Consumers are bearing more and more of the cost burden in healthcare. That’s more of their hospital costs, more of their doctor costs and more of their prescription drug costs. According to Divya Iyer, vice president of Strategy and Business Development at GoodRx, as many as 50% of the commercially-insured population of the U.S. is on a high deductible health plan.
High deductibles mean more upfront costs are covered by the patient, and this marks an important change for the healthcare landscape. Patients are more engaged than ever in their health decisions and are actively making choices about what they’re buying—whether that’s a healthcare service or prescription drug. And for pharma companies, GoodRx presents an opportunity to engage with patients in new, more personalized ways.
In this interview, Divya discusses the future of patient engagement with Rebecca Willumson, publisher of Fierce Pharma, and highlights how consumer-focused platforms open up new opportunities for pharma companies.
Rebecca Willumson:
Hi there. I'm Rebecca Willumson. I'm the publisher of Fierce Pharma, and I'm here today with Divya Iyer, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at GoodRx. Divya, thank you so much for joining me.
Divya Iyer:
Hi, Rebecca. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Rebecca Willumson:
Sure. So before we begin, can I have you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at GoodRx?
Divya Iyer:
GoodRx has been around for over a decade. It's a very well-known consumer brand, with strong brand equity and loyalty with consumers. And about three years ago, the Pharma Manufacturer Solutions team started at GoodRx. We work with pharma companies to advance their commercialization goals, and I lead strategy and business development for that team.
I've been fortunate to see healthcare from a variety of angles. I worked in pharma, I worked as a strategy consultant for pharma. After that I worked at McKesson, which works across the healthcare value chain. I think this wide range of experience enables me to bring that to GoodRx and solve problems in a creative way, understanding that this ecosystem is so complex, and lives are literally at stake I'm also a trained pharmacist and did some clinical research at Merck, back in the day.
Rebecca Willumson:
So kicking things off, tell me how have customer and patient expectations evolved in the current healthcare marketplace?
Divya Iyer:
Particularly over the past few years, consumers are being asked to bear more of the cost burden in healthcare. COVID, the economy and our political climate have exacerbated this, as well as the toll it takes on mental health., This means that patients pay more of their hospital costs, doctor costs and prescription drug costs. Fifty percent of the U.S. commercially insured population is on a high deductible plan.. And because they’re bearing more of the cost burden, they're more engaged in their healthcare decisions.
They want to know what's going on, they want to know how much they have to pay, and they want to know how to live a healthy lifestyle. They want to manage their conditions more proactively. And the proliferation of digital technologies in other aspects of their lives means that they expect that from healthcare as well. We've all heard of the Amazon-like experience, and I think that's what consumers and doctors want in healthcare.
Rebecca Willumson:
So tell me, what sets GoodRx apart from other pharma partners, and why do you think the GoodRx audience is valuable to pharma marketers?
Divya Iyer:
One of the big differentiators is the deep consumer trust and loyalty that GoodRx has earned. I don't think there's another healthcare platform that has this audience — both consumers and healthcare providers — at scale. What this means for pharma is that GoodRx already has the audience they are trying to reach. If you think about driving awareness, customer acquisition and retention, GoodRx is a natural partner because we already have this high-value audience.
Rebecca Willumson:
Now, we mostly know GoodRx as a platform that serves consumers and more recently providers. So what can GoodRx do for pharma manufacturers?
Divya Iyer: It’s true that people know of GoodRx primarily as a consumer brand. And the pharma solutions side of our company is relatively new. Yet what we realized is that for branded medications, particularly specialty brands, GoodRx shows cash prices. But they may not really be helpful to the patient because they're still very expensive, sometimes thousands of dollars, and there are not many patients who are able to pay cash for these treatments. Or, even if they can afford the first fill, they're not likely to refill their prescription.
We saw this as a fantastic opportunity to partner with pharma companies. They spend billions of dollars on patient support programs, financial assistance programs, and other market access programs. And we have a huge number of patients looking for these brand medications and not able to afford them. So we asked, how can we bring the two together?
It’s been a natural fit for GoodRx to partner with pharma. We initially promoted GoodRx as the consumer gateway, but we have evolved our strategy to focus on awareness, access, and adherence. We connect pharma with both consumers and providers — at scale. And with specialty now at 50% of the market and growing, I think this creates incredible opportunities for GoodRx-pharma partnerships.
Rebecca Willumson:
So tell me, what are your near term priorities in terms of focus and capabilities?
Divya Iyer:
We understand consumers very well. So, we will continue to deepen consumer engagement and grow the size of the consumer audience. We're building additional capabilities within GoodRx to better engage consumers, to better capture what medications they're searching for and ultimately taking, and to better understand their health conditions. A patient doesn’t usually say, “I'm on brand X.” It’s more likely they think in terms of their overall health and managing their conditions. So, how do we engage a person holistically across that condition journey? While a brand team can drive adherence for one brand, overall patient outcomes only improve when you address the whole self and health conditions in their entirety.
For healthcare professionals, GoodRx recently launched ‘Provider Mode.’ So, another priority for us is continuing to scale and engage providers, to attract them to the platform and give them tools that reduce their administrative burden. We also acquired a company called vitaCare that broadens our solution set for pharma. We've already started integrating vitaCare into GoodRx, and have found many complementary strengths.
Rebecca Willumson:
So I want to stick with that. So tell me a little bit more. So what is vitaCare from GoodRx and how does it help consumers?
Divya Iyer:
Today, when patients are prescribed a brand, including a specialty medication, oftentimes there is an entity called a ‘hub’ where they're enrolled. The hub helps them with different things like injection training and product logistics. VitaCare is similar to a hub, and eases the whole process from writing a prescription to the medication showing up at the patient's doorstep. It's a really consumer-friendly, humanized approach where patients understand that, “OK, my doctor sent my prescription to the pharmacy, and this is what it will cost me.” Often a prior authorization or something else may be required. And patients may not understand all that’s required to start and stay on therapy, and it's an extra administrative steps for them and for their providers.
Without this type of support, the prescription may get abandoned because patients are not going to deal with all this because they have other life priorities. Once the prescription is written and sent to vitaCare, they will ensure that that drug gets to the patient, seamlessly. Patients may choose to pick it up at a nearby retail pharmacy or they can get it through mail order. vitaCare is highly complementary and synergistic to GoodRx because, for example, we have many patients who need extra support because they are taking a specialty medication.
Rebecca Willumson:
Now you mentioned this earlier, but I want to dig in a little bit more. Can you tell me more about GoodRx Provider Pode that recently launched?
Divya Iyer:
We are very excited about this and received a lot of attention not only from providers, but from the medical and lay press as well. Provider Mode is similar to the traditional GoodRx experience, but we've added tools and a bespoke experience that reduces administrative burden. For example, providers can fill out forms, look up frequently prescribed medications, send a coupon to their patient through GoodRx, or text a copay card. And one of the features that we’ll launch soon is a real-time benefit check (RTBC).
Many doctors would like to talk to their patient about how much a drug costs and affordability options, but they're not equipped with that knowledge. They don't have a reliable, consistent source of that information. RTBC will unlock a huge opportunity because doctors will be able to go into Provider Mode, do a benefit check for a patient, see if they can afford it and discuss affordability with them during the visit. It will increase the chances of that patient starting and staying on therapy because — according to doctors — the number one reason that a patient doesn't pick up a prescription is cost.
I think this will help drive the transparency conversation, and it ties back to the first question you asked me, which is, “What do consumers want?” They want transparency and they want more control over their decision making. This is a tool that's going to help both doctors and consumers achieve that.
Rebecca Willumson:
Well, that feels like the perfect place to close out. Thank you so much, Divya. I appreciate the conversation.
Divya Iyer:
Great. Thank you.