Patient support
The first 48 hours decide whether a patient starts
In our experience the gap between a prescription and a first dose is where specialty medicines lose patients in Kenya, and our data shows it can be closed.
5 September 2026 · Dr Mukami Maina
A prescription for a specialty cancer medicine in Kenya starts a sequence the patient did not ask for: is it covered, by whom, where is it stocked, who pays the balance, and how does it reach a patient in Eldoret when the pharmacy is in Nairobi?
Left to the family, it can take weeks, and some never finish it.
What the data says
Across our programmes, the median time from application to approval is the same day. From prescription to first dose, including every reimbursement check and delivery, it is four days.
That speed comes from a programme nurse calling the patient the day the referral arrives and gathering what the payer will ask for before it is asked.
Why starting comes before adherence
Adherence support usually starts around month three, when side effects, cost and distance begin to pull patients off therapy. That work matters, but a patient who never started cannot be retained. In our experience the first 48 hours after prescription are where the largest share of avoidable loss happens, and they are the cheapest time to prevent it.
Three things a sponsor can do
- Fund the first dose, not just the discount. Support that starts later is invisible to a patient who could not start at all.
- Ask treating doctors to refer on the day of prescription. Every day between the clinic and the programme is a day the family spends deciding whether to go ahead.
- Report prescription-to-first-dose as a headline figure. It is the number that predicts what follows.
We publish ours on the patient support page.
Figures in this article come from InsightsIQ programme records or from sources named in the text. They are rounded and may be revised.
← All insights