Transitioning from COO to CEO

Pharmaceutical Executive: How was the transition from COO to CEO?
Ryan Quigley: The transition has been very smooth. I’ve worked at Inizio for the last four-to-five years. Our former CEO will continue as part of the board. We’ve been working on the transition for a period of time and we’re confident that it’s moving in the right direction.

I don’t know if it’s always the case, it’s been great that we’ve been able to work together. He’s one of the founders and helped build out the company and I was part of the journey with him. It’s been very useful that he’s staying on. It takes the best of both worlds with me leading the business into the new chapter while, at the same time, having the previous CEO stay on at the board is a unique and privileged place to be.

Our five-year plan is to continue to do what we do really well and be that scaled, large, trusted partner that can help pharma and biopharma bring their new medicines and innovations into the market. Today, we operate across 50 markets and have a huge scientific expertise.

PE: What challenges and opportunities are there in the commercialization space?
Quigley: The challenges are the opportunities. Science is moving very fast these days. If you look at the ten-year outreach of FDA approvals, we’ve seen that the last two-to-three years had positive momentum on the number of new assets coming to market. Quite a few of those assets have come through a fast review, which means that companies are getting to market quicker.

That brings the challenge with it, however, that they must be super successful on the commercialization journey. To bring an asset to market, it’s not an inexpensive exercise. You need something close to 2 and a half million to spend, and about one third of those assets don’t meet their commercial goals. The challenge is that there’s high expectations because it’s a high investment game to bring new medicines to market, and pharma companies need to use scientific expertise to maximize their launches.

PE: What trends are you seeing in pharma commercialization?
Quigley: What we’re starting to see is a significant change in the ways that our clients want to engage with their customers. The opportunity from AI is that it allows clients to ask a totally different question, which is how they can segment the market even further and get more personalized in the messaging when we bring the scientific data to our clients. It’s helping the different categories of physicians to treat patients in line with the labels that are in place.

It's also around the companies that help physicians identify those patients with unmet needs. The personalization is something that’s really coming through. We’re also seeing at some of the larger companies, they’re starting to diversify their portfolios even more and moving into more adjacent areas.

We’ve also seen changes from the Inflation Reduction Act. We’ve seen companies reprioritize the assets in their pipeline and ask what assets they really want to bring forward. Finally, the advent of specialty care continues to rise and become a complex therapeutic category.

The advent of GLP inhibitors have also sparked a lot of growth in obesity and the adjacent indications as well.