Mental Health

For pharmaceutical companies investing in psychiatric disorders (depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, etc.), one of the main challenges is to integrate into the fragmented and poorly structured care pathways. Psychiatric disorders vary widely in terms of management depending on geography, practitioners, and severity levels. This complicates the evaluation of treatments in real-life conditions, their acceptance by professionals, patient adherence, and proper use.

To optimize care pathways, it is necessary to better identify patients, ensure early detection, avoid breaks in treatment, and fully leverage therapeutic innovations. Industry players have a key role to play in supporting coordination between downstream stakeholders (psychiatrists, mobile teams, institutions, associations), developing tools such as telemonitoring, therapeutic education, or digital solutions, and contributing to the establishment of regional care pathways.

Questions to consider: How can psychiatric drugs be better integrated into care pathways that are often poorly formalized? What initiatives should be put in place to support the structuring of psychiatric care networks across regions? How can patients with psychiatric disorders and their prescribers be better supported to improve treatment adherence? What are examples of successful collaborations between industry and healthcare structures in psychiatry?

Living with conditions such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, or heart failure has consequences far beyond physiological aspects. Reactive psychological distress (emotional disorders, chronic stress, mental fatigue, loneliness) often accompanies illness and profoundly affects patients’ mental health. Yet, this dimension remains insufficiently integrated into current care pathways.

For industry players, integrating mental health into care pathways helps highlight innovations, improve patient experience, and meet increasing expectations around quality of life. This requires breaking down barriers between mental and physical health, strengthening early detection, ensuring coordinated follow-up through digital tools, and developing cross-cutting approaches at the local level. Recognizing and supporting caregivers is also essential, as their mental burden is still often overlooked.

Questions to consider: How can a truly integrated care pathway be designed, addressing both physical and mental dimensions? How can caregivers be better supported psychologically? What partnerships should be developed to jointly address physical and mental health around products? What place should be given to quality of life, particularly mental health, in clinical trials and payer discussions?

Mental health research remains underfunded despite the growing scale of needs. Psychiatric disorders are complex, with multifactorial causes (genetic, environmental, neurobiological), a lack of robust biomarkers, and preclinical models with limited translatability to humans, making new therapy development difficult. Few new drug classes have emerged in recent decades, especially for resistant depression or schizophrenia.

At the same time, non-pharmaceutical and technological approaches are rapidly developing: digital therapies, AI for early diagnosis, connected devices, virtual reality, telemonitoring, etc. These enrich care pathways, clinical trials, and therapeutic adherence. MedTech and FemTech start-ups are investing in this field, but face regulatory hurdles, lack of real-world evidence, and limited scientific validation. To succeed, interdisciplinarity is crucial: researchers, clinicians, engineers, designers, and patients must co-create integrated solutions. It is therefore critical to support pilot projects, hybrid models combining treatments and services, and tailored funding to foster innovation.

Questions to consider: What are the current research priorities in psychiatry and mental health? How can R&D projects be financed in a context of high risk and uncertain ROI? What partnerships could pharmaceutical companies establish with public or hospital research organizations to develop and evaluate treatments for psychiatric disorders? How should clinical trial methodologies evolve to better capture the real impact of treatments (clinical and digital) on mental health?

Mental health has become a political priority worldwide, particularly in Europe and most developed countries, but implementation remains uneven depending on regions and nations. Recent initiatives in France (Grande Cause Nationale 2025), the UK (NHS mental health plan), Australia (Headspace expansion), and New Zealand (independent commission) reflect a growing will to structure access to mental healthcare. However, services remain fragmented, human resources are insufficient, and waiting times to access specialized care can reach up to 18 months. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified needs and highlighted systemic shortcomings. Stigma, poverty, lack of coordination, and weak integration into public policies (education, employment, housing, youth) continue to hinder proper access to care.

It is therefore vital to strengthen national governance of mental health with clear indicators on access to care, suicide prevention, and quality of life improvement. Strategies must rely on local partnerships between institutions, professionals, and civil society to improve training, enhance territorial coverage, and lead targeted actions to reduce stigma and improve access to both psychological and psychiatric care.

Questions to consider: What forms of collaboration between public and private stakeholders can best address mental health challenges? What levers can improve regional coverage and reduce waiting times for psychological and psychiatric care? What targets and formats should be prioritized for mental health awareness campaigns?