Finding the Universal Truth in a Drug's Story

As the U.S. scientific lead in oncology for Regeneron, Sarah Ghosh knows how to tell a story. When it comes to marketing new and existing medications, she describes her job as finding the overarching truth for the molecule and then tailoring that message to the specific market she’s speaking to.

“I work in lung cancer, which is a global disease,” she explains, “but what lung cancer looks like in a given country varies enormously. How many patients are diagnosed early versus late? What does reimbursement look like? In certain markets, the most important question isn't what you want to say about a drug, it's whether patients can actually access and afford it. If they can't, a physician won't prescribe it, regardless of how strong your marketing is. You can't run a full marketing campaign around a product that very few patients can obtain.”

“That said,” she continues, “there are overarching truths about a product that hold across markets, core claims and clinical data that are universally relevant. The skill is finding that common foundation and then adapting how you communicate it to the specific dynamics of each market.”

Understanding individual markets

Of course, marketing in pharma and biotech comes with its own unique challenges. These are highly regulated products, which is something that marketing teams must be keenly aware of.

Ghosh says, “In the U.S., what you can say and what tactics you can deploy are very much governed by the FDA, including requirements around fair balance in messaging. When you go global, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Every market has its own regulatory environment, competitive landscape, patient population, and insurance dynamics, and you have to nuance your strategy accordingly. Some markets are more permissive than the U.S.; others are more conservative.”

An education beyond pharmaceuticals

Ghosh obtained her MBA from Columbia Business School. According to her, she was on specialized track that focused on pharmaceutical and healthcare management. However, the program also included classes that branched out from these industries, providing students with a wider breadth of knowledge.

“One of the great things about the program was that Columbia has such strong expertise across retail, luxury goods and finance,” she says, “so I was able to take classes studying case studies from entirely different industries. Even though I'm in pharmaceutical marketing, I draw on those lessons constantly: how companies approach product extensions in the luxury goods market, how a shipping company manages inventory, how a medical device company scales operations. That cross-industry exposure has made me a more innovative thinker, because if you want to be truly innovative in pharma, you have to think outside the pharma box.”

Before business school, however, Ghosh worked at a marketing agency where she says she was given a powerful piece of advice.

“There was a creative leader I worked with at a marketing agency before business school,” she says. “This was someone who is genuinely the reason I fell in love with marketing. She always said there are no bad ideas. A so-called bad idea, with a few tweaks, can become a great one. And she constantly pushed me to seek inspiration outside of whatever I was immediately working on; luxury brand campaigns, auto shows, anything. Nothing was off the table. She taught me how to draw from unexpected places and adapt what I found to make it work in context. That mindset has shaped how I approach creative work ever since.”

Telling your own story

Later in her career, Ghosh says she got another piece of advice that stuck with her. This time, it came from a mentor who leads a large organization.

Ghosh says, “I asked her what surprised her most about moving from an individual contributor role into people management, and she said: How much people want to know about you. That really struck me. People crave authentic leadership, especially now, when so much is becoming automated and there can feel like less of a human presence behind the work. Showing up authentically, being open about your own growth and journey, and understanding that your team genuinely wants to know who you are. That's something I'm carrying into my own transition into a team lead role.”

She continues, “The people around you, your immediate colleagues, are enormously valuable, both for getting work done and for building lasting professional relationships. Whenever I join a new team, I make a point of getting to know everyone around me, not just leadership.”