May / June 2020

™ MAY/JUNE 2020

the publication for healthcare sales & marketing leaders™

TOP 50 BIOTECH COMPANIES IN THIS ISSUE

BIOTECH COMPANIES

Roundtable: AstraZeneca, Bayer, Biogen and other Execs on Managing Through the Pandemic Evaluate Vantage report on Covid-19 Metrics Executive Spotlight: Zimmer Biomet VP Brad Thomas Roche Diagnostics Exec on Shifting Marketing Practices Covid-19 Innovation Report: Breakthroughs Across Healthcare Building Talent in the Covid-19 World: a Jacobs Management Report Leadership “Ands” During Crises Like Covid-19

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher’s Letter..............................................................................................................................................4 Editor’s Letter.....................................................................................................................................................5 Editorial Board....................................................................................................................................................7

ARTICLES Executive Spotlight: Zimmer Biomet VP Brad Thomas........................................................................9 Roundtable: AstraZeneca, Bayer, Biogen and other Execs on Managing Through the Pandemic ....................................................................................................... 13 Top 50 Biotech Companies........................................................................................................................... 21 Evaluate Vantage Report: Covid-19 Metrics ........................................................................................ 25 Industry Trends: By The Numbers............................................................................................................ 37 Talent Trends: Building Talent in the Covid-19 World, by Cari Kraft........................................... 39 Motivideos: To Use In Your Meetings..................................................................................................... 45 Why I Work In Healthcare: Honoring Frontline Heroes.....................................................................49 Great Minds: Roche Diagnostic VP Ayaz Malik on Shifting Marketing Practices..................... 51 Covid-19 Innovation Report: Breakthroughs Across Healthcare................................................... 59 Practice Leadership “Ands” During Crises Like Covid-19 ............................................................... 65 Agency and Provider Directory................................................................................................................... 71

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Publisher’s Letter

We Need Wisdom, and We Need it Now It’s often said that the true test of character is how you act when no one is looking. But it may be just as important to examine how one acts when everyone is looking.

CARI KRAFT

And that’s what’s happening today in our industry. The whole world has turned its attention to scientists, researchers, doctors, nurses, labs, hospitals, infectious disease experts, and especially healthcare companies, to see how we respond to the most threatening pandemic in ages. Thrown into the spotlight, how will we perform?

It’s no surprise to me that all hands are on deck, and the industry is performing spectacularly. It may be frustrating to the general public that a cure was not on hand immediately, but the speed with which we have amassed our energy and expertise is truly astonishing.

As you can see from the evidence just in this issue, the best minds we have are not only at work around the clock, but are providing a high level of hope to all of us. Just to cite a few examples from this issue, here are quotes from our leaders about what their companies are doing: • “Bayer became customer-obsessed, reaching out to all external partners, asking “What do you need from us?” – Sebastian Guth, President, Americas Region, Bayer • “We give our first thought to patients and their families, and to increasing the benefits health care provides.” – Ivan Cheung, Chairman, Eisai • “I think we are on the way to something great. I am very optimistic.” – David Loew, EVP and Head, Sanofi • “[This era is] both accelerating changes that were underway and creating new things.” Rj Lasek, VP Commercial Operation, Takeda.

And that’s a small sampling. Along with this, our report on the Top 50 Biotech Companies shows how vibrant that sector is, accelerating, beyond even its normal speed, to take on the task of fighting the pandemic.

There is wisdom, strength, expertise and determination aplenty in the industry. And we’re grateful, because we’ve never needed it more.

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 BIO TECH COMPANIES

Click to download to your mobile device of choice

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 4

Letter from the Editor

Healthcare: The First Sign Of Civilization We like to talk about the healthcare field in extraordinary terms. It’s the largest industry in the country, the biggest contributor to the GDP, and the one virtually everyone depends on at one time or another. But there’s one other measure that is fascinating about what healthcare practitioners do.

Years ago, the anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about clay pots, tools for hunting, grinding-stones, or religious artifacts.

NEIL GREENBERG But no. Mead said that the first evidence of civilization was a 15,000 year-old fractured femur found in an archaeological site. A femur is the longest bone in the body, linking hip to knee. In societies without the benefits of modern medicine, it takes about six weeks of rest for a fractured femur to heal. This particular bone had been broken and had healed.

Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, you cannot drink or hunt for food. Wounded in this way, you are meat for your predators. No creature survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. You are eaten first.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that another person has taken time to stay with the fallen, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended them through recovery. A healed femur indicates that someone has helped a fellow human, rather than abandoning them to save their own life.

I was reminded of this story, obviously, because of how healthcare has become even more front and center during this crisis. Not only are we grateful for the efforts of doctors, nurses, technicians, researchers and the healthcare companies – pharma, bio and device – that are working to treat and cure Covid-19, but there is another aspect just as important.

We are learning the value of our human reaction to each other. The instinct to protect, care for and comfort people close to us, as well as those most vulnerable. From your neighbor to the largest corporations in the world, that instinct is asserting itself more powerfully than ever, as everyone sacrifices and contributes to beating this scourge and staying healthy.

And of course that’s what people in healthcare do every day, in good times and bad, with all their strength and heart. That’s civilization, and now each of us is learning more about it all the time.

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.

5 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

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.

™

Editorial Board

the publication for healthcare sales & marketing leaders™

Chris Bergstrom Publisher Cari Kraft Editor Neil Greenberg Contributing Editor Jill Donahue Creative Director Hedy Sirico Digital News Rick Cataldo Digital News Chris Manning Associate Publisher Natalie Newcamp EDITORIAL BOARD: Kristen Sharron-Albright Head of Marketing at Noven Pharmaceuticals Chris Bergstrom Associate Director, Digital Health Expert at Boston Consulting Group Sebastian “Sebby” Borriello Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer SK Life Science Lewis Chapman Vice President, Global Commercial Operations AllCells, LLC Maria Finlay, MBA Director of Channel Marketing, Incyte Nick Gurreri Vice President New Products at 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 MAY/JUNE 2020

Associate Director, Digital Health Expert at Boston Consulting Group Chris brings almost two decades of commercial expertise as an entrepreneurial executive at large medical device and high-growth digital health companies. He currently serves as the expert on digital health at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Previously, Chris was CCO at WellDoc, a pioneer in digital health. He held progressive roles at P&G, Roche, and Becton Dickinson, and was a senior advisor to MyOwnMed, LiftOff Health, HelpAround, Heart Beam, iSageRx, and Alere Home Monitoring. 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.

Bob Roda

Editorial Board

President and Chief Executive Officer, Hemosonics Bob Roda is the President and CEO, of Hemosonics, bringing more than 25 years of global experience developing and commercializing innovative diagnostic and medical device products and services.

Prior to HemoSonics, 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 post graduate course work at Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Lewis Chapman Vice President, Global Commercial Operations, AllCells, LLC Lewis Chapman has spent over thirty years in healthcare management. He served as VP of Global Strategic Marketing at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, where he was responsible for strategic marketing and product portfolio analyses, and implemented medical education, brand enhancement and sales support programs on a worldwide basis. He oversaw the global launch of Kuvan. Previously, he worked with Alpha Inntech Corporation as Vice President Global Sales and Marketing, where global sales grew 26% in 2004 and 22% in 2005 under his leadership. Lewis started his career with Eli Lilly & Company, with roles at Syntex and Genentech.

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 bioÂŹpharmaceutical 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 has over 20 years of commercial marketing, sales leadership, women’s leadership and operations experience. She has led multiple brand marketing and cross-functional teams at Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Teva Oncology before joining Incyte; where she is in charge of access and reimbursement strategies and tactics, advancing impact with payers, PBMs, state societies, federal channel, pathways, GPOs, community oncology strategic accounts, and hospital system business stakeholders.

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 MAY/JUNE 2020 | 8

EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT

Zimmer Biomet VP on Covering the Territory

The mission at Zimmer Biomet is about mobility – restoring the capability to use your bones, joints and supportive tissues.

That covers a lot of territory.

But Brad Thomas covers even more. He sees his job as making sure the company’s skills are in place to assist customers and patients in every way possible.

Brad has been a medtech executive for his entire career, having served at Wright Medical Technology, OrthoMatrix, and in several positions at Medtronic, including Director of Marketing for spine and biologics products, before coming to Zimmer Biomet as VP. What this journey taught him was that you have to do a lot more than just make sure the geographic territories are covered. You need every kind of expertise and service in place to satisfy customers’ and 9 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

patients’ needs. Brad has identified ten distinct areas that are vital: Sales team: Assess the number of feet on the street to support all facets of the sales support model.

Clinical support: Sales staff should sell, clinical should help support surgery.

Product availability: From design to manufacturing to delivery, every aspect is important to ensuring the customer is served.

Implementation components: This is about the ways the message gets out there. What is the best way to introduce your products to the customer? Is it an in-service? A demo? Drop-off literature?

Warehousing: Efficiency is the key here. Every implant in the field but not being used only contributes to an E&O and robs money from your business.

Distribution: Proper forecasting and planning with good metrics will allow you to save on costly distribution measures. You never want to deliver an incomplete set!

Reimbursement: One of the best ways to grow a new product is to find a way to increase reimbursement or help the hospital capitalize on available funds.

KOL development: Early adopters are usually the leaders who push the envelope, trying to find the best way to treat their patients.

These relationships are the laboratory to help grow your business in the long term.

Patient funnel: Once you have a right-sized sales force, properly trained and motivated, use all the

tools available to help drive more patients into the funnel.

Competitive routes: Always look over your shoulder, as the competition keeps us on our toes. Always anticipate how you would compete against yourself. Write yourself a 100 million dollar check – how would you use that to compete against your business?

Many companies do red team/blue team exercises to draft an experience, and then immediately draft the counter experience. Although it is found more in cyber security, we did this type of scenario planning while I was at Medtronic Spinal and Biologics.

THE MISSTEPS THAT EDUCATED HIM Brad shared some of the learning experiences that helped him formulate this list. “As a marketing leader at OrthoMatrix Trauma, we were passionate in getting the word out about our new and somewhat unique product,” Brad says. “We needed sales, and we thought our product’s qualities would lead the conversation.

Within weeks after launch, we quickly realized that we did not have properly trained clinical sales support, not enough inventory, and poorly designed distribution models. We fell into the trap of not developing the geographic coverage first but skipping to Step 3, New Product Launch, first. This set us back six months in the critical early stages.”

At Medtronic, Brad was part of a large acquisition team, but didn’t have the proper sales force or a

distributor with market coverage.

“And we underestimated what it would take to properly integrate them into the company, as they were quite competitive at the time.

That was another lesson learned.”

Regulatory and new product launch absorbed too much of their efforts, instead of getting the right people in the right locations.

“Education and training of sales reps are essential to the company’s success, because you want the sales reps to be a proxy for the company,” Brad says. “We always have limited budgets, and training sometimes falls into the category of being a ‘necessary evil.’ So it behooves us to make sure we have the optimal audience.”

By focusing on the audience, Brad has been able to “Effectively secure the right number of reps and support people in a geography, or limit the geography based on the number of reps available. They are the face of your company and you only get one chance at a good first impression. So you must train your reps, all at once, after you have the critical mass of reps in the same room. Don’t piecemeal the training.”

KEY LESSONS FROM BRAD’S EXPERIENCE Brad shared with us some of the major learnings that inform his current leadership role: Manage Your Audience to Maximize Bang for Buck Brad says a lot of your efficiency is about audience management.

If you are going to put a surgeon or an SME at the podium to talk, extend the impactful by maximizing the people in the room.

“If you are going to spend the time and effort to invite a surgeon faculty, draft an invitation, rent a meeting space, supply a catered meal, set up a demo, etc., you should really try and maximize your at-

tendee list. Don’t limit yourself.

Often times we schedule an event and hope the sales reps bring in the attendees, when we should be actively recruiting the right profile of customer to these events, and really holding the sales rep or area manager fully accountable. A training event that goes on half full is a really missed opportunity.”

Expand Who You Educate In the course of any educational initiative, bring people from the office. Bring people who you would not normally think can help you.

“Every time I do a cadaver lab with one or multiple surgeons, I invite three to four people from customer services, a similar number from the product team, and the regulatory team, and someone from finance,” says Brad. “All those perspectives will be vital in advancing the progress of your product.”

He offered a personal example.

“I was invited to a cadaver lab early in my career, as a production employee. At 19 years old I was amazed at the opportunity, but more importantly I noticed that we were scrapping implants for very minor out-of-tolerance issues, but these same implants were perfectly suited for use in a cadaver lab.

Once I saw how the implants were utilized, and learned what features were critical, I started saving scrapped implants and giving them to the marketing department for sales promotions and cadaver lab usage. This eliminated their need to use finished products and saved their budgets hundreds of thousands of dollars. It got to where the sales team would advise the marketing team what they needed, and the manufacturing team would collect anything out-of-spec and send it to sales instead of scrapping and recycling the products. This was possible only because a person who saw products going into the scrap bin realized these products

had a use for sales and marketing after seeing them used in the cadaver lab.”

Include Your Silent Partners Another important factor: “Every industry and every situation has silent partners – operating room personnel, the head nurse or the circulator or central sterile. These are people you need to build a relationship with. One of the most important ways for a salesperson to be successful is for them to have ‘access.’ This may be getting past the front desk, past the head nurse, or past the hospital administration.

Every surgeon has a gatekeeper, intended or not. The more partners you can make in the hospital and the office, the more access you can have to the customer.”

Focus New Product Launches on Growth Brad has found the most success with new products has been where there is focus on the growth portion of a launch. Otherwise you may end up with a usage change, but no growth.

The goal with new products is not to switch from Product A to Product B, but to continue supporting Product A, and get additional growth with Product B, whether it is a new product or new type of product.

Medtronic Sofamor Danek realized this issue and was really strong in providing best-in-class clinical data and evidence to help grow the motion products early in the game. It was ultimately the powerful compelling data that helped surgeons adopt these new therapies and use them in conjunction with their more standard therapies – instead of switching over wholesale.

Identifying early adopters is another important tactic. They will be the foundation on which future growth is built.

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 10

EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT You also need to ask the right questions: How many reps are needed? Where do they need to be? Where is the competition keenest? Do you have a highly differentiated product? Do we need national coverage or want to stick only to a limited territory? Should we target the large universities – the Mayos and Cleveland Clinics – or is it better to focus geographically, on certain cities?

“Many years ago in the spine implant business the market was trying to bifurcate, between fusion and motion technologies,” Brad says. “Millions of dollars in R&D and regulatory were spent. But the doctors who were doing fusion procedures simply converted to motion technologies, with limited growth in patients, and mostly a growth in cost. Early on, the few companies who were early movers could have positioned the motion products as an early intervention device, and not just a substitute for currently accepted fusion devices.

The crossover from fusion to motion would have been acceptable, but with additional patients in the system it could have grown the overall market.”

Market development Once a product is launched, the main focus is on market development. “This is one of the most expensive components, the hardest to tie to ROI, and the most important to marry with a tiered execution plan for long term success.

Whether you are trying to increase reimbursement, drive customers from one therapy to another, trying to drive more patients to seek treatment, investing in tradeshows or creatively partnering with hospitals and physicians, market development is the most costly side of the equation.

“Don’t start execution in market 11 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

development until you have the right number of sales reps that are trained with the instrumentation or implementation in hand to capture the market. Don’t spend four million dollars on a pizza commercial in the Superbowl if you don’t have the ability to produce or sell the pizza.”

The key areas in market development, Brad points out, are reimbursement, driving patients, tradeshows and other promotion.

If you don’t do market development in a thoughtful and systematic way, you run the risk of throwing money away. “Overly large tradeshow booths, direct to consumer advertising, changing surgeons’ personal surgical techniques, and the like all require thoughtful strategies and very strict guidelines. Be careful not to mix effective product training with sham training focused only on increasing sales.

“Once you have enough sales reps and products to effectively cover the market, those reps and their customers are trained, and you have provided a new product that meets the market needs, only then are you ready to grow by increasing customers. Again, switching from one therapy to a new therapy does not provide lasting growth.

Grow your business by increasing the number of patients where possible.”

It is critical to plan market development activities, and strategically execute them, to extract the biggest benefit. This includes increasing reimbursement, driving therapy to patients, doing DTC marketing.

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE Product sales and marketing are nothing like the ‘90’s and 2000’s.

The days of “features and benefits

of my widget over your widget” are a thing of the past. Many companies have really good products on their third, fourth or more generations/iterations. We now need to look at the consumer being just as educated as our surgeon customers. I think you would be hard pressed to find a surgeon who has not had a patient come in carrying some print-out from Dr. Google.

In the past 25 years I have seen a continual patient mind shift from the “white coat” belief to a more data- and outcomes-driven request. Patients are more educated than ever!

As a sales or marketing leader in your organization, remember the process and try to keep it as straightforward as possible. New product introductions should drive more revenue, not switch over from one product to another.

Education and training can be immensely more powerful when it is also offered to ancillary staff and internal employees, not just surgeon installers. Do not spend limited resources on market development until you have enough feet on the street or installation kits to reap the benefits. And never underestimate your customer (surgeon) and their customer (patient). Make sure that everything you do is ultimately making their lives easier and living longer fuller lives. It is such a wonderful time to be in medical device business! •

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ROUNDTABLE

MANAGING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC Bayer, Biogen, Sunovion, Astrazeneca and Other Execs on the Changes Driven by COVID-19 Recently, eyeforpharma held its spring Philadelphia event virtually. It was a comprehensive view of how the industry is addressing the pandemic, and we are running portions of it here as our roundtable article. The presenters offered hope, inspiration and a vision of the future that makes us proud of the people we associate with.

Innovation, communication and adaptation to change were the central topics that came up again and again. On the following pages, we have summarized the wisdom of some of the participants. We trust that there are moments you can use for your own corporate agendas. Our appreciation to eyeforpharma for permission to use the material.

13 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

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ROUNDTABLE COMMENTS BELOW ARE FROM SESSIONS WITH: SEBASTIAN GUTH

KISHAN KUMAR

President, Americas Region Bayer

Director, Commercial Strategy & Operations, Oncology Novartis

DAVID LOEW EVP & Head Sanofi

IVAN CHEUNG Chairman Eisai

JENN MUSZIK Head, US Commercial Learning Biogen

MATT PORTCH SVP, Sales and Market Access Sunovion Pharmaceuticals

IAN TALMAGE SVP Marketing Bayer

MUNDO VEGA Associate Director of Global Commercial Operations, Business Analytics AbbVie

15 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

RJ LASEK VP Commercial Operation Takeda

SPENCER HOLT Head, Commercial Learning Innovation Centre AstraZeneca

KABIR NATH President & CEO North America Otsuka

What were some of the early actions you took during the Covid-19 crisis?

SEBASTION GUTH: Bayer took a number of early actions around COVID-19 crisis to protect everyone while maintaining business continuity. There were four main efforts: • First, they insured continuity of supply of product, because of the enormous number of patients who rely on their medications. “The team has done remarkably well in support of patients,” says Guth • Second: protecting customers and employees. They moved everything to working from home in the early days, not to expose customers

to unnecessary face-to-face interaction. They instituted an initiative to support the full range of health indicators, including physical and mental health, and hosted a conference with a physician around challenges of isolation, on how to stay fit and engaged.

• Third: Bayer became customerobsessed, reaching out to all external partners, asking “What do you need from us?” They got many great ideas in an overwhelming response from customers, and acted on them quickly.

• Fourth: the company supported the government fight against Covid-19, engaging with key agencies across the U.S., and made a large product donation of consumer health products.

Guth says “I’m convinced that we will come to believe we can continue to be engaged even in tough circumstances with the great tools we have.”

He reports that, as a leader, what impacted him most was a reinvigorated singular focus on their purpose. Day to day details divert us often from this focus, he says.

“But it now unleashes an energy in all of us, to be able to help so many people across the country.

It has been an incredibly powerful experience.” The Bayer people have done an incredible job of keeping the supply chain strong, serving patients across the U.S. flawlessly.

Overall, he believes, “We will be a stronger industry in a stronger country.”

What model do you use to promote continuous innovation?

IVAN CHEUNG: Eisai sees itself as a human health care (hhc) company. This means we give our first thought to patients and their

families, and to increasing the benefits health care provides. It even codified this concept in its Articles of Incorporation. Every one of our employees spends at least two to three working days a year to engage with patients for human health care activities.

We believe our revenues are generated as a result of this mission.

We achieve this through a process called the SECI Model Path to Knowledge Creation. S is Socialization, learning patient realities, interacting with them to see what they need. E is Externalization, identifying patient anxieties so we have insight into delivering on the value. C is Combination, creating the strategy by sharing ideas, validating with research and preparing to implement. Finally, I is internalization, implementing the strategy and observing the new reality. But

it is a continual process, so after we observe that reality, we go back to Socialization and determine whether new learnings need to be applied.

How is Sanofi reinventing itself to adapt to the new atmosphere?

DAVID LOEW: Companies need to reinvent themselves, and the Covid-19 pressure is only part of that impetus. There are also price pressures, digital transformation, the need to contain clinical development costs, and a political push in some countries to create a comprehensive data hub.

Sanofi is learning a lot from two studies, one by Kaiser Permanente, and one a Nordic study, both examining electronic medical records (EMR). The Kaiser Permanente project is a RWE longitudinal study of 1.6 million adults analyzing the effectiveness of two influ-

enza vaccines. The Nordic study in Finland was also about flu vaccines, and also studied 1.6 million adults. The Kaiser study looked at subgroups with cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes and obesity. The Nordic study analyzed QoL status and evaluated multiple outcomes.

How does this help Sanofi reinvent itself? It showed how important interoperability and data harmonization are. Healthcare systems must migrate to EMR to ensure quality of data. This will allow, for instance, rapid comparison of two treatments to determine efficacy. Collaboration between the industry, government and other agencies will provide larger data sets, better use of AI, lower costs through reduction of redundancy, and a higher number of patient experiences to learn from.

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 16

ROUNDTABLE Loew says “I think we are on the way to something great. I am very optimistic.”

You can see more from this panel in the full eyeforpharma video here.

Other executives on the panel are: Tom Rhoads, CEO, Spencer Health Solutions, and Danielle Salowski, Industry Manager, Health, Facebook What will the commercial field force of the future look like?

MATT PORTCH believes the new normal is going to be very different from the old. Now they’re doing virtual detailing, virtual peer-to-peer meetings, but going beyond that as well. Reps are using all the digital tools at their disposal to communicate with physicians, and he believes that customers will come to embrace digital connectivity.

How will we make the rep of the future a hybrid rep?

JENN MUSZIK addressed the topic of how we make the rep of the future a hybrid rep. She said we have to know first what customers want with respect to face-to-face interactions and being more effective in the virtual world. Will they want us to have flu shots, will there need to be Covid-19 tests before we meet? This will involve orchestrating the whole marketing mix. Although the digital tools will become more important, there are things that are better done live, so we have to consider how we protect those situations.

What will virtual engagement be like?

MATT PORTCH: Clients are open to virtual engagement, but 17 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

that it can’t be a replication of your office presentation. There are opportunities, for instance, to do a virtual lunch and learn. Office staffs appreciate the respite in their day, and have had good reactions to these. “It’s our responsibility to make it more valuable for them,” he said.

ers and patient education tools virtually. Jenn said that they will be utilizing EHRs to provide anything patients need by putting it right in their care pack. Matt said that adding video to telehealth communications significantly raised the engagement levels because it replicates the face-to-face interaction.

Biogen is in a space where many patients need infusion, so Jenn says they’re changing from more of a sales engagement to a patient continuity conversation. She believes the physicians’ offices will become different, and so their reps will have to understand how to advise and assist them in that process.

See the full interview with Matt Portch and Jenn Muszik here.

How can we maintain the mental and emotional health of employees in the current situation?

JENN MUSZIK said that there are initiatives in that area as well, such as additional holiday times or virtual happy hours. “It can be lonely working from home,” she said, so the company has to attend to that aspect of the new environment by keeping up connection.

Matt added that since 95% of their calls now include some discussion of Covid-19, they have to both help their reps answer those questions and reassure their customers that everything is being handled as competently as possible.

What’s the next level of telehealth?

MATT PORTCH said that Sunovion held a virtual telehealth ad board and learned that telehealth significantly improves doctorpatient connection, bringing the no-show rate from 20% down to 2%. The company is helping to provide sample vouchers, screen-

What’s the long-term perspective on managing this kind of crisis?

IAN TALMAGE: Over a long career in healthcare, Ian has faced a number of crises, and was generous in providing his point of view on them. He himself is a survivor of two bouts with cancer, and said that his experiences as a patient made it all the more poignant and personal how much we depend on the skills and knowledge of our doctors. Coming out the other side of his treatments, he says he understood more clearly how important innovation is in the profession.

He is encouraged by the current move toward cooperation that is on the rise. “It’s no longer about the advantage that can be achieved by one company or one institution over another, but how we can come together as a community to help get through these difficult times.”

He noted that until recently we may have regarded social media as somewhat anti-social, we now understand and use it as a wonderful means of establishing contact.

Paul Simms of eyeforpharma asked Ian about the front-facing people in the profession – sales reps, MSLs – and how we might be more keenly aware and supportive of their role today. “It’s about look-

LEADERSHIP CHANGES ARE NEEDED THE NEED FOR SPEED CHALLENGES TO COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS HOW TO INNOVATE BETTER

ing at their priorities,” said Ian. This involves helping the front line personnel also to “understand the priorities our customers have.”

Ian posed his own question: “How do we move from managing the situation to leading the organization?” And he answered it. “We must know what healthcare professionals want, how do they want to receive information, and when.

And we have to do it better than we’ve ever done it before. Align with healthcare professional need, and accelerate that into a new world, converting talk into action.”

His experience as Head of Global Strategic Marketing at Astra was one lesson in dealing with crises. In responding to a study that criticized their leading brand, they moved from managing the brand to focusing the organization on what they needed to do, how they needed to do it, and how to reassure people that what they were

doing was in the best interests of patients and the healthcare system.

See the full interview with Ian Talmage here.

How has Covid-19 affected commercial operations? How can we continue this change in mindset about commercial operations – the need for rapid, real-time answers in response to crises – beyond the immediate situation?

KISHAN KUMAR: This has enabled people’s ability to have a digital meeting. We could be more enabled on digital assets.

The digital transformation we have been talking about is what’s currently happening. Is it permanent?

No one knows. How can we keep our employees, our field force, our customers and patients engaged?

There are so many aspects to the supply chain, but the best we can do is learn from what’s happened and prepare for what’s to come.

The challenges are how are we keeping customers engaged, maintaining business continuity, and how are we taking care of our own well-being? The more we emphasize these in commercial operations, the more that pattern is going to become a habit. We will change from people-dependent to process-dependent.

RJ LASEK: This will have a lasting impact on the healthcare delivery system and the way we do our business. It’s both accelerating changes that were underway and creating new things. Telehealth is here to stay. Remote virtual engagement of teams is here to stay.

The way we act and how to come out of it can improve the reputation of our industry externally.

There is opportunity in the chaos and part of it depends on our principles and how we act. Our field people will have to act and think and work differently in the future.

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 18

ROUNDTABLE We will think about how we can train people to be virtual coaches.

How we can teach virtual selling and support. How to use data better. The pandemic will accelerate that.

If all of us want commercial operations to be a strategic partner and not a transactional-based organization, then we have to ask what’s the base we’re building, what kind of people are we bringing into our organization, and what can they go to a business partner to offer? Every business has to figure out what are our differentiating capabilities – and what will they be a year from now? You have to guess how the market is going to change and how can we get in front of it?

MUNDO VEGA: Change is here to stay. The world has seen the impact that data has brought to providing solutions. A month ago they didn’t know much, how development of ventilators, antibody testing, things we would not have been able to achieve without today’s technology. If you compare Covid-19 to the crisis if AIDS in the 80s, the timelines [for R&D and market access] were measured in months and years. Now they’re measured in weeks, and every week we know more. Even when data is partial, it’s better than having nothing.

SPENCER HOLT: Of course the big sweeping changes will last, but this is also a moment for individual leadership – how will you lead your teams, how much of these new habits will you keep and how much will there be a return to normal that you allow to creep back in? That’s a paradox of the human

19 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

spirit. I think the most progressive and agile organizations will not let go of this, but speed it up. It’s both an advantage and, altruistically, a greater ability to help the patient.

If this were a case study, it would be fascinating to watch.

And the panel commented on other aspects of leadership that will propel us forward: having your medical partners more engaged, getting better at examining data analytics, having cross-matrix links so sales and marketing see the whole picture, and more. Mundo summarized it by saying that forcing ourselves to be in the same room with the same information and views will help advance the industry the most.

See the full panel video with Kishan Kumar, Rj Lasek, Mundo Vega and Spencer Holt here.

What will leadership look like on the other side of the pandemic?

KABIR NATH: A positive that can come out of this pandemic is collaboration. People are coming together to find solutions and collaborating on treatments, vaccines, and repurposing old drugs. The biotech sector is working with foundations and third parties. Collaborations during this pandemic may help us realize ways to bypass a lot of bureaucracy that slows down progress on working and move more quickly to get things done. Not by taking shortcuts but focused on how much risk we are willing to take to move treatment forward quickly. This could change dialogue about risk moving forward.

We’re already starting to see in the

US a perspective of how to bring drugs to market more quickly, especially now that we can do more from a real world evidence point of view. There are questions about other ways to look at the regulatory paradigm and privacy. Technology can enable things to happen in a healthcare setting more quickly, but this shouldn’t be at the expense of privacy protections.

Considering the long-term mental health crisis, we have to start with our community to make sure our employees and their families have access to the care they need to deal with their anxiety. More generally, this will help with the stigma around talking about anxiety and mental health. This stigma has unfortunately become more widespread.

It may be premature to start thinking about how it changes the mental health landscape except in one way. In the US, telemedicine, and other virtual interaction is very important. This could be a catalyst for digital innovations to help treat mental health.

This is helping to develop a stronger case for increasing the investment in digital mental healthcare.

I don’t mean investing in more of the hundreds of apps, but increasing investment in companies focused on evidence-based ways to ameliorate serious mental illness.

As a pharmaceutical industry, we’re good at developing a product and working out what we do with it, but not good at understanding what solutions are needed and creating or co-creating those solutions. The challenge will be moving from the current crisis around

Moving Forward LEADERSHIP IN INTEROPERABILITY AND DATA HARMONIZATION

INNOVATION DEPENDS ON COLLABORATION AND IT ADOPTION

NEW HABITS IN LEADING TEAMS: NOT A RETURN TO NORMAL

creating new vaccines and antivirals that are directly related to the crisis at hand to changing the industry and how it thinks about solutions. The problem is not just the industry, but also how regulators and hospitals and healthcare systems look at things. There are so many for-profit pools involved that it becomes very difficult to effect change.

At Otsuka, our main priority has been making sure employees are settling in to working from home.

Then how do we maintain interaction with our customers? How do we make sure that patients still have access to medicines and mental health care? I’ve put a team of thinkers together to consider what this means for when we emerge into the new normal. It has to be a different business model for how

we develop and commercialize drugs.

See the full interview with Kabir Nath here.

COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS: ACCELERATING DELIVERY

industry does, and result in a more efficient, more effective, and even more human approach to healthcare. We salute all those who are contributing to this new age. •

A VIEW OF THE FUTURE These leaders and others are grappling with the moment and the future simultaneously. The Covid-19 crisis has forced a muchneeded conversation about how we can streamline all aspects of the industry, from R&D through clinical trials to regulatory approval, marketing strategy, restructuring sales forces and getting product to patients in record time.

That’s a great deal to handle, but that’s why there is a silver lining to this crisis. With all of those things absolutely necessary in dealing with Covid-19, the lessons learned will expand across all that the

COMMENT

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 20

BIOTECH

CLICK HERE TO GET TOP 50 BIOTECH COMPANIES

BIOTECH COMPANIES

TOP 50 BIOTECH COMPANIES As is evidenced by much of the commentary in this issue, as well as in the news today, biotech is more front and center than it ever was, given the challenges of containing Covid-19. It’s not just that disease itself that must be faced, but the many other conditions that put patients at greater risk and vulnerability.

Fortunately, the biotech pipeline is strong. Today biotech represents more than 80 percent of the drugs currently in development. How to get those products through the pipeline faster, and to the HCPs and patients? That’s what’s on the minds of companies, organizations, laboratories and regulators right now.

Investment continues to grow in novel therapies, their mechanisms and platforms, and their potential indications. Barriers are coming down for products such as biosimilars and cell therapies. There is a global effort to make it easier for patients to participate in trials, 21 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

to speed up the trials, and to get to approval. Obviously, we imagine that we will be looking at a very different landscape in 2020 as we see the impact of Covid-19. Just in the area of a search for a coronavirus vaccine, we might see companies like Inovio, Novavax, Heat Biologics, BioNTech, Vaxart, Vir Biotechnology, Moderna Therapeutics, Dynavax, Geovax and Curevac join the list if they are the ones to find a solution.

For the moment, here are the latest statistics on the ups and downs in the biotech sector. Revenues grew in 37 of the 50 with total revenues of $326 billion. The Top 10 still

make up over 70% with their portion of the revenue pie dropping only 1% to 72% from 73% in the year prior. 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 and Sec.gov.

Figures of non-U.S. companies were converted to U.S. dollars from various currencies using end of the year exchange rates for 2019.

Companies are categorized by their predominant revenue source and their own characterization per publicly available sources.

BIOTECH 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

ROCHE

Basel, Switzerland 59.47

2

ABBVIE

Chicago, IL, USA 33.27

3

AMGEN

Thousand Oaks, CA, USA 23.36

4

GILEAD SCIENCES

Foster City, CA, USA 22.45

MERCK KGAA

Darmstadt, Germany 18.12

NOVO NORDISK

Bagsværd, Denmark 17.64

TEVA

Petach Tikva, Israel 16.88

ALLERGAN

Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ, USA 16.09

BIOGEN

Cambridge, MA, USA 14.38

CELGENE

Summit, NJ, USA 12.95

11

BAUSCH HEALTH

Laval, Quebec, Canada 8.60

12

CSL BEHRING

Victoria, Australia 8.21

13

REGENERON

Tarrytown, NY, USA 7.86

5 6

7 8

9 10

14 NEW LONZA GROUP AG

Basel, Switzerland 5.73

15

GRIFOLS

Barcelona, Spain 5.72

16

UCB

Brussels, Belgium 5.25

17

ALEXION

New Haven, CT, USA 4.99

18

SUN PHARMA

Mumbai, India 4.22

19

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS

Boston, MA, USA 4.16

20

ILLUMINA

San Diego, CA, USA 3.54

21

ENDO INTERNATIONAL

Dublin, Ireland 2.91

22

IPSEN

Les Ulis, France 2.89

23

JAZZ PHARMACEUTICALS

Dublin, Ireland 2.16

24

DR. REDDY’S LABORATORIES

Telangana, India 2.16

INCYTE

Wilmington, DE, USA 2.16

25

23 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

CLICK HERE TO GET TOP 50 BIOTECH COMPANIES

BIOTECH COMPANIES

RANKING COMPANY LOCATION

2019 CHANGE REVENUE IN US$B

26

NOVOZYMES

Bagsvaerd, Denmark 2.08

27

BIOMARIN

Novato, CA, USA 1.70

28

SOBI

Stockholm, Sweden 1.52

29

UNITED THERAPEUTICS

Silver Spring, MD, USA 1.45

30

HORIZON PHARMA

Dublin, Ireland 1.30

ALKERMES

Dublin, Ireland 1.17

32

NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS

San Francisco, CA, USA 1.15

33

IONIS PHARMACEUTICALS

Carlsbad, CA, USA 1.12

34

EMERGENT BIOSOLUTIONS

Rockville, MD, USA 1.11

31

35 NEW CELLTRION

Incheon, South Korea 0.98

36 NEW EXELIXIS

Alameda, California, USA 0.97

37

GALAPAGOS

Mechelen, Belgium 0.95

38

SEATTLE GENETICS

Bothell, WA, USA 0.92

39

BIOCON

Bangalore, India 0.79

40

GENMAB

Copenhagen, Denmark 0.78

41 NEW SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS

Incheon, South Korea 0.61

42

CHINA BIOLOGIC PRODUCTS

Beijing, China 0.50

43

PACIRA PHARMACEUTICALS

Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ, USA 0.42

44

AMAG PHARMACEUTICALS

Waltham, MA, USA 0.37

45 NEW ACADIA PHARMACEUTICALS

San Diego, CA, USA 0.34

46

INTERCEPT PHARMACEUTICALS

New York, NY, USA 0.25

47

ACORDA THERAPEUTICS

Ardsley, NY, USA 0.18

48

LIGAND PHARMACEUTICAL

San Diego, CA, USA 0.12

49

PHARMAMAR

Madrid, Spain 0.10

50 NEW BAVARIAN NORDIC

Kvistgaard, Denmark 0.10 HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 24

INDUSTRY

Metrics on Covid-19: Highlights of the Evaluate Vantage Report We can always depend on Evaluate Vantage to keep us current on developments across the industry. Here are highlights from their most recent report, a compendium of articles on all aspects of how the coronavirus is impacting healthcare, and by extension all of us who depend on the professionals fighting this disease.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the focus for all of healthcare. Johnson & Johnson, the first big pharma company to report first quarter earnings, said its pharmaceutical and consumer health units had a strong start to the year as patients and medical suppliers stocked up, fearing supply issues.

But it was a different story in medtech, where non-urgent joint replacement procedures have been hit hard, and could fall by as much as 80% in the second quarter.

Similarly, when looking at industry data on M&A activity or venture

25 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

investing, little slowdown can be seen in the first quarter data. Deals were struck in the opening months of the year, but these had probably already been in progress when the virus struck; it is hard to imagine even the most motivated buyer initiating large and complex transactions while in lockdown.

Venture funds are flush with cash and remain motivated to fund start-ups, which will perhaps shield this particular sector; IPOs have also held up remarkably well considering the stock market meltdown. But no activity can

remain unaffected by a protracted disruption, and estimates of when the world might return to normal are little more than guesses. Some modeling studies have suggested that periods of lockdown might be required until 2022.

An effective treatment or vaccine would be a game changer, and many in biopharma are in pursuit of this goal. Collaborations between industry, academia and notfor-profits have emerged at pace: a vaccines tie-up between Sanofi and Glaxosmithkline is a remarkable example of global rivals joining

Connecting Leaders in Medical Device, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics with Expert Consultants who have “Been There and Done That.”

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27 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

forces to merge technologies and specialisms.

But despite these best efforts a vaccine will take many months to develop. Sanofi and Glaxo hope to put a candidate in the clinic by the end of this year, and launch late in 2021; J&J has selected a lead candidate, and could have first batches available early next year. Moderna is already in the clinic with its RNA-based candidate and has ambitiously claimed that a product could emerge later this year.

Therapeutics to treat the Covid-19 illness are a nearer-term hope, and Gilead’s remdesivir is the biggest of these. Two large studies being conducted by medics in China have been put on hold because, with Covid-19 in the country now described as well controlled, the required subjects could not be recruited. It is thus hard to overestimate the importance of the readout of Gilead’s own two trials, which have been massively upsized. Data published in midApril on compassionate use of the antiviral raised hopes, but until rigorous trial results are available it is impossible to judge what impact remdesivir might make.

THE QUEST FOR A CURE FOR COVID-19 Clinical readouts do not come bigger than the data due on Gilead’s remdesivir. The experimental antiviral holds the nearest hope for an effective treatment for Covid-19. Anecdotal evidence points to efficacy, but the actual level of benefit that could be meaningful remains unknown. Showing a reduction in fever or reduced need for oxygen would be helpful; a real win would be if remdesivir helps patients leave intensive care or hospital more quickly, or reduces their need for ventilation.

The moderate disease trial is versus standard of care while the severe is uncontrolled, and they measure efficacy according to a scale from 1 (death) to 7 (hospital discharged) over 11 and 14 days respectively. Gilead had earlier sought simply to measure hospital discharge rates at 14 days, but amended its trials’ details on April 8. This might be because initial data – as both its trials are openlabel it could have had access to these – were not showing much in terms of the blunt earlier metrics. The severe study also now allows subjects on ventilation.

Most importantly, the Gilead trials have been massively upscaled, increasing enrolment targets from 600 and 400 to 1,600 and 2,400.

Remdesivir’s intravenous delivery could be a drawback beyond clinical settings; other antivirals, like Roche’s Tamiflu, for example, are much more effective if administered very early in the infection, and very few patients are hospitalized in the first few days of a Covid-19 infection.

One thing seems certain: if safety is clean, even weak signals of efficacy will create huge demand.

Industry-sponsored clinical studies against the new coronavirus have proliferated recently – an analysis of data on EvaluatePharma’s dedicated Covid-19 landing page reveals no fewer than 230 trials seeking to enroll nearly 200,000 subjects.

Commercially sponsored studies will be especially interesting to investors. This group comprises 20 trials of 17 projects. Also in the antiviral field is Abbvie with its anti-HIV combo Kaletra – data published in the NEJM by academic teams at several Chinese centers were considered disappointing by the authors. Not everyone agreed: Evercore ISI’s Umer Raffat pointed

to subjects in whom treatment was initiated relatively quickly. In patients given Kaletra within 12 days of symptom onset, mortality was 15%, versus 27% for standard of care. This subset comprised just 19 subjects. But it has perhaps set a benchmark for the remdesivir trials, and results from the academic sponsored Canadian study of Kaletra are keenly awaited.

Among other projects, investors will also be tracking the malaria/ lupus drug Plaquenil, championed

by President Donald Trump. This was prompted by a highly equivocal academic trial in France; a randomized Chinese study showed no benefit.

Since the few scraps of data supporting this drug have largely been anecdotal, it is reassuring that Sanofi’s studies, ending late this year, are quadruple-blinded, and one measures the tough endpoint of all-cause mortality versus placebo. Choloroquine, the nonhydroxylated version of Plaquenil’s active ingredient, is separately in a 10,000-subject Covid-19 prevention study at the UK’s University of Oxford.

Roche moved to begin a phase III study of Actemra in 330 Covid-19 patients after the antibody was added to China’s emergency treatment guidelines, though the company cautioned that there was very little evidence backing IL-6 inhibition in coronavirus. Sanofi and Regeneron have separately begun a trial of the similarly acting Kevzara.

Other promising approaches that have yet to move into the clinic include using antibodies to target the so-called “spike” protein that the virus uses to invade human cells, or therapies based on the plasma from recovered patients.

Given the level of intent signalled HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 28

INDUSTRY

29 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

across the biopharma sector, the list above will soon become a lot longer.

THE LONG PATH TO AN EFFECTIVE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE It will probably not be possible to declare the pandemic truly over until an effective vaccine exists. An Evaluate Vantage analysis reveals nearly 25 projects that should be of special interest.

Among these an mRNA vaccine has seized the early lead, courtesy of Moderna, though Johnson &

Johnson’s promise to develop an AAV vector-based approach on a non-profit basis might have the most promise. However, despite understandable enthusiasm, the road to having a vaccine approved is long and treacherous. The need to build sufficient manufacturing infrastructure is just one aspect that will slow the process, and that is before a vaccine with a sufficient efficacy is developed. It could also take a while to find a product with the right mix of safety and ability to generate antibodies that offer sufficient protection.

A recent article by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) in the NEJM pointed to the industry’s ability to respond quickly to the need for pandemic flu vaccines, but said those against Sars had not followed a similar path. Additionally, Covid-19 is an RNA virus, and the industry’s vaccine efforts against this type of pathogen, notably RSV, have underwhelmed.

Pfizer, through a deal with Biontech, hopes to enter the clinic with another mRNA vaccine this month. Three commercial vac-

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 30

INDUSTRY

cines are in trials at present, from Moderna, Cansino and Inovio.

However, these will soon be joined by vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and the UK’s University of Oxford, the latter through a consortium that includes Oxford Biomedica. J&J says an accelerated timeline could see its lead vaccine being ready for emergency use in 2021. That would represent an extraordinarily fast turnaround, but even so a vaccine of some sort might be needed even sooner.

HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS INFECTED BIOPHARMA The coronavirus pandemic is clearly a major threat, but for some biotechs it represents a sizeable opportunity too. The urgent need for effective therapies to treat Covid-19 has spurred a huge number of collaborations across the biopharma sector recently, boosting the share prices of big and small drug developers. Transactions that 31 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

might typically take months of negotiation have apparently been signed in days, and the news flow shows little sign of slowing.

Standing out as one of the most prolific deal makers is Vir Biotechnology, a relatively young infectious disease specialist headed by George Scangos, a well-known biotech executive who previously ran Biogen and Exelixis. For Vir the Covid-19 journey began in February with the discovery of two antibodies targeting the virus’s spike protein. Next the biotech signed deals with Wuxi, Alnylam (expanded a month later), Xencor, the NIH and Biogen, variously developing antibodies, RNAi therapeutics and vaccines.

The latest deal, with Glaxosmithkline, concerns two lead MAbs against the spike protein that Vir had already identified, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, which the partners now plan to take into phase

II. Vir’s positioning as the go-to Covid-19 player is clearly allowing it to extract attractive terms: Glaxo’s involvement included a $250m investment by the pharma giant, at a 10% premium, made after Vir’s stock had already more than tripled year to date. The US biotech’s market cap touched $3.5B at the end of March; Among the industry’s other recent coronavirus-related business development activities two deals mark an important theme: the use of plasma from patients who had had Covid-19 and recovered.

This is the focus of recent tie-ups between Xbiotech and Biobridge, and Amgen and Adaptive. Both teams are seeking to identify neutralizing antibodies that the immune systems of such people had raised against Covid-19, with a view to developing these as a treatment. Ethris and Neurimmune are pursuing a conceptually similar but practically much more

difficult approach, seeking to use information gleaned from recovered patients to develop mRNA treatments that would generate the relevant antibodies once inhaled.

The above list is far from exhaustive, and omits the many collaborations struck between industry and both academic institutions and not-for-profits, like the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

ASSESSING THE FINANCIAL HARM Measures implemented across the globe to protect populations and help healthcare systems cope have affected pretty much every aspect of life. Businesses have also been disrupted, and it is almost inevitable that companies will start reporting hits to financials in the coming months.

Pain has already been inflicted on the stock markets, of course; an Evaluate Vantage analysis of almost 600 global drug makers found that drug developers of every market cap bracket fell in the first quarter.

Beyond widespread share price declines, the financial damage so far has largely been restricted to withdrawing guidance for the coming year. With the first-quarter reporting season due to start towards

the end of April, investors will be scouring for real dents to earnings, and estimates of future harm.

Within biopharma, certain subsectors will be hit harder than others. Those with a big primary care focus, particularly companies in the early stages of launch, could struggle to reach doctors and patients. Firms involved in elective therapies and procedures are also considered vulnerable, including cosmetic products like Botox, for example, or those involved in joint replacements. Orthopedics groups including Stryker and Smith & Nephew have already conceded that use of their products will fall throughout the year.

The pandemic might also hit another aspect of Stryker’s business: its $5.4B takeover of rival joint maker Wright Medical, currently slated to close in the second half of the year. Stryker has not indicated that it expects any problems, but after drawing the attention of the FTC the companies already looked like they might struggle to close the deal within the targeted time frame – and that was before Covid-19 hit. The Stryker-Wright deal seems to hold the potential for a worst-case scenario: that the pandemic leads to a lengthy delay, by the end of which the target business’s valuation has

shifted. Abbvie’s $63B buyout of Allergan is due to close sooner, in May. Even deals that simply need to complete paperwork could be at risk of delay, as during a global lockdown this cannot be dismissed as a mere formality.

In clinical trials, it is the very biggest studies that have the most to lose here – namely, pivotal trials that are approaching conclusion.

These represent years of research and, in many cases hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, as well as promising to deliver important new therapies to patients in need in the coming years.

In an attempt to quantify the amount of late-stage research at risk of delays or worse, Evaluate Vantage searched for commercially sponsored trials of pivotal-stage projects that have yet to receive US approval, and that are slated to yield results in 2020, according to the primary completion date registered on clinicaltrials.gov. This threw up 315 phase III studies due to end this year, in 172,104 subjects. The estimated cost of running these studies is a touch over $20B, according to EvaluatePharma Vision.

The table on page 31 highlights the projects in this analysis with the biggest sales potential, according to consensus sellside forecasts

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 32

INDUSTRY

from EvaluatePharma. Several of these trials are likely to be hugely expensive to run – and the sums do not include the cost of other studies that might be ongoing across pivotal programs. Remarkably, it looks like at least five nearterm blockbusters are under threat: Lilly’s tirzepatide, Reata’s bardoxolone, Immunomedics’ sacituzumab govitecan, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Tyk2 inhibitor and Galapagos’s filgotinib.

THE MEDTECH RESPONSE Efficiently identifying people infected with the coronavirus has proved to be a major problem for almost every country. Notable exceptions include Singapore, 33 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

which had experience with Sars to draw on, and Germany, which has global diagnostics groups cited domestically.

Global regulators have relaxed the rules to allow swift deployment of these genetic PCR-based diagnostics. The US FDA, for example, initially said tests had to obtain emergency use authorization (EUA); a few weeks later this was dialed back to allow Clia-certified labs – those that have been inspected by the regulator – to begin using tests before receiving an EUA, though this would still need to be applied for.

By April 8 the US FDA had waved through 32 EUAs, to big and small

diagnostics groups alike. It had also granted the first EUA to a serological or antibody test, to the small private firm Cellex; these are the so-called “game changer” diagnostics that claim to be able to detect prior coronavirus infection.

In March the FDA said serological assays could be used without its oversight provided they were clinically validated and not used as the sole method to diagnose an infection. Cellex clearly thought it was worth getting authorization anyway – perhaps for marketing purposes.

Being able to identifying people who are likely to be immune will

be hugely important in the coming months. But it is important to remember that obtaining an EUA does not amount to a determination by the FDA that a test has been proven accurate. The poor accuracy of antibody tests is proving very problematic. Accuracy figures are not available for most of the immunoassays that have been developed, although Biomedomics has released data on a fingerstick antibody test that its partner Becton Dickinson is selling in the US. The groups claim sensitivity of 88.7% and specificity of 90.6%. Unfortunately, if 5% of a population is truly immune, and a test with 90% sensitivity is used, its positive predictive value is 32% – meaning that 68% will yield an erroneous result. Clearly, the sort of numbers Becton Dickinson cites are woefully inadequate, and analysts from SVB Leerink believe that to have “significant potential� tests would need to have sensitivity and specificity of more than 95%.

PCR testing is also not without its problems: finite supplies of reagents and the swabs and materials required means that capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, and of course many countries do not have the lab space available in the first place.

A substantial drop in infection rates would solve these problems, of course, which for many countries has yet to occur.

THE SCRAMBLE TO REINVENT THE VENTILATOR The lack of mechanical ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients is a pressing problem across the world. A wide variety of efforts are being made by medtechs and non-medtech companies, regulators and academic researchers to accelerate production of approved devices, repurpose other breathing systems for emergency use, and to build new ventilators from scratch.

The engineering conglomerate Smiths Group has delayed the separation of its medtech unit, which had been scheduled for mid-year, partly so it can focus on the delivery of ventilators and other critical care devices. The company is part of the VentilatorChallengeUK alliance, from which the UK government has ordered 10,000 units. The VentilatorChallengeUK consortium also includes Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford, RollsRoyce, McLaren and Siemens, and is working to source and assemble parts for two ventilator designs, one of which is from Smiths Group. This device, made in the UK, is a portable ventilator usually used in ambulances and not typically used for long-term intensive care. This consortium is only one of many deals in which engineering groups outside the medtech sector are retooling facilities to build breathing equipment. The US diversified company General Electric is working with Ford, to

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 34

INDUSTRY

35 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

manufacture a simplified GE ventilator with the aim of producing 50,000 units by early July. Separately GE said it was adding manufacturing lines to its own ventilator production sites and increasing the number of shifts so the devices can be produced around the clock.

Other groups, including Mercedes and Dyson, are also developing their own breathing devices more or less from scratch, in collaboration with various academic groups.

And Medtronic has made the design schematics of one of its ventilators available for free, to allow other manufacturers to build and release the device.

Even so, other initiatives will be necessary. Aware that US demand for ventilators will explode within days, the FDA is allowing breathing devices and their accessories not normally used in hospital

contexts to be deployed in the fight against Covid-19.

An EUA – a temporary permission that exists as long as America is in a state of emergency – has been issued for devices including anesthesia gas machines and positive pressure breathing devices that have been modified for use as ventilators.

The devices that are eligible for inclusion under this EUA are those that are not marketed in the US, or that are currently marketed but have been subject to an alteration that would usually need a new 510(k) clearance application. So far EUAs have been granted to ventilators made by two Chinese companies, Beijing Aeonmed and Mindray, and by the US group Vyaire Medical. But many other companies could benefit, as shown by the table above, which sum-

marizes the companies with the most US approvals of the kinds of respiratory devices now eligible for emergency authorization, once they have been modified to work as ventilators.

Covid-19 is a global epidemic with a need for myriad solutions that demand the attention of experts across the industry and around the world. Our thanks to Evaluate Vantage for their tireless coverage of these developments. The full report can be found here.

COMMENT

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 36

INDUSTRY TRENDS: BY THE NUMBERS Compiled by Cari Kraft, Jacobs Management Group, Inc.

450,548,197

Covid-19 tests worldwide As of April 30, 2020, over 450 million Covid-19 tests had been conducted around the world, yet countries continue to ramp up their testing capabilities and assess which tests are most accurate.

Source: Our World In Data, Total COVID 19 tests, April 2020

291

Active clinical trials on COVID-19 As of April 2, there were 291 trials specific to Covid-19. Of these 291 trials, approximately 109 trials (including those not yet recruiting, recruiting, active, or completed) included pharmacological therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 in adult patients. Of these 109 trials, 82 are interventional studies, with 29 placebo-controlled trials. Per description of the studies, there are 11 phase 4, 36 phase 3, 36 phase 2, and 4 phase 1 trials. Twentytwo trials were not categorized by phase or not applicable.

Source: JAMA. Published online April 13, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.6019

88%

Suppression rate of Covid-19 in South Korea with help of mobile app There is growing evidence that epidemic control is enhanced with digital contact tracing via apps. South Korea has achieved sustained epidemic suppression: 76 new cases on March 24, down from a peak of 909 on February 29, a decline of 88%. South Korea is using a mobile phone app for recommending quarantine.

Source: Science, Mar 31,2020 37 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

250,000

Data points from wearables help researchers track patients Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford, says a typical wearable device “will measure 250,000 data points per day,” offering a treasure trove of health data for researchers, including heart rate, sleep patterns and skin temperature. There is a Stanford study and a Scripps study, both involving crowdsourcing participants who use wearable devices, including Fitbit, Apple, Garmin and others. The first step is training algorithms to establish ranges for participants’ baselines readings, so they can then recognize when there is a significant change from normal levels.

Source: Forbes, April 17, 2020

65K Number of field-based sales reps in US The industry has 65,000 field-based sales reps who are distributed throughout the country roughly in proportion with the U.S. population. This is one of a host of resources that aren’t being optimized during the pandemic. The trick is to figure out how to tap these resources – which also include information-sharing platforms and data sets that reveal local treatment patterns – and repurpose them to fill the gaps.

Source: ZS, as reported in Biopharmadive, April 2020

$36.88B

Anticipated 2026 size of healthcare cyber security market Covid-19 is rapidly raising the size of the healthcare cyber security market. A report from Market Growth Insight gives reliable market forecasts showing that the sector should rise from $6.88 billion in 2017 to $36.88 billion by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 20.5% during the forecast period.

Source: Market Growth Insight, April 4, 2020

COMMENT HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 38

TALENT TRENDS

Building Talent in the Covid-19 World

By Cari Kraft, Jacobs Management Group INTRODUCTION Covid-19 has created challenges everywhere, including the hiring process. Research conducted in late March by Willis Towers Watson, a global risk management and advisory firm, shows that 42% of surveyed organizations have frozen or reduced hiring. But that

39 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

means that 58% are still hiring.

And, for those of us in the pharma, biotech, and medical device space, we are seeing sharp increases as some companies ramp up to support Covid-19 products and freezes and declines for companies that support elective procedures which are being deferred. For those companies who are hiring, filling

positions will be more difficult, especially those that were already hard to fill before the coronavirus pandemic. And, while it might be counterintuitive, this might be a time to reach out to your agency recruiter for those hard to fill positions, as they have unprecedented access to talent in this time.

THINK THROUGH THE WHOLE PROCESS, FROM RESUME TO HIRING

feedback, and how you are going to manage candidate interest throughout the process.

Walk through your hiring process from end to end Many of our clients have made the move to virtual interviewing, but what about the rest of the process?

How do you replace that “feel” that candidates get from being in your space, walking by and seeing a team meeting, or having a casual side conversation with someone in a hallway introduction? The entire process is changing with the restrictions of Covid-19, and it is important to walk through it from end to end and make sure the entire team is on the same page. Some questions to consider include:

Evaluate Your Security Process With the process moving virtually make sure you cover all of the data protection issues. The last thing you want are the repercussions from having an interview “leaked” and posted on Facebook or YouTube.

• Are your managers comfortable hiring someone they have never met in person?

• What steps to do you need to add to the process to do that?

• Who else can you include, now that geography is no longer a challenge?

• Does the software you are using have encryption?

• Are you recording interviews? If so, make sure you have the appropriate permissions and know where and how the data is stored.

Re-evaluate your candidate experience The current level of uncertainty has created a heightened level of stress in everyone. Candidates will be much more reluctant to make a move, so the candidate experience is even more important.

• Does it preclude unauthorized recording?

• How good was your organization at this before the corona crisis?

• Have you covered security access issues to preclude “zoom bombing” or having unknown eyes and ears into an interview?

• How can you translate those areas virtually?

• What else can you add in to put candidates at ease?

• Do you have the appropriate password protection in place?

Even though it can be a hassle, in addition to preventing malicious attacks it can help avoid a simple scheduling issue where the next candidate joins a video conference before the prior one is completed.

• How can you give them the insight they need to be comfortable?

Evaluate your process to see what you can do remove uncertainty.

One way is to over-communicate.

Give candidates a step by step review of the process all the way through to final interviews so they

• Which technologies are you going to use and how are you going to make sure everyone is trained and prepared?

• How are you going to handle candidate presentations, assessments, white-board talks, or casestudies?

• What can you do to offer a virtual tour of your environment?

• How can you offer a virtual real estate tour for those who are relocating?

Think through it all and then communicate. With everyone working remotely, it is even harder to keep them all in the loop. Make sure you have looked at your communication process from candidate review, to interview management, HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 40

TALENT TRENDS • Check your camera. Are you looking right into the camera? If possible, place your webcam at eyelevel. If you are using your phone, put it in horizontal rather than vertical position. If you are using an external camera and/or microphone, make sure they are charged.

And if you are going to be typing, check out the sound your keyboard to the other person on the line.

are clear on what to expect.

This is an uncharted time for candidates as well, so anything you can do to reduce nerves will help their experience. One way is to be clear on your technology by providing clear instructions for setup.

• Is there anything they have to download?

• Are there passwords they need?

• What should they do if they have incompatibility issues?

• Which parts of the process will be done using which tool or tools?

• Who will be initiating the call?

• Is there a backup option?

• Do they have the name, title and contact information for everyone they will be interviewing with?

• What pre-interview information do you expect them to have sent?

Coach your interviewers to give leniency to candidates struggling with technical issues. Give candidates some additional time at the start of an interview and do a quick audio and video check. Remind them that technical glitches 41 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

are the norm and have them try to approach the situation with patience and understanding.

BECOME A VIRTUAL INTERVIEW MASTER Prepare and test your technology Even if you are living on video conferencing as part of standard coronavirus remote operations, take a moment to test your technology.

• Do you have your settings correct for your clearest microphone and speaker? If you are using your phone for sound and laptop for video, make sure you only have sound on for one of those devices to eliminate feedback.

• Do you have your username and password handy, or the link to click into the meeting? It might be worth a double check of your bandwidth to make sure no one in your house is overwhelming your Wi-Fi with streaming, which will create video glitches.

• Check your lighting and charge your devices.

Evaluate your space It is also a good idea to check on your surroundings. What is behind you? If possible, try to be backed by a neutral background with minimal clutter. Keep the space behind you professional. While it is tempting to choose a virtual background, if you go that route, check to make sure you have a solid wall behind you so you don’t flicker in and out.

Know Your Backup Plans Despite all preparations, things can go awry. Always have a Plan B, and maybe a Plan C. • Be ready for the internet blip, the video freeze, or the meeting drop.

• Have the candidate’s phone and email handy, and know when you are going to call the cutover.

• A key problem with everyone working at home is bandwidth.

One option to address this issue is to continue with voice only and turn over video.

• It is also more likely in this environment that you may need to reschedule the interview if it’s interrupted. Be prepared for this as part of your backup plan.

Prepare for the Interview • Dress for the camera. The best clothing is neutral and professional, avoiding loud stripes or bright colors, as they can disrupt the lighting.

• It may sound strange, but check your teeth. With up close HD cameras, anything that is there from the meal you just ate could be apparent. First impressions matter as much virtually as they do in person.

• Make sure you are clear on who will initiate the meeting, and have all of the candidate contact information. Have a printout of the candidate’s resume and your questions to guide your interview.

• The sound of a printer or other background machinery whirring while you are chatting can be distracting.

• Just as in an office interview, silence your phone.

• Since computer sounds are more noticeable, turn off chat and mail alerts as well.

• It is always good to hop onto the meeting a few minutes early so you know everything is set.

Be Mindful of Virtual Professionalism • Manage your eye contact. It is always helpful to move the candidate

to a place on your screen near your camera so you are not looking off when talking.

• Pause and leave a few seconds at the end of a sentence and after a question to minimize talking over the other person. Technology often has a delay and you may need to pause more to facilitate a back and forth discussion.

• Make it a point to speak more slowly and clearly. It is possible the audio and video are not 100% in sync.

MANAGE THE VIRTUAL CLOSING PROCESS Guide the Next Step Virtual interviewing can help speed the hiring process. In light of this, make sure to be clear with the candidate of the next steps.

Candidates interviewing now are part of a small percentage of candidates willing to consider a move at this time, and so they are most likely being pursued by others.

Take time at the end of the interview to clearly lay out next steps.

Stay in Close Communication with Candidates For your sake and the candidate’s, be sure to maintain regular contact with those who are under serious consideration. This will help you get a read on the level of their interest, and will help them to make a decision about the position you are filling. It will also diminish stress for both of you.

MANAGE THE FINAL STEPS • Get candidates comfortable with the culture. Find a way to replace the water cooler conversation.

• Get candidates comfortable with the area. The virtual real-estate tour.

• Be flexible about start dates.

VIRTUAL ON BOARDING The virtual hiring process will dovetail into the virtual onboarding process, a key to protecting a company’s investment. Lin Grensing-Pophal, in an article in HRAdvisor, quotes The Learning Matchmaker statistics showing that 91% of employees stay with a company for at least a year if that company has an efficient onboarding process, a number that only drops to 69% after 3 years. It would take an entire article to go through the virtual on-boarding process, so I’ll leave with you with a list to consider, on the following page. It’s tough enough to start a new job when you have the opportunity to meet people in person, in the lunchroom, in the hallways, etc. How much more challenging is it to make that happen remotely?

This time is a steep hill for all of us.

People coming into a new company, a new atmosphere and possibly a new city need all the help they can get – which will help them be of the greatest value to you.

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 42

TALENT TRENDS ON-BOARDING ACTIVITIES

VIRTUAL ON-BOARDING IDEAS

New Employee Company Announcement

Expand with more personal details

Potential personal video

Incorporate remote details

New Employee Colleague Introduction

Set up virtual one-on-ones

Play online Get to Know You game

Assign virtual buddy

Create virtual Meet & Greet Happy Hour

IT Equipment Setup

IT sends computer and welcome package

IT creates connection option for personal laptop for support

IT virtually meets with new employee on first day

IT reviews logins and passwords

IT checks in at end of day

First Day

First-day morning video conference and Meet and Greet

Order lunch to be delivered for virtual first day team lunch

Schedule virtual HR meeting

Send employee swag

HR On-Boarding

Virtual HR meeting

Review work-from-home policies

Get all employee documents

Manage setup forms

Manager Review

Expectations for role

30-60-90 day plan

Schedule one-on-ones

Add 10 minute daily checkins for first week

Schedule periodic informal checks

Company Overview

Set up meetings with key players from other functions

Share company culture-related recordings

Set up meetings with boss’s boss and next level

Key Stakeholders

Review org chart and identify key stakeholders

Create plan for virtual coffee chats with key players

Training Plan

Company Value Proposition

Product/service training

Client stories & case studies

COMMENT 43 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

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MOTIVATION

MOTIVIDEOS

By Cari Kraft, Jacobs Management Group Normally, this section is devoted to helping you kick off a morning meeting with something educational, inspirational, entertaining, or all three. You may have noticed that things have changed, so here are some videos that might be helpful during this more challenging time when keeping in touch is a little trickier and technologically challenging.

WORK FROM HOME INSIGHTS

HELPING YOUR STAFF HELP THEMSELVES

The Harvard Business Review offers some down-toearth tips on how to be most productive while working at home. Differentiate between work space and time and home space and time!

How can you help everyone work at their best while isolated? A psychologist explains coping techniques that will dial down anxiety and increase effectiveness.

STREAMLINING REMOTE MEETINGS

THE AWKWARD REMOTE MEETING IN REAL LIFE

You’ll also need to manage the technical aspects of bringing people together: hearing them all, seeing them all, and using the apps efficiently. Here are guidelines for that process.

Finally, here’s one we’ve run before, but it’s a funny commentary on how remote meetings would look if everyone was actually entering a physical space using the same protocols.

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 45 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

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47 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

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THE AWKWARD REMOTE MEETING IN REAL LIFE

HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 48

COMMENT

INDUSTRY

Why I Work In Healthcare PEOPLE ON THE FRONTLINES EDITION

Normally this section features people from across healthcare giving their reasons for working in the most essential industry in the country. But now we’d like to sharpen the focus to the people on the front lines who are truly heroic. Putting themselves at risk regularly, they work long hours to protect the rest of us from the worst of this pandemic.

And so, like many companies, we are trying to show them the appreciation they deserve. At Jacobs Management Group, we have initiated “Operation Feed the Frontlines” to send nourishment to the healthcare professionals at local hospitals to keep up their energy and let them know we’re thinking about them.

We started by feeding the emergency room nurses at Abington Hospital.

At the recommendation of Pamela Daub at ByHeart we focused on the ER at Reading Hospital and supported the local G&A Pizza.

Together, we will gather the strength to beat Covid-19, and come out better on the other side. Be safe!

The ER staff at the Inova Alexandria in Alexandria, Virginia sent its thanks for our contribution.

Here is the ER at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and the goodies we sent from local Krispy Pizza.

49 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

If your company is doing something similar, let us know. A small “thank you” like this means a lot to those who are giving their all so that we can be safe.

Select a hospital, call the ER charge nurse to coordinate, and find a local pizza place or deploy Uber Eats!

Send us photos and details so we can highlight you in the next issue!

Send your pics to: ngreenberg@hsandm.com

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MEDICAL DEVICES

Great Advice From Great Minds:

Roche Diagnostics Exec focuses on shifting mindsets and marketing practices in the digital era Ayaz Malik is Enterprise Marketing Excellence Manager, at Roche Diagnostics Corporation in Indianapolis, IN. But what that title really means is that he translates the complex world of digital so that the rest of us – particularly marketing people – understand how to grasp, use and succeed more efficiently with all the digital tools available to them.

Ayaz has spent the majority of his career building, transforming and enabling marketing and communications teams with a focus on healthcare/medical devices.

His passion in the last decade has increasingly turned to marketing in the digital era and the evolving roles within a highly matrixed organization – especially those of the marketer and communicator, as they work to remain relevant

51 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

and capable in the face of rapidly evolving technologies that enable a company’s content creation, curation, management, delivery and measurement today. Ayaz’s peers describe him as a polymath and seek him out for his ability to connect-the-dots across multiple and complex business challenges, and to lead collaboration efforts that result in relevant, compelling and actionable solutions.

Ayaz has also been Head of Roche Diagnostics Global Communication team in Switzerland; Head of Roche Tissue Diagnostics Marketing Communications in Arizona; Head of Zimmer Global Marketing Communications in Warsaw, Indiana; SVP/Principal-Creative Director at Marketing Impact in Indiana; and Creative Director at Caldwell Van Riper in Indiana.

We attended one of his talks on Digital Asset Management at a Veeva Summit. Obviously, that’s just the kind of place where there will be people who can parse his technical terms and grok his charts.

So we sought him out for a deeper dive into his wisdom, to help make it clearer for our marketing and sales readers.

Ayaz put it simply: “When you create a brand, you want to tell a compelling and differentiated story, influence people with relevant content, get them to engage your brand/company, try your product or service and eventually form a preference for your brand. Marketers, at their fingertips today, have the ability to leverage technology platforms to more effectively and efficiently communicate with and engage their targeted audiences.

CALL FOR INNOVATION SHOWCASE NOMINATIONS

Help us share innovation in the industry (and spotlight your organization) by submitting an innovation showcase nomination.

Organizations from the Medical Device, Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Device, and Healthcare IT industries are welcome to submit recommendations. Selected innovations will be highlighted in our Innovation Showcase article.

SUBMIT A NOMINATION SELECTED SHOWCASE NOMINEES WILL BE CONTACTED FOR FINAL REVIEW BEFORE PUBLISHING.

MEDICAL DEVICES Figure 1 – A “Framework” for contextualizing marketing activities

This will require marketers to understand, develop and execute end-to-end integrated marketing plans – and avoid the trap of focusing solely on the sales channel and product marketing materials/ content. This means that increasingly, we need to pay attention to the role of the influencer as part of the mix – those from whom our audiences are seeking and getting information about our products and services, before they come to us.”

He asks, “when was the last time you went to a store and bought an item without looking it up and then being influenced either by a peer or by an online review? What if my brand’s information was not present when and where you were looking? My brand would not show up as part of your consideration – out of sight, out of mind in other words. This should keep marketers awake at night

53 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

and should be a key focus of their planning. I would ask myself… is my content still relevant; is it still compelling; is it differentiated; can they find and access it easily; can I monitor and measure effectiveness; can I get actionable analytics insights; and can I easily optimize?”

Of course, automation plays a role in enabling this to happen, and this is the intersection where Ayaz is the professor you want to help you navigate that area.

He says, “The nexus of marketing, communications and technology along with market forces are driving the shift in the way we develop our products/services, the way we go to market, the way we engage, interact and transact with our audineces, and absolutely changing the future role of the marketer. It’s impacting every aspect of marketing and so it’s a matter of strategically connecting the dots across all these dimensions. When we have

a fully integrated marketing plan and the most relevant, differentiated and compelling content, and we execute well, we can effectively deliver audience- and channelspecific content where, when and how they want it.”

THE STUDENTS AND THE LEADERSHIP Ayaz works in an environment where there are five generations of people. We normally assume that the younger people are more tech-savvy, and that the Boomers are the ones most in need of Ayaz’s wisdom. But he points out that this isn’t necessarily true.

“Everyone has their competencies, and often the older execs are just as tech-savvy as the millennials.

Part of my job is to understand and identify areas where marketing and communications can make impact today and in the future, and then collaborate with SMEs to

operationalize the marketing solutions that will enhance the marketing and digital maturity of the organization. Another key area of focus is the integration and use of our tech platforms for marketing and communications, that enable us listen, learn, create, store, engage and deliver like never before.”

But the first task on his agenda is how to get buy-in from senior leadership? How does he make it happen? What marketing norms need to shift? What technology should they use? “Informing, aligning with and educating senior leaders continuously is the new normal for anyone driving marketing excellence – helping these leaders to understand what is needed, why it’s critical, what is the opportunity cost and what investments are required. We also need to help them in understanding the tech required to be effective. There is no single end-to-end platform for marketing and communications today that one can lift and shift. There’s a lot of work that goes into the custom integration

to build this one-IT backbone for marketing and communications specifically for an organization.

So, as technology advances so will marketing practices, and the demand for continuous improvement.”

In this article, we focused our discussion with Ayaz around two points: • How a marketer can contextualize their marketing strategies and activities in this highly complex digital world

and activities so their key internal stakeholders align on roles and responsibilities and execute well.

So, what does an organization depend on to streamline the connections between Strategy, Content, Interaction, Transaction, Analytics, Optimization and Compliance for creating a fully integrated marketing plan and containing the right narrative for each audience?

Here’s a framework to consider – Figure 1.

THE NARRATIVE

For storytelling, Ayaz suggests that there’s an ABCDE framework. It involves Audience, Behavior, Content, Delivery and Evaluation.1

Ayaz says that increasingly, marketers will have to become really good storytellers for their brand, using insights about their various audiences, derived from analytics and delivered on demand, 24/7.

This will require them to be effective in their end-to-end (E-2-E) planning and their ability to leverage their tech platforms. Most importantly, they will need the ability to contextualize their strategies

“If a tree falls in the forest, do we hear it? If a story is created, but our customer doesn’t see it or appreciate it, does it matter? The ‘forest’ of digital media is more crowded than ever. This demands care in how we create our story and ensure that it is heard and acted upon. We address it in a new model called CEIT (Content, Engagement, Interaction and Transaction). If you think of ABCDE

• The future role of the marketer

Figure 2 – Leveraging the “Framework” for E2E integrated planning

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MEDICAL DEVICES Figure 3 – Critical physical and mindset shifts for marketing organizations (not an exhaustive list)

as our model to construct a great story. The CEIT model helps us ‘CE-IT (see it)’ through (Figure 2).”

CONTEXTUALIZING OUR ACTIVITIES This is how roles and activities fit, to see where adjacencies and dependencies are and to integrate the multiple inputs for the development, execution, and optimization of an end to end (E2E) integrated plan. It helps us think through the necessary touchpoints, success metrics, and pertinent information that teams will need to prepare their inputs. Here are five key learnings from our experience with the CE-IT model (Figure 2).

1. Clarify & Translate Goals – Clear business needs and goals are translated (not repeated) into marketing goals for each supporting team and external partners. This

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clarifies what success looks like, so expectations are aligned among all stakeholders. If the team should consider a variable (e.g. budget, timing), it must be included in the brief. No short cuts.

2. Lead Inclusive Launch Meetings – A project/initiative launch meeting with all stakeholders and external partners is held, so all teams hear the same message and seek clarification for anything that is unclear: roles and responsibilities, expectations, critical adjacencies and dependencies. Each supporting team can now collaborate to develop strategy, tactics and measures. Now we all know the plan of action.

3. Integrate and Align Individual Team Plans – Each team determines the metrics that matter, and now the analytics team is able to develop integrated analytics, reporting and optimization strat-

egy aligned with tactics. This also assists with compliance for each project/initiative, as the focus on privacy, data and security regulations continues to rise.

4. Be Agile and Adjust Plan Based on Input – We’re now ready for the project/initiative lead to review, assess and ensure integration of all inputs, question any areas of concern and make adjustments.

All teams should be fully aligned and ready to execute the E2E integrated plan. This becomes a team-infused plan.

5. Socialize, Teach and Listen to Leaders – The project/initiative lead must now ensure the plan is socialized with the appropriate stakeholders and ensure results of the plan are reported back, so that leaders understand the plan’s progress and adjustments required.

This places us on the path to continuous improvement forever after.

Figure 4 – Focus areas for marketers in content delivery

WATCH OUT FOR ENTRENCHED BELIEFS The hidden danger in the process is those darn antibodies that come out of the woodwork in organizations. Some of our peers may lack the desire to change. The watchout for organizations here are the blind-spots due to anchoring. Research points to anchoring, which means we hold onto the past like a person holding a pole in a hurricane. These entrenched beliefs and mindsets keep individuals and their organizations from moving ahead and from recognizing critical shifts that will be necessary to remain relevant in the marketplace (Figure 3).

IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTENT, ACCESS AND DELIVERY What we do every day matters.

How we create content, how we engage with our audiences and how we make “audibles” on what to do next make or break success for brands. Ayaz calls these three

areas Content Stewardship, Continuous Engagement and Decision Support.

Content Stewardship – Content Stewardship means that we obsess over the power of our story and we don’t confuse action with success.

This helps connect the dots and develop the knowledge and skills to create, prepare, store, distribute, publish and optimize content that is user- and channel-specific. Great engagement is directly linked to a story’s quality, relevance and its perceived value by the target audience.

A Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution will be required to sustain this type of robust content ecosystem. Think of it as a combination of your library and your brain for your stories. Content Stewards focus on substance, not the latest tech solution/platform.

Your DAM will deliver current, accurate and consistently branded content. Users can easily find the content they need. The value to the

company is compliance with regulations and policies; strong governance and knowledge transfer; and an enhanced user experience.

DAM’s are darn good.

Our success with implementation with this methodology has been highly successful. It avoids misunderstandings and keeps everyone focused on the plan we baked together.

Benefits for marketers: • Allows them to focus on substance vs. the solution/platform • Current, accurate and consistently branded content • Users can find their content easily • Lifecycle management of content is automated • Continuous engagement • Decision support Benefits for company: • Compliance with regulations and policies

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MEDICAL DEVICES Figure 5 – The way we now and will access and consume content has been dramatically altered

• Governance and knowledge transfer • High Ux → engagement → valued source of info → strong reputation Continuous Engagement –The demand for more 24/7-relevant and compelling content continues to rise. Content on-demand and proper search is expected as a matter of convenience – it’s expected when, where and how users want it (Figure 5). The role of the influencer is also rising, and this means customers are increasingly looking 57 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

to and trusting peers, advocacy groups and their networks for information that they customarily received from companies, before they directly engage a company.

Marketers, in a highly matrixed organization, are now confronted with how to leverage this Continuous Engagement.

For this reason, we have identified proper content management via a DAM as a fundamental enabler – and knowledge transfer a key mindset.

Continuous Engagement must be optimized with an organization’s investment in five key areas: • Content platforms that permit creation, preparation, storage, curation and governance • Engagement platforms that permit distribution and publishing • Interaction platforms that enable marketing automation • Transaction platforms that enable CRM (customer relationship management)

• Analytics solutions that deliver actionable insights

• Working in advance of the marketing

Value for marketers:

• Meeting users where they are

• Focus on end-to-end integrated marketing and communications planning

Value for company:

• Users can engage and access highly personalized content 24/7

• Decision making through insights from analytics

• Empower digital marketers to drive engagement in near realtime

• Greater understanding of our audiences

• Continuous improvement • Efficiency gains

• Offer e-services to customers 24/7

• Future correlation of marketing spend to revenue

• Syndicate content to affiliate teams

SO, WHAT NEXT?

Value for company: • Create engagement with lower cost to reach audiences • Engage, influence and nurture leads to lower the cost to acquire customers • Proactive and reactive awareness building of the company brand and reputation • Positions company as an innovation leader Decision Support – These are the solutions and insights the analytics team provides for marketers to make informed decisions impacting our plans. We want to see what matters to our customers and how we can improve. This enhances our ability to mine data and insights to make informed decisions around plans and content and to understand where content can be inserted into conversations and micro-moments, so we can meet targeted audiences where they want to engage with us.

Value for marketers: • Mining data and insights that help marketing and many other parts of the business • Making data driven decisions around content type and style

To create the most efficient and effective DAM for your organization, and be able to streamline your ability to assess demographics and platforms, access and continually upgrade the best technology, and respond immediately to customers and market trends, here are the steps I recommend: • Assess the marketing maturity of your organization – understand the levers you need to pull on an individual and organizational basis to enhance maturity, then drive the right incentives, accountability and measures to ensure adoption and maturity • Leverage contemporary learning and development approaches – enable real-time and continuous learning experiences for your marketers and communicators • Focus on knowledge transfer – ensure best practices, processes and tools are codified and institutionalized so they endure and have change, governance & lifecycle management built in to the organization’s systems

company today (for example data librarians, story-tellers, interaction drivers, engagement drivers, etc.)

• Ensure your marketing technology stack is on track – to enable your new marketing & communications ecosystem and ensure it is well integrated, focus on identifying subject matter experts to properly nurture and evolve the technology platforms.

• Invest in a team that is forwardlooking – change occurs via humans. Who will move the ball forward, test new online solutions and help adoption occur?

• Ensure there is a focus on analytics and actionable insights – a must.

• Pay attention to organizational change management – to ensure effective implementation and adoption of solutions/changes.

Overall, if you are able to build excellent stories via the ABCDE model, you are well on your way to success. But, like anything in life, our ability to plan, integrate, learn and scale what we do makes all the difference. This is why the discipline to “CE-IT through” is an important companion model. It may not be as sexy, but it is equally important for your brand and organization’s future success. • Robert W. Pearson, Co-author – Crafting Persuasion, ABCDE model 1

COMMENT

• Assess and align your marketing and communications organizations – to fit the new paradigm, align roles and responsibilities and pay attention to roles that are needed and do not exist in the HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 58

INNOVATION

Innovation When We Need it More Than Ever

By Neil Greenberg As hard as you may have been working, as smart as your colleagues are, as dedicated as your company is – get ready for more pressure. Your work and wisdom is more in demand than it ever has been. And that’s a good thing.

Top athletes often tell us that they prefer playing against someone as good or better, because that competition ups their game out of necessity. We see this happening all over the industry today.

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TREATING THE SYMPTOMS OF COVID-19 Cathy Cather, Parallel Profile At Parallel Profile, Cathy is working with Cloud Pharmaceuticals, Mercury Data Science, Vanderbilt, Nashville BioSciences and others to mine literature, databases and EMRs in order to identify drugs that can be immediately repurposed to make patients stronger and more able to fight off a potential COVID-19 infection. Their curated research aims to uncover drugs that will help boost the immune system, increase ATP in the mitochondria, reduce inflammation in the lower lungs, slow the viral replication pathway, and increase gas exchange in the lungs. With the use of AI, Cather says “answers could come within a month” and be continually updated against infected patient EMR and genomics data. “Parallel Profile can provide expedited pharmacogenomic analysis to assure each patient will respond to the optimal drug combination for them.”

MEASURING SYMPTOMS EARLIER Sathya Elumalai, Aidar Health At Aidar Health, Elumalai has developed a rapid health assessment device, MouthLab, that can measure COVID-19 symptoms early and monitor patients at home or in the hospital. It works like a breathalyzer, but acts like a Star Trek tricorder. When a patient breathes into the device’s mouthpiece for 30 seconds it captures more than 10 vital medical parameters. With MouthLab, early COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath can be measured in real-time using their thermometer, and breath sensors that measure breathing rate, coughing patterns and respiratory flow cycle morphology to assess shortness of breath. Progressive disease symptoms include lung congestion (measured using MouthLab’s spirometer/lung function test) — reduction in SpO2 due to lung infection (measured using MouthLab’s pulse Ox) —impaired gas diffusion between the lungs and blood, and irregular heart rhythms (measured using MouthLab’s ECG electrodes).

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INNOVATION JUST-IN-TIME ARRIVAL AT DOCTOR’S OFFICE Jennifer Meller, Navimize Navimize’s technology predicts delays in the doctor’s schedule and then texts messages patients to let them know when their appointment will actually begin, before they head to the doctor’s office. This allows patients to arrive at the doctor’s office, be seen by the doctor, and leave, avoiding unnecessary time in a crowded waiting room with sick and potentially infectious patients.

GETTING WOMEN THROUGH PREGNANCY WITH MINIMUM ANXIETY Judith Nowlin, Babyscripts Fears surrounding the spread of COVID-19 have sparked increased engagement with digital health in pregnant women looking for the latest updates on the virus. Babyscripts, the leading virtual care company for managing obstetrics, teamed up with clinical partner George Washington Medical Faculty Associates (GW-MFA) to disseminate relevant information about COVID-19 to new and expecting mothers. “There’s a lot of conflicting information floating around on the internet,” says Judith, “and pregnant women are especially vulnerable because they’re in a unique situation that complicates their normal responses to things like virus-protection. Mobile health gives us the critical ability to communicate to these patients in real-time and answer their questions.”

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HELP FOR PATIENTS WITH PULMONARY FIBROSIS Andrew Rosenberg & Yury Salazar, Responsum Health Rosenberg, Salazar and their team at Responsum Health work with patients with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic condition that puts them at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19. They have partnered with the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) to deliver updates and guidelines via their mobile app on how this at-risk patient population can stay safe, promote healthy habits and spread disease awareness.

REAL-TIME TRACKING OF SUSPECTED PATIENTS Jonathon Feit, Beyond Lucid Technologies, Inc. Based on EMS, fire, public health and hospital partner-client requests for immediate action, Beyond Lucid Technologies, Inc. is preparing a suite of powerful data analytics tools related to real-time tracking of suspected COVID-19 cases — including pneumonia, COPD, bronchial infections and lookalikes. “Details are coming very soon,” says Jonathan. “We believe it is insufficient to just capture a few data points, even those accessed by NEMSIS (National EMS Information System) and states EMS offices are looking at. Just collecting data is not enough. You have to go further: you have to share with others who have a stake in both patient and community outcomes — in matters that they can consume, in real-time. That’s where we specialize, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

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INNOVATION EFFECTIVE DISINFECTION OF TREATMENT ROOMS Luca Emili, InSilicoTrials Emili and his team at InSilicoTrials have developed a technology that promotes effective disinfection planning of a room or building by running simulations that predict where the disinfectant should go.

This provides insight on the right positioning of disinfectant devices, along with medical devices. Current disinfection is typically executed in two ways: 1) a manual swipe of surfaces (which is highly inefficient and hard to execute in a big area every day for a long period); or 2) spraying a disinfectant into the air. The latter option is more efficient. With InSilicoTrials’ tech, it’s possible to simulate a diffusion of a spray in the air using software for fluid-dynamics like the ones used for airplanes or a blood flow simulation. View this video for an example. “Disinfection is extremely important as COVID-19 remains alive up to nine days on surfaces generating a significant issue of extending the contagion,” Emili says.

BETTER SURGICAL CARE, SHORTER HOSPITAL STAYS Brand Newland, Goldfinch At Goldfinch, Brand Newland and COO John Greenwood are working on better surgical care pathways. This means shorter hospital stays and reduced infection rates. With the company’s nurse concierge, Goldfinch’s platform facilitates better postsurgery care and better triaged questions, thereby limiting a patient’s need to show up in the emergency room or at urgent care center. “During an outbreak, the less time you need to spend in a formal health care setting — be that a hospital, clinic, ER, etc. — the better,” says Brand.

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ADVICE FOR CANCER PATIENTS Susan Bratton, Savor Health Savor Health has experienced a dramatic increase in questions regarding COVID-19, with many of the company’s cancer patients noting that they are staying home to avoid contact with the virus.

In response to these concerns, Bratton is offering free unlimited access to Ina®, Savor Health’s “Intelligent Nutrition Assistant,” throughout the entire COVID-19 crisis so that homebound cancer patients and caregivers have access to personalized evidence-based nutrition and symptom management support 24/7 “on demand” via text on their smartphone. “With the rapid increase in U.S. citizens infected with COVID-19, and the resulting increase in home bound or otherwise quarantined Americans, Savor Health continues to pursue our original mission of supporting cancer patients and their families with safe, personalized, evidencebased nutrition support,” says Susan.

VISUALIZING DISINFECTANT COVERAGE Kinnos Inc. Kinnos Inc. has developed a patented powder additive called Highlight which is combined with existing bleach disinfectants.

Highlight-enhanced bleach is colorized to easily visualize coverage so you never miss a spot and then fades from colored to colorless after a few minutes to approximate when decontamination is done. It’s as easy as telling someone to make sure everything is covered in color and when the color is gone, the surface is safe to touch. Especially in a high-stress and high-risk environment, providing personnel with disinfection you can see empowers them to be confident in their safety and provides peace of mind to everyone who sees the color.

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LEADERSHIP

Practice Leadership “Ands” During Crises like COVID-19

By Jeffrey Cohen, Forbes Coaches Council A Former Pfizer And Rhone Poulenc Rorer Exec, and Advisor to Numerous Industry Luminaries, on the Qualities of Leadership When it Counts Most Because Jeff has coached people in the upper reaches of the C-suites for many years, earning him a position on the invitation-only Forbes Coaches Council, we asked him to offer his perspective on how leadership has to face major challenges like the one we’re in the midst of now. This article is partly drawn from material previously published

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in Forbes.com, with additional commentary by Jeff for HS&M. Leaders are being tested by COVID-19 and the rapidly evolving responses that are dramatically disrupting how we work in our organizations, serve as members of a leadership team (LT), and lead our teams. We have many leadership habits that help us deal with

all that comes at us in normal times, but those habits are being disrupted by this global pandemic.

At this frenetic pace, it’s easy for leaders to get caught up in the energy and lose perspective, making short-term decisions that create longer-term unintended consequences. From my 20-plus years as an executive coach, I know those

who are most successful stay engaged with their advisors and take the time to think before acting despite the pressures and extreme demands on their time.

Leadership is often seen as a set of tradeoffs. If I’m strategic, I can’t be good at execution. If I am team oriented, I can’t advance my career. That framing is binary and limiting. The most effective leaders subscribe to a series of “and” statements, recognizing the need for both and seeing the optimal time to lead with each. This article explores two leadership roles: being a leadership team member and player and leadership in a crisis.

THE “ANDS” OF BEING A REAL LEADERSHIP TEAM MEMBER-PLAYER While there is a lot of material to guide you through your first managerial assignment or even for serving on a board of directors, there is a dearth of resources on becoming a member of a leadership team, which is a much more common leadership challenge.

I’ve been privileged to lead teams early in my career and work with many great leaders over my career.

Becoming a strong LT member is about navigating a series of five “and” statements, and in the process, increasing the sophistication of your thinking and action.

1. Get aligned with the leader’s priorities and bring your point of view on key opportunities and challenges. When tapped to join an LT, the leader has often been in place and has priorities. Part of the challenge is to fully understand those priorities and the leadership context, so you can ensure your group’s work is fully aligned. And the more quickly you can develop and articulate your own point of view as to what else might be possible and how the LT might

get the organization there, the more quickly you will be earning your seat at the table. Learn fast and then actively help set the LT’s agenda from a perspective broader than just your portfolio. The faster you can see the world from your leader’s perspective, the more quickly you can perceive needs and deliver proactively. You can and need to be both a follower and a leader when serving on a leadership team.

A classic challenge is when you are a subject matter expert joining a leadership team where the leader, especially if new, is not expert in your area. It is easy to fall into critique as the leader creates demands for information and/or reveals gaps in expertise or experience. Yet this is your opportunity to support the leader’s learning, and make the arguments that help the leader decide where to focus.

2. Be an individual star and a star team player. You will have to jump into a radically timeconstrained life, balancing the demands of your group and its stakeholders with the time it takes to be a good LT player. Rather than twinkling brightly but diminishing other teammates, it means identifying important ways of supporting the LT and other team members, becoming an enterprise leader and taking on select LT projects that are important to the LT and its leader, even if the objectives are less important to your group and your portfolio. You can and need to be a star and star team player.

When observing a leadership team in action, I will often see team members multi-tasking across a variety of topics until something hits close to home, and then become much more engaged. That sends the message that you aren’t there to help others on the team deliver what

only the LT can deliver. We need to wear two hats as a leadership team member – the hat of my group and the hat of the LT – and move agilely between those perspectives.

3. Fit into the team and drive needed change. Joining an LT means fitting into the rhythm and patterns of behavior already present on the team. How does the team think about problems? More rationally or emotionally? With an eye to the big picture or more about the details of execution? You earn your seat at the LT table by showing you can work within the existing patterns and by seeking to improve the team’s and the organization’s culture. As the Herrmann Whole Brain model (see Figure 1) illustrates, it is about being aware of the impact of your leadership and thinking styles (see HBDI model) on the team and working to understand others, their drivers and how to connect, especially with those that appear different.

All too often, we attain an LT role and fall into the pattern of seeing driving change as the leader’s role.

Being a catalyst of change on the LT may have risks, and managing those risks well is how you show you are deserving of leading your own top team. You can and need to fit in and recognize and seize your opportunities to catalyze change.

A wonderful leader I have worked with shared a powerful insight when her boss’ LT used the Herrmann Brain tool. When she saw how team member preferences showed up, she realized that her go to people for advice were those of the team with a more similar set of preferences to her own. Of course she valued their advice. She quickly realized the value in seeking others out, and doing so in a way that tapped into their preferences.

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LEADERSHIP Fig. 1: The Herrmann Whole Brain Model trust. You can and need to be both a strategic thinker and great at execution and know when to lead with one or the other.

4. Honor commitments that build trust and take risks that can make a real difference. Being a trusted team member earns other’s trust. To be seen as a real trusted LT contributor you have to deliver on your commitments and do so in a vulnerable way, being willing to disclose challenges, seek guidance and value the advice of others on the team. The obvious commitments are the key things your group can deliver, as these help you build a track record of delivering and of being reliable. The less obvious and often riskier way of building trust is to identify or volunteer for LT projects that are significant stretches, where success is not a given, where collaboration is critical but not easy. You need to deliver great results from your group and be willing to risk failure in the effort to deliver breakthroughs that push the organization towards its vision.

Patrick Lencioni’s framework, 67 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team tells the story about why trust is so critical to a team. Put simply, if you have trust, it enables confidence the team can use real conflict productively and gain strong commitment to action, hold each other accountable for their part and contributing to the whole and actually achieving the results of the LT. (Figure 2) 5. Shape strategy and master execution. LTs have a pattern to them, and your challenge is to understand if this is an LT focused on strategy or execution, or both.

If it is about execution, you have to become a master at executing reliably and carve out thinking space for strategy, in what can feel like a counter-cultural and unrewarded effort. If the LT is more strategy focused, leaving execution planning and follow-up to others, the trap here is getting lost in big ideas and not being able to deliver the day-to-day, thereby diminishing

It is easy to get caught up in the habits and culture of the team you have joined. In a start-up organization, a leader I was coaching saw top leaders very involved in tactics and unconsciously interpreted this as encouraging him to participate in team meetings and governance forums in a tactical way, despite his strength at thinking strategically.

He was seen as a great tactician but wanting for strategic thinking needed at the next level. A small change that went a long way was positioning presentations and contributions strategically first, then addressing tactical solutions. The big aha was seeing a new choice of how to act in LT meetings that fit the demands of the business, matched the culture and worked to career advantage.

There is a classic example of how a change in role creates a new perspective as to an LT member’s role. In a 1999 interview with the Harvard Business Review, the then-CEO of Ford Motor Company, Jacques Nasser, described the “fiefdom” that existed at Ford and his effort to change that way of thinking and acting. He shared a revealing aspect of his development: “When I ran Ford Europe from 1992 to 1994, it was a fiefdom. Every three months or so, we’d get visitors from headquarters who would suggest new ways of thinking about and doing things.

And we would wine and dine them and nod at everything they said.

Finally, we’d get them on the plane home, and we wouldn’t think about a word that they’d said until

Fig. 2: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

they came back again. We figured nobody knew more about how to run Ford Europe than we did. We were the experts. We can’t do that anymore.”

Nasser was describing a typical — and yet limiting — approach to being on the LT. Keep others at bay and minimize interference, succeeding by delivering your group’s results as you know your business the best. Nasser was right in challenging new LT members to think beyond their shop, taking the broader organizational perspective and promoting the kinds of collaborations the customer needs.

Earning your seat at the LT table today means thinking and acting in terms of “and,” not “or,” and setting an intentional path of how you want to be as an LT memberplayer, both strong follower and opportunistic leader. group leader and LT member.

THE “ANDS” OF CRISIS LEADERSHIP Crisis leadership demands even more of us as leaders, primarily that we don’t become insular or insulated, unavailable and uncommunicative, or brash and uncooperative. A true crisis like what we

are experience with COVID-19 requires leaders to hold 5 ‘and’ statements at the same time.

1. Be reactive and intentional.

This is perhaps the most important “and” to hold on to. Your people and teams need you to be available in the moment, and there will be decisions to be made where time is truly of the essence. Many of us are prompted to act by the needs put in front of us. The adrenaline flows. We want to fight the fire. We feed off the activation energy. Yet often, with some thoughtful yet quick consideration, urgent decisions may not be as urgent.

Carve out space for a few deep breaths to calm yourself and take a minute or two to ask: Is this truly urgent? What is the downside to letting a little time go by before committing to a decision? What would this decision/commitment crowd out down the line, and can we manage that consequence?

For example, crises often impact the bottom line, and financial pressures will be strong to cut all the costs you can. And while business continuity is critical, taking care of long-term relationships needed for a business restart are equally

important. Ask yourself, “What would the cost be to us if we lost this business-critical vendor?

Would we be able to care for our returning customers without this capability? How can we control costs in this space and help our vendor to survive and be with us when we need her?”

Mindy Hall’s book Leading with Intention emphasizes how selfawareness is the driver of good decision-making especially in times of crisis. Breathing gets you in touch with what you are feeling and slows you down enough to be thoughtful, see the important choices, and act intentionally.

2. Create clarity and appreciate ambiguity. In Daniel Goleman’s article “Leadership That Gets Results,” he shares data that shows how an authoritative (not authoritarian or coercive) leadership style has the strongest impact on climate overall, and the most powerful aspect of climate is clarity, a key driver of engagement. As Goleman notes, the authoritative leadership style mobilizes people to a vision and is driven by self-confidence.

Yet it is hard to be truly confident in the face of ambiguity if you are acting solely on your own. BalHS&M MAY/JUNE 2020 | 68

LEADERSHIP ance authoritative leadership with a democratic style that encourages your people to speak up, so that you can fully understand their concerns and the opportunities they see. This helps your people feel heard and gives them a voice when it comes to creating action plans they will have to execute.

In a crisis, when you as the leader are the subject matter expert, it can feel comfortable and efficient to provide lots of answers. The real trap is doing so before drawing out the perspective of others with powerful questions that help others question their assumptions.

Even if your direction is right, you are developing a team of order takers and when things change, they might not challenge. And if you are wrong, you might be the last to know.

3. Show courage and do it collaboratively. Crisis situations are marked by a lack of complete information, both of where we stand and what the near future will look like. When decisions have to be made, show courage to make the decision that is most consistent with your core values about working with people. Care and concern are keys to maintaining trust. Yet the leaders who show courage on their own can create more turbulence, missing opportunities to align with others, creating incoherence when congruence is most needed. Collaborate with other leaders, pushing them to be courageous and helping them to find the common ground that creates alignment and positive movement.

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We are in the early days of an incredible large-scale experiment on working remotely, creating new challenges for most leaders and followers.

4. Create social distance while staying personally and visually engaged. We are in the early days of an incredible large-scale experiment on working remotely, creating new challenges for most leaders and followers. Leaders who rely on being in close contact and walking around to take the temperature will find themselves more isolated and lacking normal indicators that help in decisionmaking. If we are to flatten the COVID-19 curve, we must support working at home, and we can use technology to stay personally engaged and in touch. As complements to the phone, use the tools that enable remote meetings — FaceTime, Web-X, Skype and Zoom — and turn on that camera.

Again referring to the Herrmann Whole Brain model, we need people’s best thinking as to the “why?,” “what?,” “how?” and “who?” of the situation in order to create a plan of action, and visual cues are critical. We communicate more meaning through body language and tone of voice than through our words, and in a crisis, we must ensure we are communicating as best we can by turning our camera on and gently insisting that others do the same. Engage with your folks one-on-one or in groups, ask

the powerful questions that draw out what people are really thinking and feeling and show your concern as you rally the team to create a direction forward.

Zoom, Skype, FaceTime and Webex have their drawbacks, and a day full of Zoom calls can be fatiguing, but these tools can help us show we care about the needs of our people. Here are a few simple things you can do that send the message you value doing your part for good communications: • Pay attention to how you look – not perfect but at least semiprofessional.

• Make the setting work for you.

Have a good background to your video and get the lighting in front of you.

• Insure you are using headphones and a microphone separate from your phone, tablet or computer so you are easy to hear clearly.

Another interesting practice I’ve seen used that creates accessibility and connection for the leader is to have times when you are available to your reports via Zoom or WebEx, in an open session without agenda. Basically you let your people know you will be working and have Zoom open, and anyone is welcome to join in, to share an update, talk through an issue or opportunity, get input or otherwise connect. Keep at it and your people will begin to tap into the opportunity.

5. Be agile and value your people’s needs for structure and process. Developments are coming at a rapid pace, with pressures from the bottom line, from customers and even politicians seeking political advantage. In a crisis,

the leader needs to be able to turn on dime quickly, recognizing significantly changed assumptions underlying strategy and enabling a critical pivot. At the same time, a great deal of the work of the business needs predictability. The leader has to create sufficient process and clarity for their people to be able to have good answers to a few key questions: Where are we going? What is my/our role in getting there?

How do I know how I / we are doing? Make time for the conversations and reinforce the process that enable good answers to these questions, and you are much more likely to have the room to be agile.

The maelstrom of news, fake news, science and conjecture may not yet be at its peak. We have the choice as leaders as to how we respond. Being reactive and intentional, creating clarity and living with ambiguity, showing courage and doing it collaboratively and creating social distance and staying connected personally are four ways to lead during these times of crisis. Crises create new opportunities to be a strong team member-player on your boss’s leadership team. Keep these in front of you as you navigate your day, use them to make decisions, and you will be more likely to be the leader your people and business need. •

Jeffrey Cohen is founder of Performance Leaders, LLC, offering business-focused coaching for leaders and their business leadership teams.

Formerly Director/Team Leader at Pfizer’s Organizational Effectiveness team, and a Director of Organizational Development at Rhone Poulenc Rorer, Jeff has established a track record of helping leaders at all levels bring even more value to their organizations and to themselves through nearly all aspects of leadership, including strategy development and deployment, change management, organizational design and talent planning/development.

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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 JAN/FEB 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!

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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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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY

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:

AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY

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.

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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.

Social Media:

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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AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY

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.

Social Media:

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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 83 | HS&M MAY/JUNE 2020

AGENCY & PROVIDER DIRECTORY

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

Social Media:

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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