ARTICLE | BGBx & Hayden
Why Market Access Just Became Oncology Marketing’s Biggest Anxiety
Authors:
David MacDougall, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Hayden Consulting Group
Jamie Sidore, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Hayden Consulting Group
Drew Bustos, Chief Growth Officer, BGBx
For the second year in a row, BGBx surveyed oncology brand marketers on the goals and challenges shaping their work, and this year, one shift stood out above everything else. Paired with new primary research from our colleagues at Hayden Consulting Group, part of BGBx Consulting, the picture is clear: market access has moved from a background concern to the defining pressure of the job.
Whether you sit on a brand team, oversee a broader oncology portfolio, or work in market access yourself, this changes what 2027 planning needs to look like.
Here’s what changed, and what’s driving it.
1. Market access went from a secondary goal to a top priority, fast.
In our 2025 survey of oncology brand marketers, only 6 of 100 respondents ranked “achieve timely, broad market access” as their single most important goal for the year ahead. In 2026, that number doubled. That kind of jump, in just one year, is hard to ignore.
2. When we asked brand teams directly what’s reshaping their world, one answer dominated.
New to the 2026 survey, we asked respondents to name the emerging trends most likely to impact their work. Market access and pricing pressure topped the list, named by 65 of 100 respondents, ahead of AI, ahead of omnichannel, ahead of everything else we asked about.
Which of the following emerging trends are most impacting your oncology brand team’s marketing strategy? (from May 2026 BGBx survey of 100 oncology brand professionals at pharmaceutical and biotech companies)
3. Our own colleagues are seeing exactly why, from the other side of the table.
Hayden Consulting Group, part of BGBx Consulting, just published new primary research built on direct interviews with payers, oncologists, and practice administrators. Their paper, 2026 Access Pulse Check: Evolving Controls in Oncology, describes an oncology access landscape tightening on two fronts at once: payers deploying more data-intensive prior authorizations, branded step requirements, and early site-of-care restrictions, while provider practices simultaneously build their own pathway and steering programs to protect shrinking margins. Brand teams aren’t imagining the squeeze. Our own market access experts are hearing it directly from payers and providers right now.
4. The pressure is about to intensify, not ease.
Hayden’s research flags several forces on the horizon that will likely raise the stakes further: a wave of major biosimilar launches beginning in 2027, and the 2028 effectuation of Medicare’s negotiated Part B pricing, both of which payers expect to hand them more contracting leverage over oncology therapies.
5. Brand teams know the goal. Fewer feel equipped to reach it.
Even as market access climbs the priority list, our data shows most brand teams don’t yet feel fully supported by their external partners and vendors in hitting that goal. That gap, a rising priority without a matching level of outside support, is precisely where informed access strategy makes the difference between a therapy that reaches patients on schedule and one that stalls in review.
The bottom line
This isn’t a shift in mood. It’s a shift in math. Market access has moved from an underweighted goal to the priority reshaping how oncology brand teams plan, staff, and measure success, and the pressure driving it is only getting more sophisticated. Closing the gap between that rising priority and the support teams have today is where the real opportunity sits for the year ahead.
BGBx works across the full commercial lifecycle – from strategy and consultation, to market access execution, medical communications, and advertising – so oncology brand teams don’t have to piece that support together themselves. Whether you lead a brand team, oversee a broader oncology portfolio, or work in market access directly, we’d welcome the conversation.
The authors:
David MacDougall
Managing Director and Co-Founder,
Hayden Consulting Group
Jamie Sidore
Managing Director and Co-Founder,
Hayden Consulting Group
Drew Bustos
Chief Growth Officer
BGB Group
To talk through what timely, broad market access could look like for your brand in 2027, contact Sean Mahoney, SVP Business Development, BGBx, at smahoney@bgbgroup.com.
About BGBx
BGBx is an independent commercial solutions partner for pharmaceutical and life science companies and their brands, combining consulting, communications, science, creativity, data, technology, innovation, and digital capabilities to deliver breakthrough results. Through BGBx Consulting and BGBx Communications, the company helps clients set strategy early, stay aligned throughout the product lifecycle, and execute through marketing and communications programs that drive impact. BGBx is Built for Breakthrough. bgbx.com
