Asembia ASX26: Adjusting Strategies and Building Relationships: Q&A with Jessica Lovett

As a variety of issues continue to impact the global supply chain, pharmaceutical and biotech companies must plan for uncertainty. As Pharmaceutical Executive previously reported, conflict in the middle east and unresolved US tariff deals are putting a variety of drugs and supplies at risk.

In order to maintain supplies across markets, manufacturers and suppliers must prepare for disruptions and have plans in place to deal with them. Also, as the tariff and MFN situations evolve, pharmaceutical companies are adjusting global launch and pricing strategies.

Pharmaceutical Executive spoke with Jessica Lovett, VP of commercial strategy and innovation at Innomar, at the Asembia ASX26 Summit in Las Vegas. During the conversation, she discusses how Innomar is adjusting its strategies to adapt to these uncertainties.

Pharmaceutical Executive: How are you adjusting strategies to adapt to an uncertain global political and regulatory market?
Jessica Lovett: Uncertainty is a matter of discipline right now. The discipline of really looking at the considerations that are going to be so vast in change, from tax considerations, payer decisions that are happening, and then I would also say (with respect to pharmaceutical or biologic that requires different nuances in The Canadian market) how they are paid for, supported, regulated within market to market.

If you're taking your European markets versus us in Canada, for instance, even with patient services as an example, what is funded in one market, in oncology as an example, in the US market is funded very differently in the Canadian market. So that uncertainty has to be a discipline, and the consideration of a global-to-local lift and shift is just not there anymore.

The administration of a product may reside in a hospital or infrastructure. It may not reside there today in the Canadian market, as an example. The ability to be able to gain access for that patient gets even more diverse as you're looking to the complexity of the administration. If it is an infused versus injectable versus oral, that has to be taken into account.

All of those layers also factor into how decisions need to be pre planned a little bit. And yet, as we've seen in the dynamics of our market today and the global decisions that are being made, things happen fast, and we have to be able to pivot from it.

The second piece is being plugged into the full access ecosystem, and how you do that. There are going to be many large pharmaceutical companies that have that underpinning and foundation within their infrastructure.

So they will have global partners that are providing that pull through to be able to think about and consider what the impact scenario is for a local market. Some may not have that consideration and where we would look to be able to support that is taking what we do at Cencora’s level and plugging in to each of our partners from many different aspects across the globe, but at a local infrastructure.

What does that mean, and how does that relate to partnerships? Pulling through that ecosystem to be able to share those insights in advance of entering that market, from regulatory, tax consideration, payer strategy, and be able to say what is the market telling us right now that is not going to be able to be a global lift and shift, but it's going to diversify the differences and the similarities that you have to be able to pull through.

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Pharmaceutical Executive: What is your strategy for building relationships with pharma manufacturers?
Jessica Lovett: We are celebrating 25 years in the Canadian market this year. And our name, Innomar, comes from innovative market access. And so, Innomar was really founded on strategically thinking about how to gain access for patients that may not be able to in this really complex specialty pharmaceutical and biologic space.

Foundationally, it really is building out not only what we've done in the past but looking to the future of what that means in relation to the people that are sitting down at the table. We have regulatory market access, pharmacovigilance, patient service, and government relations teams. We have individuals that are sitting down and thinking differently about how we need to truly partner.

Partnership comes with trust, and so as I lived a large portion of my life on the other side of the fence, from a pharmaceutical manufacturer standpoint, trust comes with the insights that are generated and being able to provide at the table themselves. It all comes down to the patient, as is at the heart of everything that we do, and at the pharmaceutical manufacturer's perspective.

This is a business, but it also foundationally about being united in our responsibility to create those healthier futures. And how do we show up for patient care? So, thinking differently about how we are tapping into our global partners and bringing that to the table.

It’s learning to think differently about what that means within the Canadian landscape, and really truly investing in the ability to say we are invested in the patient to the same degree you are. This only works if those cross functional stakeholder team comes together, not only on our side, but at the pharmaceutical manufacturer side as well.

Sometimes, that isn’t what happens. So being able to make commercial decisions also takes into account our trade and supply chain, along with the people at the table. You need your medical team at the table. You need your access people at the table.

We can all really co create what the future holds, as long as you are foundationally building for tomorrow.