Sermo Barometer Finds 76% of Global Physicians Would Prescribe Future mRNA Treatments to Patients

A new survey from Sermo, a physician-first online community and leader in HCP insights, of 1,200+ global physicians found that optimism is high for the future of mRNA technology for patient treatments. Physicians across all 14 specialties surveyed were in agreement that mRNA technology will have a future role in healthcare beyond Covid-19, as 76% reported they would prescribe mRNA technology treatments once available. Physicians were also in agreement that oncology is the therapeutic area with the most to benefit from the technology. While clinical excitement is high, physicians were widely in agreement that patient adoption will be a challenge due to misinformation about the technology steaming from the pandemic. 61% of physicians surveyed felt that patients will be hesitant to accept new mRNA technology due to the polarization of the Covid-19 vaccine.

"mRNA technology will continue to be the buzz in the physician community this year, but not just related to infectious diseases," says Dr. Guy Jones, Medical Director for Oncology Nevada and Sermo Medical Advisory Board Member. "This technology also shows promising potential to treat cancer, especially alongside other immunotherapies."

Other Key Findings:

Diagnostics & Treatment Innovations Play a Large Role in Healthcare Technology That Excites Physicians:

• Biomarker testing dominates physician interest as the diagnostic innovation they are most excited about in 2023 as it was the most popular response (26%) among surveyed physicians. Oncologists are particularly interested in this innovation as indicated by 60% of those surveyed. While physician interest in biomarker testing is very high, 25% of surveyed physicians reported that high upfront costs are the biggest challenge to scaling biomarker testing. Other challenges include the availability of testing (16%) and complex admin requirements (14%). Despite barriers, many physicians are already leveraging biomarker testing as a critical tool. 45% of surveyed physicians reported recommending biomarker testing to their patients on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
• When it comes to treatment technology innovation, enthusiasm is high for the potential of personalized medicine. 34% of surveyed physicians reported this as the treatment innovation they are most looking forward to in 2023.

Healthcare Technology Innovations Physicians Believe Will Lead to Better Patient Outcomes:

• ChatGPT: In another Sermo poll about the recently launched AI tool ChatGPT, physicians reported mixed feelings about its use in healthcare with 34% reporting being excited, 24% nervous, and 39% a little bit of both. Physicians also reported they would use ChatGPT for research, diagnostics, and treatment (39%), patient care and delivery (27%), clinical and non-clinical workflow (27%) (n=210)
• Wearables: excitement over wearables for monitoring patients remotely was high among physicians. 19% of those surveyed reported this is the healthcare technology they are most excited about in 2023.

Biosimilars: the Buzzword at the JPM Healthcare Conference:

Biosimilars were all the talk at the recent JPM conference, particularly biologics going off-patent. When prescribing biologic treatments, 48% of surveyed physicians cite comparable efficacy data as the key influencer to choose a biosimilar vs. branded biologic versus only 19% citing the financial savings to the patient. Physicians are also unsure how they feel about federal agencies requiring "switching studies" deeming all biosimilars interchangeable. Nearly half (48%) of surveyed physicians said they are unsure if regulatory agencies should remove required "switching studies" that deem all biosimilars interchangeable.

With Humira going off-patent this year, non-medical switching is top-of-mind for payers; however, physicians are not supporters of non-medical switching of prescriptions for biologics. 77% of surveyed physicians reported that they preferred their patients receive exactly what they prescribed.

While Excitement is High for 2023, Physicians Also Have Concerns:

• While ADHD medication shortages have been making headlines, physicians were in agreement that antibiotic shortages will have the greatest impact on public health as indicated by 45% of surveyed physicians, followed by diabetes treatments at 29%.
• Public health concerns ranked in the top three include mental health crisis (46%), rising costs of healthcare (45%) and staffing shortages (44%). Despite headlines concerning the opioid epidemic, only 3% of surveyed physicians indicated this was their top public health concern for 2023.

This survey was fielded as the 28th edition of Sermo's ongoing Barometer survey. The survey included more than 1,200 global physicians who were surveyed between January 11- 17, 2023. To explore more findings, visit app.sermo.com/barometer.

About Sermo:

Sermo is the largest global healthcare research company and the most trusted physician engagement platform. Sermo engages with more than 1.3 million HCPs across 150 countries and has reach into the U.S. Payer market that now exceeds 230M commercial lives covered.

For over 20 years, Sermo has been turning physician experience, expertise, and observations into actionable business insights that benefit pharmaceutical companies, healthcare partners, and the medical community at large. Sermo offers on-demand access to physicians via a proprietary health-tech ecosystem to gain targeted HCP insights that inform strategic decisioning in real-time. To learn more, visit www.sermo.com.