High-Value Views, Input

When I joined the staff of Pharmaceutical Executive in 2019, I had a basic level of industry knowledge. In order to boost my pharma IQ, I read articles, attended conferences, and did a lot of independent research. But the most important contributor to my getting up to speed was talking with industry experts to get their insider views. As the saying goes: Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.

Lucky for me, Pharm Exec already had a built-in network of such people—its Editorial Advisory Board (EAB). Just a few months after I started, I attended my first annual EAB meeting, where we brought together these pharma pros, to pick their brains about industry trends and the types of content we should be covering. We all sat around a large conference table, and I mainly listened to them share their ideas supported by evidence and experience, sometimes agreeing with each other, sometimes challenging each other, often piggybacking off each other’s thoughts.

Thanks to their suggestions, we added regular columns, including finance, sustainability, technology, and leadership. We increased our coverage of biotech, DE&I, and digital. These pharma frontmen (and women) helped us navigate the quickly changing waters of COVID in an industry directly affected in 2020. We value their opinions on many levels because we know they are on the ground and represent our readers.

We have featured many of our board members throughout our various content. Some have appeared in our executive profile cover stories—Jay Galeota (February 2020), then president and CEO of Inheris Biopharma, Inc., now CEO of Kallyope, and John Furey (October 2021), CEO of Imvax, Inc., who was also a guest on the Pharm Exec podcast (episode 80). Our finance columnist, Barbara Ryan, founder of Barbara Ryan Advisors, also joined our podcast to discuss the power of women in pharma (episode 53). And in an upcoming episode, Indranil Bagchi, senior vice president and head, global value access, Novartis, shares his thoughts on market access and reaching patients (episode 113).

Even when they aren’t being placed in the spotlight individually, our industry consultants are always behind the scenes, offering direction on stories, providing possible sources, and lending their own firsthand knowledge on topics. They are often cited as sources themselves in our reporting.

In order to keep our perspectives fresh, our members serve two-year renewable terms. We aim to have diverse opinions from various aspects of the industry: commercial, strategy, market access, patient services, data and analytics, finance, and more. In this regard, we recently invited three new members to round out our group of industry advisors: Christine Sakdalan, vice president, customer engagement strategy and solutions, Otsuka; Bharti Rai, previously vice president and US executive committee member, commercial acceleration (operations, execution, insights, analytics), Novartis; and Thani Jambulingam, PhD, professor, department of pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing, Saint Joseph’s University. We are excited to welcome them, and look forward to getting their input and taking their advice to keep Pharm Exec fresh and relevant. 

Elaine Quilici is Pharm Exec’s Editor-in-Chief. She can be reached at equilici@mjhlifesciences.com