Our healthcare system is always evolving, and I don't think it's going to stop evolving. The new normal isn't just one change, but part of continuous change in pursuit of better patient outcomes at lower cost. In other words, what we call value.
As an industry, we must accept and embrace this new normal, and feel invigorated by it. This is especially true as it relates to our approach to building value through innovation, which is the clearest reflection and measure of change. That we must innovate for our patients' sakes, as well as for our own as business organizations, is a given.
The big question is how to ensure we have the resources to follow through in an era in which innovation costs to pursue and bring products to market are growing while limits on payment and access are being put into place. This is a reality none of us in the biopharma industry can avoid if we want to make progress for patients and create ongoing value for all of our stakeholders.
At Astellas, we've found a way forward that works for us – a patients-first, collaboration-driven model intended to balance the opposing forces that can stymie innovation.
Our model – which is focused across the spectrum of value stakeholders, including patients, providers, payers and regulators – is more than an aspirational strategy that fits neatly into a presentation. We are embracing open innovation by employing a system that uses the best science and the best talent from Astellas, biotech and academia to be flexible and nimble enough to adapt to new opportunities and circumstances. In the past 18 months alone, we've forged key partnerships with biotechnology companies and R&D alliances with visionary academic institutions.
As crucial as these and many other collaborations are, business model innovation is equally as critical. So we are working with integrated health networks and accountable care organizations around the country to generate and operationalize opportunities that deliver real value for patients. For example, we are working on a unique effort to bring together researchers and healthcare experts to develop ways to reduce inefficiencies in the management of oncology, urology and immunologic conditions.
Our model, driven by patient needs and grounded in collaboration, has proven to work well for Astellas. Collaboration is part of any successful model aspiring to generate patient value.
These collaborations are only a few of the many that various stakeholders are implementing across the country. They are "laboratories of value" worth studying, appropriating if applicable, and reworking if they have good ideas but are not entirely relevant to a particular stakeholder's needs and circumstances.
If we, as an industry, are going to remain relevant, sustainable and dynamic, we must continue this dialogue. Just as important, we must include all stakeholders in the dialogue around how to achieve value on all our behalf. After all, we are in this together.