Driving Innovation in Specialty Pharmacy: Q&A Gregory Skalicky from EVERSANA Ahead of Asembia 2026

Each April, thousands of leaders across the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry converge in Las Vegas for the Asembia Summit, to learn what’s new in specialty pharmacy and commercialization and how to improve how patients across the globe can gain access to life impacting therapies.

Pharmaceutical Executive: Asembia seems to be a flagship event for pharma. Tell us how you've seen it grow over the years.
Gregory Skalicky: I’ve been attending Asembia for more than a decade, and it’s been impressive to see how the event has evolved. What started as a more trade-focused meeting has become one of the most strategic forums in pharma, with conversations shifting from transactional topics to enterprise-level discussions around access, patient support, specialty distribution, and performance. The diversity of attendees has grown as well, bringing together everyone from emerging biotech founders to leaders from large pharmaceutical companies, which really elevates the quality of dialogue and success of our meeting every year.

PE: What are the hot trends or topics you're seeing rise to the top of client and prospect needs at this year’s event?
Skalicky: What we’re hearing from clients right now is a real focus on execution at scale. They’re looking for ways to operate more efficiently while still navigating complexities around access, pricing pressure, and regulatory change. At the same time, there’s a lot of interest in better data integration across the full commercialization lifecycle, from launch readiness through performance optimization.

Direct-to-patient models continue to be a popular topic, especially in therapeutic areas where they can help reduce friction for patients and give manufacturers more control. We’re also seeing continued momentum with our COMPLETE Commercialization model. That’s where we partner with clients end to end to bring a therapy to market. It’s a great fit for companies that may not yet have the infrastructure in place. We bring the foundation, the experienced teams, and the capabilities needed to support global launches and move quickly on market access.And even for those who do have established infrastructure, we can work with them on integrated models that still leverage our experienced teams and help them better position their product in the market.

At the end of the day, organizations are looking for partners who can truly connect strategy to execution and prove the impact. Asembia has been a great place to have those conversations, and some of our most successful partnerships have come out of this meeting.

PE: How much of the conversation is around AI usage and adoption?
Skalicky: AI is absolutely part of the conversation, but the way companies are approaching it today is much more grounded and focused. The discussion has shifted from asking what AI is to asking how it can be applied responsibly and practically to deliver better outcomes. Clients are looking for proven use cases, particularly around forecasting, patient identification, engagement orchestration, and operational efficiency, rather than one‑off or experimental pilots. The expectation now is that AI should be embedded into the way organizations operate, not layered on top.

We believe we’re well positioned as a leader in this space. We launched our AI Agency platform with Google in August 2025, and since then we’ve conducted hundreds of demos and have active clients using the platform today. It’s driving significant time and cost savings, which is a huge focus for our clients.But we’re not just using AI within our agency- we’re building it directly into our infrastructure.We are essentially creating an EVERSANA operating system that’s driving efficiencies and operational effectiveness across patient services, training, research, and insight generation.

You’ll hear a lot of companies at Asembia say they’re “all in” on AI, but far fewer can point to real proof. We’re using AI every day with our clients, delivering measurable impact, and that distinction really shows.

PE: The trend in outsourced commercialization seems to continue to grow. Why is this, and do you think this will be a big point of discussion at Asembia?
Skalicky: Absolutely. Commercialization has become increasingly complex and fast‑moving, and many organizations simply can’t manage all of it in‑house anymore. Companies are looking for partners who can do it all- scale quickly, bring specialized expertise, and help them clearly define and deliver the value of their product.At Asembia, that shift is very clear. The conversation has moved away from one‑off outsourcing decisions and toward longer‑term, more integrated partnerships.

That’s exactly what EVERSANA was built to do, and we’ve been leading this kind of end‑to‑end commercialization approach from the start, before it became more broadly adopted across the industry.Almost all the meetings we have scheduled at Asembia this year are focused on how we can help companies bring new therapies to market or build stronger existing brands, including shaping and delivering a clear value story.

PE: What do you hope to take away after Asembia?
Skalicky: We always come to events like this hoping to walk away with potential new partners, but just as importantly, with a better understanding of what the market is telling us. Our teams will be on the floor and participating in panels, but the real impact of Asembia often comes from individual meetings with companies that are on the verge of bringing something truly new to market. That’s where we really thrive as a partner. We have a number of those conversations lined up, and we’re excited to engage with innovators who are moving meaningful therapies toward patients.

If we can play a role in helping them get there, that’s incredibly meaningful for us.