We have been talking about patient insight for 13 years. What is holding us back?

Published 11 September 2026

Author(s): Andrew Nelson

In 2013, I stood on stage at the Pharma Market Research Conference in New York and argued that pharmaceutical marketers needed to move beyond physician-centric models. Patients were already using social media to share experiences, influence one another and make health decisions. Pharma needed to listen.

Thirteen years later, I keep hearing the same call: we need patient insight earlier. The industry agrees. The challenge is still finding the budget to act on it.

But the economics have changed. We can now gather and interpret patient insight faster, at greater scale and through more sources than we could in 2013. Early patient insight has become a critical part of asset development. The challenge is ensuring it’s integrated early enough to influence the decisions that matter most.