A Deeper, Foundational Understanding of the IBD Patient Journey

Authored by: Michelle Soto and Sue Wild

The challenge

A leading pharmaceutical company with multiple therapies in development required a deeper, foundational understanding of the patient journey and treatment landscape. The client needed to uncover nuanced distinctions across therapy lines, patient subtypes, and geographic regions to inform early positioning and future clinical strategy.

They required rich, integrated insights into how patients progress from one line of advanced therapy to the next, including symptom evolution, treatment triggers, barriers, physician-patient dynamics, and unmet needs, particularly in the highly competitive US and EU markets. Additionally, the team aimed to ensure future products would complement, rather than cannibalize, their existing portfolio.

Our solution

To meet these needs, we executed a comprehensive, multi-source research program that integrated:

• Primary market research: In-depth qualitative interviews with physicians and patients exploring treatment decisions, triggers for line progression, unmet needs, attitudes toward novel modalities, and openness to /expectations for emerging therapies.
• Therapy Watch: Patient data from physicians, capturing treatment patterns, symptom tracking, diagnostics, and line-switching behavior.
• Living With: Patient-centric qualitative data providing insights into lived experiences, emotional drivers, and treatment satisfaction across the journey.
• Internal tracking studies: Multi-wave brand and market trackers contributed additional quantitative context, highlighting market share dynamics, prescriber perceptions, and emerging white space.
• Synthesis via workshop: We delivered an interactive workshop to facilitate a deeper understanding of the patient journey, drawing on insight. We combined all data sources – primary research, Therapy Watch, Living With, and brand trackers—into a single workshop format to deliver an integrated strategic view.

The results

The research provided an integrated view of the advanced therapy landscape, identifying:

• Potential endpoints and patient sub-populations for future clinical development.
• Early signals to guide differentiation and avoid internal competition among pipeline assets.
• Specific knowledge gaps for further investigation as product development advances.
• Key triggers and unmet needs that will support commercial positioning and messaging.
• Distinguish symptom evolution and emotional shifts across disease stages and therapy lines, enabling more nuanced messaging and trial design.

Insights were disseminated through an iterative rollout, including detailed reports, interactive workshops, patient avatars featuring real quotes to humanize findings, and a bespoke interactive infographic to drive stakeholder engagement across the organization.

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