Why Market Access Starts Earlier Than You Think

By Bruce Copeland, Senior Director, Business Development, Halloran 

Attending the 2026 AMCP annual meeting offered a meaningful shift in perspective on how value is defined and evaluated across the healthcare ecosystem.  

Coming from a background rooted in regulatory strategy, product development, and global operations, I’ve typically worked upstream in the lifecycle, focused on getting therapies approved and to market. 

What AMCP highlighted is what happens next, and increasingly, what must happen before that point to ensure success.  

A Different Lens: Where Clinical Value Meets Economic Reality 

One of the most impactful aspects of the conference was how consistently sessions tied clinical outcomes to economic and access considerations. The dialogue was not just about whether a therapy works, but whether it works well enough, for the right populations, and at a cost that aligns with payer expectations.  

Several sessions focused on evolving formulary decision frameworks, where clinical differentiation alone is no longer sufficient. Comparative effectiveness, budget impact, and long-term outcomes modeling are now central to how therapies are evaluated. 

This reinforces a broader shift: success is no longer defined solely by regulatory approval, but by the ability to demonstrate sustained value in real-world settings.  

The Maturation of RWE, RWD, and HEOR 

Across multiple sessions, there was a clear and consistent emphasis on real-world evidence (RWE), real-world data (RWD), and health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), but with a notable evolution in how these tools are being applied.  

Rather than treating RWE as a post-market validation tool, speakers emphasized its role in shaping development decisions. Sessions highlighted how early incorporation of RWD can: 

• Inform trial design and patient selection  

• Support external control arms or synthetic comparators  

• Strengthen value dossiers submitted to payers  

What stood out was the level of rigor expected. Payers and stakeholders are increasingly sophisticated in how they evaluate evidence, placing pressure on sponsors to ensure methodological transparency, data relevance, and clear linkage to decision-making criteria.  

The Shift Toward Earlier Market Access Integration 

A recurring theme across sessions was the need to integrate market access strategy much earlier in the development process.  

Discussions around clinical trial design underscored the importance of selecting endpoints that resonate not just with regulators, but with payers. In some cases, this includes incorporating quality-of-life measures, healthcare resource utilization, and long-term outcomes that better reflect real-world value. 

There was also significant focus on cross-functional alignment—bringing together regulatory, clinical, commercial, and access teams earlier to ensure that evidence generation strategies are cohesive. 

The message was clear: siloed approaches increase risk, while integrated planning strengthens both approval and reimbursement pathways.  

Where Integrated Capabilities Support the Industry 

What became clear throughout the conference is that meeting these evolving expectations requires more than incremental adjustments; it requires coordinated expertise across the entire product lifecycle. 

Organizations like ProductLife Group are helping address this need through integrated service offerings that span biopharma development, global regulatory strategy, quality and manufacturing, pharmacovigilance, medical writing, and market access, including RWE, RWD, and HEOR capabilities. By connecting these disciplines, companies can better align early development decisions with downstream payer expectations, ensuring that clinical, regulatory, and commercial strategies are not developed in isolation. 

For small to mid-sized biotech companies (many of which operate with lean internal teams), this type of scalable, end-to-end support model can be critical in translating scientific innovation into real-world patient access and commercial success. 

Policy, Pricing, and the Evolving Access Landscape 

Several sessions also addressed broader policy dynamics impacting market access, including ongoing pricing pressures, legislative changes, and the growing influence of value-based contracting.  

Speakers discussed how these forces are reshaping not only pricing strategies, but also how manufacturers engage with payers. There is increasing interest in outcomes-based agreements, where reimbursement is tied to real-world performance—further emphasizing the importance of robust data infrastructure and ongoing evidence generation. 

This introduces both complexity and opportunity. Those that can effectively align clinical value with economic outcomes (and demonstrate that alignment over time) will be better positioned in an increasingly constrained environment.  

A Broader Takeaway: Alignment Across the Lifecycle 

Stepping back, the most important takeaway from my AMCP experience is the need for alignment—across functions, across geographies, and across the entire product lifecycle.  

The traditional model of sequential development – clinical, then regulatory, then access – is being replaced by a more integrated approach where these elements are developed in parallel. This requires earlier planning, stronger cross-functional collaboration, and a more holistic understanding of how decisions made early in development impact downstream access. 

It also highlights the importance of thinking beyond a single market. While the conference was heavily U.S. focused, many of the principles discussed, including evidence expectations, value demonstration, and payer engagement are increasingly relevant on a global scale.  

Final Thoughts 

AMCP provided more than just an introduction to the managed care landscape. It offered a clearer view of where the industry is heading.  

The expectations for evidence are higher. The definition of value is broader. And the timeline for integrating market access strategy is earlier than ever. 

For those of us working in development and regulatory strategy, that shift is not just important to understand; rather, it is essential to act upon.

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