The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the health system—and our perceptions about health care—in ways the U.S. health care experts have only begun to understand. As stakeholders emerge from the pandemic with newfound insights about what constitutes high-value care, it appears that more—not less—disruption may be needed. Specifically, we need to change how we think about value. Patients no longer should be viewed as the beneficiaries of the health system, but instead be considered essential partners in the delivery of value-based care. If patients are not treated as equal partners, our system will fall far short of delivering the value patients need.

In my role leading U.S. Corporate Affairs, I witness how UCB puts patients at the heart of everything we do. UCB does more than innovate new medicines with incremental benefits —we discover, develop and deliver solutions to address unmet needs and go beyond the medicine to support the whole patient care experience. For example, in the last year, we leveraged the myUCB digital research platform to collect data and feedback from study participants to improve the patient experience in clinical trials. We also implemented a decentralized clinical trial (DCT) approach, which makes it easier for patients to access our trials and for UCB to learn from and reach under-represented patient populations. The critical insights gleaned from myUCB and the DCT platform guide where and how UCB invests our research dollars to help patients live their best lives—as defined by patients—and to access the solutions they need most.

By thinking beyond the medicine, UCB is able to deliver value differently in ways that resonate with each patient. UCB’s ambition is to continuously innovate to develop unique solutions that create for patients the best individual experience. This also means ensuring access for all who need these solutions, in a way which is viable for UCB, for patients, for communities, and for society. This is our ambition for patients. We recognize that for our care to be truly value-driven and affordable, every stakeholder has a role to play and we all have an imperative to work together for the benefit of patients. To this end, UCB has made the following commitments to our stakeholder partners in the U.S.:

• Patients. We are committed to incorporating the patient voice as we create solutions that deliver value, access and affordability for those living with severe, chronic diseases. We appreciate our ability to hear directly from patients about their experiences which, in turn, enables us to develop and deliver solutions based on their needs.
• Healthcare Professionals. The patient-provider relationship is paramount. UCB supports choice, works to provide education around access barriers and minimizes administrative burden.
• We are helping to evolve the public policy environment to one that prioritizes affordable access to medicines, value-based care and innovation, over “one size fits all” formularies.
• Payers. We are dedicated to orienting our business actions to support value for patients and for the system. We support risk-sharing models and invest in the generation of Real World Evidence to ensure we understand which patients and payers will benefit from our innovative treatments.

As we mark what has been a defining year for the U.S. health system, UCB is launching a blog series to initiate a dialogue on how we can encourage positive disruption to make our health system better, stronger and more accessible now and in the future. Over the course of the next year, you will hear from leaders, within UCB and beyond, on critical issues including sustainability, value-based reimbursement, value assessment, access, health equity and more. By illustrating how UCB lives our values, we hope others will join us in finding inspiration from patients and, in turn, transforming patient lives.