At UCB, we keep patients at the center of everything we do, inspiring us, driving our scientific discovery, and leading us to rethink the patient experience. Read more from UCB's CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Jean-Christophe Tellier, about why it's time to come together across all healthcare stakeholders to deliver more for patients.

'Over more than 30 years in healthcare as both a physician and in the innovative biopharmaceutical industry, I have watched patient care move from symptom management to disease modification to curing diseases. We are in a new era of medical innovation that at one time seemed impossible - where we can treat patients with targeted solutions that work best for them.

At UCB, this commitment to understanding the needs of specific patients, leveraging science, and developing solutions that address unmet needs, is our Patient Value Strategy. Our ambition is to deliver unique outcomes that help specific patients achieve their goals, while giving patients the best individual experience, and improving as many of these patients’ lives as possible. By fulfilling our commitment, driving innovation, and providing patients a meaningful experience, more impactful solutions are on the horizon.

But the healthcare system today is not built for these life-changing innovations. Patients are struggling with affordable access to the medicines they need, whether due to insurance coverage, high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs at the pharmacy, or a combination thereof. And while novel therapies are transforming lives, the determinations of who can have access and how to pay for these treatments do not fit in the current system. We need to do more to change our complex, fragmented system that is driven by misaligned incentives and not patient-centered.

Now is the time to come together and connect as stakeholders across the healthcare system. Now is the time to move our system forward to meet the needs of patients who need innovative solutions to live their best lives. We need to ensure the healthcare system is recognizing and paying for what patients value – not an antiquated volume-based model. We need to ask ourselves if all stakeholders in the system have aligned incentives and, importantly, are they providing value today – and if not, how can we evolve for tomorrow?

This means pursuing new ways to pay for medicines. This includes developing multiple ways to determine and pay for value that move beyond one-size-fits-all outdated measures and incorporate value-based healthcare anchored to what patients’ value. No two patients are the same and we need new approaches to account for the variances of diseases, treatments, and most importantly how patients respond to those treatments. For example, at UCB we are committed to continuing to partner with payers to implement value-based contracting arrangements that ensure payments for our medicines accurately reflect the value they bring to specific patients. We must leverage real world evidence to assess the value of healthcare solutions – medicines, interventions, and more – over time rather than relying on snapshots of time with limited data. We also know we need solutions for how to pay for the next generation of disease modifying or curative medicines.

But we can’t do this alone. And better aligning incentives to create a more efficient and effective healthcare system for patients is critical. We cannot expect systems from the past to enable access to this new era of innovation. Together we must be able to measure the impact of our therapies on patients and use those measures to advance future treatments and cures for patients.

Improving patient lives through access to innovation is the responsibility of all healthcare stakeholders, and we take our responsibility seriously. No matter how innovative new treatments are, if patients do not have access they can’t provide value to the patient or society. Let’s come together to ensure patients can live their best lives and we can continue investing in developing new breakthrough medicines for those with unmet needs. No one can win the fight against disease on their own – we must work together to find solutions.'

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