Research commissioned by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has shown that NHS-industry partnerships can improve prescribing practices and lead to better patient outcomes.
Using data from across the NHS, the Partnering for Progress: A Data-Driven Analysis of NHS-Industry Partnerships report from Carnall Farrar found that hospitals engaging in industry partnerships are up to 2.5 times more likely to follow National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations for prescribing clinically and cost-effective medicines more closely, keeping patients’ conditions under better control.
The research, which looked specifically at partnerships tackling cardiovascular disease, cholesterol control and diabetes, also found early indications that partnerships in primary care networks were associated with improved disease management, such as blood sugar and blood pressure control.
The report has set out five key recommendations aimed at strengthening the evidence base for the impact of NHS-industry partnerships and for how they could be expanded in primary care, as well as at system and place level.
This includes conducting further research to establish the direct causative relationship between partnership working and their impact on patient outcomes across the UK, and increasing scale of partnerships taking place in primary care to address unwarranted variations in the prescribing of clinically and cost-effective medicines.
The report has also suggested that partnerships in the primary care setting should be considered to help to identify at-risk patients, initiate treatment and improve chronic disease management, and that industry stakeholders and NHS leaders should regularly monitor collaborations documented in the ABPI’s Library of Case Studies to scale the most impactful projects.
Amit Aggarwal, director of medical affairs at the ABPI, said: “For many years, industry and NHS leaders have been able to point to countless specific examples of successful partnerships benefiting patients and the NHS. This research provides further evidence that partnerships between the NHS and industry make a positive difference to patients.”
Ben Richardson, managing partner at Carnall Farrar, added: “Launching a new drug is only part of the equation – true patient outcomes are achieved when we also address system-wide barriers such as patient identification, adherence and best practice sharing.”