We listen to them, empathize with them and share in the hope our therapy offers. Our passion for making a difference in the lives of cancer patients fuels us in our day-to-day work.
We believe that to accomplish our patient-forward mission, we must keep the patient at the forefront of our decisions and actions. Patients’ health, lives and their families and caregivers are critically important to us, guiding us forward in our mission to extend survival in some of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Our therapy is currently marketed in nine countries and we plan to continue to extend our geographic reach around the world to many more patients who can benefit from our therapy. We are committed to providing the highest quality products and ensuring product integrity and patient safety during development, commercial manufacturing, distribution, and throughout the product lifecycle. We individually and collectively aim to uphold the highest standards of quality in everything we do.
PATIENTS TREATED TO DATE 1
OF PATIENTS WERE VERY SATISFIED OR SATISFIED WITH NOVOCURE 2
1. as of 12/31/2020
2. based on 2020 patient survey results
We aim to empower patients and caregivers by ensuring they feel valued, secure, and confident about starting and staying on therapy. Our award-winning nCompass patient support team provides a wide range of patient support services and resources, including 24/7 support to answer questions about affording our therapy, identifying resources to minimize cost and working with the patient’s insurance on his or her behalf. 2020 survey results showed that 99% of patients were satisfied or very satisfied with the support provided by our nCompass team. 1
From day one, we have committed to assisting those patients in financial need who have limited or no medical coverage to access our therapy. We provide financial assistance to patients who qualify based on financial and other criteria. Additionally, we bear the financial risk of securing payment from third-party payers and patients in most of our active markets. For instance, we have been at risk for the cost of treatment for amounts not paid by Medicare in the U.S. since we began commercializing our therapy. Historically, Medicare fee-for-service program beneficiaries consistently represented between 20% to 25% of our U.S. active patient population. Our goal is to ensure that our therapy is financially accessible for each patient.
1. based on 2020 patient survey results
We are inspired by our patients and advocacy partners in their dedication to re-define living with cancer. Our team stands alongside patients, their families, caregivers and advocacy organizations around the world to build a community for patients diagnosed with aggressive cancers. We have strong partnerships with advocacy organizations supporting brain cancer, mesothelioma, and the broader cancer community.
We participate in advocacy events across our active markets. Each year, we typically attend more than 125 events supporting our patient communities and collaborate with several global, national and regional organizations. For example, this year we supported a virtual glioblastoma awareness and education initiative across Germany, Austria and Switzerland that united patients, their families and caregivers with disease experts. Additionally, we honored Mesothelioma Awareness Day in the U.S. by arranging for nearly 30 buildings and landmarks to be lit blue, the color associated with mesothelioma awareness. The illumination of these sites and our collaboration with advocacy groups helped “paint the world in mesothelioma blue” and bring attention to those impacted by this disease.
MPM Advocacy Event
We believe we are pioneers in our field. We are motivated by the potential to imagine and build innovative solutions, and driven by the opportunity to make a difference in the way cancer is treated around the world. It takes courage to innovate and we believe we are up the challenge.
We are excited about the potential to extend patient survival through product innovation and we nearly doubled our product development investments in 2020. Our therapy is delivered through a medical device that includes two primary components: a portable electric field generator and wearable arrays. Through our engineering efforts, we plan to continue to enhance our products with the intention to extend survival and maintain quality of life for patients. We have several development programs underway that aim to prioritize impact on both increasing the dose delivered and improving patient ease of use. These programs are primarily focused on enhancements to the field generator, arrays and software applications.
We are also focused on leveraging the unique role that Novocure plays within oncology as we have a direct connection to the patient. We are developing a series of software applications and related services that enable real-time patient support, both by our teams as well as treating physicians.