™ JULY/AUGUST 2020
the publication for healthcare sales & marketing leaders™
TOP 50 MEDTECH COMPANIES IN THIS ISSUE
MEDTECH COMPANIES Incyte, Janssen, SK life science, Merck and Teva Execs on Sales During the Corona Crisis Innovators at the Forefront of Fighting Coronavirus Seqirus Exec on Vaccine Differentiation Astellas, Teva, Biohaven and SE Cancer Center Execs on Covid-19 Impact on Commercial Hiring Insights from the Pandemic Orphan Drug Outlook Through 2025
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the publication for healthcare sales & marketing leaders™
TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher’s Letter..............................................................................................................................................4 Editor’s Letter.....................................................................................................................................................5 Editorial Board....................................................................................................................................................7
ARTICLES Spotlight: Seqirus SVP Brent MacGregor on Differentiating Vaccines..........................................9 Roundtable: Incyte, Janssen, SK life science, Merck and Teva Execs on Sales During the Corona Crisis...............................................................................................................11 Top 50 Medtech Companies........................................................................................................................ 21 Orphan Drug Report to 2025 from EvaluatePharma and other Sources..................................... 25 Industry Trends: By The Numbers............................................................................................................. 31 Talent Trends: Hiring Insights from the Pandemic............................................................................. 33 Astellas, Teva, Biohaven and SE Cancer Center Execs on Covid-19 Impact 39 on Commercial Strategy. A Veeva roundtable...................................................................................... 39 Motivideos: To Use In Your Meetings..................................................................................................... 43 Why I Work in Healthcare: Heroes from Everywhere ....................................................................... 47 Innovation: Emerging Companies and Their Covid-19 Fighting Products.................................... 51
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Publisher’s Letter
The World’s Most Resilient Industry For over six years now, we have been publishing lists of the Top 50 companies in medical device, pharma and bio sectors of the industry, plus a Top 100 of all healthcare companies. Of course, the impact of the pandemic is yet to be seen in next year’s numbers. But one thing holds true: within the US and across the globe, this is the industry most adaptable to change and most necessary to many national economies. That’s true, of course, for many reasons. Not only has the last century been an explosive one for the development of medications and devices, far outstripping any previous era, but the larger industry – hospital systems, independent clinics, health aides and an increase in the number of specialties and sub-specialties in the medical professions – has further shown the importance and vitality of healthcare as a whole. In addition, as we experience a resultant increase in age expectancy due to better care, our populations are in greater need of a comprehensive menu of options and attention from HCPs. And we need to add to that the healthcare portion of AI, data analysis, wearable devices and other technological advances that assist our industry in its work. CARI KRAFT
The medical device sector once again saw gains last year from its previous performance. Naturally, the Covid-19 pandemic will have an effect on that growth, as we will detail in next year’s report. But considering that we are looking at medical devices, medical equipment, capital equipment and medical technology companies, this will be a complex equation. The $428B medtech saw in 2019, up from $413B in 2018, was spread out among nearly all the companies on the list – just look at the Up arrows for evidence. Adding to the positive nature of this trend are the efforts of many companies to perform humanitarian efforts for their populations. Philips has a “Healthy People, sustainable strategy” initiative that sells refurbished equipment to reduce health systems’ environmental footprint, EssilorLuxottica partnered with Total Group and several Asia-Pacific governments to improve access to vision care services, Zimmer Biomet teamed up with Faith in Practice to deliver knee replacements to Guatemalans in need , and Hillrom (formerly HillRom) began its “Hillrom for Humanity”, which facilitates corporate volunteerism through environmental sustainability initiatives, medical equipment donations, disaster relief, and STEM enrichment. A lot to be proud of – as we often say about the resilient, vital industry we are dedicated to reporting about. And as always, please keep the feedback coming. It all goes to making the magazine better for all of us.
Cari Kraft, Publisher CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP 50 MEDTECH COMPANIES
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HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 4
Letter from the Editor
On the horizon… We’re all holding our breath for good news from healthcare companies. Here’s the latest we have found about possible vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). Experts estimate that a fast-tracked vaccine development process could speed a successful candidate to market in approximately 12-18 months. Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is a collaboration of several US federal government departments including Health and Human Services and its subagencies, Agriculture, EnNEIL GREENBERG ergy and Veterans Affairs and the private sector. Within OWS, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has partnered with more than 18 biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate development of drug and vaccine candidates for Covid-19 (ACTIV). The Covid-19 Prevention Trials Network (COVPN) has also been established, which combines clinical trial networks funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. The US government is choosing three vaccine candidates to fund for Phase 3 trials under Operation Warp Speed: Moderna’s mRNA-1273 in July, The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 in August, and Pfizer and BioNTech’s BNT162 in September. Members of ACTIV have suggested developing safe controlled human infection models (CHIMs) for human trials could take 1-2 years. A sponsor would need to provide data from placebo-controlled trials indicating their vaccine is at least 50% effective against Covid-19 in order to be authorized for use, according to FDA guidance issued June 30th. And there are numerous other candidates, too many to list here. For perspective, each phase of a vaccine development typically takes multiple years, and per a 2013 study, the total development time for the average vaccine was close to 11 years. Pray for miracles. We try to keep up with all this, and bring you the people who have a grasp on change. We hope that it will be informative, and assist you in furthering the work you do every day. Let us know what topics will be most useful to you!
Neil Greenberg, Editor To become an HS&M contributing author or provide feedback, please email me at ngreenberg@hsandm.com.
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THERE ARE SOME THINGS PEOPLE JUST WON’T TELL YOU BUT THEY’LL TELL US IN CONFIDENCE. AND WE’LL TELL YOU. There are a lot of opinions people never offer you about your company. What the pain is. What you could be doing better. What they think of your competition. How to talk to them effectively. Big corporations get these answers through expensive research. Small to medium-sized companies don’t have that luxury. That’s why we created the Private Process . It’s a quick, cost-effective way of compiling information that people will offer us in complete confidence. Then we assess the results and give you the insight you need to adapt your sales and marketing messages accordingly. ©
For details on how the Private Process works, and the kinds of answers you can get, contact us now at ngreenberg@hsandm.com.
™
the publication for healthcare sales & marketing leaders™
Editorial Board Chris Bergstrom President, AmalgamRx
Publisher Cari Kraft Editor Neil Greenberg Creative Director Hedy Sirico Digital News Rick Cataldo Digital News Chris Manning Associate Publisher Natalie Newcamp EDITORIAL BOARD: Kristen Sharron-Albright Head of Marketing, Noven Pharmaceuticals Chris Bergstrom President, AmalgamRx Sebastian “Sebby” Borriello Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer SK Life Science Maria Finlay, MBA Director of Channel Marketing, Incyte Nick Gurreri Vice President New Products, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Paul Murasko Sr. Director, Digital Customer Interactions, Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Bob Roda President and CEO, Hemosonics
© 2020 CL Media Inc., Philadelphia, PA CL Media is not responsible for any unsolicited contributions of any type. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, CL Media retains all rights on material published in HS&M for a period of one year after publication and reprint rights after that period expires. Email ckraft@hsandm.com.
To advertise in HS&M, please contact Natalie Newcamp at nnewcamp@hsandm.com
7 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
Chris brings almost two decades of commercial expertise as an entrepreneurial executive at large medical device and high-growth digital health companies, and he provides “on the ground” advice for implementing digital health solutions. He currently serves as the expert on digital health at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Before joining BCG, Chris was the chief commercial officer (CCO) at WellDoc, a pioneer in digital health. He also held progressive roles at P&G, Roche, and Becton Dickinson. Chris was a senior advisor to several digital health innovators, including MyOwnMed, LiftOff Health, HelpAround, Heart Beam, iSageRx, and Alere Home Monitoring. He also advised the Leona Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness Board. Chris holds two digital health patents and has won multiple awards.
Paul Murasko Sr. Director, Digital Customer Interactions, Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Paul is a senior commercial leader with a 25+ year cross-functional career in healthcare that has bridged operations, sales and marketing, He is currently responsible for leading and building Ipsen’s capabilities to help the organization improve the effectiveness, efficiency and engagement of all digital interaction with healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers. Previously, Paul was Sr. Director of MultiChannel Marketing for Sunovion Pharmaceuticals and led a team responsible for non-personal promotion, digital strategy and execution, as well as the telesales team. He also was with Johnson & Johnson, primarily in the Medical Device and Diagnostics (MD&D) space. While Director of Digital Marketing at J&J, he created DePuy’s first multi-company digital marketing team, led the digital integration for $19.8 billion acquisition of Synthes, and was chairman of the Digital Acceleration team for the MD&D sector.
Sebastian “Sebby” Borriello Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer SK Life Science Sebby currently serves as the Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer at SK Life Science. Sebby’s career has included executive sales and marketing positions at Cempra, Mentor Worldwide LLC, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems Inc., Ethicon, Inc. and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Editorial Board Bob Roda President and Chief Executive Officer, Hemosonics Robert A. Roda (Bob) joined HemoSonics in February 2020 as the company’s President and CEO, bringing more than 25 years of global experience developing and commercializing innovative diagnostic and medical device products and services. Most recently Bob Roda served as President and CEO of Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Inc, a diagnostic and biotech company focused on the use of liquid biopsy and predictive diagnostic tests for the treatment of cancer patients. Prior to that position he was Vice President and General Manager at Becton Dickinson where he led the medical and procedural solutions business in the US. From 1998-2012, Bob held positions of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson in both the medical device and diagnostic sectors, with his last role being WW VP Marketing in Immunohematology, Donor Screening and Clinical Laboratories at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a J&J company. Bob earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Rhode Island and completed Executive program course work at Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Nick Gurreri Vice President New Products, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Nick Gurreri is a business leader and general manager with over 25 years of consistently achieving high performance and profitability through strong leadership and cohesive team building in the bio¬pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Nick has held executive positions at Medgenics, Insmed, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Maria Finlay, MBA Director of Channel Marketing, Incyte Maria Finlay has over 24 years of brand marketing, sales leadership, operations, and market access experience. She recently completed the Wharton General Management Program, and has led multiple cross-functional initiatives at Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Teva Oncology and Incyte. With experience across 7 therapeutic areas, Maria has launched multiple small and large molecule products throughout her career. Maria currently leads Oncology Channel Marketing strategies and tactics directed towards large organized Community Oncology customers, Hospital Systems, GPOs, and Payers. A results-driven professional with a passion for culture, engagement, diversity and inclusion; Maria has been awarded multiple President’s Club awards in sales and marketing, as well as a J&J Rising Star and an HBA Luminary Award.
Kristen Sharron-Albright Head of Marketing, Noven Pharmaceuticals Kristen Sharron-Albright was, until recently, VP Sales and Marketing, Anti-Infective Marketing and Institutional Sales Specialty Care Business Unit at Pfizer. She is an experienced business leader with 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Starting her career in sales at Eli Lilly, she then held positions of increasing responsibility at Lilly, Neurogen, and Pfizer, where she was responsible for sales and marketing in a franchise business model.
HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 8
EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT
Influenza Vaccine Exec: Differentiation in Product, Marketing and Leadership unachievable to many, and annoyed the competition.
Brent MacGregor has been around the world, with some of the top companies in the vaccines industry. He put in 16 years at Sanofi Pasteur, most recently serving as Managing Director in Japan. Following Sanofi Pasteur, he was president of Novartis Vaccines U.S. and then CEO for Influenza Vaccines. At that point, Novartis was involved in selling their influenza vaccines business to the Australian company CSL That vaccine company eventually became Seqirus, where Brent became SVP for Global Commercial Operations. His vision, from 2016 on, was to establish a portfolio of differentiated influenza vaccines despite the traditional image of the flu business as a commodity enterprise. How he accomplished that was the best part of the story. It involved everything from identifying and building a leadership team to changing the image of the product, and ultimately helping to lift the company from a negative balance sheet to profitability that seemed 9 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
A PRODUCT PERCEIVED AS COMMODITIZED, A COMPANY IN THE RED CSL had an existing vaccines business and folded the Novartis business into it, creating the company name Seqirus to indicate a new entity. Brent moved from CEO/ Global Head of the entire Novartis Influenza business to SVP Commercial Operations of the new Seqirus entity in 2016. At this point, the company was unprofitable. CSL informed the market (the Australian Stock Exchange, ASX) that they intended to make it profitable by the end of their 2018 fiscal year. Today, Seqirus offers a portfolio of differentiated seasonal influenza vaccines, based on their innovative cell-culture and adjuvant platforms, a pandemic countermeasures business, and in Australia and New Zealand a suite of in-licensed vaccines and pharma products. Traditionally, influenza was seen as a commoditized space where vaccines were made the same way, regardless of manufacturer, using egg-based manufacturing technology. The only way to “differentiate” was through aspects like pricing and speed of delivery rather than product efficacy, because no one could claim a better medical benefit from their vaccine. The World Health Organization, WHO, identifies flu strains each year and provides the virus seed stock to each manufacturer to develop their branded vaccines. But physicians and pharmacists alike
often substitute the brand they have in stock for another that’s considered comparable. Recently, innovative vaccines have started to come onto the market and it was up to Seqirus to differentiate its own innovative vaccines from those its competitors. THE MARKETING STRATEGY: DIFFERENTIATION WHERE NONE EXISTED BEFORE; A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE WHERE IT DID Brent formed a seven-person leadership team from former Novartis and CSL executives. All the members were competent in their own realm, but Brent realized that this does not necessarily lead to a well-functioning team. To create that bond, he first built a common belief in the product and the mission. Since each flu season differs from the last, it is important to generate real world evidence (RWE) from the flu season just passed to demonstrate that your vaccine actually performed as you said it would, in the context of what your clinical trial showed. It was critical for the Medical Affairs team to demonstrate the effectiveness of the cell derived product, and of the enhanced immune response offered by adjuvants. The next task was to build a capability in government affairs, in public policy, and in health economics, as well as a marketing strategy. The challenge was to advocate to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other healthcare authorities to recommend Seqirus vaccines. In the case
of its adjuvanted vaccine (FLUAD), Seqirus was entering a space already occupied for some years by a competitor with the same indication. The Seqirus team was focused on establishing Fluad as a worthy alternative for that indication. Over time, the perception in the industry is slowly changing from the commoditized view, to recognize that one flu product is not like another. BUILDING THE COMMERCIAL TEAM, PROTECTING THE BOTTOM LINE At first, it was a challenge to attract more top-level talent, since no one had heard of Seqirus, and it had no track record. Up against top competitors, the company quickly took to building a more visible public profile, leveraging RWE and new investments in its technology. Gradually, Brent was able to build his team and bring in fresh faces with competitive backgrounds and valuable perspectives. Even though Medical Affairs did not report directly to Brent, he and his team collaborated with their medical colleagues to support the overall mission of the company. He also focused on adding talent in health economics and pricing/contracting strategy, which were critical specializations to support a differentiation strategy, as well as marketers and key account people. Still, given their financial situation, he had to stay as lean as possible on commercial spend while supporting the build of the brand. Getting the business to profitability was a vital objective. THE SWING TOWARD PROFITABILITY Brent knew that its competitors would underestimate the Seqirus team because they were the newcomer in an established industry. Yet by 2017, they had achieved
exponential growth, which contributed greatly to the profitability objective. Seqirus reached profitability by 2018, and Brent projects the growth in revenue and profit will continue at a strong pace. Still, at first management didn’t project too far into the future. The initial focus was entirely about reaching profitability. Brent sees this as two different visions. One was to secure a foothold and prove their worth. He practiced transparency: everyone knew the numbers they started with were not promising, but they needed to believe in how they were getting from here to there. “This transparency is not the norm at most companies,” says Brent. “But the leadership team of Seqirus felt that the best policy was to be realistic, in order to inspire confidence.” CREATING THE CULTURE Then came the turnaround in leadership strategy. Brent says “I came to feel that my team was highly competent individually, but that we were not leveraging our collective talent for exponential growth going forward. I was a big fan of the ‘What got us here won’t get us there’ mantra and believed that we, as a leadership team, needed to re-invent ourselves to become more effective at delivering to even greater expectations in future.” That was dependent on building a unique company culture. “Openness and collaboration were key to making it all work,” he says. “Friendliness and collegiality contributed to the feeling that everyone was on the same page, part of a streamlined machine.” Brent instituted a Transformational Leadership program in 2018, with the “What got us here won’t get us there” ideal as a driver. They needed to optimize the caliber of team members, make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. The point was to use every-
one’s strengths to their ultimate potential. There was a focus on continual improvement and open collaboration. In short, what each leadership team member needed to become was an enterprise leader, not just the leader of their respective function. And this was the point at which they opened up a view of the future, and allowed themselves to ponder “What does 2030 look like? How do we keep differentiating products that have been commoditized for decades?” A DIFFERENTIATED LEADERSHIP Unusual for such a successful leader, Brent preaches humility. “We need people who are smart and unafraid to speak up and debate, to offer a view that may not agree with top management. You need to be convinced that your view alone is not the best, but can absolutely be improved upon, and your people need to believe that their unvarnished feedback is desired and valued.” The result, he says, is to “Leave people bigger.” A disruptive leadership team culture encourages debate and a multiplicity of solutions. “It doesn’t always have to be the perfect solution; sometimes an 80% solution is enough to get started. The process is to try things; monitor closely; adjust along the way; and don’t give black marks to people who proposed things that didn’t ultimately work. Encourage creativity and participation.” Finally, “Reward people accordingly – not just financially, but demonstrably. Spread the credit, even to people down in the organization who played small parts. Everyone’s contribution is important. That’s how you streamline progress.” •
COMMENT HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 10
ROUNDTABLE
SALES IN THE ERA OF COVID-19 Executives from Incyte, Janssen, Merck, Teva and SK life science Offer Their Views Our Moderator:
MARIA FINLAY Director of Channel Marketing Incyte
Our panel of experts: LESLIE AMENDOLA Director of Marketing, Oncology/Rare Disease (Brand Lead) Janssen Inc.
SEBASTIAN “SEBBY” BORRIELLO Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer SK life science
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TAMI O’SULLIVAN Campaign Development Lead, Diabetes Franchise Merck
NILSA SANCHEZ Head of U.S. Sales, Oncology/ Hematology Teva Pharmaceuticals
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ROUNDTABLE Continuing our coverage of the industry response to the Covid-19 crisis, in this roundtable we focus on its effect on sales forces and how they are adapting to the current challenges. Our thanks to all for their valuable insights, especially Moderator Maria Finlay, a member of our Editorial Board, who helped recruit the panelists and develop this article.
How has Covid-19 impacted you, your company and your brand? What impact do you see it having over the near, mid and longer term? LESLIE AMENDOLA: As the world’s largest healthcare company, we were built for times like these. We are mobilizing our global reach, deep scientific expertise, and extensive partnerships to address the critical needs of those we serve, while working toward mitigating and ultimately ending the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s nothing like an immersive experience to teach you how to be nimble and innovative. And these past few months have been as immersive as any I can remember! While these months have been challenging, they have had a positive outcome, enabling us – and companies across the globe – to build and flex our “muscle” of resilience and adaptability. The last few months have also given us the chance to better understand that everyone has their own unique circumstances, and this has helped us be even more sensitive, empathetic and authentic in how we interact with others, including our teammates, customers and, most importantly, with patients. NILSA SANCHEZ: We have had our field facing team working remotely while balancing this effort with other internal employees who may have needed to be at one of our sites and are critical to ensure patients have access to our medications. It is essential across all of our teams that we are exercising utmost safety. We have utilized technology and created platforms to engage customers and I suspect this will continue to be a regular part of our business as institu-
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ACCESS TO MEDICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS HURDLES THE TELEHEALTH CHANGEOVER SALES FORCE COMPOSITION
tions assess changes in policy and guidelines in response to this pandemic. When we think about national/regional/local conventions and exhibits underway that provide additional resources, we have had to assess if participation “virtually” is the right approach. There are key learnings from this, as it is a new concept. Access is challenging for any organization, and there is a fine balance between a productive engagement to ensure patient needs are met while being respectful of time. Technology may be able to help with this where appropriate. We are proud of the Teva brand as the company wants everyone to do their part during this global health crisis and is committed to continuously looking for ways to contribute. SEBBY BORRIELLO: When Covid-19 emerged, we had to quickly
shift our plans to ensure we would be ready to launch XCOPRI® (cenobamate tablets) CV in a completely new environment. XCOPRI is the SK life science’s first therapy to be approved by the FDA and commercialized independently, so this was a momentous milestone for us. However, it has been a very challenging time for the healthcare system, and the most important thing for us was to take a responsible approach to our launch. In May, we launched XCOPRI virtually, leveraging a suite of digital tools and video conferencing, to ensure our sales force was prepared to provide HCPs with important clinical and reimbursement information about XCOPRI. Interestingly, we found that because we had a new product, HCPs were more willing to connect with us. This is still a dynamic situation,
and we will continue to take a very personalized approach that considers the local situation as well as the provider’s preferences. We expect that throughout 2020 and beyond, we will likely continue to have a hybrid approach with both faceto-face and virtual engagements. TAMI O’SULLIVAN: Covid-19 brought unprecedented challenges with so many layers of complexity from emotions to changes in daily habits. From my perspective, being uncomfortable often opens the opportunity to challenge status quo, our thinking and opens the doors to new ideas. On a personal level, it was a powerful jolt to reflect and examine on what is truly important and soak in the resilience of humankind. This unique situation also forced organizations to quickly mobilize on how to continue to efficiently conduct business. While
HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 14
ROUNDTABLE working from home has worked for some roles, it was never enforced to be the new normal at such a large scale. I must admit, I was surprised how teams were able to focus without skipping a beat. It is a great testament and a discovery that organizations may never have tested or considered if it wasn’t for this situation. Looking at our HCP customers, they shifted as well, instituting new protocols in their offices to be able to safely treat their patients. I am particularly curious about what new habits will continue post Covid-19 with our HCP customers, the office staff and the patients we serve. MARIA FINLAY: On a personal level, since mid-March back to back virtual conference calls leveraging video technology to connect with colleagues and customers have become the norm for many. Return to the office varies across the industry, with some smaller companies encouraging a return to work, while larger organizations have not yet provided dates. Both healthcare business culture and biopharm corporate culture in the US has matured and continues to evolve as all are openly sharing personal spaces, and moments with children and pets on screen. For many, this virtual world has broken down walls and strengthened relationships with both internal and external customers. From a business point of view, many oncology administrators and payers are also working from home, creating a different environment for account manager interactions with these customers – an environment favoring those established field professionals with strong relationships and a well15 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
developed ability to connect via various technology platforms effectively. While oncology patients, an immunocompromised group, try to avoid waiting rooms and stay home, community oncology leaders across the country have voiced their continued commitment to population health-based quality initiatives. Congresses in the near and mid-term no longer serve as a live gathering place to build relationships, so our industry has had to pivot in order to quickly respond and re-think what conference sponsorships and customer engagement adjacent a virtual looks like. Digital buys, for example, are a way in which we can continue to track effectiveness, learn and invest where it makes the most sense. As a result, innovation is happening and many of these new ways of working may likely rise to the top as best practices to be continued, even after a vaccine is discovered.
est so that application can be put into practice. There is no doubt that we will create opportunities to use this format to facilitate or enhance training given how the market is evolving. While this technology has been used for more formal training, including some components of new hire training with backgrounders for review, it is imperative that we now begin to think about other aspects of our business where this may be valuable to disseminate information and provide greater context to be discussed verbally. This also serves as an acknowledgment and confirmation of understanding as we also look to observe any gaps we may need to revisit.
How has salesforce (SF)/Plan of Action (POA) training evolved or changed in the last few years, and do you see Covid-19 affecting the role of the sales force?
BORRIELLO: We have been using virtual capabilities, like video conferencing, since well before the pandemic and love that video conferencing keeps participants focused and engaged when the team is spread across the country. However, in-person POA meetings still provide tremendous value to build camaraderie and teamwork among the sales force that is not as quickly achievable in virtual gatherings.
SANCHEZ: Training has continued to evolve over the years to increase more remote learning opportunities, and with Covid-19 these have been put to the test with greater frequency. While the face-to-face option is preferred, I am pleased how technology has allowed us to mimic workshops and work with cross functional counterparts to ensure a complete learning experience. This includes engagement with senior/executive leadership and participation from the full group to maintain inter-
AMENDOLA: Our sales representatives interact with countless HCPs and hospital/office staff. As part of those connections, they build relationships that provide both customer service and a better understanding of our customers’ needs on a daily basis. While a lot has changed due to the onset of
As a result of Covid-19, I expect that the role of the sales force will expand to include more interactions with HCPs through a combination of face-to-face interactions, virtual tools and e-visits.
Covid-19, much remains the same. Our sales reps must continue to serve the educational needs of HCPs, but now in a different way to ensure we’re providing them needed information about our products, and then, once a treatment choice has been made, providing them information on our patient access and affordability options. O’SULLIVAN: In the last few years, there has certainly been a shift in incorporating more digital training. The advancements in technology have opened the doors to create engaging and impactful online training and it only makes sense to incorporate various digital learning mediums into the curriculum. Even without Covid-19, we need to continually learn and listen to our customers to understand what they truly need. We are constantly changing, trying to provide the optimal customer experience. Maybe Covid-19 is the catalyst for our industry to pause and rethink the evolution of the sales force role. In my opinion, it’s the perfect time to explore other complementary communication methods to effectively deliver messages that can act as an extension for the sales force. FINLAY: With important new treatments gaining FDA approval despite the pandemic, virtual launches have replaced live launch meetings and POAs, leveraging high-tech production houses to use broadcasting-like functionality to keep field interest high and messages crisp. Nimbleness and creativity has been necessary to simulate virtual workshop environments and promote contin-
ued collaboration over the web. Field engagement is important now more than ever to both seek evolving customer perspectives in this changing environment, and to make virtual time that everyone spends together the most meaningful. How do you think the emergence of telehealth will affect the sales rep/physician relationship? BORRIELLO: Telehealth is not a temporary solution but is here to stay and will continue to grow. It affords those without easy access to a specialist the opportunity to do at least an initial consultation virtually. We still have to see how telehealth will impact an HCP’s workload, such as whether it will allow them to do more visits or if it will require more administrative work and, in turn, if that will impact the provider’s time for industry interactions. O’SULLIVAN: I believe it will continue to be an opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry in understanding the new virtual physician/patient interaction and how we can provide value to it. If we better understand our customer needs within this space as well as the problems they are facing, we can contribute in a meaningful way. Something as simple as converting traditional physical patient education to dynamic digital resources that an HCP can provide to their patient via the telehealth visit, patient portal or email is a first step. Along with the HCP’s greater comfort level with online interactions, this now unlocks more potential for HCPs and sales reps to connect online conveniently.
AMENDOLA: The use of telehealth has certainly accelerated due to the changing realities created by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I don’t necessarily see it minimizing or disrupting the important relationships we enjoy between our sales reps and our customers. SANCHEZ: Telemedicine has certainly become more widespread during this health crisis, and many customers shared that. Putting it into practice for the first time allowed continuity of care, whereas others have used it regularly depending on their practice, so this may very well continue in the future to some degree. We will continue to evaluate how to be a resource to our customers, knowing that patients are top priority and there may be some limitations which we need to consider. However, we have created platforms to engage customers and I suspect this will continue to be a regular part of our business, as institutions assess changes in policy and guidelines in response to this pandemic. FINLAY: After a brief pause when some oncology offices asked for the industry to give them space to adapt to the new post-Covid world, many physician offices now have opened up to having rep in-service meetings virtually, with only very few inviting sociallydistanced on-site account manager interactions. Treatment team members, such as key dispensing pharmacy decision makers, are open to one-on-one meetings where important product information can be shared. With more customers being open to the new world of face-to-face remote con-
HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 16
ROUNDTABLE nectivity, account managers with great relationships and planning skills can even enhance their own productivity as they develop in their ability to connect virtually with the same authenticity that they did in person. Still, everyone is adapting to sitting in front of our computers meeting to meeting. Telehealth increases the time HCPs spend on technology. Screen fatigue is real, so customers who need a break from technology may be hesitant to get on a sales rep webex in the same way that weekly family zoom calls start to lose interest. Given the social and economic changes post-Covid, how do you see the composition of the sales forces changing in terms of experience, size, and other factors? AMENDOLA: On top of managing a pandemic, our nation has been faced with navigating our way through a critical crossroads related to human rights and respect. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion has always been foundational to Janssen and to J&J overall. These times have been challenging – and insightful. These past few months have emphasized even more how companies can and must evolve – in how we recruit, hire, train and provide leadership that hopefully will inspire others to do the right thing for their people and for society as a whole. SANCHEZ: We are always evaluating our business and this has always been inclusive of a multitude of these factors including product lifecycle.
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BORRIELLO: We will continue to look at experience and at attributes that make a successful member of the sales force, like integrity and courage. Additionally, it is imperative now to find people who are comfortable using and learning technology as it evolves. While face-to-face interactions aren’t going away, we need to make sure that our sales force is comfortable with technology so they can deploy a face-to-face or virtual interaction depending on the needs of the customer. O’SULLIVAN: Change is constant and like with everything else, monitoring the business dynamics to best serve our customers is a factor for the evolution of the sales force. As we continue to learn from our customers and the new environment, we must remove our unconscious bias and really listen to our customers and take in the current social and economic factors to see how we can best show up and evolve with today’s changes. FINLAY: As a previous sales leader, my observations are that sales and account professionals who have strong relationships, an innate ability to connect with people, well developed clinical acumen, and proven business impact will likely always be sought after in our industry. New competencies may emerge with adaptability and resilience being an even bigger part of those who may rise to the top. Those with technical skills who can communicate the best across the web, those who can navigate the office virtually, and those who can maximize time in their day due to strong planning may be the ones who make the most of the virtual transformation this year.
How important will digital and non-personal promotion (NPP) capabilities be to support launch strategies and maintain share of voice? O’SULLIVAN: In my opinion, having a robust omni-channel mix was always necessary in the equation. We must look at our customers holistically and deliver relevant, personalized content where they are in their digital consumption. BORRIELLO: Digital and NPP capabilities have always been important for a new product launch, and that’s certainly what we’re finding in launching XCOPRI. We have to consider the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is important to consider timing. With so many experiences and events moving to virtual, there is potential for customers to experience “virtual/ technology fatigue”, and you don’t want to get lost in the noise. You need to carefully consider how you are going to stand out in crowded spaces and strategically deploy your digital and NPP tactics to get the most engagement. AMENDOLA: When the pandemic first hit, all things stopped. Fast. We listened to HCPs and then Janssen turned to digital and non-personal promotion to ensure we continued to engage with our customers and ensure they had the information and support they needed. We also listened to HCPs and monitored the environment overall to ensure that our customer support was balanced and measured: we worked with our sales reps to ensure that their interactions were both helpful and sensitive to the needs and challenges physicians and HCPs and office/
Moving Forward TEXT, VIDEO, ONLINE MEETINGS
EMBRACING CHANGE
GETTING UP THE TECH LEARNING CURVE
hospital staff were facing. While I eagerly look forward to the future and a return to a more normal approach to interacting with and providing support to customers, I believe many of the new approaches and tactics we have adapted during the pandemic will continue. SANCHEZ: We have regularly used this approach to supplement the efforts of our field-facing teams consistent with marketing practices, much of which has been based on customer interest across various segments shared through market research. Certainly these capabilities have enhanced our engagement during this pandemic, can provide greater reach, and will be imperative for us to consider moving forward. FINLAY: Understanding your
customer segments, where they go for information, how they like to receive information, and what type of information is appealing are key ingredients to effective placement of both ads and educational content, with everyone investing in digital and NPP. Knowing which professional organizations and trusted sources to partner with for new product announcements to complement field driven digital touchpoints can round out an effective launch promotional plan. Realizing where customers are now working impacts direct mail campaign effectiveness. Refinement of messaging and tone is being done to maximize brand appeal, given a new set of empathy drivers in this evolving marketplace, in a similar way that we see giant consumer brands changing their approach on TV
INCLUSION OF THE RIGHT PEOPLE FOR THE CULTURE
commercials. Seeking prominent ad placements, exclusive digital placements, and being surrounded by relevant content may help when everyone is trying to connect nonpersonally via print and digital. Evaluation of digital marketing metrics is important to see what works best for your goals. How are big data and the use of AI helping sales and marketing today? How do you see this evolving? AMENDOLA: Big data remains an important part of how we share information about our medicines and the safe and effective use of them. As technology advances, so too does our ability to gather it and use it to ensure true and meaningful engagements. Data, and more appropriately, the insights it provides, ensures we can connect with HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 18
ROUNDTABLE our customers with the right message via the right channels and most importantly, at the right time to enable a win-win. O’SULLIVAN: Bottom-line, it is helping us make smarter, more informed decisions. We get to see patterns and evaluate the information to serve up the next best engagement. This requires a crossfunctional team that passionately looks at the information, asks questions, and conducts test and learn experiments to test our hypothesis. As we continue to mature and put more emphasis on data, we quickly realize how much more there is to learn in order to optimize our efforts. FINLAY: Big data is widely utilized in oncology by both GPOs and Precision Medicine organizations to direct biopharm sales and marketing efforts towards specific customers most appropriate for education on products or disease states that can solve their specific needs. Data is being used by highly organized customers with advanced health IT platforms to identify patients with certain characteristics, such as previously tested and detected genetic alterations, to help direct cancer patients and prescribers towards therapies that have been proven to work in their specific and often rare tumor types. It would be great if ultimately data could be used to predict and thwart chronic diseases to improve and extend life.
MODERATOR MARIA FINLAY, MBA Director of Channel Marketing Incyte
Maria Finlay has over 20 years of brand marketing, sales leadership, operations, and market access experience. She recently completed the Wharton General Management Program, and has led multiple cross-functional initiatives at Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Teva Oncology and Incyte. With experience across seven therapeutic areas, Maria has launched multiple small and large molecule products throughout her career. Maria currently leads Oncology Channel Marketing strategies and tactics directed towards large organized community oncology customers, hospital systems, GPOs, and payers. A resultsdriven professional with a passion for culture, engagement, diversity and inclusion, Maria has been awarded multiple President’s Club awards in sales and marketing, as well as a J&J Rising Star and an HBA Luminary Award. The views and opinions represented in these materials are those of Ms. Finlay and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of any past or present employers. mfinlay@incyte.com
INCYTE is a Wilmington, Delaware-based, global biopharmaceutical company focused on finding solutions for serious unmet medical needs through the discovery, development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics. For additional information on Incyte, please visit Incyte.com and follow @Incyte.
COMMENT
19 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
PANELISTS LESLIE C. AMENDOLA Director of Marketing, Oncology/Rare Disease (Brand Lead) Janssen Inc.
Leslie is a dynamic, goal-driven commercial leader skilled at building high-performing teams that drive strategic growth across multiple brands and franchises. As a 20+ year veteran at Johnson & Johnson, she has had progressive commercial leadership roles for 15+ brands across multiple therapeutic areas and all lifecycle stages. Leslie is viewed as the catalyst and difference-maker in the creation of strategies and key initiatives that improve performance, growth and overall brand position. She is currently the head of marketing for a large leukemia and lymphoma brand. Finally, Leslie is nearing completion of the Wharton General Management Program. LAmendol@its.jnj.com
JANSSEN is a Johnson & Johnson company focused on medicines in cardiovascular & metabolism; immunology; infectious diseases & vaccines; neuroscience; oncology; and pulmonary hypertension. SEBASTIAN “SEBBY” BORRIELLO Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer SK life science
Sebby’s career has included executive sales and marketing positions at Cempra, Mentor Worldwide LLC, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems Inc., Ethicon, Inc. and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Sebby received his B.A. in Public Administration from St. John’s University in ‘81, and received his M.S. in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. sborriello@sklsi.com
SK LIFE SCIENCE is focused on developing and bringing treatments for disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) to market. It has a pipeline of eight products in development for the treatment of CNS disorders, including epilepsy, sleep disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, among others.
NILSA SANCHEZ Head of U.S. Sales, Oncology/ Hematology Teva Pharmaceuticals
Nilsa’s career has included senior leadership roles in sales, marketing, training, and human resources at Eisai, Inc. and Merck & Co., Inc. She has had a long term focus in oncology and hematology brands, including solid tumors, lung cancer, and oral oncolytics with emphasis on contracting. Most recently she has helped to shape the sales strategy for the launch of biosimilars.
TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS has been developing and producing medicines to help improve people’s lives for more than a century. Teva is committed to being a global leader in generic and specialty brand medicines with a portfolio of 3,500 products in nearly every therapeutic area. Along with an established presence in generics, there is significant innovative research and operations supporting a growing portfolio of specialty and biopharmaceutical products. TAMI O’SULLIVAN Campaign Development Lead, Diabetes Franchise Merck
Tami has been in the pharmaceutical industry for twenty years. She started on the agency side, worked at Shire Pharmaceuticals in digital marketing, and then progressed to consumer and patient strategy within Shire and then at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Currently at Merck, she is the Campaign Development Lead in a Digital Engagement Team that uses agile methodology to quickly develop customer experiences and bring them into market to test and iterate based on customer feedback. Tami has a passion for being customer-centric and has a curious mindset that lends to delivering valuable customer experiences. tami.osullivan@merck.com
MERCK is an innovative global healthcare company with more than 50 prescription products in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, oncology, neuroscience, infectious diseases, immunology and women’s health. HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 20
MEDTECH
CLICK HERE TO GET TOP 50 MEDTECH COMPANIES
MEDTECH COMPANIES TOP 50 MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANIES The medical device sector saw gains from last year. However, that was before Covid-19 hit. We will see the results of that next year. The sector comprises medical device, medical equipment, capital equipment and medical technology companies. The total income this past year across the sector was $428B, up from $413B in 2018. All but six of our Top 50 companies experienced a revenue increase from 2018. Sysmex and Align were added to the list as their revenue jumped. Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson remain at the top of the list this year, even though Johnson & Johnson sold its LifeScan glucometer business to Platinum Equity for $2.1 billion last October and streamlined its portfolio further with the $2.8 billion sale of its Advanced Sterilization Products business to Fortive Corp. Other spinoffs included Alcon eye care from Novartis last July, Danaher’s shedding its dental franchise, Siemens exploring a European 21 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
IPO for its Healthineers unit last March, and BD handing Thermo Fisher its Advanced Bioprocessing franchise for $477 million last October. Here is a snapshot of the Top 50, ranked by 2019 revenue. As always, we have tracked movement up and down the list with regard to both ranking and revenue changes as compared with 2018. Companies are ranked by their 2018 medical revenue as furnished by their annual reports and publicly avail-
able sources, Edgar and Morningstar stock information websites (figures of non-US companies were converted to US dollars from various currencies using end of the year exchange rates for 2018 and 2019). Medical device, equipment, and medical technology revenues were extracted from reports to create an equal playing field. We also revised 2019 earnings to align “apples to apples” revenue reporting with 2018 figures.
PARTICIPATE AND GET THE FULL RESULTS!
HOW ARE YOU DOING $ALARY-WISE? We know this is a question most people ask themselves all the time, and we’re happy to provide you an answer by participating in our 2020 Compensation and Hiring Survey. PARTICIPATE IN OUR 2020 COMPENSATION AND HIRING SURVEY HERE We are pleased to open our yearly survey where we poll key people in the medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotech sectors of the industry to determine compensation trends. The survey is completed in conjunction with Jacobs Management Group, Inc., a leader in executive search for the healthcare industry and all participants receive a survey summary so that you can see how you compare. Please click here to be taken directly to the five-minute survey. The 2020 Compensation and Hiring Survey builds on the feedback from 2019 Survey, highlights of which were published in the MAY/JUNE 2019 ISSUE issue of
HS&M. Companies ranged in size from over $100B to over $10M, and over 80% of the respondents had titles of manager or above. “We continue to receive accolades for this targeted industry report” says Jacobs Management Group, Inc. President, Cari Kraft. “Our results have become one of the key inputs into compensation benchmarks.” All specific survey information and your contact information will be held in strictest confidence. We will email you with the results as soon as they are published.
COMPANY SIZE
For assistance building your team, please reach out to Cari Kraft ckraft@jacobsmgt.com or call Cari at (215) 383-3001.
MEDTECH COMPANIES
Companies are ranked by their 2019 revenue as furnished by their annual reports and publicly available sources such as Edgar and Morningstar stock information websites. Figures of non-U.S. companies were converted to U.S. dollars from various currencies.
RANKING COMPANY LOCATION
2019 CHANGE REVENUE IN US$B
1
MEDTRONIC
Dublin, Ireland 30.56
2
JOHNSON & JOHNSON
New Brunswick, NJ 28.23
THERMO FISHER
Waltham, MA 25.54
PHILIPS
Amsterdam, Netherlands 21.82
ABBOTT LABORATORIES
Chicago, IL 19.95
GENERAL ELECTRIC
Fairfield, CT 19.94
7
DANAHER
Washington, DC 17.91
8
FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE
Bad Homburg, Germany 17.59
BECTON DICKINSON
Franklin Lakes, NJ 17.29
10
SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS
Munich, Germany 16.26
11
CARDINAL HEALTH
Dublin, OH 15.63
3
4
5 6
9
12
STRYKER
Kalamazoo, MI 14.88
13
ROCHE
Basel, Switzerland 12.52
BOSTON SCIENTIFIC
Marlborough, MA 10.74
BAXTER
Deerfield, IL 10.56
ESSILOR
Charenton-le-Pont, France 8.84
17
B. BRAUN
Melsungen, Germany 8.37
18
ZIMMER BIOMET
Warsaw, IN 7.98
OLYMPUS
Tokyo, Japan 7.54
20
3M
Saint Paul, MN 7.43
21
ALCON
Basel, Switzerland 7.36
22
CARL ZEISS
Oberkochen, Germany 7.19
TERUMO
Tokyo, Japan 5.70
HOYA
Tokyo, Japan 5.38
SMITH & NEPHEW
London, United Kingdom 5.14
14
15 16
19
23
24 25
23 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
CLICK HERE TO GET TOP 50 MEDTECH COMPANIES
MEDTECH COMPANIES
RANKING COMPANY LOCATION
26
2019 CHANGE REVENUE IN US$B
HITACHI HEALTHCARE
Tokyo, Japan 4.61
SHIP HEALTHCARE HOLDINGS
Suita-Shi, Japan 4.60
INTUITIVE SURGICAL
Sunnyvale, CA 4.48
EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES
Irvine, CA 4.35
30
NIPRO
Osaka, Japan 4.20
31
DENTSPLY SIRONA
York, PA 4.03
32
HOLOGIC
Marlborough, MA 3.37
33
VARIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS
Palo Alto, CA 3.23
34
DRÄGER
Lübeck, Germany 3.11
35
STERIS
Mentor, OH 3.03
36
BIOMERIEUX
Marcy l’Etoile, France 3.00
37
HILL-ROM
Chicago, IL 2.91
38
SONOVA
Stäfa, Switzerland 2.82
39
GETINGE
Gothenburg, Sweden 2.82
27
28 29
40
SYSMEX
Cho-ku, Japan 2.79
41
COLOPLAST
Humblebaek, Denmark 2.69
42
THE COOPER COMPANIES
Pleasanton, CA 2.65
43
RESMED
San Diego, CA 2.60
44
TELEFLEX
Wayne, NJ 2.60
45
HARTMANN
Frankfurt, Germany 2.45
46
IDEXX LABS
Westbrook, ME 2.41
47
ALIGN
48 49 50
San Jose, CA 2.40
BIO-RAD
Hercules, CA 2.30
WILLIAM DEMANT
Smørum, Denmark 2.24
FUJIFILM
Tokyo, Japan 2.20 HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 24
INDUSTRY
The Orphan Drug Outlook Orphan drugs are going through an interesting era. Although they are intended to treat rare conditions – orphan diseases that affect less than 200,000 persons in the US – this area has taken on a special importance in recent years. For one thing, the investigation of orphan drugs often leads to medical breakthroughs that might not otherwise have been achieved, sometimes for populations facing life-threatening conditions. It’s also usually easier to gain both government support and marketing approval for an orphan drug, in order to offset the eventuality that the drug may not be profitable in the short run (even though the market cost of these drugs has been rising steadily). And those medications, once in the marketplace, may lead to further indications down the road.
25 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
In 2019, nearly half – 21 of 48 – novel drugs approved by the FDA in the U.S. were for rare or orphan diseases. The companies producing them often get longer exclusivity periods, tax credits and lower regulatory fees. This encourages them to take on what would otherwise be risky research studies. It also helps them conduct clinical trials, which are more difficult and costly with smaller populations of potential trial participants (the Clinicaltrials.gov website reports that 32% of uncompleted rare disease trials cited lack of available patients as the reason for their failure).
Clinical trial design is more difficult for uncommon diseases, but this can lead to innovation in trial design that will help other companies in the future. Lavinia Meloni, spokeswoman for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, says that “The use of real-world data (RWD) can also be particularly useful in rare disease trials, for example by utilizing the information in patient registries for patient stratification and sometimes replacing one study arm with information from RWD and even in some cases replacing the traditional clinical trial when the population is too low to run a randomized trial.”
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INDUSTRY North America is expected to remain dominant in the global orphan drugs market between 2018 and 2025, according to Fortune Business Insights, “Orphan Drugs Market: Global Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2025,” from June 2020. According to the report, the global orphan drugs market was valued at $125B in 2017 and is anticipated to reach $294B by 2025. The report also stated that the market will exhibit a remarkable CAGR of 11.4% during the forecast period. Fortune also anticipates – as many do – a significant expansion of the oncology segment in orphan drugs, based on the rising incidence of the disease, and the growing number of rare cancers identified. It’s expected to represent Figure 1
27 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
nearly half the share of orphan drugs globally. (Figure 1) Source: Fortune Business Insights, June 2020, Orphan Drugs Market Size, Share and Global Industry Trend Forecast till 2025 The most comprehensive analysis of the market comes from EvaluatePharma’s Orphan Drug Report 2020. It says that “Four decades ago, patients with rare diseases had very few treatment options. The 1983 Orphan Drug Act changed everything by providing substantial tax incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in rare conditions. With an estimated 7,000 orphan diseases, 1 out of every 10 Americans lives with a rare condition.” (Figure 2) Source: EvaluatePharma’s Orphan Drug Report 2020
EvaluatePharma’s prediction is a little more cautious than that of Fortune. They believe the market will generate $217B in 2024, which would still be over 18% of overall prescription sales. And the value created by orphan R&D drugs, based on consensus forecasts, is 20 percentage points higher than non-orphan drugs. THE ORPHAN DRUG LANDSCAPE IN 2024 There are objections to pharmaceutical companies benefiting from the regulatory and tax benefits meant for orphan drug developers. Big pharma is forecast to make up 8 of the top 10 orphan drug companies in 2024. (Figure 3) Source: EvaluatePharma’s Orphan Drug Report 2020
Figure 2
Figure 3
HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 28
INDUSTRY Bristol-Myers Squibb and Takeda have the highest forecast CAGR between 2018 and 2024 — 28% and 20% respectively, largely as a result of acquiring orphan drug companies. $5.5B of Vertex Pharmaceuticals orphan sales forecast in 2024 come from Trikafta alone, the FDA’s fastest novel drug approval of 2019. (Figure 4) Source: EvaluatePharma’s Orphan Drug Report 2020 After oncology, other large orphan drug categories are rare genetic diseases, blood disorders and central nervous system diseases. Biogen’s Spinraza and Alexion’s Soliris were the first to market for their respective indications, spinal muscular atrophy and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. And more recently, strong sales for
Figure 4
29 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
Roche’s hemophilia A treatment Hemlibra and Pfizer’s rare cardiomyopathy treatment Vyndaqel have helped solidify these two big pharma companies as leading players. THE ORPHAN DRUG PIPELINE A greater range of genetic disease orphan drugs is on the horizon. Pipeline products in 2024 include two CAR-T therapies acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb via its Celgene takeover: Ide-Cel and Liso-Cel. Both these CAR-T therapies are forecast to be in the top 10 selling R&D drugs – those currently in phase III or filed – in 2024. (Figure 5) Source: EvaluatePharma’s Orphan Drug Report 2020
Also in the top 10 is BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s Valrox, which is filed for hemophilia A. Its forecast for sales of $1.3B in 2024. There’s also blockbuster Hemlibra’s $4.3B. (Figure 6) EvaluatePharma says “As awareness of rare diseases continues to grow, more and more patients will be diagnosed, broadening the potential patient population and driving even greater sales projections.” •
Figure 5
Figure 6
COMMENT HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 30
INDUSTRY TRENDS: BY THE NUMBERS Compiled by Cari Kraft, Jacobs Management Group, Inc.
3.1%
7.2%
Case Fatality Rate For Covid-19 In U.S. As of August 24, over 64,000,000 tests had been conducted in the U.S., and the case fatality rate had dropped to 3.1% from a high of 7.2% on March 4th. However, this is only what we have been able to measure with any accuracy as a factor of people who have been tested. The actual number should be gauged by Infection Mortality Rate (IMR), for which we have only rough guesses at this time. Source: Our World in Data, Mortality Risk of Covid-19
18%
3.1%
Of Americans Experiencing Isolation And Loneliness Nearly a fifth of Americans report that isolation and loneliness are the leading factors affecting their health during the pandemic. Social determinants of health are expected to become more important. Health systems are coordinating with community groups to treat mental health. This expands beyond supporting patient services to wellness, as health systems connect to the social system. Source: PwC Health Research Institute Covid-19 Consumer Survey, April 2-8, 2020
36%
Projected Global Data Cagr For Healthcare By 2025 While today about 30% of the world’s data volume is being generated by the healthcare industry, it’s estimated that the compound annual growth rate of data for healthcare will reach 36%. That’s 6% faster than manufacturing, 10% faster than financial services, and 11% faster than media & entertainment. Source: Coughlin et al, Internal Medicine Journal, “Looking to tomorrow’s healthcare today, November 2018 31 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
100%
Of Healthcare Respondents I.D. Internal Silos As Top Kam Problem According to a poll conducted by ZS Associates about Key Account Management programs, participants overwhelmingly chose internal silos (100%) and a lack of compelling programs and solutions (66%) as the top two barriers that their organizations are facing today. Other problems: legal and regulatory restrictions (33%) and having employees with the necessary KAM skills (17%). Source: ZS Associates, “KAM Programs Have Never Been More Relevant,” July 2020.
738,200 Additional Home Healthcare Jobs To Be Added By 2026 Employment in the home healthcare sector in the US will grow about 54% by 2026, adding over 700,000 jobs. This is driven by many factors, particularly the number of people over 65, which will rise from 14% of the population to 21%. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
21
Of 48 FDA Approvals In 2019 Were For Orphan Drugs Last year, the FDA approvals of orphan drugs represented nearly half of the total approvals. This is driven by several factors. See “The Orphan Drug Report” in this issue for details. Source: EvaluatePharma’s Orphan Drug Report 2020
3,054
Data Breaches At Hospitals Between 2009 And 2019 Between 2009 and 2019 there have been 3,054 healthcare data breaches involving more than 500 records. Those breaches have resulted in the loss, theft, exposure, or impermissible disclosure of 230,954,151 healthcare records. That equates to more than 69.78% of the population of the United States. In 2019, healthcare data breaches were reported at a rate of 1.4 per day. Source: HIPAA Journal, 2020
COMMENT HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 32
TALENT TRENDS
Hiring Insights from The Pandemic By Cari Kraft, Jacobs Management Group It seems counterintuitive to be talking about hiring during this time of the pandemic, but we are seeing hiring start to open up. Aon’s Pulse Survey showed that businesses with hiring freezes for all industries fell by almost half from April (30%) to June (18%) and are at 13% in July for life sciences. And there are those who are forecasting a boom soon, given the pent-up demand that will be unleashed. We believe that is why building the talent pipeline is the priority for 66% of the companies surveyed recently by entelo.
We are lucky that our industry has not been as hard hit as others, although exact figures for the life sciences are not easy to identify. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment in healthcare occupations is projected to grow 14 percent between now and 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 1.9 million new jobs. 33 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
Healthcare occupations are projected to add more jobs than any of the other occupational groups. STEM jobs, as indicated in the July STEM Job Growth Index report by RCLCO, and CapRidge Partners, points out the resiliency. “STEM jobs, with over 70% typically requiring a bachelor’s degree, have fared better than others, with unemployment rates for those with a Bachelor’s degree being about half of the unemployment rates for those with only a high school education (8.4% as opposed to 17.3%).” And some parts of life sciences are growing. Of course, there are all of the products related to Covid: vaccines, diagnostics, PPE, etc., however, it is not just Covid-related companies that are thriving. According to RSM’s July 20th Life Sciences Outlook, while the US was experiencing a Covid peak, eight of the nine companies that went public were in life sciences, and 14 of the 21 companies that announced a planned IPO were in life sciences (none focused on vaccines or treatments specifically related to Covid-19). Private
equity and venture markets were also solid, with private capital continuing a year-over-year increase of 24% from January to May while the rest of the market had a 26% decline. Even before the Covid crisis, this trend was occurring, driven largely by the aging population, which will put more demand on HCPs who treat conditions of the elderly, and those in the assistive care professions – home health aides, physical therapists and others. But now that the whole landscape is changing in response to the healthcare crisis, there are even more changes in the works that will drive the need for different skills and new types of workers. Sales, marketing, IT and other parts of the industry are all in a state of flux, mostly for the better. Medical health records, telehealth, and other areas have been driven to speed up their progress in this era. So whether it is right now or in a few months, we expect a hiring spike. And, as we hire, how can we learn from these trends? The increased amount of remote work
TALENT TRENDS has further elevated the demand for soft skills and put an even greater focus on resiliency, leadership, and communication. The shift in remote work looks like it is here to stay. A recent Gartner survey found that 82% of company leaders plan to allow employees to work remotely some of the time. One of the top concerns reported by employers is that remote workers will be less productive and communicative on the job compared to when they were in office. This belief was backed up by Clutch’s July Survey which indicated that 39% of employees have felt less productive while working during the Covid-19 pandemic. And managers themselves are doubting their confidence in managing remotely. According to a recent survey highlighted in Harvard Business Review’s article, ”Remote Managers Are Having Trust Issues,” about 40% of the managers doubted their ability to manage workers remotely. We are also asking people to do more. In a July 21st article by Deloitte, “5 Shifts to Build Workforce Resilience,” 26% percent of employees in a recent poll said they expect to have additional duties and another 12% expect to do more than one role as a result of Covid-19.” The impact of this on the hiring process is the importance of soft skills. While the hard skills for a specific job will stay roughly the same — whether an employee is in office or working remotely — soft skills can have an immediate impact on how successful your remote workers will be in a remote work environment. Some of those key soft skills include: Resilience: One key skill everyone needs is resilience. As the dynamics of the landscape change, people 35 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
are being asked to take on new roles, learn new skills, and organizations are shifting. Independence: The ability and desire to work independently is an obvious one. In a typical office environment, it is easier to have regular supervision and feedback. For employees to manage their days, work toward deadlines and seek help when needed become more important when they don’t have immediate access to colleagues and office services. Communication: Communication is key both to manage the isolation and to facilitate collaboration. Effectiveness with all forms of communication -- chat, video, intranets, social platforms -- has become more important. This is on top of the usual ability to communicate clearly and efficiently, Self-motivation and Initiative: No matter how hard we adjust, there is still an increased need for self-motivation and initiative-taking while being remote. The need to seek out connection and be proactive in solving problems has increased dramatically. Technical savvy: Remote work has forced the need for more technical savvy. It has put an additional load on these skills and the need to self-diagnose to fix issues or seek support for resolution. RECOGNIZE, ACKNOWLEDGE, ASSIST What this means is not just that new types of workers will be needed, but that more classifications and attributes will be important to employers. There is also a balance in the attitudes of both employers and employees. People who have been working from home increasingly prefer that situation. Not just be-
cause it gives them more time with family and friends, but because it saves time traveling, cuts back on meetings and interruptions, and often gives them the opportunity to work more efficiently, or at least feel as though they are. Employers, on the other hand, are re-evaluating a number of aspects of their workforce and hiring process. A remote workforce gives them access to a wider pool of potential hires, from a broader geographic landscape. And, if their business structure allows them to adapt to having more employees work from home part- or fulltime, that means fewer demands on office size, materials and other economic considerations. Experts point to the need to recognize and reward what employees are contributing, as well as understanding where they need support and assistance. In a time when the human connection is more tenuous than ever, it becomes more important to help them feel they’re part of a community with a common purpose. The source of this is empathy. Here’s a video in which restorative practitioner Michelle Stowe provides some guidelines to having empathy with your staff, and teaching them to have empathy with others: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2UvDMQyBVLs. HIGHER LEVEL SKILL SETS Overall, what aspects of the resumé or personality are becoming more important to employers? And what leadership skills need to be changed in order to guide these new employees differently? For all of us, one key trait is Emotional Intelligence, or EQ. EQ has moved to the forefront in
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TALENT TRENDS recent years, and encompasses several sub-categories: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Why is it even more important now? One reason is that remote work makes personal interaction a little more difficult and not as regular. We often note that email and messaging don’t have “tone,” and can easily be misunderstood. Now that we’re doing more of those, we have to be aware of how others will read them. Even in Zoom meetings, the flow of communication is not as streamlined as it might be in person. Leaders have to work a little harder to understand, appreciate and respond properly to employees. Then there’s the aspect of employee attitude – the desire and motivation to take on challenges and advance in one’s career. Some people come by these traits naturally, and have a personal drive. But others need impetus and guidance from leaders, and this is a trickier situation given the state of distant work. There are fewer opportunities for a “Good job!” or a pat on the back, or for a casual office drop-in to discuss performance vectors. The job then becomes examining how leadership can measure and encourage activities, and help employees believe in themselves, engage properly with others, and stay motivated in their own interests and those of the company. A related skill is creativity. Again, some come by this naturally, but it can be enhanced in others. It is both a personal and a cultural skill. In a time of great change, businesses need to look at the customers they serve, the products and services they offer, and determine how to shift messaging and processes to take advantage of what’s needed in the marketplace. Don’t 37 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
ignore this opportunity – it’s what has kept many companies and industries alive over long periods. Build in sessions and activities that will draw out creative ideas and solutions that will expand your sales horizon. Also connected to creativity is critical thinking. This is necessary for other reasons. With the onslaught of rumors, undependable news sources, a tsunami of data to sift through and other factors that add to the confusion, it’s necessary to hone your investigatory process so you know what are reliable facts and indicators, and what are merely memes. QUESTIONS TO ADD TO YOUR INTERVIEW PROCESS POST PANDEMIC All of the above are complex to evaluate in your people. So here’s a place to start. We’ve compiled a short list of questions to add to your interview process that will be helpful in drawing a picture of these new skills in candidates. For individual contributors: 1 How has your daily routine changed, for better or worse? 2 What have you built into your skill sets to accommodate the new work structure? 3 What has made you more or less efficient or effective? 4 What do you think are the major contributions you can make to the company? 5 Are you good at adapting, or do you need help from management? What kind? 6 What would improve your communication with management, or their communication with you? 7 What are the biggest challenges ahead for you?
8 How have you handled the stress of the new situation, with respect to both coronavirus and your work environment? And for managers: 1 How have you adjusted your management style? 2 How is your communication with the team different – for better or worse? 3 What needs to improve, and what are your plans for implementing those improvements? 4 What are you doing to enhance your technical skills and those of your staff to streamline communication? 5 What needs to be done to improve productivity? 6 What needs to be done to adapt to the marketplace opportunities facing us? 7 How can the company support your efforts in terms of communication, creativity and skill building? THE POTENTIAL HIRING BOOM AND OPPORTUNITY What this all adds up to is that we have before us a rare chance to do what we sometimes wish for – restructure everything. Our businesses, our goals, our staff, our skills, our messaging. This is a time to seize that opportunity, with careful examination and insight, and build back better than we have ever been before. Look for the opportunity in this crisis. •
COMMENT
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ROUNDTABLE
The Long-Term Impact of Covid-19 on Commercial Engagement Models Speakers: ANDREW J. MOORE, M.D. Southeast Cancer Center
CHRIS DELUZIO SVP, Sales and Commercial Operations Biohaven Pharmaceuticals
STACY SINGER STONE Director, Commercial Business Partner, Information Systems Astellas US LLC
DAVIDEK HERRON Head of Digital Platforms & Operations Teva Pharmaceuticals
Moderator: DAN RIZZO VP, Global Business Consulting Veeva
39 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
In our ongoing attempt to assess the effect of the Covid era, we’re glad to present this panel on how the virus has affected commercial engagement. This was conducted at The Veeva Commercial & Medical Summit, the largest commercial and medical affairs event in the life sciences industry, connecting over 4,500 professionals. This year it was conducted virtually, and featured over 70 sessions, five specialized tracks, and 49 speakers from 34 companies. The event included this media roundtable on how commercial operations are changing, conducted by Dan Rizzo, Veeva’s VP of Global Business Consulting. We’re grateful to Veeva for the opportunity to feature highlights from the roundtable in this article. Over the past decade, the industry has been making the shift towards digital. Covid hit and accelerated the shift to leverage digital technology and engage customers – what almost felt like overnight but really occurred over a few months. Companies are relying on their field force to run with digital as a way to manage positive relationships with customers. In terms of adoption, what have been some of the important tactics and strategies you’ve taken to ensure that reps are using new digital channels to engage customers? Davidek Herron: Covid hit us all like a storm. At Teva, we already had a digital strategy in place. Covid just accelerated it. We built our strategy with our field teams, marketing teams, and customers. We had reps sitting at home globally not able to call customers. We had to figure out
what technology they could leverage to get in front of customers. It starts with the people. We had to make sure we had the proper training and proper vision for our sales teams, as well as key account managers, medical teams – anyone that’s customer facing. We had to inspire and get them to believe, This is what we need to do to help physicians and pharmacists and get medicines on their shelves so they can support their patients. It’s really about the people and the strategy we had behind it, accelerated by Covid. The technology was the cherry on top. Stacy Stone: I was going to echo similar thoughts. I’m on the technology/IT side and have a very strong partnership with our business colleagues globally. We have also used Veeva CRM Engage Meeting and Veeva CRM Approved Email, and content has been a topic of conversation for a long time. What Covid did is helped to accelerate a lot of digital efforts because there was no other choice. In addition to not being able to have remote engagements, for example, globally, we also, in some markets didn’t even have the ability to send an approved email from a rep. Which became really critical in the last couple of months. It was a team effort. If we didn’t have the business engagement, IT support globally, and compliance and legal colleagues willing to maybe push the envelope a little faster than what they were planning to do, we couldn’t have moved as fast as we did to digital engagement. That’s what it took to get this rolled out. Chris, you’re leading a sales force of roughly 700 people and in the process of planning a new launch. How are you launching in the midst of Covid? Talk through
some of the quick shifts your organization had to make to be really innovative and nimble just at the crux of the launch. Chris Deluzio: For us, we had a little bit of a different story than what Stacy and Davidek referenced in terms of just expediting the capability. We were preparing for launch with no intent of doing virtual, remote rep engagement. We launched on March 9th and were locked down a week later. We quickly flexed to get our virtual capabilities up and running and have those live in about a week. The simplicity of just leveraging a Veeva CRM Engage Meeting for our calls is great right now. We’re continuing to evolve our offerings as it relates to Veeva CRM Approved Email, but overall it did really require us to flex very quickly. I guess that’s the advantage of being in a smaller organization. We did not have to go through multiple layers of approval. We shared the vision. We implemented the training, got the systems up and running. Fortunately, the commercial operations team that is part of my group and everyone else was bought in. We implemented things very quickly and we’ve seen a pretty significant impact in terms of our launch uptake. All in all, it’s been a really good experience and it has helped to prepare us for the future. Dr. Moore, you’ve been in practice, treating patients, and dealing with this disruption that’s occurred. You’ve been engaging with pharma through digital. What are some of the benefits you have experienced? Andrew Moore: I will tell you first and foremost, I’m kind of a creature of habit. If the first rep that reached out to me hadn’t been
someone that I had a relationship with professionally and leaned on for patient assistance for a while, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to a digital engagement. I was pretty shocked at the ease and how efficient that interaction was. Right now, from a provider standpoint, I will tell you that the biggest impact that Covid has had on my clinic is efficiency. Our numbers really didn’t go down because we’re treating active cancers mainly, but just the whole process of screening people through the door increased time for communication to talk to family members because of traffic in our clinic. The use of telemedicine is great. What I was impressed with most with digital engagement was a 10-minute short, sweet, nuts and bolts discussion – boom, I got what I needed. My staff was more appreciative. Our day was not nearly as interrupted. I was bought into digital engagement with pharma almost immediately after that. I have been a rep in the field and I know how valuable time is with the customer. Time with the customer in the field, during most interactions, is handful of minutes at best. With digital communication, it’s roughly three, four times longer, sometimes five times longer than that. Dr. Moore, why is that? Why is the discussion lasting longer when it’s through a digital channel? Andrew Moore: I think there’s more flexibility for me. I’m engaging when it’s a better time for me. A lot of times over a lunch meeting, the rep gets to the office at noon. If I have an overbook that I’ve got to see at lunch or if things are running behind, I could be 30, 45 minutes late. The first HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 40
ROUNDTABLE thing that’s going to get cut is that encounter with the rep. I think the flexibility of the time is probably the biggest thing. Then, honestly, there’s no small talk. If someone’s in your office, in your break room and physically there providing your staff lunch, you chitchat, and there’s all these people coming at you as well. Signing scripts or they’ve got questions about critical laboratory results. There was much more interruption. It wasn’t just a flow of direct one-to-one contact for four to five minutes. I think the burden is more on the healthcare providers’ time. This channel is new to many users, and now reps are getting extended time with providers. It tends to facilitate a 20 to 30-minute meeting. It is very different than planning for a meeting that could last two, three minutes in an office center. Davidek, how has Teva gone through the exercise, really making sure that the field was ready for the extended time and the preparation that is required for that? Davidek Herron: First and foremost, we had to make the technology available. We didn’t launch Veeva CRM Engage Meeting until January 2020. A pilot in Russia with 30 reps and then fast forward two months later, 93% of all our Veeva markets with thousands of reps now are on the program. I think Dr. Moore hit the nail on the head -- he will have that conversation if there is some type of value-add being provided. That’s something that we’re seeing globally now with our sales teams and marketing teams. If we don’t have something of value or service to 41 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
provide to the Dr. Moore’s of the world, maybe we shouldn’t be engaging with them. I’ve seen this throughout the industry, where certain brands that are not able to get these 20-minute, 15-minute call times because they really don’t have the right content or value of service to provide to the customers. It’s actually a big awakening, I think for our industry. And I think once this dust settles, we really need to look closer at exactly what value are we adding outside of just delivering messages. At Teva, we’re heavily on the generic side. We are having a lot of B2B conversations. But on the physician side, our marketing teams are working diligently at night, trying to find out really what is the value of service for our customers. How can we serve customers like Dr. Moore to really get them what they need at the time they need it? Chris, to do that it requires some training of the field to ensure that not only are you ready from a technical perspective, but also that you have the soft skills, content, business acumen, and planning. How is Biohaven making sure that the field is fully equipped in that capability? Chris Deluzio: We took the approach of applying as many of the basics as we could as just a piece of our broader commercial learning and development, as well as sales operations offerings and platforms. Our gap was always just the data that we were getting, not only from the markets and from our customers, but also from our team. As we continue to gather more data, we are finding some consistent themes. Those that we feel we can increase their skills, like Dr. Moore said, in terms of what that engagement
looks like and how it feels. Which can be challenging, because this is not how these reps were brought up. This is not what they were hired to do. We’ve focused on that. We’ve also focused on the business acumen associated with digital engagements to understand truly what a physician wants. Recognizing we have a product to sell and there are specific physicians we want to go to and focus on like neurologists, headache clinics, things like that. They may not be open to a live engagement right now. How do we better prepare the team to have an impact on them in that virtual environment? And then what’s the next best move as it relates to the business? We planned to have it in our general framework of what we’ve done from a training standpoint. We just really had to focus on some very specific things to accommodate the virtual impact. Stacy, if you think about digital engagement, soft skills, business acumen, and balancing out your value proposition are important. But a key tool is the reps’ role in educating practitioners on the profile of the medication – the treatment option. Content helps to communicate that and is a key enabler. So what approach is your organization taking, ensuring that content which was previously primarily designed through a face-to-face engagement is right for this digital format? Stacy Stone: I think it’s a journey. We’re all evolving. With content, you just don’t want to take a piece that was meant for a face-to-face engagement and make it digital. It doesn’t always work. I think we’re all on the same journey towards more personalized communication with doctors like Dr. Moore, to be
able to communicate to them with a message that resonates based on all the data that Chris was talking about in the channel that they prefer. And to your point, Dr. Moore, at the time that’s most convenient for you. It seems to all fit that engagement.
world in our clinic, and I think all healthcare clinics, is less efficient right now in the post-Covid world. Not having a rep face to face in the office, I think makes things much more efficient and honestly, a win-win on both sides from my standpoint.
We’re looking at content again. We’re really looking at what we currently have. Is it ready for digital? Is the content we currently have even in the right place? With modularized content, do we have the right pieces in place? And do we have the right process to get digital content out there in an agile way?
Stacy Stone: I think it’s a great question. And I do think what we’re seeing is that it’s going to be this hybrid approach moving forward. I think it’s going to depend a lot on the therapeutic area. I think we’re well aware that oncologists seem to engage with digital a little bit more than others. I’ve even seen by country, nuances, preferences in digital versus non-digital. I think that’s where you get down to the individual sort of personalized touch that we’ve all been trying to attain. And there will be that because access will remain so limited. It’s going back in China, even as we speak, to some degree. It will vary based on region. But I agree, I think a lot of people are going to really appreciate this sort of digital connection, on my time and what works for me.
For us the process of reviewing content, which is so critical in our industry, wasn’t really ready for this sort of really huge push on digital. We were getting there. But this accelerated the look at what type of content we have, what format it’s in, and then how do we get it out to our customers as quickly as possible to answer questions, especially when we’re looking at our oncology space, for example. You can’t just stop communicating with your customers. Alex Keown, Biospace: When things open back up into something of a new normal, what will that look like as a preference for you, Dr. Moore? Will you prefer to go back to more of the way things were or to stick to this more streamlined program? Andrew Moore: I will tell you, I am hopeful that it will stay with this digital platform. It’s more on my terms as far as when it’s convenient for me. And, honestly, my office staff, they have commented to me that the couple of meetings or digital encounters that I’ve had where lunch gets sent to them and I have a nice 10-minute talk with the rep online is a lot better for them as well. Because the
It will be this blend of a hybrid approach of face-to-face and digital, and based on Dr. Moore’s preference or Dr. Smith’s preference. You need to be measuring that and understanding how you meet them on their terms. What we’ve done as an industry is we have opened up the potential and the possibility to exponentially meet the customers on their terms. As face-to-face meetings slowly return, that’s going to present a whole bag of new challenges and balancing that out. What are some of the challenges you’re anticipating? And how are you planning in response to them? Davidek Herron: We ran these exercises with pretty much all of our general managers throughout the world. To Stacy’s point, it depends
on the market. It depends on the current model that we use. One thing we do see is the fact that the new reality is not going to be like it was before. Digital is here to stay. I think it’s really going to come down to people and strategy. And the companies that have the best people and strategy to really drive this overall digitalization of our customer relationships will succeed. And you’ll see ones that won’t. At the end of day, I think we have to really focus on the fact that – and this is why I love working in life sciences – everything we do affects patients. We’re here to get medicines to the patients that need them. And I think the more we can focus on that outcome, everything else will just fall in line. Chris Deluzio: For me, it changes a bit. The data will be better in that we’ll have an ongoing capture of what physicians like Dr. Moore are telling us and what they want. The hard part for us to determine is how long we will do this and how do we prepare for that? It will change the profile of the rep, in terms of you now have to find a rep who most likely would have to balance this hybrid approach. Are there some cost efficiencies, but still impact? If not the same impact, maybe greater impact for those reps that could potentially come in-house and take this virtual approach with customers. And our training and our profile is really going to change as well. That’s what we’re in the process of evaluating right now. And, regardless of whether Covid hit or not, it’s forced us to look at this and how it may be the best approach moving forward. •
COMMENT HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 42
MOTIVATION
MOTIVIDEOS By Cari Kraft, Jacobs Management Group We hope you’re all well, and dealing with this crisis as best you can. On a personal and a business level, this has thrown all of us, and we want to provide whatever help we can. Normally, Motivideos features advice on getting morning meetings off to an exciting start, setting up a positive outlook for the day. Obviously, more is needed now. So here are some videos that we hope will inspire and uplift, from people who really know how to do that. I’M NOT BIASED!
WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL?
How do you alert your staff to the biases we don’t recognize in ourselves? Here’s a clear and helpful guide to understanding what we think and how we treat each other. How do those “implicit” biases affect our work life, our attitudes toward colleagues, or other situations that affect those around us?
We are faced daily with situations we would like to “control” – discussions with customers, strategies we’re applying – but that’s mostly a fantasy. Here are some insights from Jeff Bezos about how to separate what you can control from what you can’t – and how to be okay with that.
PERSPECTIVE
SPENDING TIME AT HOME
To be truly effective at work, we would all like to understand how to use those flashes of inspiration we experience. As much as Simon Sinek is admired for his wisdom, he admits it took him some time to gain the perspective he passes on to others. Here are some of those lessons to use to spark ideas at a meeting, including See the Bagel.
Working from home has been a major adjustment for most of us. How can you help your people achieve the work/home balance that will allow us to be most efficient? Here’s a meditation on the things we are doing more these days, and how they fulfill us in ways we might not have expected. Submissions are welcome. If you have one you like, email a link to me at ckraft@jacobsmgt.com.
Cari Kraft leads a team of master level recruiters at Jacobs Management Group, celebrating 30+ years of executive recruiting in the healthcare (pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology) and high-tech industries, nationally. Prior to joining Jacobs Management Group, Ms. Kraft has held positions as a Senior Sales Executive, Director of Business Development and Director of Marketing. She also has deep knowledge of the technology/startup fields, having been in the industry through the rise of the Internet. Ms. Kraft is a University of Pennsylvania/Wharton alumnus holding a degree in economics and decision sciences. Cari can be reached at ckraft@jacobsmgt.com.
COMMENT 43 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
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I’M NOT BIASED!
PERSPECTIVE
45 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL?
SPENDING TIME AT HOME
HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 46
INDUSTRY
Why I Work In Healthcare
WE ARE ALL HEALTHCARE WORKERS NOW In this column, we have often featured people who work all over the industry, expressing how much they get out of the results they are able to achieve. Now those people are more vital – to every one of us – than they have ever been. In our last issue we encouraged everyone to show your appreciation to your local health care teams by sending food or other gifts. Below are some examples of people from everywhere who are bonding through the crisis, giving each other heart and hope.
MESSAGES TO THE PATIENTS Here the healthcare workers at Ellis Medicine give hope and support to their patients, with notes and gifts that tell them to keep fighting.
MESSAGE FROM A PATIENT One of the first Covid-19 patients in the nation not only recovers, but beautifully expresses his thanks to all those who helped him.
47 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
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INDUSTRY
AROUND THE WORLD people are gathering to cheer on the healthcare heroes who work tirelessly for the rest of us.
OUR ENTERTAINERS Often without compensation, artists, actors, musicians and others are online providing us with the beauty they create to get us through the day. German pianist Igor Levit has been holding daily livestreamed concerts from his home for the last few days to keep people’s spirits up.
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RETAIL WORKERS Often the lowest compensated and in contact with the most people, clerks and others are hard at work providing us with needed goods, and supporting their own families.
AND THE CHILDREN Those who have the longest future ahead of them are exhibiting the greatest hope. Children in many countries, like this little girl in the UK, are putting up rainbows in their windows to show their faith in the future.
COMMENT COMMENT
HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 50
INNOVATION SHOWCASE
INNOVATORS AT THE FOREFRONT: FIGHTING COVID-19 AND CANCER By Neil Greenberg
David Ormesher, founder and CEO of closerlook
Innovation within life sciences has never been more critical. While many of the leading global biopharma companies race to develop a new vaccine to fight Covid-19, numerous promising new products are coming out of the labs of early-stage health and technology companies to attack the pandemic along with its debilitating impact on chronic diseases. With the help of David Ormesher, founder and CEO of closerlook, here is a selection of ones that we have identified.
PHYSIQ: REMOTE PATIENT MONITORING AND EARLY ALERTS PhysIQ has made its wearable biosensor product, pinpointIQ™, pandemic-ready. With pinpointIQ, providers can track and monitor patients continuously, whether they’ve been quarantined or sent home to recover after a hospital stay. The AI-powered analytics can detect meaningful changes in a patient’s underlying condition even before symptoms are manifested. Their proprietary analytics are FDA cleared and are currently being utilized by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine to evaluate advanced technologies for disease outbreak preparedness. PhysIQ’s analytics has the capability to characGary Conkright, CEO of PhysIQ terize immune response to infection, evaluate novel diagnostic and prognostic tools, and investigate the efficacy of investigational drug therapies that may be administered to enrolled participants. “It is becoming more obvious that we need to deliver Covid-19 care in the home since hospital capacity cannot keep up with the fallout of this devastating virus,” says Gary Conkright, CEO of PhysIQ. “Achieving this will require clinical and physiological insight traditionally not available in an outpatient environment or with periodic spot checks of vitals that appear to be lagging indicators with this virus.” Given the nature of the continuous data collection within the pinpointIQ™ platform, study clinicians will have rapid access to streaming data and analytics to monitor individuals with confirmed cases or to decide if those who have been exposed should continue to self-isolate at home or require hospitalization. PhysIQ’s remote monitoring technology was first tested during the Ebola crisis in 2014. The wearable clinicalgrade biosensor is the size of large bandage and tracks and uploads continuous data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and temperature to the cloud-based analytics engine for processing of the raw vital sign data. Contact: gconkright@physiq.com 51 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
INNOVATION SHOWCASE
CLEARSTEP: INTELLIGENT SYMPTOM CHECKING Clearstep is a platform that applies intelligent symptom checking to deliver a fully consumerized healthcare experience using AI technology. Their Covid-19 Screener is based on guidelines from the CDC, New York Department of Health, King’s College and University of California. What makes their screener different from others? It incorporates underlying symptoms (eg, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease), making it a more reliable and safer triage tool. Their Covid-19 screener was deployed at a health system in Florida and within days was demonstrating its ability to respond quickly. The screener drew the attention of several national media, including Mashable, TechCrunch, and Fox News. CEO Adeel Malik: adeel@clearstep.health
MYNDYOU: MONITORING SYMPTOMS WITH AI MyndYou’s AI-driven voice bot, MyEleanor, can be utilized by healthcare providers to monitor and detect coronavirus symptoms and help them deliver personalized care to highrisk patients who may not have access to treatment otherwise. MyEleanor calls individuals directly or acts as a hotline, asking a series of questions to assess risk, manage symptoms, and provide guidance. Behind the scenes is an AI-driven passive voice analytics engine. Whether through MyEleanor calls or sessions with individual care professionals, each call uses “brain-driven” technology, working in the background to detect subtle changes in health and trigger proactive interventions. The MyndYou solution was initially designed to help older adults stay independent by keeping up with the daily changes in cognitive and behavioral function. The app informs providers of any anomalies in patients’ functional routines. During the pandemic, the device is helpful for vulnerable populations in social isolation by providing for continued engagement and stimulation. Remote monitoring of high-risk populations also provides a level of protection for healthcare workers who otherwise might be exposed. Founder, CEO: Ruth Poliakine Baruchi ruth@myndyou.com 53 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
COVID-19 RELATED CLINICAL TRIALS With the rapid spread of Covid-19 and the deployment of healthcare professionals in academic centers to triage the sudden surge of patients, many clinical trials have come to a halt. There are concerns on the part of both healthcare professionals and patients about the health risks of visits to a clinical site for a scheduled study visit. The clinical research field needs tools and support for remote patient recruitment, virtual research, and remote monitoring software. In addition, with Covid-19 disproportionately impacting the black and Latinx communities, it will be critical that clinical trials are designed with strong minority representation.
IONIQ SCIENCES: PROLUNG TEST The sudden emergence of Covid-19 has been particularly challenging for patients with existing chronic illnesses such as cancer. It’s important that research and innovation continue to focus on these fundamental health issues in parallel with the focused efforts on Covid-19. One in two Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime, and one in five will die. Clinical evidence demonstrates that early detection can save lives and money. The five-year cancer survival rates approach 90% when diagnosed in the earliest stages of the disease, versus less than 10% in the later stages. IONIQ Sciences, Inc. is working to change the early detection landscape for cancer. The body’s electrical properties change in the presence of cancer. By detecting the body’s earliest response to cancer, IONIQ Sciences aims to expand the therapeutic window, dramatically improving survivability and reducing the cost of healthcare. Their approach is an advanced multi-cancer screening technology, employing both Electrical Impedance Analytics (EIA) and artificial intelligence (AI). IONIQ Science’s first product utilizes a proprietary analytic platform, the ProLung Test™ for lung cancer. EIA takes up to 13,125 electrical readings of the body over a 20-minute period with a non-invasive test. IONIQ’s proprietary algorithm processes this data to detect the presence of malignancy in its earliest, most-treatable stages. IONIQ is integrating AI to further improve performance and expand from its ProLung Test to a multicancer screen. • Clinical Data: IONIQ has assembled a deep clinical evidence library with data from 7 studies and trials; more than 1,200 subjects and more than 20,000,000 data points • Premier Clinical Sites: More than 20 premier cancer institutions around the world have participated in the clinical trials • Awarded Breakthrough Device Designation: IONIQ’s ProLung Test was awarded Breakthrough Device designation by the FDA for its life-enhancing potential • Intellectual Property: Robust, growing intellectual portfolio of patents and know-how Andy Robertson, VP Business Development for IONIQ Sciences is at acr@ioniqsciences.com or write to INFO@IONIQsciences.com HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 54
INNOVATION SHOWCASE CUREBASE: DECENTRALIZED CLINICAL TRIALS Curebase solves the problem of recruiting and supporting patients for clinical trials without having to go to a physician’s office. They offer full-service digital CRO capabilities and software for decentralized clinical trials. Homebased clinical trials are more important now because they can reach patients everywhere, are affordable, produce realistic data, and prevent the spread of the virus. In response to the pandemic, the startup launched CURE-19 in collaboration with three partner companies to recruit patients for at-home studies into Covid-19. They’re offering to recruit and track trial patients for free as long as the data they collect and monitor becomes public. CURE-19 is recruiting patients for the following studies: • Exploring how DNA may impact Covid-19 severity and risk • Identifying and monitoring pre-symptomatic Covid-19 patients • Looking for Covid-19 biomarkers in gut microbiome Founder & CEO: Thomas Lemberg tom@curebase.com
ONDINE: NASAL PHOTODISINFECTION TECHNOLOGY Ondine Biomedical’s novel nasal photodisinfection technology is designed to sterilize the nasal and upper airway. Ondine’s patented, light-activated technology platform, called antimicrobial photodisinfection (aPDT), provides rapid destruction of a broad spectrum of pathogens without encouraging antibiotic resistance. Photodisinfection has been shown to kill many different viruses, including coronaviruses, herpes viruses, hepatitis viruses and others, as well as virtually all pathogenic bacteria. Eliminating or decreasing the viral load in the upper airway may prevent or delay the onset of more acute respiratory infections in patients. Ondine is working to determine whether targeted viral decontamination could provide a benefit to at-risk Covid-19 patients. “Pre-pandemic, the technology has been used for eight years in Canada to reduce post-surgery infections by close to 80%,” according to Michelle Anscheutz, chief commercial officer. “We are working with investigators to study the impact of killing the SARS-VoV-2 virus.” The company is currently applying its technology for disinfecting the noses of seniors at nursing homes and surgical centers, and for frontline workers. Ondine has applied for Expanded Access designation for its technology from the FDA and is awaiting approval. CEO: Carolyn Cross Chief Commercial Officer: Michelle Anscheutz michellea@ondinebio.com
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DINA: AI-POWERED CARE COORDINATION As states reopen and employees begin to return to work, there is significant concern about the ability of businesses to effectively screen employees for Covid-19 symptoms. What is needed is a scalable platform that is able to automate the screening process and direct possible symptomatic employees to the right healthcare setting. Dina (formerly Prepared Health) is an AI-powered care coordination platform with a full line of products designed to improve visibility and coordination to post-acute and in-home care providers. One of their newest products, Employee Health and Wellness Screening, is a platform that companies can use to screen employees for possible Covid-19 symptoms prior to starting their shift or entering the workplace. The text-based screening and check-in tools are intuitive and easy to use. Based on response, employees may be directed to a telehealth visit or review self-care resources. HR compliance reporting is activated if an individual is experiencing symptoms or must self-quarantine. The screener can be used in office and industry settings and integrated into nursing homes and other healthcare environments. Dina had its start in hospitals, so it makes sense that the app has a comprehensive remote monitoring system for discharged patients. Dina says their tech is HIPAA compliant. Co-Founder and CEO: Ashish Shah
DRUGVIU: HEALTHCARE DATA FROM COMMUNITIES OF COLOR Drugviu is a registry of nonwhite patients and their personal health experiences. Although 40% of Americans are non-white, clinical trials have on average less than 8% minority representation. This means there is not enough data on how medications affect people of color. Drugviu offers an online patient community where persons of color can share their medication experiences and side effects. At the same time, it is building a non-white patient registry for clinical trial patient recruitment. With the devastating impact of Covid-19 among black and brown Americans, Drugviu is creating the largest dataset of minorities who have been tested for the coronavirus. This registry is being developed to be a research platform for future studies on the effect of Covid-19 on patients with comorbidities, such as diabetes, hypertension, or auto immune diseases. It will also serve as a valuable registry of non-white populations for vaccine studies. One outcome of institutional racism within healthcare is a deep distrust of clinical trials by black Americans. There is a depressing history of abuse and exploitation of blacks for medical research throughout the slavery and post-slavery years, culminating in the 40-year Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which only ended in 1972. “One of the underlying root causes for lack of minority participation in clinical trials is trust,” said Kwaku Owusu, co-founder and CEO of Drugviu. “Our unique registry platform hopes to answer this problem.” Owusu also indicated that encouraging minorities to participate in investigational studies requires a different approach than just saying the trials must diversify its participants. “That’s the last thing on their minds,” he said. “For those in biopharma or academia, the pitch to participate to these groups should be to give them free access to promising therapies that aren’t yet available.” Co-Founders: Kwaku Owusu (K.owusu@drugviu.com) and Melanie Igwe
COMMENT HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 56
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NEW! AGENCY AND PROVIDER DIRECTORY! Healthcare Sales & Marketing’s New Feature As a value to the industry, we have initiated a project to profile the top agencies so that you have them at your fingertips. We are compiling a digital, searchable, single source to give you access to the who’s who, their strengths, vision for the future, leadership and strategies, so that you can get a better feel as to how they work. We are driven by the input of our readers so please let us know if you have an agency or provider you would suggest we profile. You will see some of the best with links to all their websites, their philosophy and history, as well as what makes them special. This is all in keeping with our goal of having the hottest industry companies and the top thought leaders in in the pages of every issue of HS&M. Our goal is to constantly expand the value we bring to you.
If you would like to be featured, or have an agency or provider to recommend, please reach out to our Associate Publisher, Natalie Newcamp, at nnewcamp@hsandm.com.
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY JULY/AUGUST 2020
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Company Overview: Catalyst is an insights-driven healthcare communication agency. Our goal is to help you solve your communication needs no matter how complex. We engage your audiences and drive change by providing solutions that serve as a vehicle for sustainable growth. Address: West Coast 3617 East Broadway, 19 Long Beach, CA 90803 East Coast 4695 Independence Avenue Bronx, NY 10471 Phone Number: 914-318-6351 Website: www.catalyst-agency.com Social Media:
Leadership: Steve Kane Managing Director New Business Contact: Steve Kane skane@catalyst-agency.com 914-318-6351 Year Founded: 1999 Number of People: 12 Service Focus: Healthcare marketing, communications and technology solutions including Disease-state awareness and Clinical education. Areas of Expertise: Branding, Portfolio brand management, Print design, Web design, 3D animation, Web technology, and Business efficiency solutions. What’s New: Long Beach, CA office
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Company Overview: Founded by doctors, engineers and data scientists, COTA is committed to bringing a patient first approach to cancer care through the use of real-world evidence. The Company organizes fragmented, often hidden data from the real world to provide clarity in cancer care. Combining clinical expertise in cancer with proprietary technology and advanced analytics, COTA’s platform helps inform decisions and action in oncology. COTA partners with providers, payers, and life science companies to ensure that everyone touched by cancer has a clear path to the right care. To learn more about COTA and how to make better decisions with the right data, visit cotahealthcare.com. Address: 100 Broadway, 7th floor New York, NY 10005 Phone Number: 866-648-3833 Website: www.cotahealthcare.com Social Media:
Leadership: Mike Doyle — President & Chief Executive Officer • Andrew Nordon, MD — Chief Medical officer • Elizabeth Rushforth — Chief Legal Officer • Bernard Chien — Chief Technology Officer • Vivek Kumar — Senior Vice President, Operations and Delivery • C.K. Wang, MD — Senior Medical Director, Clinical Oncology • Elizabeth Lamont, MD — Senior Medical Director, Outcomes Research New Business Contact: Jaimee Ryan 617-733-5509 Jaimeeryan@cotahealthcare.com Year Founded: 2011 Number of People: 100 Areas of Expertise: Cancer care, real-world evidence, real-world data, precision medicine, oncology, technology. What’s New: COTA recently won the Health Tech Challenge at the eyeforpharma conference in Philadelphia! Our senior medical director, Dr. C.K. Wang discussed how real-world evidence can answer key questions in cancer care. COTA has some exciting news coming down the pipeline, so be sure to check back on our social pages for updates and news announcements including a brand new website! HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 60
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Company Overview: Impetus Digital has over 11 years of experience working with life science companies from around the globe to “virtualize” their advisory boards, clinical trial investigator consortiums, co-author working groups, steering committees, and medical education events. The HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant Impetus InSite Platform® allows for sustained healthcare stakeholder communication, collaboration, education, and insight-synthesis longitudinally, using a variety of cutting-edge virtual tools. Impetus Digital works with life science teams across all functions, in all therapeutic areas, along the continuum of brand life cycles. We also partner with select agencies and clinical research organizations. Address: WaterPark Place 20 Bay Street, 11th Floor Toronto, Canada Phone Number: +1 416-992-8557 Website: www.impetusdigital.com Social Media:
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Leadership: Natalie Yeadon, Co-owner/Managing Director Janice Smith, Co-owner/Managing Director New Business Contact: Natalie Yeadon Co-owner/Managing Director nyeadon@impetusdigital.com +1 416-992-8557 Year Founded: 2008 Areas of Expertise: Virtual advisory boards, working groups, and steering committees • Publication planning/development • Virtual medical education, training, and other learning activities • Patient journey mapping • Treatment pathway profiling • Virtual journal clubs • Co-creation of scientific, regulatory, educational, and promotional materials • Grant review programs • Conference engagement programs • Stakeholder management • Medical writing • And more! What’s New: See our latest customer stories here: www.impetusdigital.com/customer-stories/
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Company Overview: LiveWorld is a digital agency specializing in social media delivering healthcare marketing and customer service solutions that help companies build stronger patient and healthcare provider relationships. We provide consulting, strategy, and creative along with human agents, conversation management software, and chatbots for digital campaigns and social media programs. Our clients include AbbVie, AstraZeneca, BMS, Pfizer and Zoetis among others. Address: 4340 Stevens Creek Blvd. Suite 101 San Jose, CA 95129 Phone Number: 800-301-9507 Website: www.liveworld.com Social Media:
Leadership: Peter Friedman, Co-Founder & CEO David Houston, CEO Martin Bishop, VP of Client Services Dawn Lacallade, Chief Strategist Jena Dengrove, VP & Creative Director Jason Liebowitz, VP New Business Development Jason Kapler, VP of Marketing Frank Chevallier, VP of Software Products Lisa Sutton, Chief Nurse, Clinical Operations
New Business Contact: Jason Liebowitz VP New Business Development jason@liveworld.com (347) 276-2644 Year Founded: 1996 Number of People: 35 Parent Company: LiveWorld Areas of Expertise: LiveWorld provides a full range of services and software that help pharma brands build and operate effective, compliant social media programs that positively impact business goals and patient outcomes. LiveWorld guides and enables branded conversations that create emotional connections with customers, resulting in action, sales and advocacy. We help our clients gain share of mind and heart through social media engagement across digital marketing, sales and online customer care. What’s New: LiveWorld was recently named “One to Watch” in MM&M’s Top 100 Healthcare Agencies Magazine. Read the press release: https://www.businesswire. com/news/home/20190903005540/en/LiveWorldNamed-%E2%80%98One-Watch%E2%80%99MMMs-Top-100
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Company Overview: McCann Managed Markets is a strategic healthcare communications agency specializing in managed care marketing. We develop customized solutions across the managed markets value chain for a range of customer segments, including payers, health systems, organized provider groups, employers, pharmacists, office staff, and patients. Guided by our expertise in strategy, launch execution, and innovative solutions, we are well equipped to help clients navigate the complex and evolving managed markets landscape. As an integrated part of McCann Health, a global network of companies across 6 continents, we work on multiple cross-portfolio deliverables for our clients. Address: 49 Bloomfield Avenue Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046 600 Battery Street San Francisco, CA 94111 Phone Number: 973-917-6623 Website: www.mccannmanagedmarkets.com Social Media:
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Leadership: Kim Wishnow-Per President New Business Contact: Roshan Rahnama roshan.rahnama@mccann.com 862-777-0742 Year Founded: 2002 Number of People: 66 Parent Company: The Interpublic Group Awards: 2016 Healthcare Network of the Year—Lions Health 2017 Healthcare Network of the Year—Lions Health 2018 Med Ad News Best Managed Markets Campaign Areas of Expertise: Market access, above-brand solutions, patient access and reimbursement, pharmacy, and integrated pull-through. What’s New: We have an additional office in California Brand/initiative wins: 12
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Offices in San Diego and New York Address: 5780 Brittany Forrest Suite 1000 San Diego, CA 92130 Phone Number: (858) 775-4273 Website: www.rareexpertise.com Social Media:
AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Leadership: Jack Davis Founding Partner Jeff Sweeney Founding Partner New Business Contact: Jeff Sweeney jeff.sweeney@rareexpertise.com (858) 775-4273 Year Founded: 2016 Number of People: 10 Service Focus: Identifying and activating people with rare disorders Parent Company: Independent agency Areas of Expertise: Extensive rare disease experience (21 different brands). Patient identification and activation, HCP and patient education, online influencer networks, a database of rare disease patient journeys. What’s New: In September 2018, Rare Expertise formed a joint venture with SCOUT, a leading healthcare marketing agency focused on orphan drugs and specialty pharmaceuticals, to shorten the time for people with rare diseases to obtain an accurate diagnosis and begin appropriate treatment more quickly.
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Address: 55 Bank Street Morristown, NJ Phone Number: 973-867-6500 Website: www.revhealth.com Social Media:
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Leadership: Bruce Epstein, Brian Wheeler, and Bruce Medd, Managing Partners New Business Contact: Bruce Epstein bruce.epstein@revhealth.com 973-867-6502 Year Founded: 2006 Number of People: 151 Service Focus: Full-service advertising agency providing strategic consulting, campaign development, personal and non-personal communication. Parent Company: RevHealth, LLC Awards: RevHealth’s creative expertise has been recognized in 2018 with wins from Communicator, Digital Health, RX and PM360. We are also a 3-time Med Ad News Category II Agency-of-the-Year Finalist and MM&M gold winner Areas of Expertise: Strategic and tactical planning; global professional advertising and promotion; US consumer advertising and promotion; provider, patient, and sales representative education; brand naming and lexicon development; digital innovation, development, and implementation; market access strategy and execution. What’s New: As we continue to expand our business, we have opened an additional office in Morristown.
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Company Overview: We connect pharmaceutical brands to the right consumers from the moment they begin their search for health options in our premier network of pharmacies and continuing to do so wherever their healthcare path may take them. Rx EDGE Media Network is a leader in the healthcare marketing industry with over 18 years of experience delivering hundreds of successful campaigns for pharma brands. Even as media consumption becomes increasingly dispersed, the pharmacy exists as the single mostoften visited healthcare destination in the lives of Americans, and combined with digital technologies, it produces an exceptionally broad reach. Address: 111 Water Street East Dundee, IL 60118 Phone Number: 800.783.7171 Website: www.rxedge.com Social Media:
Leadership: Nate Lucht, President and CEO nathan.lucht@leveragepointmedia.com New Business Contact: Michael Byrnes, EVP Sales Michael.byrnes@rxedge.com 610.431.7606 Year Founded: 2000 Parent Company: LeveragePoint Media | LLC
Awards: PM360 Trailblazer Awards PM360 Elite Awards DTC Perspectives Advertising Awards PM360 Pharma Choice Awards Service Focus: Rx EDGE Media Displays: Through our prominent, strategically-placed displayed delivered in a network of 27,000+ retail pharmacies, we help pharmaceutical brands motivate consumers at the most relevant times…when they are actively searching for ways to take care of themselves. Our Media Displays enlighten, engage, and inform. Rx EDGE Unlimited™: This cross-channel solution combines the power of our brick-and-mortar network with premium digital inventory and advanced analytics to bring pharma brands and audiences together. Rx EDGE Unlimited delivers exceptional reach, frequency, and influence. Insight EDGE™: A suite of data resources that the Rx EDGE analytics team applies to every program to ensure that pharma brand messages are seen by the right consumer. Areas of Expertise: We Maximize Impact: Rx EDGE is the only targeted media platform that uses the pharmacy as a consumer’s gateway to immediate information as well as ongoing connections to the pharma brands that are relevant to their healthcare needs. Brands that use Rx EDGE programs see an average script lift of 12.5%. We Align the Right People, Places, and Times: Through our relationships with key retailers, we can access data not commonly available through other marketing service providers − making our Insight EDGE™ targeting platform unique in the pharma marketing space. We Offer Proven Results: Measurement defines the core value we bring to every initiative. Using thirdparty analytics, results are evaluated with a significant level of precision. In addition to a lift in prescription volume, our programs also result in an average return on investment of $8.12. What’s New: Rx EDGE Unlimited™ is a new cross-channel approach that combines Media Display, mobile, and programmatic digital ad placement to boost campaign effectiveness. HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020 | 66
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Leadership: Jennifer Brekke Principal Raffi Siyahian Principal
San Diego, Atlanta, Chicago, New York
New Business Contact: Raffi Siyahian rsiyahian@findscout.com (858) 538-7777 x251 Year Founded: 1990
Address: 12520 High Bluff Drive Suite 340 San Diego, CA 92130
Number of People: 125
Phone Number: (858) 538-7777
Parent Company: The Stagwell Group
Website: www.findscout.com
Awards: PM360 Trailblazer Agency of the Year Finalist; PM360 Pharma Choice gold award; Humanitarian Awards nominee, Healthcare Marketers Exchange.
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Service Focus: Full-service
Areas of Expertise: Rare diseases, specialty pharmaceuticals, orphan drugs. What’s New: In September 2018, SCOUT formed a joint venture with Rare Expertise, a company with proprietary data-driven tools for identifying and activating people with rare disorders, to shorten the time for people with rare diseases to obtain an accurate diagnosis and begin appropriate treatment more quickly.
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Company Overview: Silverlight Digital is a New York-based digital media agency that adopts a consultative approach to helping healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail, travel and other brands reach their desired audience online. The agency was three-times named an MM&M 100 Agency and a recent finalist for MM&’s Small Healthcare Agency of the Year Award. As a Premiere Google and Bing Partner, Silverlight Digital receives tier one support from publishers and through direct site partnerships and hosts a popular healthcare client roundtable at Google’s New York offices each year. Silverlight Digital is a certified woman-owned business by The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Address: 15 E. 32nd Street 3rd Floor New York, NY Phone Number: (646) 650-5330 Website: www.silverlightdigital.com
Leadership: Lori Goldberg CEO and Founder Michael Ackerman SVP and Managing Director New Business Contact: Michael Ackerman, SVP and Managing Director mackerman@silverlightdigital.com Year Founded: 2013 Number of People: 20 Areas of Expertise: Capabilities include digital and multi-channel media strategy, media planning and buying, SEM, SEO, video, mobile, behavioral insights, analytics, influencing payers and point-of-care audiences, specialty journal publishers, social media, programmatic and more. Segments, where we specialize, include rare diseases, clinical trials, biopharma, online pharmacy delivery, conference targeting and well-established brands. What’s New: We host an annual healthcare conference at Google’s New York offices. Contact us for a chance to be added to the guest list.
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Address: 12809 Mirabeau Pkwy, Spokane Valley, WA Phone Number: 509-242-0767 Website: www.NextIT.com Social Media:
Leadership: Michael Southworth, GM Tracy Malingo, SVP Product Strategy Joe Dumoulin, CTIO Mitch Lawrence, SVP Commercial Sales New Business Contact: Nick Genatone ContactNextIT@Verint.com Phone 509.242.0767 Year Founded: 2002 Number of People: 270 Service Focus: Conversational AI, Intelligent Assistants Parent Company: Verint 69 | HS&M JULY/AUGUST 2020
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Awards: AI Breakthrough, Best Overall AI Solution • NextGen Innovation of the Year • eyeforpharma Most Valuable HCP Initiative • Fierce IT Healthcare Fierce Innovation Award • PM360 Innovator, Product Pick • PM360 Marketing Initiative of the Year Areas of Expertise: Verint Next IT, a division of Verint, is the team the life science community counts on for intelligent solutions to modern healthcare problems. We unlock the value of human relationships with the power of conversational AI. Verint Next IT has delivered the broadest portfolio of AIpowered, conversational Intelligent Virtual Assistants configured for Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Women’s Health, with several more launching in the coming months. The technology is configured to improve health outcomes, provide access for patients and caregivers to product and health literacy, connect physicians to patient data, and improve the overall experience for patients, healthcare providers, and consumers. To learn more, visit www.NextIT.com. What’s New: • “Ask Sophia’, Novo Nordisk’s new online and smart speaker intelligent assistant, available 24/7 on Cornerstones4Care. com and Amazon Alexa via “Ask Digital Sophia” for diabetes questions • UCB’s New PD Coach App “April” launched to support those living with Parkinson’s Disease, available in Apple and Android app stores. April address specific challenges that Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers may face – including the ability to learn and adjust to language and vocabulary for patients with dexterity and speech issues.
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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY
Company Overview: Viscira is an innovative, full-service digital marketing and technology firm. We are all things digital with an exclusive focus on the life sciences industry. We are Digital for Life. The Company’s key digital solutions include 3D MOD and MOA animations, advanced iPad® and mobile applications, disease education and product websites, interactive tradeshow solutions, and virtual and augmented reality experiences.
New Business Contact: Jeff Asada jasada@viscira.com 415-848-8012
Viscira has been a Veeva partner since 2012, and maintains an agency certification Level 4. Address: 200 Vallejo Street San Francisco, CA 94111 Phone Number: 415-848-8010
Year Founded: 2007 Number of People: 120 Service Focus: Specialized Digital Marketing Agency for Life Sciences Parent Company: WPP Awards: Communicator Awards • Telly Awards • PM360 Trailblazers Awards • Davey Awards • Rx Club Awards
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Areas of Expertise: Advanced iPad®and mobile app development, next-generation web development, cutting-edge digital content creation, including the company’s highly acclaimed 3D animation technology, new-media convention booth solutions, augmented reality, virtual reality, patient video testimonials, enhanced slide decks
Leadership: Rick Barker, CEO Jeff Asada, Chief Revenue Officer Kimberly Davis Wells, VP of Client Services Shan Jaffar, VP of Production Kane Kaneboughazian, VP of Animation Suntae Kim, VP of Software Development
Viscira continues to push the envelope in technology by exploring new mediums and hardware platforms like Oculus Go, HoloLens, Leap and MergeCube.
Website: www.viscira.com
What’s New: Viscira has established itself as a thought leader in using XR technologies to offer unique experiences for patients, caregivers and healthcare providers. The company recently participated in the SF Design Week, and hosted a panel discussion which focused on the opportunities and challenges of storytelling in augmented reality.
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