Industry overview
What is shaping pharmaceutical
Pharmaceutical and medical-device companies need evidence from doctors, pharmacists and patients, gathered with verified respondents, strict confidentiality and careful questionnaire design.
- Prescribing behaviour is shaped by evidence, experience and access
- Pharmacies influence brand substitution and adherence
- Patient journeys reveal unmet needs between visits
Client background
A pharmaceutical company, working in Six cities in Saudi Arabia, UAE & Egypt. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A pharmaceutical company
- Sector
- Pharmaceutical
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Qualitative research, Quantitative research, Reporting & insights
Client challenge
The company wanted to understand the experience of living with diabetes, from diagnosis to long-term management, to design patient support services.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: mapping the patient journey for people living with diabetes.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of patients.
- Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 9 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 1,200 patients.
- patients1,200
Audiences we typically reach in pharmaceutical
Physicians and specialistsPharmacists and chemistsNurses and allied HCPsPatients and caregiversHospital procurement teams
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Six cities in Saudi Arabia, UAE & Egypt. Markets: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates
- Egypt
Research methodology
A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.
- 1Brief
- 2Patient diaries
- 3Patient and caregiver survey
- 4Insight
Patients kept two-week diaries of meals, medication, monitoring and emotions, with consent and privacy safeguards. A survey then measured how common the patterns were.
Qualitative researchQuantitative researchReporting & insights
Sampling strategy
- patients
- 1,200
- Healthcare professionals and patients were screened on specialty, setting or condition, and professionals were verified before taking part.
- Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.
Data collection
- diaries
- 40
- Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
Data quality & validation
- Recordings and transcripts for every session
- Re-screening of qualitative recruits
- Verification of healthcare professionals
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
- Journey and decision mapping
Key findings
- Many patients struggled most in the first year after diagnosis and felt overwhelmed by information.
Diaries captured daily realities that interviews tend to smooth over.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: diaries captured daily realities that interviews tend to smooth over.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: many patients struggled most in the first year after diagnosis and felt overwhelmed by information.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The company designed a first-year support programme with simple guidance and nurse follow-ups.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interview summaries and key verbatims
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how do doctors choose between therapies?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.