Beyond the First Fill: Why Sustained Adherence is the Real Measure of Patient Support

Getting a patient to fill their first prescription is a critical milestone, but it's only the beginning. According to the CDC, nearly 50% of patients are non-adherent to long-term therapies. That means even when patients start treatment, roughly half of them fall off over time.

For life science companies investing heavily in therapy access and Patient Support Programs (PSPs), this is the uncomfortable truth: initiation alone doesn't guarantee outcomes. The real challenge is sustaining engagement month after month, through the complexity of chronic disease management.

Non-adherence drives disease progression, preventable hospitalizations, and billions in avoidable healthcare costs. And despite decades of investment, the needle hasn't moved — adherence rates have remained essentially flat for over 20 years.

The Persistence Problem

Most PSPs are designed around the prescription event, but the patient's need for support doesn't end when they arrive at the pharmacy.

The weeks and months following initiation are when patients face a new set of barriers: side effect concerns, confusion about therapy expectations, gaps in communication with their care team, and the simple challenge of building a new habit into daily life. Without ongoing, connected engagement during this period, patients disengage.

Consistent Results Over Time: Real-World Evidence

A retrospective, real-world analysis conducted in partnership with Nick Kleptz, PharmD, at the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy examined medication fill rates over a six-month period across cardiometabolic and neurology populations.

The findings told a clear story — not just about initiation, but about persistence:

• Cardiometabolic population: Patients invited to use Redi Health showed a sustained absolute improvement of +11.4 percentage points in adherence, consistent across all six months evaluated.
• Neurology population: Patients invited to use Redi Health showed a sustained absolute improvement of +10.6 percentage points, holding steady month over month.

Critically, the intervention effect didn't spike and fade. It was observed in every month of the study period, in both therapeutic areas, with statistically significant results.

Patients engaged with Redi Health were approximately 35–40% more likely to fill their medications, not just once, but consistently over time.

What Sustained Engagement Actually Looks Like

Adherence isn't solved by a single touchpoint. It requires a connected system that keeps patients informed, supported, and engaged throughout their treatment journey:

• Ongoing Visibility: Patients need to understand where they are in the process — not just at initiation, but at every refill, every prior authorization renewal, and every change in therapy status.
• Personalized Education: Clinical content that evolves with the patient's journey builds confidence and reduces the uncertainty that drives early discontinuation.
• Coordinated Communication: When patients, pharmacies, providers, and support teams are connected in real time, gaps don't become drop-off points.
• Proactive Outreach: Rather than waiting for a missed fill to trigger intervention, sustained engagement means anticipating barriers before they cause a disruption.

The Opportunity for Life Sciences

The 20-year adherence flatline isn't a clinical problem — it's an engagement problem. Patients aren't failing therapy; the systems around them are failing to sustain connection beyond the point of initiation.

For manufacturers investing in PSPs, the opportunity is clear: extend the same level of focus and urgency applied to therapy access into the months that follow. The data shows that when patients receive connected, digital engagement throughout their treatment journey, they're more likely to stay on therapy — and that consistency translates directly into better outcomes and stronger program ROI.

Redi Health is helping Life Sciences Companies close the adherence gap by turning one-time support into sustained, connected patient engagement.

———————————

Based on a retrospective, real-world analysis of pharmacy fill data conducted in partnership with the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy. Results reflect an observational study and may not generalize to all populations. [See here for the full report.]