The Challenge

A pharmaceutical company with several late-stage inflammatory bowel disease molecules in its pipeline knew that clinical differentiation alone would not be enough. With multiple competitors targeting the same patient population, the company needed a long-term differentiation strategy built around digital health and patient services. But the internal team had limited experience working directly with patients as strategic partners.

The Approach

Merakoi designed and facilitated a Patient Experience Lab — a series of co-design workshops spanning 6+ months across 7 geographies (EU, UK, and Switzerland). Patients living with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease worked alongside the pharmaceutical team not as research subjects, but as co-designers and strategic advisors. The workshops progressively built the team’s capacity to think patient-first, moving from initial exposure to deep collaboration.

The Outcome

The impact went beyond deliverables. The company’s Patient Partnership Director described “a dramatic shift in our team’s mindset, as patients were no longer viewed simply as end-users and consumers, but as partners and co-designers in product strategy.” The tangible outputs included a clear patient value proposition and an accelerated global omnichannel campaign. But the lasting legacy was cultural: the team internalised a patient-led way of working that continues to shape their approach to new indications and markets.