Some challenges in biopharma are as old as the industry itself. Vaccine hesitancy, for example, goes back hundreds of years.
In his recently released book on the history of anti-vax movements, Thomas Levenson, a professor at MIT, recounts how public fear spread quickly after the first smallpox vaccine was developed in 1798. Some believed the shot triggered unrelated ailments and infections, while others questioned its effectiveness when it didn’t provide life-long immunity, Levenson explains in “A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters and Cynics who Convinced us to Reject Vaccines.”
Other fears were warranted, however, as more vaccines were developed. A polio shot made under what Levenson calls “shoddy production practices” in the 1950s sickened hundreds.
Along the way, the industry built a strong track record of righting its wrongs to make vaccines more safe and effective. But of course, the anti-vax movement hasn’t gone anywhere and remains a challenge pharma leaders are still working to navigate.
Here, pharma leaders dish on the various obstacles the industry is currently up against, including declining public trust, long clinical trial timelines and more.
Delivering pharma’s message effectively
“Is the consumer buying what we're selling and the messages we're giving about public health? Do we have a public that wants to hear it, or is trust in science so eroded that people don't know who or what to believe? That is something that should concern everybody.
We as an industry have the responsibility to talk at a sophisticated enough, but not too technical, level so that people really listen. We're all learning, particularly post-pandemic, how to do that.
Some of it is about communicating on social media, but more and more, it's about understanding that the trusted provider of information isn't necessarily us. So we’re working with other stakeholders including medical societies, policymakers, providers and pharmacists, who can be a tremendous source of information. They're also very overwhelmed. So we have to support them and make sure information gets out with and through them. It’s not one thing that's going to do it, but a lot of little things.”
~Silvia Taylor, executive vice president, chief corporate affairs officer, head of Novavax Sweden
Tackling activation timelines
“Execution improvements are needed in the U.S. to compete with China in terms of speed and cost. Clinical trial value is here, but the timelines are longer because of man-made problems we can solve. It’s bureaucracy and contract timelines. A lot of this is outside the work of the FDA, but someone needs to take leadership there to make standardization templates.
Why does an academic site need 12 months for activation? It would absolutely be low hanging fruit to standardize contract language so that every sponsor for every molecule at every site doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, and can use a template and then make changes.”
~Mayank Gandhi, CEO, NEOK Bio
Securing biotech funding
“The innovation is there — there's no shortage of great science. But one of the biggest challenges is securing the funding needed to continue development.
Biotech companies have to make disciplined decisions about which candidates to advance and which endpoints to prioritize so they can reach the next stage of development, attract additional investment, or potentially the interest of a larger company.
From an investor's perspective, the challenge isn't a lack of innovation. It's deciding which programs have the strongest potential and where to allocate capital. The science is abundant — it's ultimately a matter of which innovations receive the funding to move forward."
~Dr. Anup Sabharwal, vice president, head of R&D and scientific strategy, cardiometabolic, Syneos Health
More incremental advancements than major breakthroughs
“The rise of AI and all these productivity tools is creating such a deluge of information for everybody that it's really hard to find time for deep thinking. When people are overwhelmed by the amount of information, they tend to follow patterns. So in our industry it's become very fashionable to make slight improvements on existing technologies. And it's hard to be an innovator because it's hard to break through the noise and recognize the potential of the tools that may transform the future of medicine, or how we treat disease.
So there are too many incremental improvements versus breakthroughs and people thinking boldly while going after transformational improvements.”
~Svetlana Lucas, chief business officer, Scribe Therapeutics
