Should We Demonstrate the ROI of HEOR to the Biopharma Industry? Can We?

There is no question that the labor market for HEOR is in a slump, affecting professionals within biopharma and consultancies/CROs alike. Academic settings might not be far behind. One recruiter recently said she now has five qualified candidates for every opening she’s working on, whereas those numbers were reversed in years past.

What happened? A recent article in the ISPOR publication, Value & Outcomes Spotlight, points to organizational changes within the biopharma industry directly impacting internal HEOR functions. Where previously these functions operated as distinct units, with their own leaders and reporting structures, they’re now being dismantled, with leadership positions eliminated and staff reassigned to other departments, most commonly Medical Affairs or Value & Access. These disruptions have spillover effects on project outsourcing to the HEOR solutions providers in consulting firms and CROs, from which we are similarly witnessing a steady stream of layoffs. The evidence is all over LinkedIn—so many farewells to great colleagues left behind, so many new chapters beginning.

All of this is new to those of us who’ve toiled in this field for any time at all. For decades, I’ve told students and others interested in getting into HEOR that it’s like having your own personal full-employment act, you’ll never be without a job. No more. The problem, it seems, is that we’ve taken for granted that HEOR work and the value data it generates are table stakes to successful launch and market uptake of biopharmaceutical products. This of course is true, but we’ve unfortunately done little to quantify that impact, to properly demonstrate our value. No wonder biopharma CFOs are questioning their investments in the HEOR function—they know how much they’re spending on it but have no idea what they’re getting in return. That part is missing from the KPIs displayed on their financial dashboards.

As a profession, our inattention to the return on investment question has left us in a precarious position. But it’s not too late to change. ISPOR, the professional association for health economics & outcomes research, has two discussion panels devoted to this topic at its upcoming European conference in Barcelona. One (on which I’m a panelist) poses the two questions headlining this post: should we and can we demonstrate the ROI of HEOR? I think most will agree the answer to the first question is a resounding “YES!” but it’s the second question that’s harder to be so sure about. Just because we should do something doesn’t mean we can, and even if we can doesn’t mean it will be easy.

The panel discussions and audience reactions will be instructive, but what I’m expecting is that we’ll recognize that demonstrating the ROI of HEOR is not straightforward—but that it’s important, it’s needed, and will require a concerted multistakeholder effort over time to address. Kudos to ISPOR for raising this important issue and providing support to get the job done.