Pharmaceutical research glossary

The degree to which a patient follows a prescribed treatment in dose, frequency and duration. Pharmaceutical research measures it over defined windows — three, six or twelve months — because discontinuation clusters in the early cycles.

A study measuring real prescribing habit against stated perception: what the physician prescribes, for which patient profile, why they choose one molecule over another and what would make them switch.

An obstacle delaying or preventing diagnostic confirmation: lack of test access, absent clinical suspicion at primary care, or referral times between care levels. It determines the size of the treatable eligible universe.

The value a brand adds beyond product attributes: recognition, associations, perceived quality and prescriber loyalty. In pharma it is measured through stated attributes and willingness to prescribe against a therapeutic equivalent.

Longitudinal measurement on a fixed physician panel tracking brand indicators over time — recall, share of prescription, NPS, brand equity — and comparing them wave after wave against the competitive set.

The official registry accrediting a health professional in Mexico, issued by the Dirección General de Profesiones. Validating each participant's licence is the minimum control ensuring a physician panel is made of real physicians.

Mexico's Compendio Nacional de Insumos para la Salud, the national health supplies compendium. It replaced the former Cuadro Básico in 2020 and is the list Mexican public institutions follow to purchase and prescribe medicines and supplies.

The body within Mexico's Consejo de Salubridad General that rules on applications to include, modify or exclude supplies from the national compendium. It cannot rule favourably if the supply fails the cost and health-outcome criteria of the evaluation guide.

Mexico's constitutional health council, reporting directly to the Presidency, which issues binding general health provisions. It hosts the CNIS Commission and approves its rules of organisation and operation.

An economic evaluation comparing the additional cost of an intervention against the additional clinical benefit it produces, expressed in natural units: life-years gained, events avoided or cases controlled.

A variant of cost-effectiveness analysis where benefit is expressed in QALYs, allowing interventions from different therapeutic areas to be compared under a single unit of measure.

The name the industry still uses for Mexico's institutional list, although since 2020 its official designation is the Compendio Nacional de Insumos para la Salud. Being inside or outside determines access to the country's largest patient volume.

The minimum number of interviews assigned to a subgroup — specialty, institution, region — so that subgroup can be read on its own. Without defined quotas, a large sample may allow no segmented reading at all.

The file gathering a product's clinical, epidemiological and economic evidence to support an access submission before an institutional evaluator. Its structure answers the evaluator's criteria, not the manufacturer's.

Mexico's national health and nutrition survey, conducted periodically with national and state-level representativeness. It is the primary public source for estimating population prevalence in epidemiological models.

Evidence derived from data generated outside the controlled clinical trial: electronic records, dispensing registries, observational cohorts. It shows how a product behaves in practice rather than under ideal conditions.

The process by which a Mexican state transfers operation of its health infrastructure to IMSS-Bienestar under a single model. Not every state joined, so samples must distinguish federalised from non-federalised entities.

The decentralised public body responsible since May 2023, following the dissolution of Insabi, for providing free health services and medicines to people without social security coverage in federalised states.

Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. It divides the cost difference between two alternatives by the difference in clinical outcome, answering how much each additional unit of benefit costs when switching treatments.

An estimate of the effect adopting a product would have on an institution's budget over a defined horizon. Unlike cost-effectiveness, it does not ask whether something is worth it but whether it is affordable.

The number of new cases of a condition appearing in a population over a defined period. It differs from prevalence, which counts all existing cases at a given moment, including those diagnosed years earlier.

The international society for pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research. It publishes the reference methodological standards for health economic evaluations, which institutional evaluators often require explicitly.

Key opinion leader. A specialist whose judgement influences other physicians' practice through guidelines, teaching, publications or society roles. Mapping them identifies who the target prescriber actually listens to.

The width of the interval within which the true population value is expected to fall. It depends on sample size: with 150 cases it sits around ±8 points, meaning smaller differences cannot be read as real change.

The set of activities aimed at making a product available, funded and prescribed within a health system. It spans economic evidence, institutional negotiation, formulary inclusion and reimbursement conditions.

A construct estimating how many patients exist for an indication, starting from the general population and applying successive filters: prevalence, diagnosis, severity, biomarker and institutional coverage.

Net Promoter Score. An indicator summarising willingness to recommend on a zero-to-ten scale, subtracting detractors from promoters. In pharma it is applied to the product, the sales force or the company's service.

Each fielding of a longitudinal study. Waves use the same instrument and sample structure so that differences observed between periods can be attributed to the market rather than to the method.

A recruited and verified group of health professionals participating in studies on a recurring basis. Its value lies in traceability: each participant has validated identity, confirmed specialty and a known practice profile.

A reconstruction of the real route a patient follows from first symptom to treatment outcome, including timings, touchpoints, clinical decisions and points of discontinuation.

The proportion of a population with a condition at a given moment. It is the starting point for sizing, but it is not the market: only a fraction of prevalent cases are diagnosed and on treatment.

Quality-adjusted life year. It combines duration and quality of life into a single unit, where one year in full health equals one and a year with limitations is worth a proportional fraction.

The physician's ability to spontaneously recall a brand's message after exposure. It distinguishes between remembering the material and remembering the argument, which is what actually influences the prescribing decision.

Grouping physicians into actionable profiles by potential, prescribing habit and attitude towards the category. Its usefulness depends on each segment having enough sample cases to be read on its own.

The proportion of a category's prescriptions accounted for by a brand, measured on the physician's stated or recorded volume. It differs from market share, which is calculated on units sold.

The first brand a physician mentions unprompted when thinking about a therapeutic category. It is the most demanding recall indicator and tends to correlate with the default choice in consultation.

The number of patients meeting the clinical and access criteria to receive a specific treatment. It is not prevalence: it results from applying filters of diagnosis, severity, biomarker, treatment line and coverage.