The Syneos Health Podcast

When it comes to investing in the launch of your biopharma product, how much is too much?  Is there such a thing as too little? Director Sachin Purwar and his colleagues from the Commercial Strategy & Planning practice of Syneos Health Consulting set out to answer these questions - and found the "sweet spot" for launch spending that could mean the difference between success and failu...

Biopharmaceutical sales forces have changed dramatically over the past decade.  And not just the sales forces - the industry, customers, technology and more have all undergone tremendous evolution. As a result, the way we train sales forces and other customer-facing roles has and will have to adapt accordingly . Celeste Mosby , Vice President of Learning Design in the Syneos Health Learning Soluti...

The 21 st Century Cures Act was passed at the end of 2016 in an effort to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of new therapies. But what's in it? And what does it mean for biopharma companies? In this first "Syneos Health Short" episode, Jeff Stewart reviews the top ten things you need to know about 21 st Century Cures - and how one word changed everything. See our fu...

The last decade has seen both depressing lows and astounding highs in biopharmaceutical dealmaking activity. Different therapeutic areas have fallen in and out of favor along with the pace of innovation and there has been a sustained focus on the next "hot spot" with high commercial value and the potential to provide solid returns for stakeholders. But certain trends have been persistent...

A relationship with a Contract Research Organization (CRO) is just like any other - to succeed, it requires communication, alignment on goals, respect, and ultimately, trust between two partners. In this episode, Judy Swilley , Executive Vice President and Head of Strategic Alliance Management at Syneos Health , talks about the value a CRO brings to the table, the importance of an engaged executiv...

Eighteen months is an eternity in the payer world. Previously on The Syneos Health Podcast (Episode 003: Payer Power), we discussed the payer's rise in influence in the pharmaceutical industry. Today, we're seeing the impact of strategies payers were starting to bring to the marketplace 18-months-to-two-years ago, particularly on the pharmacy benefit side. Keith Kelly , Managing Director...

ICER - the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review - was established as an independent organization to examine the value of pharmaceuticals across disease categories. "But value is in the eye of the beholder," says Leslie Isenegger , principal strategist for Syneos Health Communications Reputation and Risk Management Practice, and ICER's analysis is only one piece of a very compl...

In Episode 012: Medical Affairs from Zero , Suma Ramadas talked about the inception and growing value of the Medical Affairs function. Today, in part two of our Medical Affairs Transformation series, Suma is joined by Susan Suponcic , Managing Director and head of the Pricing & Market Access practice of Syneos Health Consulting to discuss the importance of collaboration between the Medical Aff...

While regulatory changes have made the path to approval easier for rare disease therapies, it is by no means easy - and Judith Ng-Cashin, MD , Chief Scientific Officer of Syneos Health, warns developers getting into the market to do so with eyes wide open. Host Jeff Stewart caught up with Dr. Ng-Cashin at a recent conference to discuss her perspective on the opportunities and challenges inherent i...

Since Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey introduced the prospect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the spaceship computer system HAL, the world has had a rollercoaster relationship with the idea - from hope to hype, and everywhere in between. Have we "unleashed the demon" with AI, or does the potential of deep learning and machine learning for improving health outcomes far o...

Imagine two products that are very similar. One became one of the most successful launches the organization ever had; the other one was a flop. The main difference between the two? Medical Affairs. There was a time - not all that long ago - when the Medical Affairs function did not exist. Today, the Medical Affairs organization is critical to a successful product launch, providing foresight into u...

What’s in a name? Quite a lot, actually, despite what Shakespeare says. When it comes to a merger, this can be even more important.  With research showing that up to 80% of mergers fail – and one major reason being clashing corporate cultures during post-merger integration – choosing a name and brand that the entire organization can get behind is critical to success. In this episode, listen to Kri...

As we learned in our previous episode , naming a company is not something you can do by just “winging it.” The same holds true when it comes to naming a drug – especially in a podcast episode under 30 minutes. In Part 2 of our naming series, Addison Whitney Creative Director Brittany Scott explains the ins and outs of drug naming, addresses a possible conspiracy theory and runs host Jeff Stewart t...

Everything we know about what a patient decides to do could be wrong. Kathleen Starr , Managing Director of the Behavioral Insights group at INC Research/inVentiv Health, has been studying patient behavior for her entire career – and she has found that we need to broaden our thinking beyond just the patient’s actions and really think about all of the different things that are really impacting thei...

Channels of influence in pharma have expanded from the traditional offline sphere of publications, trials, conference activities and others to include a vast new digital landscape that is shaping the way we need to interact with a new generation of key opinion leaders -- so-called "digital" KOLs. Digital KOLs have an "omnipresent" digital footprint that can include social media...

The patient standing at the pharmacy to fill a prescription represents the "final mile" that started in the laboratory. All the science and commercial investment comes down to this one decision point. Will the patient walk away? What will get them to stay? In a survey of 200,000 retail prescriptions for the top 100 branded oral drugs, two inVentiv companies - Adheris Health and inVentiv...

At the BIO International Convention, arguably the largest and most important biopharma partnering event of the year with over 16,000 participants, it's all about getting the deal done. While the industry will very likely not see the extremely high level of licensing and M&A activity it did back in 2015 , the year is shaping up to reach a respectable level closer to historical norms, accor...

According to Leigh Householder, Managing Director of Innovation for inVentiv Health Communications, in an industry where the appetite for innovation and change is strong, but the tolerance for risk is not, the answer lies in an accountable, data-driven marketing approach that allows for "targeted innovation” and leads to measurable impact. inVentiv Health Podcast host Jeff Stewart talks with...

The power of the payer in the biopharmaceutical industry has increased dramatically over the past several years, according to Keith Kelly, Managing Director and Head of the Pricing and Market Access Practice of inVentiv Health Consulting . Market access was once a dull topic. Today, price and if a drug will be covered is discussed on earnings calls and in the board room. What payers do can make or...

Introduced on March 6, 2017, if passed the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) is expected to have an enormous impact on Pharma. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on March 13 released its estimate of the budgetary effects of the AHCA , stating that under the new law, we could see 14 million more uninsured by 2018 than would have been under the current law – rising to 24 million more uninsu...

The passage of the 21st Century Cures Act earlier this year catapulted the concept of “real-world evidence” into the spotlight, with many biopharmaceutical companies wondering whether this could be the panacea the industry has been looking for to attain product success. We reflected on this topic with David Thompson, PhD, Senior Vice President, Real-World Evidence Consulting at inVentiv Health , a...