EmpathIQ Advisors

Advocacy at the Center. Partnership as the Path.

A US-based global consultancy working at the intersection of health and social issue advocacy, communications, policy, and research-powered insight.

When a cause needs a voice, advocacy is the lever.

25+ years

of founder-led advocacy and coalition-building.

A networked bench

assembled around each engagement.

US-based, global

across disease areas and health systems.

The case for early advocacy

Early advocacy is not a moral aspiration. It is a strategic imperative.

Every organization developing a product, pursuing policy change, or advancing a cause is ultimately trying to build a relationship with a person.

The question is not whether to build that relationship, but whether to start now, when it shapes everything that follows, or later, when it is harder and far more likely to fail.

What changes at each stage, depending on when advocacy starts

01
Pre-clinical & discovery
The community is unknown. Trial design reflects internal assumptions rather than lived experience.Patient and community insight shapes trial design, so the protocol reflects what patients can actually do.
02
Phase 1 / first-in-human
No channel to the patient community. Sites are chosen by default, and relationship-building becomes a late scramble.Relationships with community organizations are already established, and credible channels to patients exist.
03
Phase 2–3 / pivotal trials
Enrollment gaps, distrust of the sponsor, diversity shortfalls, protocol amendments, timeline slippage.Enrollment accelerates through trusted networks, diversity reflects real community engagement, and the protocol holds.
04
Regulatory submission
Patient voice is added late and advocacy letters are assembled reactively, leaving the dossier weak on real-world burden.Patient experience data runs through the submission, and regulators encounter a prepared, coordinated, unified voice.
05
Access & commercialization
Payer resistance, community skepticism, and limited uptake in the communities that need the therapy most.Payer engagement is supported by organized advocacy, and uptake reflects trust that was built over time.

Outcomes depend on program-specific factors. We’re glad to share illustrative examples and to define success metrics together for a specific engagement.

01 / Services

How we help clients

Five areas, anchored in advocacy and amplified by partnership.

See all five in detail

Advocacy & alliance building

Coalitions, campaigns, and patient engagement across disease areas and policy landscapes.

Communications & campaign strategy

Evidence-based, empathy-driven, and built around partnership rather than a single voice.

Access, policy & regulatory

Approvals, lifecycle strategy, access expansion, and value demonstration.

Capacity building

Infrastructure, capabilities, and partnerships that let organizations scale.

Stakeholder & landscape research

Research and analytics that turn stakeholder insight into decisions.

02 / Clients

Our clients

  • Biopharma & life sciences
  • Patient advocacy organizations
  • Nonprofits & foundations
  • Coalitions & alliances
  • Medical & professional societies
  • Public health & government
  • Health technology
  • Social issue campaigns
03 / Network

We assemble the team the challenge demands

Senior advisors sourced around the specific problem, flexing as the engagement evolves.

Explore the advisory network
  • Advocacy & patient engagement
  • Policy
  • Clinical perspective
  • Campaigns
  • Corporate affairs
  • Media
  • State advocacy
  • Global breadth
  • Research
  • Digital & creative
  • Writing & video
  • Artificial intelligence
Lee Lynch, CEO and Founding Partner of EmpathIQ Advisors
04 / Leadership

Lee Lynch

CEO and Founding Partner

Twenty-five years building advocacy functions, coalitions, and campaigns across health and social issue work.

Read more about Lee and the practice

Tell us what’s standing in the way.

A regulatory hurdle, a policy environment that hasn’t moved, a community whose trust hasn’t been earned, a coalition that hasn’t come together. Advocacy is very often the key, and the first conversation costs nothing.

Talk with us