’s special recognition of rising leaders in the life sciences industry makes its return this year, spotlighting the diverse journeys of 11 biopharma mangers who are poised to help navigate the industry’s march into a challenging future. Each, through their unique talents, styles, and perspectives, is changing the ways leaders direct critical strategic functions such as R&D, market access, business development, commercialization, data operations, legal, and others.

	View our 2020 selections below and click on the pages ahead to read their profiles.

Lauren D’Angelo, Vice President of Marketing, Urovant Sciences

In 2002, at a young age and early in her career, Lauren D’Angelo was just starting out as a sales representative for AstraZeneca when she quickly found a niche in analyzing numbers. “I wish I could say that I had a deliberate plan in joining the industry, but I really didn’t know where it could lead,” says D’Angelo. “I was told by many people that because of my outgoing personality, I should try pharmaceutical sales. Little did I know at the time, I was embarking on this amazing journey in an incredible industry that has challenged me and allowed me to grow in multiple ways.” 

D’Angelo has always been analytical, graduating from Florida State University with degrees in computer science and finance. Her background in sales at AZ, coupled with the available data and tools, allowed her to identify key opportunities for the company and deliver strong sales results. This prompted her to quickly move into the role of business analyst where she helped sales directors identify regional and local opportunities utilizing data, and supported several AZ product launches. Success in that role led to D’Angelo becoming the youngest and one of only two female district sales managers in the company at the time-at just 25 years old.

	As a district sales manager, she oversaw 12 sales reps and fell in love with leadership. “I’m passionate about developing and helping others achieve their goals, and I genuinely care about the people I lead and my colleagues that I work with,” says D’Angelo. “Being able to contribute in some way to their success makes the time and effort worthwhile.”

	It wasn’t until a few years later when D’Angelo was asked to move to AZ’s headquarters to join the Crestor brand team that she would discover her passion for marketing. “I love building strategy, developing a deep understanding of what our customers really need, and, most importantly, figuring out how to connect with them to create a unique customer experience,” says D’Angelo, who has helped launch 10 products in her career, six of which have become blockbuster brands. 

	After a decade with AZ, Genentech called, and she found herself moving to California to lead the launch of a hopeful blockbuster. “After almost three years building the brand and preparing for launch, the drug failed in Phase III trials,” says D’Angelo. “It was at that time I decided that I wanted to do something different. After spending almost 13 years working in big pharma, I really wanted to try something smaller.” 

	She ended up joining San Francisco-based startup Medivation as its marketing director, oncology and urology, helping launch Xtandi for prostate cancer. D’Angelo discovered that she thrived in a small company environment (Medivation would later be acquired by Pfizer). “I really enjoy the entrepreneurial spirit, the larger scope of roles, and the fewer layers of key decision-making.”

	In the fall of 2015, D’Angelo moved to Orange County to join Avanir Pharmaceuticals as its marketing head. She rebuilt the team, hiring eight new people in one year. “I have a real passion for identifying, hiring, and

	Today, as VP of marketing at Urovant Sciences-hired by the former CEO of Avanir as employee number three-D’Angelo says she has enjoyed a true startup experience, watching the company grow to 70 people. “We started with nothing. We had no data, no people, and no knowledge of the market,” she says. “I’ve spent the last two and a half years building out the commercial team, the infrastructure, and collecting key insights to successfully launch our flagship product.” 

	D’Angelo considers herself fortunate for the many career opportunities she’s had-experiences that have challenged her and helped her grow as a leader. “No question my goal is to lead a commercial organization one day. But I want it to be with the right company, with the right people, and for the right product,” says D’Angelo. “What matters to me right now is the who and the what, not necessarily the title. It’s about focusing on the now and being really selective about what’s next.” 

	The married mother of a two-year-old boy, with a baby girl on the way, D’Angelo credits her work ethic to her father, who was an entrepreneur. “My dad always loved his job; he worked all hours of the day. I think that’s why I’ve been successful,” she says. “When you genuinely love what you do, and you’re passionate about it, how can you not be?” 

Manuel P. Duenas, VP, Global Market Access and Pricing, Atara Biotherapeutics

	Manny Duenas is a dreamer at his core-nicknamed The Reverend by colleagues for his fiery defense of the mission and motivation of the life sciences industry. In conversation, the executive’s orientation often leans toward the philosophical, including thoughtful takes on the human condition, particularly the influence, he believes, every experience-big or small, success or failure-can play in creating and shaping a high-impact career.

	“We all have something unique in our backgrounds that will enable us to deliver something unique to the world,” says Duenas, currently vice president, global market access and pricing at Atara Biotherapeutics, a San

 Francisco-based biotechnology company focused on leveraging its novel allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) T-cell platform to develop treatments for patients with serious illnesses, including solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune disease, such as multiple sclerosis. 

	Not yet 40, Duenas’s career has progressed rapidly, spanning across industry, management consulting, and venture capital. He’s helped spearhead the launch of breakthrough therapies in oncology and HIV, built global access and pricing functions at two large pharmas, and has been a founding commercial leader of two emerging biotechs. At just 25, Duenas was also a founding consultant at PriceSpective, a then-fledgling market access and pricing consultancy, which later would be acquired by the CRO Icon, becoming one of the top pricing/access/commercialization strategy outfits in the biopharma space.

	Along the way, Duenas has followed that seemingly simple adage of letting life experience fuel purpose. But, as the married father of one knows all too well, there’s often little control over choosing those experiences-and no one personal journey is the same. A native of Guam, Duenas grew up poor, his family part of the Chamorro community, a proud people known “to live interdependently and interact reciprocally.” After heading to the states and getting a bachelor’s degree in finance and management at the University of Portland, followed by a one-year Fulbright fellowship in Germany, those cultural values aided Duenas in absorbing a series of family health issues and tragedies in the years ahead, culminating in the loss of his 29-year-old brother just last year.

	“You can either sit in the corner and say, woe is me, or you can go out and say, hey, we are uniquely positioned as an industry, as biotechnology to address the absolute worst in the world,” says Duenas, who has long dealt with his own chronic, debilitating condition that until recently had him living with what he says was a 30% quality of life. “You talk coronavirus, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, autism, diabetes; all of these things are 

still there. That’s the human condition-to be broken. And it’s also the human condition to be fixed.”

	To that end, Duenas’s career purpose, he says, has always tied back to one central theme: championing the value of innovative medicines. In recent years, those have included the likes of curative-type specialty drugs, cell and gene therapies, and immunotherapies. Duenas believes the drug pricing debate, when played out for public and political consumption, has been influenced heavily by a misinformed narrative that does not account for the balance of innovation, reduced cost to the healthcare system, and impact on patient lives throughout the lifetime of the patient. 

	“In my opinion, you need to measure the value of innovation over generations,” Duenas told 

. “All the people who will benefit and could benefit not only from that specific innovation, but from those innovations that you will enable.”

	Duenas joined Gilead Sciences in 2013 to help usher its entrance into oncology, enabling the launch of Zydelig, a first-in-class PI3 kinase inhibitor for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (the drug was named ASCO’s “Advance of the Year” in 2014). Duenas would later help launch Gilead HIV treatments Odefsey and Biktarvy, the latter with anticipated annual peak sales of $7 billion. 

	Besides his lens on pricing and value at Gilead, where he was also involved in the company’s 2017 acquisition of Kite Pharma and its CAR-T lymphoma drug Yescarta (priced at $373,000 per dose; one recent study of real-world Medicare claims data suggests that CAR-T therapy may be cost effective by lowering other illness-related expenses), Duenas had stints at Biogen and Genentech in the late 2000s, serving in US commercial operations at each. A few years earlier, before transitioning to industry, Duenas recalls his “baptism-by-consulting fire” at PriceSpective, where, pitching commercialization strategy for targeted therapy blockbusters such as Avastin and Rituxan he presented to Roche executives at the pharma giant’s Basel headquarters. 

	Any hopes of boosting the industry’s image, Duenas says, will first require “a real dialogue based on data and facts coming from a place of how best to serve patients and positively impact human life not only now but over time.” Duenas attributes what he considers his proudest career accomplishment to this effort. In 2016,  he sponsored a modeling study with Avenir Health to quantify the societal benefits of antiretroviral therapy for HIV, where prices have long sparked concern, particularly in the US. The results, published in

last year, revealed significant value gains during the 1995-2015 period, with 9.5 million deaths and nearly eight million new HIV infections averted and $1 trillion in global economic benefits. The benefit to society across all regions outweighed costs 3.5:1. 

	The findings, Duenas says, also identified existing treatment gaps, driving home the importance of Gilead and others continuing to invest in the communities most affected by HIV and boost direct-to-consumer education. Revisiting an earlier theme, Duenas dedicated the article and much of his time with Gilead in honor of his uncle

 who passed away from AIDS in 2008 after deciding to stop taking his life-saving antiretroviral therapy. 

	Duenas’s interest in the marriage of data and value took root during his first job in the field, a position with @Futures, LLC, a small pharmaceutical marketing agency in Philadelphia. “They were doing some pretty interesting things with advanced analytics and I fell in love with that piece of it,” he says, pointing to methods such as discrete-choice modeling, forecasting, Monte Carlo simulations, and other advanced statistics.

	Duenas would soon transition into strategy and eventually building commercial infrastructures for hopeful product launches, but those early skills have served him well at each stop, including his current one. Joining Atara in 2018, Duenas, along with his team, has helped to build the company’s full commercial capabilities, including global marketing, market access, analytics, and operations-to support what could be the launch of the first-ever allogenic T-cell immunotherapy for an ultra-rare cancer.  Atara’s lead pipeline candidate is tabelecleucel, currently in Phase III development for patients with relapsed/refractory Epstein-Barr virus-associated post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+PTLD). 

	Duenas spends much of his time contemplating value drivers for tabelecleucel, a process that he says is vastly different from the targeted treatment models he’s studied in the past. EBV+PTLD is an acutely life-threatening condition, and patients may present shortly after transplantation or years later (Atara estimates there are several hundred patients in the US each year). Even among ultra-rare disorders, EBV+PTLD is unique in that these patients have to be identified and administered the therapy very quickly.

	Solving and accounting for these types of complexities is a reminder of the inherent risks involved in developing and commercializing novel drugs. Duenas says he draws motivation from his career setbacks (including a negative FDA decision on VEGF inhibitor tivozanib for kidney cancer while with AVEO Oncology; the drug did win European approval in 2017)-or “the many times I was told no”-as much as the successes when advising people today. He encourages his team members at Atara to embrace risk and push themselves toward ambitious goals. 

	“You have to provide opportunities that stretch people into new areas. That funnels down to this philosophy-there’s no such thing as failure as long as you keep moving forward and apply your learnings,” says Duenas, who earned an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management in 2010. He envisions himself involved in entrepreneurship or transitioning to the C-suite in the next five to 10 years. “Not everything that we come up with will be right at the start. In fact, we might need to pivot the idea five, 10, 25 times until we get it right. But it’s that mental model of if you sit on the sidelines, there’s no chance of winning the game; but when you do try, you can succeed.” 

Sapan Gandhi, Associate Director, Commercial Strategy and Business Development, Cipla

	From an early age, Sapan Gandhi had his journey to the business side of the life sciences industry mapped out pretty clearly. He studied Biotechnology Engineering at Amity University in India, then earned a postgraduate diploma in Brand Management and Marketing. Gandhi moved smoothly into his first roles as a business development executive at iLife Discoveries and territory business manager at Eli Lilly. Encouraged by his boss, Vinod Nair (then National Sales Manager for Eli Lilly India Oncology), he then completed an MBA at the 

School of Inspired Leadership in Guragon. Upon joining Cipla as a management trainee in June 2013, however, he was soon faced with a more unexpected path-a chance to move sideways into operations and become the company’s manager of supply chain and logistics in Europe. 

	“Being in operations was something I didn’t know I wanted,” says Gandhi. And, initially, he was “a bit scared.” He had some theoretical knowledge of how the supply chain worked, but no practical knowledge. Still, he didn’t hesitate in accepting the offer and moving to Belgium for the role. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I was 30, 31 years of age; it was the right time to take a risk, to experiment, to try something new. And I knew it would be helpful in building my career.” 

	Gandhi soon got the hang of operations and started to make his mark as supply chain and logistics manager. He quickly set up efficient processes for negotiating objectively with vendors, for capability building, and for knowledge transfer among the operations team. Gandhi established and managed the Central European distribution Center (CDC) for Cipla Europe and incorporated lean methodology into its inbound logistics. And by implementing continuous improvements in the supply chain process, he targeted key cost-saving opportunities. Ultimately, with the support of a cross-functional team, Gandhi helped to make the company “a multi-million-dollar saving.” Of all his career highlights, he says he is probably most proud of what he achieved during this time in operations, in which he effectively set up Cipla’s entire supply chain structure in Europe. 

	In 2019, Gandhi moved back to the commercial side of the business, when he was tasked with launching in Europe a value-added generic version of the fixed dose combination of tenofovir/lamivudine for the treatment of HIV. Ironically, given that operations had not been part of his initial career vision, Gandhi would now have to prove that he could be as successful outside of operations. He quickly “developed an advanced level knowledge of the HIV therapy and business,” met with key opinion leaders, and worked with the medical affairs and marketing teams to create a scientific case to get the new product included in the European guidelines. 

	“This helped Cipla to get access to various markets and provide alternative and affordable anti-HIV medicines to many patients,” says Gandhi. His efforts helped to complete in 10 months a process that usually takes 18 months. 

	More responsibility followed. By January this year, Gandhi had become Cipla’s associate director, commercial strategy and business development, based in London. He effectively balances three roles within this remit. He is Cipla’s country manager for Norway, where he is working to strengthen the company’s portfolio. He is also 

tasked with building Cipla’s anti-HIV presence in Europe over the next five to 10 years, to increase visibility and grow Cipla “into a very HIV-focused company in Europe.” And Gandhi is looking after the company’s OTC business in the UK. “We’re working on some very interesting projects there,” he says, “such as converting some prescription medicines to OTC medicines, which is a very complex process.” 

	Gandhi seems in no way intimidated by juggling the demands of these different roles. “All the projects I’m working on are at a nascent stage,” he says; “this makes them interesting and challenging for me.” Gandhi notes that he was well aware when he joined Cipla as a management trainee that he would be rotated around different functions and exposed to new processes on a regular basis. Indeed, he’s glad that “the company kept its promise on that.” He has always felt well supported at Cipla, noting particularly the help of his current boss, Anchal Sultania, head of business, Cipla Europe, as well as Christos Kartalis, Cipla’s former CEO of Europe and emerging markets, and Anant Atal, former Chief of Staff and Investor relations, in steering his career journey. 

	Gandhi continues to thrive on new experiences and opportunities for knowledge, even outside work. He is an enthusiastic quiz-taker, for example. In 2013, his team came in fifth out of 200 teams in the city finals of the Tata Crucible Campus Business Quiz in New Delhi, which was broadcast on TV.

	Having racked up an enviable list of accomplishments in just over 10 years in the industry, Gandhi’s goal for the near future is to work in a position “that offers a good combination of both commercial and operations.” 

	He’s keen to take responsibility for the numbers and also for the supply chain or production side, “and help the company grow the next level.” 

	Given Gandhi’s adaptability and commitment to getting results, he looks like the right candidate for such a holistic role. 

Anita Gupta, Senior Vice President of Medical Strategy and Government Affairs, Heron Therapeutics

	If there’s a crisis at hand, Dr. Anita Gupta, senior vice president of medical strategy and government affairs at Heron Therapeutics, is someone we can learn from. She continues to play an integral role in battling the nation’s opioid crisis and is currently engaging with leaders on ways to fight COVID-19. Her diverse background in pharmacy, pain medicine, and public policy has placed her in a unique position to bring important ideas to fruition.

	After receiving her PharmD from Rutgers University, the New Jersey native briefly worked at Akzo Nobel’s

 Organon before attending medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She subsequently practiced anesthesiology and pain medicine for more than 10 years, including at the University of Pennsylvania and later Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. She is currently an appointed member of both the National Academies of Sciences’ Global Forum and the National Quality Forum’s Leadership Consortium focusing on health policy initiatives, and served on the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee at FDA.

	It was during these experiences that Gupta became an international figure in pain management as a frontline leader of the opioid crisis. When the crisis hit, Gupta’s colleagues turned to her as a champion of, and advocate for, patients. She soon became the go-to expert. “I saw I was having an impact but not impact enough. I had a passion to do more. I began to learn how the work I was doing at the FDA tied together with innovation and could drive global impact.”

	At that point, Gupta was recruited by Heron Therapeutics, a company with a focus on the opioid crisis and oncology. Heron’s mission seemed perfectly aligned with her background-making global impact on the opioid crisis, pain, and palliative care. Gupta realized that her earlier work as a PharmD could help drive a successful career in industry.

	“Heron has done a lot of work on the opioid crisis and was the first company to develop a non-opioid investigational product that received all accelerated pathway approvals-from fast track to breakthrough designation and priority review. I’m thrilled to work not only on the opioid crisis but [to gain] experience on leading national emergencies.”

	Dealing with the opioid crisis from various perspectives along the way has been extremely satisfying for Gupta. “It’s been a phenomenal journey viewing it from the pharmacist’s side when Oxycontin was being developed, to a clinical setting where it was prescribed, then seeing problems turn into serious policy issues, and now coming to the innovation space where we’re working to find a breakthrough therapeutic solution,” she says. “I’ve been grateful to be part of it.”

	One of her proudest moments was being one of the first women anesthesiologists to lead the expansion of naloxone as an opioid overdose antidote through the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

	As part of her opioid crisis work, Gupta has worked with many senior government officials in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Health and Human Services, FDA, and the White House. Those relationships led to her being asked to work on the current pandemic. “It’s been a great opportunity to help lead and better our understanding of how to handle national emergencies, how to address drug-related issues in governance, in companies, and to be agile when we’re dealing with serious public health issues and drug development,” says Gupta.

The big and small relationships Gupta has made along the way haven’t just provided her with professional advice, guidance, and confidence; they also have yielded benefits to society at large. “I wouldn’t be where I am without personal connections and mentoring,” she says. “I sometimes look at the relationships I’ve made and say, ‘I’m glad we’re friends, because those connections have [contributed to creating] initiatives that have helped.’”

	Though people often see her as a leader, Gupta doesn’t mind sharing the spotlight. As a mentor herself, she has learned that people often want to lead; they just need to be given encouragement and opportunity. “People don’t always know they are [leaders], but identifying them as a leader, giving them course, direction, purpose, and guardrails, and letting them take it from there is important,” says Gupta. “Giving people the power to believe in themselves and that the work they’re doing is important. As executive leaders, we need to make sure they have a purpose and patient-centric mission.”

	As Gupta advances her career as an executive leader, she plans to continue her dedication to developing global solutions, either in pharmaceuticals or medical devices. In that future, Gupta would love to see increased purpose in the industry. She hopes more people who are public health focused and have scientific know-how will commit their energy to the pharma industry. “We need people on both sides to make a difference and drive change,” she says.

	Another way to effect change is listening to patients. Gupta learned this in 2017, when she was diagnosed and later cured of a rare disease. That process inspired her to become an advocate for patients whose voices are often unheard. She works closely with the Milken Institute and FDA on elevating the patient’s voice while working with drug development. She is also on the board of directors of HealthyWomen, serving communities where women’s voices may be minimized.

	Gupta is based in California, where she enjoys spending time with family. “I learned a long time ago that work is not everything,” she says. “As much as it’s important, I believe family and service to humanity come first. I’ve tried to combine and align that with my work. I tell my kids what I do, and they try to embody that in their life, too.” 

David K. Lee, CEO, Servier Pharmaceuticals

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Pharm Exec presents the diverse stories of 11 rising biopharma managers.

Pharm Exec's Emerging Pharma Leaders 2020

By the time the devastating potential of COVID-19 was really beginning to shake the governments of countries outside China, many international AI drug discovery companies were ramping up efforts to identify existing drugs and new molecules that could be used to treat the virus. At the beginning of February, South Korean company Deargen reported that its deep learning-based model MT-DTI, for example, had revealed the potential of the 

HIV medication atazanavir to bind and block a prominent protein on the outside of SARS-CoV-2, the virus strain that causes COVID-19.

	At the same time, Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine, using AI algorithms to design new molecules that could limit the virus’s ability to replicate, published the structures of six potentially effective molecules. In the UK, startup BenevolentAI published a short article in 

that highlighted baricitinib (marketed as Olumiant in the US), a once-daily pill developed by Eli Lilly and Incyte and approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as the most likely of six compounds that it had identified to potentially block the cellular pathway that allows the coronavirus into cells to make more virus particles.

	While worldwide AI efforts to identify treatments are ongoing, BenevolentAI’s suggested treatment, baricitinib, moved to the next level on April 11 when Lilly announced that the drug had entered a randomized-controlled trial in COVID-19 patients. “Lilly is moving at top speed and using all available resources to help fight this pandemic,” commented Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer. Results of randomized-controlled trials of baricitinib for the treatment of COVID-19 in the US, Canada, Denmark, and Spain are expected in the next few months.

	BenevolentAI’s focus is usually on identifying potential new therapies, but the COVID-19 outbreak saw it concentrate on established medicines that can be quickly moved into clinical trials, Peter Richardson, the company’s vice president of pharmacology, told 

. He added that “life science and technology companies have a duty to mobilize resources for the public good in the current global health emergency.”

	With powerful platforms at their disposal, AI companies are able to act with an urgency that leaves other drug discovery companies looking inert. It took around three days, for example, for BenevolentAI to identify baricitinib as a potential COVID-19 treatment option.

	The company set up a team to deploy its tools, models, and algorithms to explore the biomedical “Knowledge Graph” that it has curated over the last five years, and which draws on “vast quantities of mined and inferred biomedical data,” to assess treatment options, Richardson explains. Data was pulled from various structured and unstructured biomedical sources, curated, and then fed into the Knowledge Graph, which further contextualized the relevant omics data, clinical data, and scientific literature.

	With the Knowledge Graph “rich in mammalian biology,” BenevolentAI’s scientists looked for ways to inhibit the cellular process that the coronavirus uses to infect human cells-the process of endocytosis, whereby the virus attaches to the surface of a cell and is then absorbed inside-rather than focus on drugs that could inhibit the virus directly. Although baricitinib is currently approved for use as an RA treatment, BenevolentAI’s studies suggest that it could slow down endocytosis and reduce the ability of the virus to infect lung cells. 

	Of course, at this point in the crisis trajectory, AI’s power is being harnessed to crunch the data and alert drug companies and healthcare systems to potential treatments, rather than being posited as a “solution” to the overall problem. Indeed, in its 

 paper, BenevolentAI cautioned that its findings should not be taken as medical advice about COVID-19 treatment or prevention, but were offered “to assist in the global response” to the virus.

	It now of course falls on time-honored clinical research methods to establish the safety and efficacy of any particular drug in treating COVID-19 patients (it has been pointed out that baricitinib already carries a warning that the drug could actually make infections worse). But whether or not the new trials achieve the desired results, without AI, says Richardson, we wouldn’t know how long it would have taken to identify baricitinib as a contender in the battle against the virus (or, indeed, if it would’ve been identified at all). One thing we can be sure of is that AI “significantly sped up the process.”

’s European and Online Editor. He can be reached at 

Columns

Hunting for effective treatments, tools offer support in global fight.

AI: Kickstarting the Race Against COVID-19

Finding the right talent to fill leadership positions is never easy. But when the market is flooded with opportunities and the coveted qualifications are specialized, the task becomes a real issue. This is a current concern for many biotech companies looking to fill chief financial officer (CFO) positions. The recent biotech explosion combined with a desired candidate skill set that includes life sciences and capital markets experience has created a 

demand for a specific type of CFO that simply outstrips the supply.

	According to investment banking firm Young & Partners, 2018 was a banner year for initial public offerings (IPOs), with 68 of them worth $7.4 billion. The first three quarters of 2019 followed with 38 IPOs worth $4.3 billion. This indicates a growing number of companies looking to fill CFO positions.

	The problem is, traditional CFO skills often fall short when it comes to biotech. Holding the title of CFO at a company that has no earnings but rather spends money to develop potential revenue opportunities is quite different than being a CFO in many other industries. Beyond needing a nontraditional business mind, it requires an understanding of the science involved and an ability to explain that science to others.

	“Life sciences is unlike a lot of other industries where you can walk in, figure out the P&L and how the company actually makes money, and communicate that to investors,” says Barbara Ryan, founder of Barbara Ryan Advisors and a 

Editorial Advisory Board member. “At the end of the day, there are just not enough [qualified] people for these opportunities. The question becomes: What can companies do to fill that void?”

	There are a variety of approaches organizations can take. One option is to lure a CFO from another successful biotech. Because these CFOs are in demand, however, making an attractive offer can be costly.

	A CFO from a less successful biotech might be a better option. A company’s disappointing clinical trials or inability to gain more capital could make a CFO eager to find an opportunity with stronger prospects. Of course, the new CFO would need to be introduced to the stakeholders, including investors, analysts, and bankers, which takes time.

	In cases where a biotech loses its CFO to another company, it’s important to have a strong succession plan so that people below can step in, either temporarily or permanently. This ring of aspiring CFOs can also be tapped for talent, whether they rise from within or outside the company. These first-time CFOs have a history in biotech and have a sense of the job.

	Cross-sourcing between biotech and pharma is another possible recruiting route. As pharma has consolidated, aspiring pharma CFOs have had fewer opportunities than in the past. Therefore, these individuals may be more compelled to take a risk to secure the title of CFO. “The risk profiles [of pharma and biotech] are dramatically different, and that can be attractive or unattractive to certain individuals,” says Ryan. “Some people actually like the risk and want to take it, and some people shy away from it.”

	Hiring a CFO from a different industry is another possibility, but it requires an investment in training and education for them to become comfortable enough with the science to communicate about it with investors.

	For a candidate well-versed in the capital markets, some companies may look to Wall Street. A pharma or biotech analyst or banker would come with a deep knowledge of the science side and strong relationships with the Street and investors.

	“If you hire someone from Wall Street, they may be a better-known entity to your stakeholders, but then you have to train them on the inside stuff,” says Ryan. “As first-time CFOs, they will have to learn all of the things they will be responsible for, and having a strong support staff in place can help.”

	Finally, companies that are private but plan on going public may not want or need a full-time CFO just yet and might consider a virtual CFO company such as Danforth Advisors. Ideal for a transitional situation, these consulting firms provide a CFO who may be working for a handful of companies. After working with a virtual CFO, a company might even pursue that person to join the team full-time when the time comes.

	While the competition may be fierce, these myriad options can help ensure an organization hires a successful CFO. All it takes is careful consideration to determine what exactly works best for each individual company.

’s Senior Editor. She can be reached at 

Examining today’s go-to options in landing a successful CFO as role evolves. 

Competition for Biotech CFOs is Heating Up

A wonderful aspect of biopharma is the confluence of medicine, science, engineering, and business, all working together to advance a deeply shared mission: healthier lives, improving healthcare, and alleviation of suffering. It’s been a privilege working with the extraordinary diversity of people that it takes to make our industry work.

	My goal in this column is to explore the idea of sustainability in biopharma. As I think of 

it, “sustainability” refers to a company’s non-financial strategy and performance, the elements needed, in addition to a profitable business model, to drive long-term value for all stakeholders. These elements of sustainable business performance are often categorized into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) topics. Sustainability is a perspective that integrates these different elements, one that has grown up in response to a wide range of stakeholder and regulatory concerns, and that is becoming an essential part of long-term business strategy.

	The idea of sustainability has been sweeping through the international business world recently, as more and more research shows that effectively managing material ESG challenges also delivers above-average long-term financial returns. (A good point of entry here is 

The Comprehensive Case for Business Sustainabilit

Sustainability as BlackRock’s new Standard for Investing

 is the most recent statement on this front, from Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock).

	So, what does “sustainability” mean specifically for biopharma?  We’re not major emitters of CO2 like transportation, and we don’t damage the environment by our operations like resource extractors. Why is this idea essential to our long-term success? 

	The answer starts with identifying the specific ESG topics that matter most for biopharma companies, and thinking about how they relate to the core mission of our industry. Over the past two years I’ve helped facilitate a Biopharma Investor ESG Communications Initiative, which brought biopharma and investor representatives together in a collaborative process aimed at improving communications between them.

	The two groups converged on a shared pool of high-priority ESG topics for the sector. The topics are not ranked, as specific priorities vary widely from one company to another, reflecting different therapeutic specialties and business strategies. The consensus, however, is that all biopharmas should at least address this core set of topics when communicating with investors.

	The topics include access to healthcare and medicine pricing; business ethics, integrity, and compliance; climate change; clinical trial practices; ESG governance; environmental impacts; human capital management; innovation in therapeutics, diagnostics, and business models; pharmaceuticals in the environment and anti-microbial resistance; product quality and patient safety; risk and crisis management; and supply chain management. 

	How can these ESG topics help frame our thinking about a challenge like the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance? So far, there’s been a huge emphasis on innovation, both in terms of new diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines, and on collaborations that can accelerate R&D or production scale-up. But we need to address a much wider scope-almost every topic has a bearing on our response, and failing to address any of them will diminish the outcome of our efforts and the public perception of our industry for years to come. Take, for example, risk and crisis management. There are already indications that companies with better ESG performance are also doing better handling the crisis. An effective governance model for non-financial performance is the basis for an effective and coordinated response. 

	Access to healthcare and medicine pricing will have their turn on the frontlines, too, hopefully sooner rather than later. There will be huge pressures to allow early access, and to scale-up not just manufacturing but also equitable global distribution and delivery, while keeping prices low. 

	There’s a concept called the “social license to operate,” which refers to the broad social stance on the value of biopharma, and the laws, regulations, and social conventions that allow us to operate profitable research-based businesses on a sustainable long-term basis. What is the social value we’ll deliver over the next months and years? Will the outcome be a jumble of high-priced treatments available only in developed markets, or will it be an improved global healthcare system that adds to our resilience and helps put our society back on a healthy footing? 

, Director, Meridian Management Consultants, and Co-Founder of the Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable. He can be reached at 

The commercial and social value of non-financial performance.

Biopharma Sustainability Considered Essential

	In January this year, BDO’s Life Sciences practice released a study of 100 mid-market chief financial officers (CFOs) in the US. 

 reported that life sciences CFOs are turning increasingly to outcomes-based arrangements amid growing public pressure to curb product prices and declining return on investment (ROI) from R&D. The BDO report revealed that, amid growing pricing pressures, 43% of CFOs expected a recession by 2021 or sooner, and in response, are pursuing more outcomes-based contracts with 

providers (53%) and payers (33%). CFOs also advocated a more focused-“and cutthroat”-approach to R&D, with 78% saying their organization is planning to increase R&D spending in 2020, but from a “more refined” perspective. Nearly half (46%) of respondents, for example, had pulled the plug on a research project in the past 12 months because of ROI concerns. The study went on to show that CFOs are looking to focus investment on preventative, more personalized treatments, with diagnostics, consumables, and immunotherapies ranking as the top three areas of research.

	The study was based on a survey conducted in the fall of 2019, so there has been an inevitable shift of focus among industry CFOs in the intervening months. Looking at the study in the light of COVID-19,

spoke to BDO Managing Director Patti Seymour, MBA, CSCP, who offers further commentary on the relevant points in the face of recent events.

PE: What, initially, did you see as the key messages from the 

There’s been a tremendous amount of pressure across the industry to curb drug prices and product prices overall. This isn’t new, of course; it’s something that the industry has been facing for many years. Many commentators have cited the statistic that 30% of Americans who take a prescription medicine have seen their out-of-pocket expenses increase significantly over the last 12 months. For a lot of life science organizations, part of the challenge is that drug pricing regulations negatively impact their business. While they understand there is an issue, they are concerned about the capping or controlling of prices.

	As a result, many of the industry leaders are turning toward outcome-based arrangements as a potentially more

 sustainable way to move forward. Life sciences companies are looking to advance with these outcomes-based arrangements directly with the provider or with a payer.

	If we look at healthcare providers treating diabetic patients, for example, that would involve making sure that patients take their insulin, modify their diets, get their exercise, etc. In other areas, life sciences companies are really focusing their investments on preventative and early-detection measures to help with disease management.

	We’re certainly seeing significant growth in diagnostics. Consumables and wearables are another growing area. And then there are other types of leading-edge innovative modalities-cell and gene therapy-that the industry is focusing on.

	However, as we know, between the fall of 2019 and today, some unexpected things have risen to the top of these leaders’ concerns. Not least is supply chain disruption. COVID-19 started in China, which is the second-largest exporter of drugs and biologics to the US. We will certainly begin to feel the implications of those supply chain disruptions in the coming weeks and months.

	Those operational challenges are really going to impact lean manufacturing. In theory, lean supply chains are very successful for manufacturers, but this set of circumstances will be very disruptive to that.

PE: How can the life sciences CFO work to promote sustainable industry models?

 One of the big areas we see are risk-mitigation, disaster-recovery approaches, especially regarding the supply chain. These approaches are fundamentally important in the face of natural disasters, equipment failure, pandemics of course, and other crises. What are the company’s plans to continue supplying, or obtain material from another supplier? CFOs play an enormous role in this sense, and this function typically falls under a CFO’s responsibility. They need to be very aware and proactive about their disaster-recovery programs and ensure they are reviewed periodically in the light of all the different things that could happen to their supply chain.

PE: The survey talks about CFO’s developing a more “cutthroat approach” to R&D? What is that?

 The fast-to-failure approach has been pretty common for the last couple of years. By that I mean companies develop a modality and get it into the clinic as quickly as possible to see if the modality and the indication will lead to competitive outcomes in the marketplace. Fast-to-failure approaches allow organizations 

to begin and end research programs quickly, so they only keep the most promising products in their portfolio and can redeploy scarce resources to promising drugs in their pipeline.

	One example of this is a company called  Biofourmis, a startup that is using biosensors to gather information from patients while their artificial intelligence analytics identifies changes in their health. This process allows the providers and payers to have real outcomes-based data. Drugs and therapeutic modalities are being used in concert with devices and wearables to achieve these outcomes-based ends and allow companies to invest only in those medicines and therapeutics that are actually going to benefit the patient.

PE: We’re in an election year-what are CFOs going to be looking at as people go to the polls?

 As mentioned, outcomes-based frameworks and cell and gene therapy are important. The latter is an exploding area. While they still make up a small percentage of all the therapies being developed, they truly offer transformative possibilities. But they are enormously expensive, so, for our clients, we are following the conversations around how to reimburse them very closely. So, CFOs will obviously be homing in on that in the run-up to the election.

PE: The survey revealed that about 43% of CFOs expected a recession. Today, they might be certain of it. But there was some optimism. How are CFOs planning to weather the oncoming recession?

 Well, as you point out, this survey was completed prior to what’s going on right now. But I think what’s going on will force CFOs to be even more laser-focused on the most promising modalities, and to really look at the most innovative technologies and the ones with the best outcomes. CFOs are also looking to other enabling technologies, such as continuous manufacturing. We hope to see more adoption of that, although it is 

challenging. A lack of equipment and some regulatory issues have hampered efforts in continuous manufacturing.

	But the industry and the regulators have been working quite collaboratively to oversee and approve these types of processes, which present something of a paradigm shift in getting products manufactured quickly and cost effectively.

	Perhaps the COVID-19 situation will further stimulate the adoption of continuous manufacturing because of the need to work quickly to produce diagnostics or therapeutics.

’s European and Online Editor. He can be reached at 

BDO Managing Director Patti Seymour discusses the key findings from BDO’s recent life sciences CFO study-and how change and volatility from COVID-19 will reshape fundamental approaches to business sustainability. 

CFOs Outlook: Forging a Sustainable Future

Fears that biopharmaceutical companies will set too high prices on new therapies and vaccines to protect against the pandemic has spurred proposals to limit patents or set controls on prices of critical medicines. While some members of Congress urge more attention to prices and potential profits on anticipated therapies, international health organizations and national authorities are seeking to ensure access to any promising 

	In the US, extensive support for COVID-19 research by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies and academic research centers has increased calls for ensuring that future prices consider that significant taxpayer support. Some analysts are highlighting a provision under the Bayh-Dole Act that would enable the federal government to “march in” and seize the patent of a product developed with public research funding if it fails to be made available under “reasonable” terms financially. Similar policies apply to US universities that hold patents on biomedical discoveries from their own labs that advanced due to federal support. 

	Pharma companies are announcing plans for producing hundreds of millions of doses of any therapy or vaccine found effective against the pandemic, as multiple research programs move from early testing stages to clinical trials. One incentive may be to avoid being unable to supply sufficient quantities of an effective new drug, which could open the door for the federal government to authorize other biopharmaceutical entities to also produce the product. 

	Meanwhile, international authorities are promoting strategies that support access to new treatments. The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering establishing a voluntary pool to collect patent rights and product testing information that could be shared to develop such products. This mechanism for pooling technologies and information, which was outlined recently by Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, would calculate the cost of clinical trials and other tests, along with public subsidies supporting such efforts, to determine “reasonable and affordable” terms for product pricing to help poorer nations gain access to needed medicines and vaccines.

	The existing Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) responded by expanding its mandate to include health technology related to COVID-19.

 Supported by UNITAID, which funds more than $1 billion in projects to advance global health and biomedical innovation, the MPP has expertise with licensing and IP policies that could advance efforts for ensuring equitable and timely access to drugs and diagnostics for vulnerable populations hit by the pandemic.

	These initiatives may gain some industry support as preferable to compulsory licensing actions that have emerged in multiple regions. Canada’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Act contains a clause that permits compulsory licensing to address drug shortages during the pandemic. Brazilian lawmakers also have proposed permitting the government to temporarily suspend patents on drugs needed to combat COVID-19 or other similar public health emergency. And a broader “no patent” policy for medicines, diagnostics or vaccines developed to thwart the pandemic was advocated by Doctors Without Borders.

	It remains to be seen if efforts to limit pharma intellectual protections during the pandemic will lead to more targeted patent reform in the US and abroad. Complex IP policies and long exclusivity periods often are blamed for boosting drug prices at home and for delaying access to new biosimilars. Congress has considered legislation challenging brand strategies to limit generic drug competition, but most changes remain on hold. 

	Meanwhile, patent issues have figured visibly in recent trade negotiations. The U.S.-China trade deal finalized in January includes provisions for the Chinese government to inform pharma firms when a competitor’s plan to introduce a generic drug or biosimilar that might infringe on the brand’s patent rights. China also says it will extend patent terms in cases where these issues delay marketing approvals.

	However, companies lost an important protection in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiated last year when the Trump administration agreed to drop a provision providing 10-year market exclusivity for biologics. Despite strong protests from industry, House Democrats insisted on the change as important for controlling drug prices, and the negotiators did not want to jeopardize the much broader trade deal, with important provisions for famers and labor, over a narrow patent issue.   

	Congress could similarly move to limit biotech exclusivity in future drug pricing legislation. Innovators insist that IP protections of 10 or 12 years are critical to supporting life-saving R&D, while reformers promote tighter terms as key to promoting competition and broader access to therapies.  

’s Washington Correspondent. She can be reached at 

 https://unitaid.org/news-blog/medicines-patent-pool-and-unitaid-respond-to-access-efforts-for-covid-19-treatments-and-technologies/#en

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/msf-pharma-no-profiteering-coronavirus-pandemic

Proposals around the globe seek to ensure access to any promising treatments.

Drive for COVID-19 Therapies Raises Patent and Pricing Issues

When I discussed writing a monthly finance column for 

 with Editorial Director Lisa Henderson a few months ago, I never imagined that my first installment would focus on a once-in-a-100-year storm. COVID-19 dominates all things around the globe, including normally recession-resilient biotech. Leaders in the space have been forced to examine their portfolios under a critical eye, assessing cash 

burn, access to clinical trial networks, and viability post-COVID-19.

	In five short (or long) weeks, the pandemic crashed the economy, US unemployment exceeded 22 million, and retail sales have shown the greatest declines on record. Overnight, we will be living through the largest drop in GDP in history and the biggest increase in unemployment ever. The effects of these steep and rapid shocks will echo well into the future and beyond the near-term period of social distancing that triggered them. 

	Markets have plunged, interest rates are nearly zero, and Amazon, Netflix, and Zoom are among the “go-to” stocks as the obvious beneficiaries of quarantine. 

	The world is counting on biopharma to come up with the therapies and vaccines key to ending this pandemic, saving lives, and reopening economies. First responders are today’s heroes, risking their lives on the front lines of a system ill-prepared to protect them and to manage the overflow of COVID-19 patients.

	No surprise, biopharma stocks have outperformed the markets due to the prospects for therapies and vaccines, as well as their defensive nature, which make the industry a classic outperformer in an economic downturn. As I write this, the premarkets are soaring on early reports from STAT News of encouraging preliminary results for Gilead’s remdesivir against COVID-19. The Nasdaq Biotech ETF is currently trading above its late 2019 and early 2020 highs. In theory, the group has more room to run.

	Last month, the NIH announced it was launching a sweeping public-private partnership between federal researchers and 16 big pharma companies called Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV). The collaboration aims to standardize and prioritize research into drugs and vaccines that have high near-term potential.

	COVID-19, however, will also drive sustained challenges for the biotech industry and, for some companies, threaten their existence. Most development-stage biotechs lack revenues or earnings to fund their businesses, but instead are serial capital raisers highly dependent on capital markets to bankroll their pipelines. Clinical data is often the currency required to tap the markets and raise necessary funds, but new clinical trials and almost everything non-urgent, non-COVID-related is currently shut down or on hold.

	Biotechs must evaluate how to extend their cash runways and act with urgency to reprioritize programs, ring-fence critical efforts, and deemphasize, drop, or delay others. Venture debt should be considered where equity financing would be highly dilutive, if even available. “We view the current dislocation as an opportunity to invest in and support some of the best management teams and companies,” said Parag Shah, CEO and founding managing director of K2 HealthVentures. Partnering may create options for biotechs as well. Large biopharmas with lots of cash will likely seek to take advantage of the current dislocation to enhance their portfolios. 

	During and post-pandemic, it is absolutely critical that companies control what they can with intent and precision. That means, along with strategies to extend cash runways, asking the following:

	• Is your portfolio still relevant and viable in this new world? 

	• Does your portfolio have access to a clinical trial network? Many of these will be constrained for a protracted period of time. Those targeting high unmet need, such as drugs/vaccines, will be the first brought back online. Are you one of them?  

	The bottom line is that programs with questionable value before COVID-19 should likely be repurposed, if possible, or dropped now. An explicit strategic plan is required, one which spans the spectrum and implications of a modest or moderate delay, or an extended delay, with scenario planning around each.

	In the words of Maya Angelou, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and be unsurprised by anything in between.” 

is Founder, Barbara Ryan Advisors, and a member of 

Rocked by pandemic, can companies protect their bottom line?

Biotech in the Age of COVID: The Pain and the Gain

	While the world faces an unprecedented challenge in the shape of COVID-19, the pharmaceutical industry is facing its own challenge-an unprecedented level of expectation and scrutiny. Why hasn’t this huge and hugely profitable industry got any answer to the disease, the world is asking. And if it can’t deliver reliable tests and treatments, isn’t there something wrong with the system, the world wants to know.

	The naivety of the questions may shock. But the widespread public dismay and public disappointment at the 

current apparent impotence are going to play a powerful role in the inquests on the other side of the pandemic. In Europe, the fallout could mean fundamental shifts both in the pharmaceutical sector and in the policy context.

	The stakes are high-and so is the visibility. “Societies will have to live with the virus until a vaccine or treatment is found,” stated  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as she delivered the EU’s proposals for lifting COVID-19 containment measures in mid-April. A compliment to the power of therapeutics, but also turning the attention of the whole of locked-down Europe onto the research community and the healthcare industries. The pressure on the sector has never been so intense.

	And this is only the start. Even when treatments or preventive agents are found, any jubilation will rapidly turn to resentment if the prices charged are considered too high, or the patent protection around them limits their availability. Expectations about wide access have been driven by establishment figures as much as by health campaigners. French President Emmanuel Macron insists that medicines and vaccines against the virus must be made available to Africa “without any question of protecting intellectual property or of money.” The World Health Organization is exploring the development of a COVID-19 patent pool. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, says a COVID-19 vaccine “must become available and affordable for everyone, everywhere,” and “be considered a global public good.” The EU’s chief diplomat, Spain’s Josep Borrell, said: “We must pool resources to produce new treatments and a vaccine, which should be regarded as a global public good.” And even the center-right European People’s Party group in the European Parliament is urging EU coordination to ensure availability of “hundreds of millions of vaccines.”

	At the same time, seismic rumblings presage changes in the regulatory and political environment. With cooperation as the new mantra, WHO Europe is urging “strong international cooperation and a coordinated response in the public interest,” and EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has urged G7 health ministers to work together on COVID-19 vaccines development. European authorities are acquiring a new status in centralizing activities hitherto the preserve of national authorities-from observational studies of real-world data for COVID-19 medicines to procurement and stockpiling of therapies, and from investigation of convalescent plasma transfusion to tackling drug shortages. The European Parliament is openly called for EU institutions to be given greater powers to act on health issues, and for repatriation of EU medicines production, and members of the European Parliament are warming to promoting affordable access to medicines, guarantees of public returns on public investment, and compulsory licenses. Even asset managers, pension funds, and insurers are calling for international cooperation within the pharmaceutical industry to combat the virus.

	The attention is fuelling earlier criticisms of monopolistic “price gouging”-and Andreas Mundt, head of Germany’s powerful anti-trust agency, the Kartellamt, has warned: “Companies can work together to get over difficulties caused by COVID-19, but don’t you dare go fixing prices.” Meanwhile, claims by campaigners multiply that promising treatments in clinical trials could be priced between 30 cents and $3 for a full course.

	The biopharmaceutical industry in Europe has constantly reiterated its commitment to collaborative efforts to fight the outbreak. It is likely to find itself, once the outbreak has been successfully fought, working just as hard to defend its former autonomy, as the general determination to make Europe less vulnerable to the next pandemic translates into a new and less friendly normal. A radical review of the political infrastructure and business model for healthcare seems an inevitability for next year-with the prospect of “a new understanding of vaccines and pharmaceuticals as common goods.” 

Reflector is Pharmaceutical Executive’s correspondent in Brussels

Pandemic fallout could spell fundamental business and policy shifts.

A New, Less Friendly Normal Looms for European Drugmakers

	The fallout from the unprecedented global spread of COVID-19 is only starting to be felt in the life science sector-and without a quick resolution to the crisis, headwinds into the second and third quarters of 2020, and beyond, are likely to be significant. The following are four key areas that will need thoughtful contingency planning from both an operational and communications perspective. Now is the time for companies to consider formalizing their Issues Management Team (IMT) and developing a concrete plan, addressing various levels of crisis/issues to prepare for success.

	With the economy and markets now solidly in bear market territory, funding and liquidity is increasingly top-of-mind with both up-and-coming biotech and established players. Stock market woes are making money tight, and the traditional channels such as face-to-face conferences are grinding to a halt, with the domino effect of industry conference cancellations and postponements. At the same time, company travel restrictions and work-from-home mandates are making roadshows untenable. According to NVCA/Pitchbook, investors have raised more than $210 billion since 2016 and there is ample dry powder in the market to put to work, although there will be a focus on biotech and drug discovery deemed as “essential businesses” versus lifestyle- focused medicines. In this new landscape, companies that are able to pivot to new ways of telling their differentiated story, accepting delays caused by the pandemic, providing transparency, and using unique digital communications in the form of virtual presentations and investor outreach will come out ahead. 

	The health system’s overwhelming focus on addressing the coronavirus pandemic and capacity strains put on medical professionals, hospitals, and health systems could result in delays in the completion of clinical trials, not to mention recruitment. Focus on combatting the pandemic will also limit key FDA interactions for many companies and potential missed milestones could result in development timelines being pushed out. It is important to get in front of these disruptions and communicate clearly to your key stakeholder audiences and having a framework in place will jump-start your efforts. Many companies have provided updates to investors, clinical site directors, patient groups, and consumers. Those not taking the chance to reset expectations on their product plans are missing both an opportunity for a pass for a potential delay and reenforcing company reputation. 

#3. Manufacturing and supply chain disruptions

	A lopsided portion of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in drug manufacturing and components in med tech products and devices are now contracted with China and other Asian countries hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Manufacturing and supply chain disruptions are a very real threat to our industry and have to be addressed clearly to instill confidence. It is somewhat unclear about the direct impact of supply chain delays to the bottom line, although many commercial stage companies have reported that it won’t have a material impact on financial results. It has been reported that some companies’ China operations are slowly returning to normality and manufacturing alternatives are being sought in India and the European Union.

	Just as industry and investor conferences are being canceled and postponed, so are medical meetings. In the absence of these meetings, it will be incumbent upon companies to develop alternative and compelling virtual or digital means to present their data. Digitally presenting your data and summarizing your poster presentation is one creative way of addressing this and posting to your website. Company executives of all levels must now come prepared to present their data in a new online channel, with perhaps a different set of attendees than the coveted oral presentation at a major medical meeting provides. Be prepared for those presentations to be shared in social media channels. There could not be a more important time to open your digital and social channels, with clear policies in place. 

The key industry areas that will experience downstream pressures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pharmaceutical Executive-05-01-2020

Pharm Exec's Emerging Pharma Leaders 2020

AI: Kickstarting the Race Against COVID-19

Competition for Biotech CFOs is Heating Up

Biopharma Sustainability Considered Essential

CFOs Outlook: Forging a Sustainable Future

Drive for COVID-19 Therapies Raises Patent and Pricing Issues

Biotech in the Age of COVID: The Pain and the Gain

A New, Less Friendly Normal Looms for European Drugmakers

COVID-19: Four Challenges for Issue Management Teams

How Prepared Were Doctors for the COVID Digital Upswing?

Pharmaceutical Executive, May 2020 Issue (PDF)

Pharmaceutical Executive, May 2020 Issue (PDF)

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