Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Market Access is a complex concept in pharma. This complexity makes it challenging to formulate a comprehensive definition, especially since Market Access is still an emerging area within the pharmaceutical field. A few Authors have attempted to define Market Access and have laid the foundation upon which this study is based. However, due to the inconsistency in the definition of Market Access, a scoping review was carried out to explore its definition holistically.
METHODS: Arskey and O’Malley’s six-stage framework, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews were used to guide the review. BioMed Central, WorldCat.org and Directory of Open Access Journals were searched from 2003 to 2023. Full-text review was conducted on the papers that met the eligibility criteria by two reviewers. A third reviewer arbitrated on disputed papers for inclusion. Key findings were mapped and summarised descriptively. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken on the extracted data allowing themes relevant to the concept to emerge.
RESULTS: The database search yielded 222 results. Following title and abstract screening, 146 papers were screened, 127 were excluded, 19 papers were eligible for full-text screening, 5 more papers were excluded, and 14 studies were included in this study.
CONCLUSIONS: The review found that there were five components of market access: the right products, for the right patients, with patients paying the right price, at the right point, and in the right setting i.e. patients having timely access to pharma products following diagnosis and being in the right healthcare setting to access them. From this we offer a new definition of Market Access in pharma as: ‘providing the right products, for the right patients, delivered at the right point in time, within the right place or setting, at the right price’.