Editor’s note: Tracie Guidry is an analyst in the life sciences division at Market Strategies International, Detroit. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared here under the title, “New research: Pharmaceutical companies are overlooking a key audience.”
I never used to pay attention to anything in the health care industry. As someone young and healthy with no medical conditions, I rarely went to the doctor and ignored drug commercials. That all changed when I met my husband. After we had been dating for a while, he let me know that he had been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (commonly referred to as UC) when he was 20 years old, and it was not well controlled. My mind set quickly shifted, and I took on the role of a caregiver to someone with a chronic illness. Suddenly everything about the pharma industry fascinated me. I quickly went to find all the information I could on the Internet but it turns out there aren’t a ton of resources available to caregivers for this non-life threatening illness. It was frustrating, to say the least. The lack of resources directed toward caregivers of people with UC seemed to delegitimize their role as caregivers, like they are not even a part of medical decisions.
Luckily for my husband and me, my new-found fascination with the world of pharmaceuticals led me to Market Strategies, where my health care marketing research colleagues had seemingly endless knowledge about how to find deep information on diseases and current treatments, as well as treatments in development. I did some independent research on UC and discovered there were better options for my husband than what he was currently prescribed. With my encouragement, he found a more open-minded doctor who prescribed a new medication I had suggested. This new medication was self-injectable. My husband is brave in a lot of ways but shots are not his favorite thing. For this new medication to work,...