Payers, providers and patients each pursue their own definition of value, often pulling in different directions. Racing to launch, many biopharma leaders focus narrowly on clinical perspectives, missing critical dynamics: payers controlling access and defining value, policymakers reshaping reimbursement and patients experiencing barriers to real-world outcomes.
Success demands a patient-centered 360° view — one that illuminates what each stakeholder values and what stands in the way of patients achieving those valued outcomes in real-world dynamics. That early insight separates launches that limp along from those that
achieve their market potential
Two-thirds of drug launches fail sales expectations.1
The root cause:
Lack of planning for today’s values-based-outcomes market.
Biopharma Launch Successes
Are Increasingly Rare
Launches are getting tougher. Sustaining growth is even harder.
+67%
Increase in the cost of bringing an asset to market since 2010.2
-50%
Drop in forecast peak sales per asset.3
80%
Of lifetime sales are reached three years earlier, as drugs peak faster, fade sooner and then plateau.4
78%
Of drugs that miss first-year targets underperform in the second year, and 70% continue to underperform into the third year.5
For first-time launchers, the odds are even steeper:
Only 20%–30% exceed launch expectations, vs. 40%–50% of established players.6
Countering Blind Spots With
a Patient-Centered 360° View
Winning launches see the system and how stakeholders affect one another.
Policymakers and payers shape payment models
Providers navigate incentives and care delivery within those constraints
Patients sit at the center, affected by every decision made around them.
Stakeholder Definition of Value
Policymakers and payers
- Population health impact
- Reduction in per-capita costs
- Equitable access
- Value-based incentives
- Prior authorizations
Providers
- Clinical outcomes
- Incentives and barriers
- Practice sustainability
- Access and reimbursement
- Out-of-pocket costs
- Shared decision-making
Patients
- Personal definition of quality of life/experience
- Better health outcomes
- Access to treatment
- Manageable out-of-pocket costs
Growth Starts With a Wider Lens
In a market defined by complexity, competition and compressed life cycles, growth hinges on identifying cross-stakeholder priorities early and shaping them into tested value stories — with patients at the center — before marketing dollars go out the door. When you address barriers strategically, you transform launches from reactive to proactive, building sustainable growth from day one
Illuminate blind spots.
Amplify your growth potential
Custom Content for HawkPartners from Studio by Informa Tech Target
- McKinsey (2014). The secrets of successful drug launches
- Deloitte (2019). Measuring the return from pharmaceutical innovation 2019
- McKinsey (2014). Redesigning for speed: Addressing life cycle compression in biopharma
- McKinsey (2014). The secrets of successful drug launches
- McKinsey (2024). Small but mighty: Priming biotech first-time launchers to compete with established players
