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Mary Balaskas, CCO, NeovanceImagine investing years of research in bringing a life-changing therapy to market—only to have patients stalled at the starting line. For pharmaceutical manufacturers, success hinges on a single critical outcome: did the patient actually begin their prescribed therapy?
Therefore, when evaluating patient access partners, the question isn’t who offers the most sophisticated technology. Instead, it’s whether that partner truly understands the real-world barriers that keep patients from starting therapy.
Neovance provides that precise answer by designing its patient access solutions at the level of the indication, where the barriers that delay therapy are most clearly revealed.
“Two indications for the same therapy can create entirely different friction points for providers and patients. One may require straightforward authorization, while another may involve complex documentation and multi-stage payer review, including prior authorization requirements, step edits, lab coordination and specialty pharmacy workflows,” says Mary Balaskas, CCO. “If patients don’t start therapy, adherence doesn’t matter.”
The team studies the drug and its indication, analyzing the payer landscape to identify where therapy initiation is most likely to break down. That defines the access problem at its source. Only then does the company determine how technology, workflow and analytics should support execution.
Purpose-Built Technology for Consistent Follow-Through
How does Neovance design patient access programs at the indication level?
Technology, for Neovance, is not the starting point. It is the execution layer.
The leadership at Neovance chose to build a custom engagement platform rather than rely on an off-the-shelf CRM to establish better control. Developed with input from reimbursement specialists, pharmacists, nurses and market access professionals, Neovance’s platform reflects how the access journey works in practice.
Once the team identifies where a program is breaking down, the platform configures workflows and automates coordination. It also helps identify which patients and provider offices require higher-touch support so resources can be directed where they are needed most. The result is tighter coordination, fewer communication gaps and greater consistency in navigating payer requirements. As program data and outcomes evolve, the platform allows access strategies to adjust quickly.
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Neovance looks beyond dashboards to pinpoint where submissions stall and where patients fail to get on therapy.
Once the team identifies where a program is breaking down, the platform configures workflows and automates coordination. It also helps identify which patients and provider offices require higher-touch support so resources can be directed where they are needed most. The result is tighter coordination, fewer communication gaps and greater consistency in navigating payer requirements. As program data and outcomes evolve, the platform allows access strategies to adjust quickly.
Sustainable Patient Assistance Programs
How can patient assistance programs balance affordability support with long‑term sustainability?
While reimbursement programs address payer approvals and coverage pathways, Patient Assistance Programs (PAP) ensure that affordability does not prevent eligible patients from beginning treatment. For manufacturers, however, PAP must balance timely support with long-term program sustainability.
Neovance approaches PAP with that balance in mind. Automation improves efficiency, reduces processing delays and streamlines enrollment, allowing patients and provider offices to navigate the program with minimal administrative burden. At the same time, structured oversight ensures eligibility criteria are applied consistently so assistance reaches those who truly need it.
By simplifying documentation and coordinating communication across providers, payers and pharmacies, Neovance reduces friction in the enrollment process while maintaining program integrity and ensuring assistance is delivered in a timely, sustainable way.
Using Data to Refine Behavior, Not Just Report Performance
How does operational data reveal where therapy initiation processes break down?
In patient access, programs can become reactive, responding to volume or high-level metrics without fully understanding where breakdowns occur. Neovance looks beyond dashboards to pinpoint where submissions stall and where patients fail to get on therapy.
In one engagement involving a therapy requiring complex care coordination and prior authorization management, Neovance worked closely with the manufacturer to implement layered tactical adjustments. Over six months, that disciplined iteration resulted in a 22-point increase in the first-fill rate and a 30-point increase in the prior-authorization submission rate.
Ensuring Access Translates into Treatment
Neovance’s pharmacy model is designed to reliably support the manufacturer programs that provide medication outside traditional insurance pathways. With two non-commercial dispensing pharmacy locations, the company builds operational redundancy into its model, ensuring continuity of service and reducing the risk of therapy interruptions if one site experiences disruption.
Highly automated pharmacy operations allow Neovance to process prescriptions, verify program eligibility and dispense medication efficiently while maintaining strict quality and accuracy standards.
This infrastructure allows Neovance to execute patient assistance programs that support eligible patients who cannot afford therapy. It also supports bridge programs that provide temporary medication while insurance coverage or prior authorization decisions are pending, as well as replacement programs that ensure treatment continues if medication is lost, damaged or compromised.
Advancing Patient Access Strategy for Complex Therapies
Patient access has become one of the most scrutinized functions within life sciences commercialization. Executives responsible for access strategy are no longer evaluating vendors on call center capacity or surface-level automation alone. They are confronting a more intricate environment shaped by tighter payer controls, evolving government policy, specialty pharmacy dynamics and growing financial pressure on patient assistance programs.
The result is a shift in how access partners are assessed. Access challenges vary widely by product profile. A therapy with straightforward prior authorization requirements and copay support presents a different trajectory than one that involves step edits, laboratory criteria or transitions from inpatient to outpatient settings. Newly launched products face formulary delays and the need for bridge support, while established brands may struggle with adherence barriers tied to delayed therapeutic effect or safety warnings. Programs that treat every patient identically risk misallocating resources and losing momentum at the moments that matter most.
Healthcare executives therefore look for partners that demonstrate three capabilities in practice rather than in marketing language. The first is a disciplined understanding of drug archetype and indication level nuance. Effective programs are built around the specific reimbursement pathway, physician workflow and patient profile associated with each indication. That level of granularity influences engagement design, prior authorization strategy and education models for both providers and patients.
The second is technology that serves a defined strategy rather than leading it. The access landscape has seen a proliferation of platforms and analytics tools, yet technology detached from real workflow insight often produces incremental change at best. Decision-makers increasingly scrutinize whether systems were configured for healthcare reimbursement complexity or adapted from generic CRM environments. Control over platform architecture and the ability to tailor workflows to specialty benefit dynamics or medical benefit intricacies carry material weight.
The third is measurable accountability grounded in data. Access programs evolve continuously as payer policies shift and volumes fluctuate. High-level dashboards are insufficient. What distinguishes mature partners is the ability to interrogate detailed performance data, connect it to specific tactical changes and discontinue or refine approaches that fail to produce movement. Sustainability in patient assistance programs adds another layer of oversight, requiring careful qualification processes and monitoring to ensure support reaches the intended populations without eroding program viability.
Neovance aligns closely with this disciplined model. It structures programs around drug-specific archetypes, analyzing reimbursement pathways, patient behaviors and provider friction points before recommending tactics. Its leadership assembled cross-functional expertise that includes reimbursement specialists, pharmacists and nurses, allowing it to interpret access barriers from multiple vantage points. Instead of adapting a generic CRM, it built a purpose-designed engagement platform to support customized workflows and execution control.
The organization integrates non-commercial pharmacy capabilities to support continuity from enrollment through dispensing, an important consideration for therapies that require coordination across care settings. Its model emphasizes iterative measurement and adjustment; in one complex program it reported substantial improvements in first bill rate and prior authorization submission performance after sustained data-driven refinement. For executives evaluating patient access partners, that combination of archetype-specific design, controlled technology architecture and demonstrable performance movement positions Neovance as a compelling choice.
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Company
Neovance
Management
Mary Balaskas, CCO, Neovance
Description
Neovance operates a proprietary patient access platform designed for pharmaceutical manufacturers. The platform supports the design and execution of drug- and indication-specific access programs, helping manage coverage requirements, affordability support and fulfillment so prescriptions move efficiently from intent to treatment.
