service Development
The websites of major pharmaceutical companies, NHS projects was driving this finding, projects were jointly segmented
organizations, and other stakeholders were consulted to create a by TA and category (the latter on a “double-counting” basis where
list of joint-working projects documented in the public domain. To there were multiple category assignments). Each TA/category
qualify as a joint-working project, collaborations had to involve a pairing was then expressed as a percentage of the total number
sustained commitment from industry beyond traditional of projects in that TA. The results indicate that Service
sponsorship. A classification system was then devised to segment Development projects are common across prevalent TAs, and that
projects. Finally, the resulting database was then analysed to this category does not in fact account for the highest percentage
ascertain qualitative and basic quantitative insights into the UK of Respiratory projects.
joint-working environment.
Table 1. Categorisation of NHS joint-working projects
Source: IHS secondary research
Results Project category Number (Percentage of total)
Service Development 40 (27%)
A total of 165 joint-working projects, involving 37 pharmaceutical HCP Education 26 (16%)
companies, were identified; of these, 129 (78%) involved a single Service Optimisation 21 (13%)
pharmaceutical company and 36 (22%) involved multiple industry Patient Education 17 (10%)
partners. Large, multinational, innovator pharmaceutical Screening 14 (8%)
companies appear to be the most active industry participants in Capacity Support 15 (9%)
Joint-working (Figure 1). Smaller entities tend to enter multi- Guideline Implementation 14 (8%)
Guideline Development 12 (7%)
company projects, while this breakdown (single/multi-company)
Service Audit 11 (7%)
varied across the large players (Figure 1).
Commissioning Support 11 (7%)
Awareness Raising 7 (4%)
Figure 1. Number of NHS joint-working projects by pharmaceutical company
Source: IHS secondary research
Medicines Review 4 (2%)
Unidentified 2 (1%)
Publication 1 (1%)
Conclusions
While involvement from the TA perspective tends to align with
company portfolios, there is evidence that multi-company
projects—often centered broadly on medicines or multiple
indications—account for a considerable share of Joint-working,
indicating that objectives other than direct market access
influence industry strategy in this arena.
While the trends observed here will have been influenced by the
extent of, and any biases in, individual company disclosure of
joint-working projects, it appears that the Respiratory TA
The Respiratory TA dominates UK Joint-working, accounting for dominates the UK joint-working landscape by some margin. The
over a quarter of the identified projects (Figure 2). The majority of dominance of this TA and prevalence of certain others (e.g.,
these (39 in total) correspond to chronic obstructive pulmonary Metabolic and Cardiovascular) may, in addition to reflecting the
disease, with five dedicated to asthma and one to both UK disease burden, also relate to the impact of the QOF, an
indications. Of those projects pertaining to specific indications or incentive scheme that rewards practitioners for service
TAs, the companies participating in them hold assets in the achievements across these areas. Projects enabling managers to
corresponding areas as a general rule; however, Multiple TA meet these targets may have helped boost the uptake of these
initiatives (e.g., medicines review or waste-management initiatives. Existing research suggests that these TA trends are
programmes) make up 9% of the total identified projects. broadly in alignment with NHS needs, although there may be
greater demand for projects centered on LTCs.
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