I just returned from Asembia 2025, the largest gathering of pharma market access, commercialization, and patient services professionals in the U.S.
This year, over 8,000 people came together in Las Vegas to talk about the future of healthcare delivery!
But what struck me most wasn’t what’s next. It was what’s not working right now.
I thought I would share two insights that resonated with me. These insights tell a story that’s impossible to ignore — a story that puts the patient experience at the center of a crisis that’s been growing quietly but rapidly.
Insight #1: Over Half of Novel Prescriptions Go Unfilled
IQVIA data shows that 54% of prescriptions for novel medicines are never filled.
And even among the patients who do get therapy, only 31% persist for a year.
It’s not because the therapies don’t work. It’s because the system around them often doesn’t.
Too many patients are:
- Rejected by payers (35% are rejected by all)
- Abandoned at the pharmacy counter
- Left to figure out access on their own
This isn’t a technology issue. It’s not even a policy issue at its core.
This is a patient experience issue. And it’s costing lives.
Insight #2: The Patient Journey Is Getting More Complicated
One session summed it up perfectly: “The patient journey is getting more complicated.”
That may be the understatement of the year.
The market is growing — GLP-1s are exploding, specialty drugs are taking off, and we’re seeing launch after launch. But what’s happening on the ground?
- Retail pharmacies are closing — 2,700 in just two years.
- Drug shortages are rising.
- Launch dynamics are shifting.
The infrastructure patients rely on is eroding — just as their support needs are becoming more complex than ever.
So What Now?
If you work in patient support, this is your moment!
The industry is waking up to the fact that support is no longer operational — it’s clinical.
It must be treated as a core part of the care pathway, not a bolt-on service.
And patients don’t care whether your patient support program is internal or outsourced to a partner Hub — they care whether it makes their life easier or harder.
At PeopleMetrics, we’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is to measure patient support services as a lived experience.
We ask:
- What does the patient feel when they reach out to a case manager?
- Do they trust the process?
- Are they giving up before they get started?
These are not soft metrics. They are leading indicators of onboarding, adherence, and outcomes.
Final Thought
Asembia 2025 made one thing crystal clear to me: Patient support is not a nice-to-have. It’s a matter of survival.
If your brand is bringing new therapies to market, ask yourself: Are we investing as much in the patient experience around the medicine as we are in the medicine itself?
Because the data shows what happens when we don’t.
