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Articles

As a reputation driver, ethical behavior has increased steadily in importance over the last three years.

The Rise and Fall of Pharma Reputations

The flaw lies not in the lack of patient information, but rather in the way they process it.

Direct to Consumer: HIV and Adherence

Ian Baer, Founder and Chief Soothsayer, Sooth, discusses their recent data and research about some massive behavioral shifts occurring across Gen-Z, and how pharmaceutical companies and healthcare advertising agencies can adapt their strategies to attract the ever elusive generation.

Ian Baer, Founder and Chief Soothsayer of the strategic insights platform and pharma marketing consultancy Sooth, has been solving marketing’s greatest challenges for over three decades. He has spent his career helping major biotech and pharmaceutical brands achieve extraordinary success and challenger brands box above their weight class in leadership roles with Publicis Groupe, TBWA, Rapp, Deutsch, and others. He is a contributing writer for industry-specific and national publications including Adweek, Forbes and Digiday along with a frequent speaker at leading national conferences including Advertising Week, Social Media Week, Digiday, DMA Annual, Marketing Forum, and the 4A’s.

 bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Podcasts

Ian Baer, Founder and Chief Soothsayer, Sooth, discusses how pharmaceutical companies and healthcare advertising agencies can adapt their strategies to attract Gen-Z.

Gen-Z Influence on Pharma M&A

In the podcast, Mohit Manrao, the SVP and head of US oncology at AstraZeneca, shares his journey from growing up in Northern India with aspirations of becoming a doctor, to leading oncology initiatives at AstraZeneca in the US. A central strategy to ultimately eliminate cancer includes ensuring that the latest scientific advancements are accessible to patients in every zip code and the necessity of integrating the patient perspective at every stage—from early discovery to commercialization, recognizing the importance of diverse patient needs, non-invasive diagnostics, and alleviating challenges in access to screenings and treatments.

Mohit Manrao, Senior Vice President, US Oncology Business Unit, AstraZeneca is responsible for leading commercial strategy and maximizing performance of AstraZeneca’s expansive oncology portfolio. Prior to assuming his current role in 2022, Mohit served as Vice President, Global Franchise Head Lung Cancer since 2020. Mohit joined AstraZeneca in 2012, holding various roles at the market-, regional-, and global-levels across geographies, including Head of UK Oncology and Head of Daiichi Sankyo Alliance Europe.

The editors of Pharmaceutical Executivebring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Join us as Mohit Manrao, SVP and head of US oncology at AstraZeneca, shares his patient-centered approach to transforming cancer care, bridging the gap between innovative science and tangible patient outcomes across all populations on a global scale. 

Transforming Cancer Care: Data, AI, and Patient-Centered Care   

Welcome to a riveting episode of the Pharm Exec podcast, where we dive headfirst into the transformative world of AI in healthcare with Sharlene Jenner, vice president of engagement strategy with the award-winning agency Abelson Taylor. This enlightening conversation traverses the advancements and potential risks of AI, the revolution it is stirring in pharmaceutical marketing, and its game-changing role in understanding complex protein structures. Amid the rapid innovation, we explore the urgent need for ethical guidelines and regulations to keep pace with technology.

Sharlene Jenner, vice president of engagement strategy with Abelson Taylor, has over 18 years in the strategy and digital field and is an industry speaker and coach/mentor. Jenner teaches a course on "Artificial Intelligence and Personalization for Digital Marketers" for Southern Methodist University. She is passionate about developing interactions through emerging technologies that bridge gaps, creating opportunities and helping companies leverage their strengths for success. She has leadership experience in a variety of industries including hotel/hospitality, consumer goods, small business, retail marketing, domestic manufacturing, staffing and health care. This diverse past gives her a unique perspective when it comes to translating marketing strategy to its digital components for all kinds of consumers. Jenner is an empathetic servant leader who focuses on creating high performing teams and helping others succeed. She was named a Top Woman Leader in Dallas in 2022. Jenner has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Texas-Dallas and a master’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Senior editor Fran Pollaro chats with Sharlene Jenner, vice president of engagement strategy, Abelson Taylor about the transformative impact and ethical considerations of AI in the pharmaceutical industry, emphasizing its potential in data analysis and marketing, while also highlighting the pioneering work of AI companies in advancing drug discovery.

AI Frontiers: Navigating the Risks, Rewards, and Regulations

This Pharma 50 companion episode delves into the vital topic of trust within the pharmaceutical industry. Morten Nielsen, senior partner for the life sciences practice at Wittkieffer, dissects the concept, drawing on parallels to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and discusses practical methods for measuring and operationally improving trust. This episode is a must-listen for those interested in understanding the current state and future evolution of trust in the pharmaceutical sector, an industry where trust forms a fundamental pillar for delivering on its mission statement.

A senior partner for the Life Sciences Practice at WittKieffer, Morten Nielsen (he/him) has more than three decades of direct, relevant industry experience. Most recently he has spent over 10 years in executive search, including various global leadership responsibilities. He has recruited board directors, CEOs, and other C-level executives across most functional areas inclusive of R&D, medical, clinical, commercial, operations, quality and regulatory affairs for organizations in healthcare, medical device, diagnostic, pharmaceuticals and biotech.

Prior to entering the executive search industry, Morten spent over 20 years working within the healthcare and life sciences industries. Approximately half of his industry career was spent in Europe. He began his career with Pharmacia Diagnostics (now GE), where he held Account Representative and Product Specialist roles. He also held roles in marketing with Baxter, general management roles with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi), and Wyeth (now Pfizer) prior to moving into medical devices with Boston Scientific. His last role in the industry before moving into executive search was as Corporate Vice President and Group President, Life Sciences with STERIS Corporation.

Morten currently serves as Chair, Emeritus of the global board of directors of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC).

The editors of Pharmaceutical Executive bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Senior editor Fran Pollaro and Morten Nielsen, senior partner for the life sciences practice at Wittkieffer, embark on an insightful exploration of trust in the pharmaceutical industry, discussing its measurement, improvement, and critical role in governance, culture, leadership, and organizational structure, while offering practical advice for industry leaders on embedding transparency, inclusion, and accountability into daily operations. 

The Trust Imperative: Defining and Building Trust in Pharma

In this episode of the Pharmaceutical Executive Podcast, we dive into a conversation with Frank Watanabe, president and CEO of Arcutis, a medical dermatology company with a patient-first approach. Discover how Arcutis is transforming the dermatology landscape with its innovative product offerings, such as FDA-approved Zoryve for topical treatment of plaque psoriasis and their upcoming products for seborrheic dermatitis and atopic dermatitis. Learn about the company's guiding principles, the importance of keeping patients at the forefront of decision-making, and the need for further innovation in the dermatology sector after decades of stagnation.

Frank Watanabe has been the president of Arcutis since 2016, and chief executive officer since 2017. Prior to joining Arcutis, he was co-founder and chief operating officer of Kanan Therapeutics, a cardiovascular drug development company, and before that, was vice president of strategy and corporate development at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals.

Watanabe was an executive at Amgen, Inc. from 2005 to 2013, where he was involved in the development of Repatha® for hyperlipidemia and Aimovig® for migraine and worked on the US marketing of Enbrel® in both dermatology and rheumatology. Previously, he was an executive with Eli Lilly and Company, and an official in the US government. He was also a commissioned officer in the US Navy Reserves for 25 years. He formerly served on the board of Amunix Pharmaceuticals. Watanabe earned his MA in national security studies, and his BA in international relations, both at Georgetown University.

Join host Fran Pollaro as he delves into the world of patient-centric dermatology innovations with Arcutis president and CEO Frank Watanabe in this Pharmaceutical Executive Podcast episode.

Exploring Arcutis’s Patient-Centric Dermatology Innovations

Cathi Ahearn is a seasoned biotechnology leaders with formative stints at Genentech, Roche, and now at Bristol Myers Squibb, as SVP of worldwide commercial portfolio strategy. Cathi is focused on one goal: shortening the path between creating medical innovation and getting that innovation to patients. Cathi chats with senior editor at Pharmaceutical Executive about her experiences in the past 20+ years and most importantly, the power of cross-functional collaboration, bringing different teams together and tearing down silos that limit the impact new innovations can have for patients.

Cathi joined Bristol Myers Squibb in December 2021 to lead Worldwide Commercial Portfolio Strategy, including responsibility for commercial development of pipeline assets, global marketing of in-line brands, and optimized management of the established brands franchise. She is a seasoned biotechnology leader who spent 22 years in roles of increasing responsibility and scope at Roche/Genentech, primarily in oncology. Her strategic, results-driven mindset led to demonstrated successes building and developing successful teams. Most recently, she led the GI & GU and Cancer Immunotherapy franchises within Roche’s worldwide commercial organization. Cathi led the cross-functional lifecycle & franchise teams for Tecentriq, Roche’s anti-PDL1 program, from the time of its entry into clinic through its global licensing and commercialization. Cathi held a broad range of US sales, marketing, and strategic roles on the Avastin program, and in the cardiovascular and asthma/allergy disease areas.

Cathi holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UCLA and a Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

The editors of Pharmaceutical Executive bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry. 

Fran Pollaro talks with Cathi Ahearn, senior vice president, worldwide commercial portfolio strategy, Bristol Myers Squibb about impediments and solutions to break down silos in order to get medications in the hands of patients faster.

Tearing Down Silos to Usher Innovative Medicines to Patients Faster

In his position, Faruk Capan leads thousands of employees around the globe with a focus on bold innovation—one can imagine how excited he is about Chat GPT, which set the record for fastest-growing user base in history. Senior editor Fran Pollaro and Faruk go back and forth about positives, negatives, hopes, and fears attached to generative AI for us as regular humans, and as pharma marketers. The pair delve into content creation, creative, video production, research, sales and marketing…it’s clear that we’re on the precipice of life-changing innovation.

Faruk Capan is the CEO, EVERSANA INTOUCH & Chief Innovation Officer, EVERSANA. Faruk began his first business at age nine and went on to create MSWatch.com, the first and largest online community for people living with multiple sclerosis ­– before founding Intouch in 1999. Today, he leads thousands of employees around the globe with a focus on bold innovation in a people-first environment. He is equally passionate about sports and shoes.

Fran Pollaro talks with Faruk Capan is the CEO, EVERSANA INTOUCH & Chief Innovation Officer, EVERSANA about the arrival of Chat GPT and generative AI in the public consciousness. This is just the beginning.

The Explosive Arrival of Chat GPT and Generative AI

We’re coming out of a period of hyper-accelerated digital and virtual growth, a positive born out of the COVID-19 pandemic — many in the business are wondering how the sales force is going to look, and how they’re going to communicate effectively with HCPs and patients. Pratap Khedkar, CEO of ZS discusses that with senior editor Fran Pollaro as well as the implications associated with the Inflation Reduction Act, the focus and importance of patient-centricity, what we might see in 2023 in the sales & marketing vertical, and more.

Pratap Khedkar was elected CEO of ZS in July 2021. Prior to this, he led the firm’s global pharmaceuticals practice for nine years, as well as a practice focused on the dynamics of healthcare ecosystems. He founded and led its advanced data science capability track, which focuses on AI. He has also served on ZS’s board since 2012.

Pratap has advised numerous leading companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries on a wide range of sales and marketing issues, including market access and managed care, using AI for multichannel marketing, marketing mix, sales force strategy and incentive compensation. More recently, his work has focused on developing effective strategies and analytics for changing customers in the new healthcare ecosystem.

A recognized healthcare industry expert, Pratap regularly contributes his insights to publications including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, Fortune, Medical Marketing & Media, NPR, Pharmaceutical Executive and others. His thought leadership work focuses on topics as diverse as healthcare policy; life sciences companies’ new commercial and organizational models; and the evolving relationships between patients, providers and payers and the life sciences organizations that serve them.

Pratap holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.Tech in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

 bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry. 

Pratap Khedkar, CEO of ZS, a management consulting and technology firm focused on transforming global healthcare, shares his perspective on what 2023 holds for the sales and marketing vertical.

In Flux: The Sales & Marketing Outlook for 2023

In this episode, Marcella Milliet Sciorra, Chief Marketing Officer at DeepIntent, discusses Connected TV, or CTV, how it differs from over the top, and how CTV fits into the future of pharmaceutical marketing.

Senior Editor, Fran Pollaro, also talks to Milliet Sciorra about:

CTV being one of the hottest marketing channels available today

The role of TV today for pharma and patient perception

What data tell us about the overall CTV landscape, CTV audiences, and their viewing preferences

In episode 122, Marcella Milliet Sciorra, Chief Marketing Officer at DeepIntent, discusses Connected TV, or CTV, how it differs from over the top, and how CTV fits into the future of pharmaceutical marketing.

Tuning Into CTV - Real Time Data For Marketers

Sarah McKinnon, Senior Art Director at The Grey Group, discusses her entrance into the advertising world through blending art and science in school, understanding the connection between human health and storytelling, her own experiences as a patient, along with a healthy dose of grit and passion, to inform her audiences and her career.

Sarah McKinnon, Senior Art Director at The Grey Group, discusses her entrance into the advertising world through blending art and science in school, understanding the connection between human health and storytelling, her own experiences as a patient along with a healthy dose of grit and passion¾to inform her audiences and her career.

Behind the Creative…..Inspiring Award Winning Creative with Sarah McKinnon

With increasing cases of disinformation across social media blurring the lines of what’s credible and real, how can pharma break through the noise and build back public trust?

Making an Impact in the Era of Disinformation

These professionals in the healthcare marketing sector have been chosen by their peers for making big moves and taking on larger roles.

Pharma Marketing's Top Movers and Shakers in 2024

Industry voices stress importance of a strategic approach to social media marketing, choosing platforms wisely, prioritize privacy, leveraging targeted advertising techniques and more.

Pharmaceutical Marketing Challenges & Trends to Expect on 2025: According to KOLs

A look at the promise and opportunities from this new and advanced type of AI in transforming commercial planning and execution for life sciences companies. 

Introducing Agentic AI: Its Revolutionary Potential in Pharma   

The Big Pharma commercialization playbook doesn’t work for emerging life sciences companies bootstrapping their way up. Exploring three strategies that could be the ingredients of a winning formula for startups.

‘Selling a Vision’: Today’s Playbook for Startups 

Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, shares some best practices for pharma companies to ensure their messaging resonates across different cultures and healthcare systems.

Beyond Translation: The Art of Cross-Cultural Communication in Pharma

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, explores the findings of their study 

What Matters Most: The Trends That Will Shape Pharma Marketing In 2025

. Tenuta emphasizes the importance of embracing AI as an innovation and highlights specific examples of how AI is being used to improve efficiency and effectiveness in marketing campaigns. The discussion also discusses the ethical considerations associated with AI, particularly regarding patient privacy and data security. The conversation also touches on the growing importance of direct-to-patient (DTP) models and the challenges and opportunities associated with globalization in healthcare, emphasizing the need for cultural sensitivity and adaptability in global marketing campaigns to effectively reach diverse audiences.

The study mentions the importance of cultural sensitivity in global marketing campaigns. Can you share some best practices for pharma companies to ensure their messaging resonates across different cultures and healthcare systems?

I think we can bring a lot together here, because what cultural relevancy meant in a global campaign two years ago was the picture on the campaign reflected the people in different regions and maybe a little bit of language changes or tonal changes, depending on language. And while that was a good start, now when you apply barrier busting things like we can, when we really think about health equity at scale, or AI you can, you can start to make significant changes. 

So, I'll take the AI one as the first example, just a single campaign going globally can now be done like this. Your global build kit can be automatically translated. You can put some behavioral nuances into it. You want conversational French versus medical French, for example. Or you want people in different types of scenes in different types of countries. You can apply that through a business rule and automatically take one campaign global, and then the different regions can spend their time instead of translating and adapting and arguing about that to the larger issues of, how are we going to reach now? 

So, a really exciting trend I'm starting to see in the EU and other areas quick to follow new media methods, new ways to reach doctors and with disease awareness patients to help them with some of the identification pathways that have happened in the Us for many years, we're not just pumping out we're not spending all of our time just pumping out core campaigns. We are spending our time trying to move people along the funnel. That's an exciting change for me.

Videos

In this part of her Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, shares some best practices for pharma companies to ensure their messaging resonates across different cultures and healthcare systems.

Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, provides examples of how pharmaceutical companies are working to address equitable access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries.

What Role Can Pharma Play in Achieving Health Equity for All?

Can you provide some specific examples of how pharmaceutical companies are working to address equitable access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries?

Globalization of health care is something we've truly seen evolve quickly over the past couple years, healthcare systems worldwide are facing numerous challenges, rising expenses, etc., and I do think COVID taught us a lot about how quickly we could pump out solutions to the scale that we were able to do their traditional care pathways really suffer from fragmentation inefficiencies, etc. So, it's thinking of these out of the box ways that's really starting to get progress made. And I'll give you two examples, kind of my favorite two examples right now.

The first is Gilead purpose program. It's really comprehensive HIV prevention trial. They're coming out with a prep medication, and they're doing their clinical trials worldwide, advancing access to the developing world. I think a lot of inequities started with trials. Started with trials being among a very targeted small group of population, so watching that from the sidelines, seeing how they're implementing licensing and generic manufacturers and really trying to figure out a lot of the streamlining of delivery at the same time as they're running the trial. That's one we should all be keeping an eye out.

One sure a little bit to our own heart here at Arizona InTouch, we've partnered for many years with The Chrysalis Initiative, which is a foundation aiming to improve breast cancer outcomes for black women in the US, because we can talk about third world countries and Second World Countries in access, but there's still an access problem even within our own country. And Chrysalis was founded by a very empowered young mom Jamil Rivers with breast cancer, who decided that she was not getting the same care as white women in the same board were getting. So, she set out to change it really relentlessly, kind of a she started with an ambassador app program where black women with breast cancer could connect to people who had experienced breast cancer, could connect to the inexperienced and tell them some of the things they should be looking for and the types of medications they should be on. Don't just take what your doctor gave ask if there's questions for things better than your basic chemo, for example, and she's now elevated that to coming into hospitals and auditing, auditing their EMR to see what types of treatment paths they're giving to various types of racial groups, and surprising them that it is not as fair as they thought it was at the beginning.

So those types of things, from your grassroots to your huge, big pharma Gilead ways, I think all of us have to really take under consideration with everything we're doing.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, provides examples of how pharmaceutical companies are working to address equitable access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries.

Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, elaborates on the challenges and strategies for fostering collaboration between different industry groups and pharma companies for the Direct-to-Patient model.

How Can We Foster Collaboration Across the Healthcare Ecosystem to Optimize DTP?

An importance of integrating various healthcare professionals for the Direct-to-Patient model to succeed is highlighted in your study. Can you elaborate on some of the challenges and strategies for fostering collaboration between different industry groups and pharma companies?

The beauty of the whole industry is we are not marketing Coca Cola. We are marketing medications that help the world be more healthy, and live safer, healthier lives. So, all of our intentions are to get patients to drug faster and to connect the dots, and that's amazing. Some brands jump in more than others, like I said, But the challenge really is to look carefully at every product and every batch of the rules under each pharma company house and determine whether it's a fit for something like this. It's not for every condition you if you compare an industry like banking, where 10 years ago, the percentage of people using online banking is nowhere near it is today, Pharma is really in a similar space.

So, we have this opportunity to go figure out the places you're not going to do DTP for oncology. You're not going to do DTP for a disease that impacts juveniles’ populations. You're going to do it in places to start where it can be your more empowered patients taking the steps they need to put the power in their own hands. And also, it does have a huge link over to health equity, because there are a lot of patient groups that don't have necessarily the access, but they are empowered about their health, and they do want to get on treatment and stay on treatment. So, to me, it's just a matter of finding the right zone and then using all of the tools of transformation and collaboration and top-down mandates to get the work done.

In this part of her Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, elaborates on the challenges and strategies for fostering collaboration between different industry groups and pharma companies for the Direct-to-Patient model.

Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, discusses the potential downsides to a Direct-to-Patient model approach (if any) that patients should consider.

Potential Pitfalls of the Direct-to-Patient Model

The study highlights the benefits of the Direct-to-Patient model for patients. Are there any potential downsides to this approach for patients that we should consider?

A one-word answer is no. I'll dig in a little bit more. I think really any and all advances that help patients get to treatment faster, find cost options, navigate all of the insurance claim PBM nonsense that's come into the spectrum a little bit. Anything that cuts that out is a benefit. But how you create all these connectors and all this streamlined way of getting patients to product faster there.

There are some things that that get in our way. The technology is faster in a lot of these places than some of our own where the data lives, or different legal policies, with what we can know about a patient before they're on a medication versus after a medication, or who can talk to a patient at different steps of the journey, just think about one like maybe a concierge app, where a patient could figure out what doctor to see what products cost so they can be informed which one they want, all the way down to, Where do I go to pick it up? How does it get to my house? What if I have a side effect? You know, when you start to add up all those things, there's many different silos, kind of delivering things now, and when you put them together, you're disrupting not only like norms, but some of the legal rules that every pharma company has taken upon itself to figure out, and a lot of this data is in different places too.

What we're finding is that there's a lot at the front end to figure out new rules, but once the new rules are set, you can really do a lot with the technology now to get people identified through to treatment and to stick on treatment with making that one single pipe and things as simple as text messages, we all survive through text message, but the power of that is tremendous.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, discusses the potential downsides to a Direct-to-Patient model approach (if any) that patients should consider.

Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, identifies the most significant ethical concerns related to AI in pharma marketing.

How Can We Ensure Ethical Use of AI in Pharma Marketing?

Are there any specific areas where you see the most significant ethical concerns related to AI in pharma marketing? How can these be addressed?

Ethical concerns are very real with AI. I think we all have a hope that policy might come in and give us some regulation and some ground rules, but that's very likely not coming, so it's something we all have to spend a lot of time on and come to some standards for each individual organization. The biggest problems within healthcare really center around privacy.

I think there’s two parts of privacy, first and foremost, patient privacy, biases and algorithms or misuse of data for targeting or just decision making within these tools can really start to identify patients in a way that we don't want happening and disrupt a little bit of their decision making or basic path with their HCP, so that that's a piece Nobody wants a part of. And we really have to be vigilant to ensure what we're doing doesn't get that far. The second kind of wing of privacy, I think, that we're all struggling with, is related to strategies and proprietary information in a very competitive marketplace that we don't want getting out.

So, if we're asking a standard place a bunch of prompts that's getting at pre-launch strategies or differentiation between drugs, that's another part that we have to make sure we continue to build protections around. So, if we can keep kind of both of those patient identification targeting content along with protecting our sound strategies and our IP those two pieces solved, we can then, you know, adopt all of the wonder that AI will bring us.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, identifies the most significant ethical concerns related to AI in pharma marketing.

Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, points out how AI is proving its practical value in pharma marketing.

AI Skepticism to Adoption in the Pharma Marketing Industry

The study mentions skepticism surrounding the practicality of AI in pharma marketing. Can you elaborate on specific examples of how AI is proving its value in that space?

Short answer is AI is going to make a ton of impact everywhere. It's increasingly woven into every aspect of everyday life, from education all the way through to note taking for Christmas list, and into how we do our work across every industry. So that is happening the time for skepticism has to end. 

That doesn't mean we're whole hog going to throw everything into it, but it certainly means that it's an innovation that we're going to have to absorb and push forward, much like we had with the internet or with mobile phones. This is just another one that we're going to make an aspect of our life. I say a lot that for agencies, AI, is really existential. We have to be testing these things. We have to be doing our own R&D. We have to be figuring out every little tool and piece that can accelerate the work or make it more targeted or more relevant. Our clients are a little less adopting of it. They're relying upon us to bring the tested, tried, safe pieces forward to them, and that's a wonderful place to be, I think right now, absolutely, the hype is, is the hype is out there, but also the results are starting to get out there.

So just in terms of what we've done at EVERSANA INTOUCH, we're big adopters of Adobe Firefly, for example. So, our whole creative team, all of the images that we're starting to source that aren't huge, conceptual images, are AI generated to start, and that's already been an amazing savings. You can understand there were whole departments of rights management teams and hours and hours spent on Getty, trying to search things. And now we can be creators that, in itself, is awesome. We're using a lot of Adobe products, so we also use Figma and a whole bunch of different kind of connectors that take digital assets down into modules and bring them through the process a lot faster. So that's been huge. We're using AI and copy in closed box, copilot type settings, where we can start from core claims and bring it forth into more conversational tones for different adaptations. So, you can kind of pre-code a lot of that now. So that's really speeding up our work and allowing our copywriters to do more. And they love it, because it's not so much the grunt work and the busy work, it's really being able to apply their time to more strategic endeavors.

Our Founder and Chief Innovation Officer coined a phrase ‘pharmatizing AI’. So outside of those kind of day to day in the work things, we're also making our own batches of tools that change, that change how we function, and maybe the clients will be adopt adopting as well. Some of them are, and that's things like med reg accelerators or putting tools on medical websites that can quickly now do use machine learning to get to co pay totals and even sometimes make a doctor's appointment like there's a lot of really exciting applications that were not available to us that are starting to be available to now. So yes, hesitancy is reasonable, skepticism is reasonable, but I think we have all got to embrace this moment in every way we can.

In this part of her Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Angela Tenuta, President, Full Service Agencies, at EVERSANA INTOUCH, points out how AI is proving its practical value in pharma marketing.

Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member identifies marketing trends you expect to be big right away in 2025.

Pharma Marketing Trends to Expect in 2025

 Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member discussed the importance of patient engagement in pharma marketing. She emphasized the need for personalized marketing strategies that build trust and ensure data privacy. The use of AI and advanced analytics tools was highlighted as crucial for extracting meaningful insights from healthcare data. Powers-Han also addressed the evolving regulatory landscape and the importance of ethical marketing practices in the digital age. Additionally, conversation was had surrounding the challenges of measuring ROI in the pharmaceutical industry and the potential of personalized audio and video content in future marketing efforts.

What are some marketing trends you expect to be big right away in 2025?

One of them is the topic that we were pushing on a little bit earlier in terms of data and omni channel. Omnichannel is something that all of our clients are working very hard to build in terms of what is that omnichannel customer experience, and how do we actually enable that to take place? Different degrees of maturity depending on the client that we're working with, but it is one of the key challenges that every one of our clients is trying to figure out, and something that we're helping them with. The other is big bets on Google and Tiktok, those are going to be huge decisions that are coming up. And depending on the outcome of those decisions, we believe there's going to be some really great positive disruptions that could come from it. 

And then in terms of format, and just as we think about, you know, channels and marketing mix, the power of video is just undeniable. And while you know, traditionally, the larger brands were developing TV spots, now there is a huge opportunity for even the smaller niche brands products to invest in video content in so many exciting ways for us to deploy and distribute that video content in the world of digital that we believe that doubling down on video content is both where the industry is headed and it's going to be great for the brands that we support. And then the last one is, you know, as we think about the way that content is created and developing the best customer experience as possible, it's all about fusing content in media and technology to bring those great experiences forward. 

So, we believe that in 2025 there's going to be a lot of great work that will continue to be done, and even more so than this year, creating and crafting content for the develop for the environment that it's living in, versus the traditional, you know, create one campaign idea, and then just pull it through in a very direct way across channel. So, I think the more we can do as marketers to think about what customers need and build content that's crafted for the environment is going to make a huge difference in a trend that we're going to see in 25 and it just, it's, you know, this business is more fun than it's ever been. There's just so many new opportunities and innovations that are just, you know, really right for us all to dig into, to lean into, and to figure out together. So, we're excited.

In this part of her video interview, Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member identifies marketing trends you expect to be big right away in 2025.

Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member discusses how personalized audio will be utilized within the pharma marketing industry in 2025.

Will Pharma Increase Use of Personalized Audio Use in Marketing?

How do you think we will see personalized audio utilized within the pharma marketing industry in 2025?

We do quite a bit of this already, both in the context of patient, caregiver, and healthcare professionals. We incorporated in many of the campaigns, primarily when it comes to education. So, it is a great medium for narration and storytelling and education, both from the standpoint of educating on a condition and or educating on symptoms, because, as you know, in the context of rare disease, which is approximately 50% of our business. So many of those rare diseases go undiagnosed for a decade or more. So, it is a great medium to be able to drive deeper education and even in some cases, awareness, and adherence. So, what I would say is that it's already a good part of many of our marketing campaigns. And in 2025 I would see that increasing even more, you know, almost, if we go back to social media and perhaps, you know, audio is, is the next channel or opportunity that brands will continue to lead into, lean into, I should say.

In this part of her video interview, Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member discusses how personalized audio will be utilized within the pharma marketing industry in 2025.

Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member discusses how CMOs effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in light of the long-term nature of drug development and approval processes.

Measuring the ROI of Marketing Efforts

How can CMOs effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in light of the long-term nature of drug development and approval processes?

That's the Holy Grail, isn't it? If in how we connect all of the marketing and the investment to the true business outcomes on the back end, there's a number of ways that we can get at that. Of course, when it comes to the leading indicators of advertising and content, we look very careful. At KPIs that we in the client together agree are the most representative of the behaviors that then will lead to those longer term outcomes in terms of brand choice and RX, we also are pushing in the context of HCP marketing to connect all of the campaigns and media to NPI level data. So, as you know, every healthcare professional has an NPI number. All of the NPP programs that we're running, we have the ability to get the NPI level data back, so we see what physicians have been exposed and what physicians have actually engaged with that content. And we have a product that we've developed greater score that creates a weighted scoring system with that NPI level data, so that we can use that data to further optimize our NPP programs. We're feeding that data back into the CRM programs with our clients, and that data is being deployed to the sales team, so that the sales team and NPP are very closely connected and synchronized. 

So, the conversation that we're having create the halo effect and the connectivity ultimately that will drive those HCPs to make RX decisions that hopefully support our brands and businesses. And then, of course, there's the actual RX data. When we have the HCP level NPI data, we can, in fact, connect it to the claims data and the writing behavior. And using our own methodologies, collaborating with clients, we're able to now connect the dots between NPP program, exposure, and engagement to what is being driven in terms of script behavior at the physician level, and with confidence, define and prove the role that NPP has in terms of driving those prescribers to prescribe more the patient, caregiver side is harder. So of course, there's, you know, all of the third party studies, and we work with many of the leading third parties to be able to look at Audience Quality analyzes and then media mix modeling. And ultimately, in many cases, we can get very close to right, what is the business impact that those programs have had, but just in terms of that one to one connection that I teed up on the HCP side of the business, of course, that's not possible in terms of privacy when it comes to caregivers and patients,

In this part of her video interview, Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member discusses how CMOs effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in light of the long-term nature of drug development and approval processes.

Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member explains how pharmaceutical companies can effectively navigate the evolving regulatory landscape and ensure that their marketing activities comply with ethical standards and industry best practices.

Navigating Social Media Regulatory and Ethical Standards

With the rise of social media and digital platforms, how can pharmaceutical companies effectively navigate the evolving regulatory landscape and ensure that their marketing activities comply with ethical standards and industry best practices?

It's so interesting, if we rewind three or four years ago with clients, we were having to build a case for social media to be a part of our plans, and now it's part of absolutely every plan. So, whether that is a broader social media and marketing strategy that includes organic and paid or if it's more limited to, you know, piloting and or investing just in a couple of key platforms in terms of paid advertising, the first thought would be, choose your platforms wisely. There are some social media platforms we trust and there are others that we do discourage our clients from participating on that landscape is changing by the minute, but ultimately, it's really important to know what platforms you're going to be participating in and be comfortable with the privacy and the way that they're run. Back to the idea of targeting in data equally as important, right? We need to make sure that we are leveraging privacy compliant targeting techniques, first party data, third party trusted data providers. You know, contextual targeting, again, in some ways, but just that we are very much above board and also aligned with our clients to make sure that they're comfortable and their internal regulatory teams are aware of and supportive of the techniques that we're using. 

In this part of her video interview, Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One and Pharmaceutical Executive Advisory Board Member explains how pharmaceutical companies can effectively navigate the evolving regulatory landscape and ensure that their marketing activities comply with ethical standards and industry best practices.

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