Patient Engagement by Pharma—Why and How? A Framework for Compliant Patient Engagement

Engagement is increasingly recognized as a decisive factor for health-related outcomes in people living with a medical issue. It is their experience that drives this engagement. Therefore, providers who seek to develop better solutions, including medicines, must gain a deeper understanding of the patient experience. Beyond pathology, such understanding requires direct engagement with patients, something that has been historically avoided in the pharmaceutical industry. Whereas clear and comprehensive engagement frameworks are in place for direct engagement with health care professionals, such guidance does not yet exist for engagement with patients. A patient engagement framework has been developed at UCB to fill this gap, and it is herewith shared publicly as a contribution to setting and raising standards in patient engagement, with the ultimate aim of fostering the development of better solutions for people living with medical issues.