Patients’ clinical characteristics, disease experience, and perception

Abstract

The increasing life expectancy and longevity is gradually shifting the characteristics of the patients toward patient populations with higher age, multimorbidity, and functional impairments. While independently managed drug therapy will remain the cornerstone of healthcare provision, the challenges that patients face with the increasing complexity of their health as well as therapy need to be considered during the development of a new drug product. Understanding the clinical, as well as personal experience and needs of patient populations and integrate these into the drug product development process must be considered as an important quality aspect of a new drug product. An integrated product and patient approach in the treatment of multimorbidity aiming for reduced therapeutic complexity, patient acceptability, and product usability will further support patient safety and effectiveness.