Value and Access Isn’t a Department - It’s a Business Model

(2.5 Min Read)

Market access is key to commercial success, yet many companies use outdated thinking that leaves significant value untapped. 

Pharma and med-tech executives face a hard truth: products lose pricing power over time. Despite knowing this, companies work in silos. Clinical development, evidence generation, customer engagement, and market access focus on tactical execution, not strategic market shaping*.

*This approach transforms market dynamics to create new opportunities rather than competing within existing constraints.

Moving Beyond the Product Mindset

Companies traditionally approach market access product-by-product. Functions work independently and measure success on patient outcomes and revenue. While clinical efforts focus on regulatory goals and commercial on launch, key value drivers may be missed: providers struggling with workflow integration, payers managing total cost of care, and health systems seeking operational efficiency. A narrow focus on approval misses the broader healthcare ecosystem where true value is created - or lost.

Shaping Healthcare Value

Leading companies adopt an ecosystem-level approach to market shaping. They bridge value gaps among stakeholders by integrating siloed functions into a unified strategy. I worked with a prominent life sciences company to align their innovation pipeline with pressing unmet needs of health systems in their key markets. The unified strategy means that every program and acquisition target is evaluated through this lens, lowering overall development risk by creating a reusable market access framework.

Leaders avoid crowded therapeutic areas. They focus on where patient needs, provider challenges, and system inefficiencies meet. These intersections offer the greatest potential for value creation. To succeed, organizations must transform how they approach value and access. Here are three core elements that drive results:

1. Strategic Value Planning: System-level unmet needs guide clinical development by finding value drivers across stakeholders. Evidence generation plans consider provider workflow, system economics, and payer priorities alongside treatment gaps and patient outcomes.
2. Portfolio Value Architecture: Value demonstration tools designed for one asset become platforms benefiting the entire portfolio. Early investments to map system-level needs reduce risk and create advantages across multiple programs.
3. Ecosystem Alignment: Early engagement with patients, providers, payers, and health systems shapes how value is defined, measured, and delivered. This collaboration opens opportunities to address systemic challenges, not just individual product requirements.

Creating Sustainable Advantage

For C-suite leaders, market-shaping investments create value, regardless of the success of individual products.  Making this shift requires leadership team alignment and board-level buy in.

Success involves:

• Aligning siloed functions around ecosystem-level value creation
• Building evidence infrastructure that serves multiple stakeholders
• Creating sustainable advantages through system-level solutions

Three questions for your next board or leadership team meeting:

1. How would our development priorities change if we focused on system-level value gaps rather than just clinical improvements?
2. What advantages could we gain by building value and access infrastructure that serves our entire portfolio and healthcare ecosystem?
3. How would our strategy change if we prioritized convergent stakeholder needs over obvious commercial potential?

The New Business Model

The market divides between those who shape healthcare value and those who accept the conditions others create. Companies that focus on shaping markets at an ecosystem level gain advantages that go beyond individual products. These benefits compound over time. You must choose - shape markets or accept them - while your assets are still in development.

Ready to begin? Map your portfolio against system-level value gaps. Look for overlaps with provider workflow challenges, payer cost management priorities, and system efficiency needs. This analysis reveals immediate opportunities and builds the foundation for a long-term competitive advantage.

Betsy J. Lahue is Chief Executive Officer of Alkemi. She helps life sciences executives transform market shaping from a fragmented process into a unified source of strategic advantage.