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Latest Executive Roundtables

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Sales and Marketing

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Ian Baer, Founder and Chief Soothsayer, Sooth, discusses their recent data and research about some massive behavioral shifts occurring across Gen-Z, and how pharmaceutical companies and healthcare advertising agencies can adapt their strategies to attract the ever elusive generation.

Ian Baer, Founder and Chief Soothsayer of the strategic insights platform and pharma marketing consultancy Sooth, has been solving marketing’s greatest challenges for over three decades. He has spent his career helping major biotech and pharmaceutical brands achieve extraordinary success and challenger brands box above their weight class in leadership roles with Publicis Groupe, TBWA, Rapp, Deutsch, and others. He is a contributing writer for industry-specific and national publications including Adweek, Forbes and Digiday along with a frequent speaker at leading national conferences including Advertising Week, Social Media Week, Digiday, DMA Annual, Marketing Forum, and the 4A’s.

 bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Podcasts

Ian Baer, Founder and Chief Soothsayer, Sooth, discusses how pharmaceutical companies and healthcare advertising agencies can adapt their strategies to attract Gen-Z.

Gen-Z Influence on Pharma M&A

In the podcast, Mohit Manrao, the SVP and head of US oncology at AstraZeneca, shares his journey from growing up in Northern India with aspirations of becoming a doctor, to leading oncology initiatives at AstraZeneca in the US. A central strategy to ultimately eliminate cancer includes ensuring that the latest scientific advancements are accessible to patients in every zip code and the necessity of integrating the patient perspective at every stage—from early discovery to commercialization, recognizing the importance of diverse patient needs, non-invasive diagnostics, and alleviating challenges in access to screenings and treatments.

Mohit Manrao, Senior Vice President, US Oncology Business Unit, AstraZeneca is responsible for leading commercial strategy and maximizing performance of AstraZeneca’s expansive oncology portfolio. Prior to assuming his current role in 2022, Mohit served as Vice President, Global Franchise Head Lung Cancer since 2020. Mohit joined AstraZeneca in 2012, holding various roles at the market-, regional-, and global-levels across geographies, including Head of UK Oncology and Head of Daiichi Sankyo Alliance Europe.

The editors of Pharmaceutical Executivebring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Join us as Mohit Manrao, SVP and head of US oncology at AstraZeneca, shares his patient-centered approach to transforming cancer care, bridging the gap between innovative science and tangible patient outcomes across all populations on a global scale. 

Transforming Cancer Care: Data, AI, and Patient-Centered Care   

Welcome to a riveting episode of the Pharm Exec podcast, where we dive headfirst into the transformative world of AI in healthcare with Sharlene Jenner, vice president of engagement strategy with the award-winning agency Abelson Taylor. This enlightening conversation traverses the advancements and potential risks of AI, the revolution it is stirring in pharmaceutical marketing, and its game-changing role in understanding complex protein structures. Amid the rapid innovation, we explore the urgent need for ethical guidelines and regulations to keep pace with technology.

Sharlene Jenner, vice president of engagement strategy with Abelson Taylor, has over 18 years in the strategy and digital field and is an industry speaker and coach/mentor. Jenner teaches a course on "Artificial Intelligence and Personalization for Digital Marketers" for Southern Methodist University. She is passionate about developing interactions through emerging technologies that bridge gaps, creating opportunities and helping companies leverage their strengths for success. She has leadership experience in a variety of industries including hotel/hospitality, consumer goods, small business, retail marketing, domestic manufacturing, staffing and health care. This diverse past gives her a unique perspective when it comes to translating marketing strategy to its digital components for all kinds of consumers. Jenner is an empathetic servant leader who focuses on creating high performing teams and helping others succeed. She was named a Top Woman Leader in Dallas in 2022. Jenner has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Texas-Dallas and a master’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Senior editor Fran Pollaro chats with Sharlene Jenner, vice president of engagement strategy, Abelson Taylor about the transformative impact and ethical considerations of AI in the pharmaceutical industry, emphasizing its potential in data analysis and marketing, while also highlighting the pioneering work of AI companies in advancing drug discovery.

AI Frontiers: Navigating the Risks, Rewards, and Regulations

This Pharma 50 companion episode delves into the vital topic of trust within the pharmaceutical industry. Morten Nielsen, senior partner for the life sciences practice at Wittkieffer, dissects the concept, drawing on parallels to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and discusses practical methods for measuring and operationally improving trust. This episode is a must-listen for those interested in understanding the current state and future evolution of trust in the pharmaceutical sector, an industry where trust forms a fundamental pillar for delivering on its mission statement.

A senior partner for the Life Sciences Practice at WittKieffer, Morten Nielsen (he/him) has more than three decades of direct, relevant industry experience. Most recently he has spent over 10 years in executive search, including various global leadership responsibilities. He has recruited board directors, CEOs, and other C-level executives across most functional areas inclusive of R&D, medical, clinical, commercial, operations, quality and regulatory affairs for organizations in healthcare, medical device, diagnostic, pharmaceuticals and biotech.

Prior to entering the executive search industry, Morten spent over 20 years working within the healthcare and life sciences industries. Approximately half of his industry career was spent in Europe. He began his career with Pharmacia Diagnostics (now GE), where he held Account Representative and Product Specialist roles. He also held roles in marketing with Baxter, general management roles with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi), and Wyeth (now Pfizer) prior to moving into medical devices with Boston Scientific. His last role in the industry before moving into executive search was as Corporate Vice President and Group President, Life Sciences with STERIS Corporation.

Morten currently serves as Chair, Emeritus of the global board of directors of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC).

The editors of Pharmaceutical Executive bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Senior editor Fran Pollaro and Morten Nielsen, senior partner for the life sciences practice at Wittkieffer, embark on an insightful exploration of trust in the pharmaceutical industry, discussing its measurement, improvement, and critical role in governance, culture, leadership, and organizational structure, while offering practical advice for industry leaders on embedding transparency, inclusion, and accountability into daily operations. 

The Trust Imperative: Defining and Building Trust in Pharma

In this episode of the Pharmaceutical Executive Podcast, we dive into a conversation with Frank Watanabe, president and CEO of Arcutis, a medical dermatology company with a patient-first approach. Discover how Arcutis is transforming the dermatology landscape with its innovative product offerings, such as FDA-approved Zoryve for topical treatment of plaque psoriasis and their upcoming products for seborrheic dermatitis and atopic dermatitis. Learn about the company's guiding principles, the importance of keeping patients at the forefront of decision-making, and the need for further innovation in the dermatology sector after decades of stagnation.

Frank Watanabe has been the president of Arcutis since 2016, and chief executive officer since 2017. Prior to joining Arcutis, he was co-founder and chief operating officer of Kanan Therapeutics, a cardiovascular drug development company, and before that, was vice president of strategy and corporate development at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals.

Watanabe was an executive at Amgen, Inc. from 2005 to 2013, where he was involved in the development of Repatha® for hyperlipidemia and Aimovig® for migraine and worked on the US marketing of Enbrel® in both dermatology and rheumatology. Previously, he was an executive with Eli Lilly and Company, and an official in the US government. He was also a commissioned officer in the US Navy Reserves for 25 years. He formerly served on the board of Amunix Pharmaceuticals. Watanabe earned his MA in national security studies, and his BA in international relations, both at Georgetown University.

Join host Fran Pollaro as he delves into the world of patient-centric dermatology innovations with Arcutis president and CEO Frank Watanabe in this Pharmaceutical Executive Podcast episode.

Exploring Arcutis’s Patient-Centric Dermatology Innovations

Cathi Ahearn is a seasoned biotechnology leaders with formative stints at Genentech, Roche, and now at Bristol Myers Squibb, as SVP of worldwide commercial portfolio strategy. Cathi is focused on one goal: shortening the path between creating medical innovation and getting that innovation to patients. Cathi chats with senior editor at Pharmaceutical Executive about her experiences in the past 20+ years and most importantly, the power of cross-functional collaboration, bringing different teams together and tearing down silos that limit the impact new innovations can have for patients.

Cathi joined Bristol Myers Squibb in December 2021 to lead Worldwide Commercial Portfolio Strategy, including responsibility for commercial development of pipeline assets, global marketing of in-line brands, and optimized management of the established brands franchise. She is a seasoned biotechnology leader who spent 22 years in roles of increasing responsibility and scope at Roche/Genentech, primarily in oncology. Her strategic, results-driven mindset led to demonstrated successes building and developing successful teams. Most recently, she led the GI & GU and Cancer Immunotherapy franchises within Roche’s worldwide commercial organization. Cathi led the cross-functional lifecycle & franchise teams for Tecentriq, Roche’s anti-PDL1 program, from the time of its entry into clinic through its global licensing and commercialization. Cathi held a broad range of US sales, marketing, and strategic roles on the Avastin program, and in the cardiovascular and asthma/allergy disease areas.

Cathi holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UCLA and a Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

The editors of Pharmaceutical Executive bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry. 

Fran Pollaro talks with Cathi Ahearn, senior vice president, worldwide commercial portfolio strategy, Bristol Myers Squibb about impediments and solutions to break down silos in order to get medications in the hands of patients faster.

Tearing Down Silos to Usher Innovative Medicines to Patients Faster

In his position, Faruk Capan leads thousands of employees around the globe with a focus on bold innovation—one can imagine how excited he is about Chat GPT, which set the record for fastest-growing user base in history. Senior editor Fran Pollaro and Faruk go back and forth about positives, negatives, hopes, and fears attached to generative AI for us as regular humans, and as pharma marketers. The pair delve into content creation, creative, video production, research, sales and marketing…it’s clear that we’re on the precipice of life-changing innovation.

Faruk Capan is the CEO, EVERSANA INTOUCH & Chief Innovation Officer, EVERSANA. Faruk began his first business at age nine and went on to create MSWatch.com, the first and largest online community for people living with multiple sclerosis ­– before founding Intouch in 1999. Today, he leads thousands of employees around the globe with a focus on bold innovation in a people-first environment. He is equally passionate about sports and shoes.

Fran Pollaro talks with Faruk Capan is the CEO, EVERSANA INTOUCH & Chief Innovation Officer, EVERSANA about the arrival of Chat GPT and generative AI in the public consciousness. This is just the beginning.

The Explosive Arrival of Chat GPT and Generative AI

We’re coming out of a period of hyper-accelerated digital and virtual growth, a positive born out of the COVID-19 pandemic — many in the business are wondering how the sales force is going to look, and how they’re going to communicate effectively with HCPs and patients. Pratap Khedkar, CEO of ZS discusses that with senior editor Fran Pollaro as well as the implications associated with the Inflation Reduction Act, the focus and importance of patient-centricity, what we might see in 2023 in the sales & marketing vertical, and more.

Pratap Khedkar was elected CEO of ZS in July 2021. Prior to this, he led the firm’s global pharmaceuticals practice for nine years, as well as a practice focused on the dynamics of healthcare ecosystems. He founded and led its advanced data science capability track, which focuses on AI. He has also served on ZS’s board since 2012.

Pratap has advised numerous leading companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries on a wide range of sales and marketing issues, including market access and managed care, using AI for multichannel marketing, marketing mix, sales force strategy and incentive compensation. More recently, his work has focused on developing effective strategies and analytics for changing customers in the new healthcare ecosystem.

A recognized healthcare industry expert, Pratap regularly contributes his insights to publications including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, Fortune, Medical Marketing & Media, NPR, Pharmaceutical Executive and others. His thought leadership work focuses on topics as diverse as healthcare policy; life sciences companies’ new commercial and organizational models; and the evolving relationships between patients, providers and payers and the life sciences organizations that serve them.

Pratap holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.Tech in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

 bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry. 

Pratap Khedkar, CEO of ZS, a management consulting and technology firm focused on transforming global healthcare, shares his perspective on what 2023 holds for the sales and marketing vertical.

In Flux: The Sales & Marketing Outlook for 2023

In this episode, Marcella Milliet Sciorra, Chief Marketing Officer at DeepIntent, discusses Connected TV, or CTV, how it differs from over the top, and how CTV fits into the future of pharmaceutical marketing.

Senior Editor, Fran Pollaro, also talks to Milliet Sciorra about:

CTV being one of the hottest marketing channels available today

The role of TV today for pharma and patient perception

What data tell us about the overall CTV landscape, CTV audiences, and their viewing preferences

In episode 122, Marcella Milliet Sciorra, Chief Marketing Officer at DeepIntent, discusses Connected TV, or CTV, how it differs from over the top, and how CTV fits into the future of pharmaceutical marketing.

Tuning Into CTV - Real Time Data For Marketers

Sarah McKinnon, Senior Art Director at The Grey Group, discusses her entrance into the advertising world through blending art and science in school, understanding the connection between human health and storytelling, her own experiences as a patient, along with a healthy dose of grit and passion, to inform her audiences and her career.

Sarah McKinnon, Senior Art Director at The Grey Group, discusses her entrance into the advertising world through blending art and science in school, understanding the connection between human health and storytelling, her own experiences as a patient along with a healthy dose of grit and passion¾to inform her audiences and her career.

Behind the Creative…..Inspiring Award Winning Creative with Sarah McKinnon

The industry must find a way to balance consumer privacy and a return on investment in pharma marketing.

From Identity to Margin: Securing Audience Measurement in Pharma Marketing

Blankenship, vice president of policy initiatives and advocacy at The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, discusses how AOMs can play a role in creating strategies to manage the obesity epidemic.

Advocating For Weight Loss Medication: Q&A with Jeanne Blankenship

Hey Pharma–Do You Know What Your Customers Really Want?

Greater Than One’s Chief Strategy Officer, Andrew Bast, shares his takeaways from 2024 Rare Disease Summit in Philadelphia, PA.

Rare Disease Summit Recap

Elliott Yoo, Senior Media Strategist at epocrates, takes a closer look at the trends in CME consumption and what the future of medical education will be – from the priorities for physicians as they juggle learning with patient care, to what type of activities resonate most with prescribers.

Trends in Continuing Medical Education

Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One, discusses what other tactics healthcare marketers can utilize to connect with diverse audiences

Going Beyond Visuals to Connect with Diverse Audiences

While representation in marketing materials is important for DE&I, what other tactics can healthcare marketers utilize to ensure their outreach goes beyond visuals and truly connects with diverse audiences on a deeper level?

I think that, you know, is still within the context of marketing materials in great content and engaging audiences effectively, you know, even beyond what we can do as a marketing organization and developing those experiences that go direct to those customers, is how we can also find creative ways to make an impact with some of the broader organizations that are also trying to advocate for that incredible change. So, you know, back to the rare disease context, again, there are advocacy groups that are working tirelessly to try to help people with rare diseases, both in terms of you know, their journey to diagnosis, their journey to treatment, and ultimately, you know, supporting them bringing them together in creating these tight communities so that they feel that they have a group of folks that they can really count on. So, working with the advocacy organizations, investing in them as much as we can, and supporting some of their broader causes is something that is very near and dear to our heart. And in fact, one of the ways that we not only, you know, talk about the need for change, but deliver an act upon it, is through our 501c3, which is greater good. And greater good has an arm called honeycomb health. And honeycomb health is our purpose-built solution to help people with rare diseases by offering free storefronts to any advocacy group that wants one. So, we build the storefront, we have all the merchandise up in the store, and then they're able to generate revenue to support their cause by selling all of this great material online. So that's something we're pretty proud of. I'd love to show you a video in a minute. Through the Manny awards, we've just earned a nomination for the heart award. So, we pulled together a video clip to be able to share at the award ceremony and it just does a really nice job and kind of telling the story and one of the ways that that we're delivering on, you know, how we can truly help versus just talk about it. We really believe in the act of change.

A couple of other thoughts just on the broader question around what we can do beyond marketing materials, is the way that we build our own teams, and the marketing groups that are working on the marketing materials and the work that we're building to try to engage these groups effectively. And that is making sure that our marketing teams are diverse. And also, if possible, even creating an advisory board in some cases where people have a deeper understanding of the people that we're trying to engage in much more so from kind of the grassroots ground level versus us having to try to come up with those great insights on our own. We've done that a couple of times, and it's been pretty effective. And it's also you know, without having to invest hundreds of 1000s of dollars in research, sometimes more of a qualitative way that you can have the right level of thinking and that sensitivity on the marketing team itself.

Videos

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One, discusses what other tactics healthcare marketers can utilize to connect with diverse audiences on a deeper level

Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One, discusses healthcare marketing strategies for reaching diverse audiences

Crafting Culturally Sensitive Messages to Reach Diverse Audiences and Improve Patient Outcomes

With an ever-increasing focus on DE&I, how can improved DE&I in healthcare marketing strategies not only reach diverse audiences more effectively but also contribute to improved patient care outcomes?

The first really important point that I will share is just how critical this is to us advancing healthcare as an industry, and ultimately helping all of the people that deserve to live their fullest lives. You may know this already, but Greater Than One is a women owned business and also LGBTQ certified. So, it is at the heart of our DNA and something that we live and breathe every day. And kind of simply put, the better job we do breaking down some of these barriers, the more people are going to be reached effectively, the more people are going to seek care and the quality care that they need. And then ultimately, the better the care experience, the better the outcomes. So, I just wanted to say that right off the bat. And then in terms of how we can engage and address this really important issue.

First and foremost, we need to understand the individual audiences, the cultural sensitivities, and ultimately the needs of each of these groups and the broader group collectively, so that we can develop content and engage them effectively. And that's something that you know, is not a one size fits all approach at all. It takes hard work, it takes investment. And it takes some real effort in understanding the individuals and what's going to motivate them, support them, and ultimately help them be healthier on an ongoing basis. And there's a couple of examples that we have seen. The first that I'll share with you, is in the sickle cell disease space specifically. So, as you may know, sickle cell disease impacts people of color much more than it do others. And their experience in the healthcare system has an incredible bias against them. And so, as we think about building programs for sickle cell disease, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those customers and recognize the experience that they have in the healthcare system is not always a very positive one in the context of what they suffer from, and their incredible pain going into the emergency department and truly needing help from those doctors and healthcare staff. Sometimes they don't get it because there's this incredible bias against them from the top. So that's just an example of something that is not fully solved for yet, but really important for us to understand that experience as we develop marketing campaigns and engage them. And then one other example, if I may, is in the context of rare diseases.

Rare diseases, as you may know, they are under research, they are underfunded. And we do a tremendous amount of work in the rare disease space about 50 or 60% of our business is in rare diseases specifically. And so, as we think about building marketing programs and solutions for rare disease, patient populations, and the healthcare professionals that support them, we think about the importance of precision targeting and getting to those individual patients, finding the patients first and foremost, so that they are exposed to that great content, and they can educate themselves and then ultimately advocate for themselves as they're going through their diagnosis in their treatment journey.

What challenges do healthcare marketers face in crafting culturally sensitive messages that resonate with diverse audiences and address their specific healthcare needs?

We have to understand the specific audiences and the individuals first in in a very rich in a deep way. So, putting ourselves in their position, leveraging different forms of research and ultimately having a deep understanding of what they need, what makes them tick, what drives them what they're afraid of behaviorally, of course, in how, through that incredible understanding, we then have an opportunity in a much better chance to create something that's going to resonate with them. And great insight is not sometimes easy to find. So, it's not a data point, it's something that is much deeper, that we can latch on to deliver something truly special that's going to connect with them both in terms of their heart, their heart and in their head. Because that's when we do the best work. That's when people are motivated to advocate for themselves. And ultimately, that's when you know, we are able to drive the better outcomes that we're all after. Another challenge is budget. So, creating content, and segmenting audiences can sometimes be more expensive. There are, of course, really interesting technology solutions now that are coming forward, that are helping us build content much more efficiently and effectively. And then in the context of that idea, also, as we think about the need to sometimes translate materials into other languages, so from English to Spanish, as an example, it's usually not just a direct translation, there are cultural sensitivities, and the need to take what has been developed in English as an example, and to work with professionals and experts that then can help develop and translate that content not only through machinery, but ultimately the right human touch so that we get it culturally right.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Amanda Powers-Han, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater Than One, discusses how improved DE&I in healthcare marketing strategies can not only reach diverse audiences more effectively but address their specific healthcare needs

Fady Boctor on the future of OTC Contraceptives 

PE: Do you expect more products of this nature to become available over the counter in the foreseeable future?

I do. I'll say that 2023-2024 has been exciting. We've seen at least two first in class switches, one of them being Opill, and the other being naloxone. The reason why this is exciting is because it begins to demonstrate that the FDA is responding to the American public who have resoundingly stated, "We want to be able to self care." There are too many hurdles in the healthcare system, and we're facing a physician shortage. 

In mid-2022, the FDA announced additional conditions for non-prescription use that's critical. It's critical because that expands how a product gets switched from prescription to over-the-counter. It includes assistive utilities such as technology, which now could take relatively complicated products, warnings and precautions that have held back certain prescription medications from being available OTC, it brings them to the horizon, it makes them possible for OTC switch. So I anticipate over the next 24 to 36 months, we should begin to see a greater momentum in those types of switches.

PE: Since its release, have you heard about any positive feedback regarding OTC availability?

In terms of various products, I think it's too soon, but I think it's going to start to launch shortly. Aside from the recent best practices of nicotine replacement and antihistamines, hose have been strong proxies and demonstrators of increased utilization just by becoming more available. Those continue to be the reigning examples. 

PE: Is there anything in the pipeline at Petros Pharmaceuticals that you would like to speak about?

The additional condition for non-prescription use, that is going to include new technology platforms. We aim to be a significant player on that front. We're developing a technology platform now for our own erectile dysfunction medication. It would be a prescription and then we'd work to switch it here in the near future. We think that technology platform will in and of itself become an asset available to a pipeline of potential prescription OTC prospects and switches. That is probably something to tune into with Petros Pharamaceuticals. 

In an interview with Pharm Exec Associate Editor Don Tracy, Fady Boctor, President, Chief Commercial Officer, Petros Pharmaceuticals provides his thoughts on what the future looks like when it comes to over-the-counter (OTC) contraceptives. 

President of Petros Pharmaceuticals Discusses the Future of OTC Contraceptives

Fady Boctor Speak on Opill OTC

PE: For our audience, can you tell us what the wider availability of Opill could mean for the future of the contraceptive market?

It's an amazing gateway. I think that this has been a product line that has been anticipated for over-the-counter access for some time. So the fact that it's been passed today demonstrates that the FDA is beginning to expand their appetite and allowance for critical therapeutics to be available over the counter. This is the first among many in its class. The next step is the combination or contraception product model. This is a nice gateway into female contraception. But we think it opens the gates for what many wouldn't have anticipated a reality, which should be on its way shortly. 

PE: Can you explain the process behind taking a product from Rx-to-OTC? What do you think were the biggest benefits as well as challenges?

You're dealing with products that are relatively seasoned and mature in the marketplace. But they've been well studied clinically and approved by the FDA, and in many cases, they have millions of patients that have already undergone and experienced it. So with that, the switch from prescription over the counter becomes more of a comprehension and behavior process. You have to demonstrate to the FDA that these products will be safely used, safely selected, the labor will be comprehended, and consumers will not only self diagnose, but self appropriate. There's labor comprehensive studies, one of the studies that have to be conducted, self selection studies, and actual use studies. Two of them are comprehension and behavior, and the last examines selection. It's a bit of a different development plan than clinical development. There have only been 106 sine 1976. It says that these products are carefully looked at. We still haven't gotten into a high volume of transitions and switches yet, and that time is coming. In terms of the biggest benefits so far, appoint everybody to consumer health care products of association with HPA. They're critical because they've been watching and tracking this. They're advocates of these developments in the switches. According to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, they saw an increase in utilization from 66 to 75% in the antihistamines and allergy spaces just by becoming more available over-the-counter. Perhaps one of the biggest markets of switch that demonstrate the value is smoking cessation with nicotine cessation patches. It shows that Americans sometimes confront stigma. They don't always want to have conversations about it. If you educate them to make it available to them, they would far more prefer the ability to go pick it up at the local pharmacy or purchase it online without any human interaction. We're just unique that way.  

In an interview with Pharm Exec Associate Editor Don Tracy, Fady Boctor, President, Chief Commercial Officer, Petros Pharmaceuticals talks about the recent availability of Opill as an over-the-counter (OTC) contraceptive. 

Petros Pharmaceuticals Executive Discusses Wider Availability of Oral Contraceptive

Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, talks about what's coming marketing with the use of AI

Emerging Trends at the Intersection of AI & Marketing

Looking ahead, what emerging trends do you see in the intersection of AI and marketing, and how can startups best prepare to leverage these advancements for future growth?

I would say, we are going to see a lot of strategies around fast product creation, using AI and generally we overpass product creation and past market testing both of these paths, product creation, for example. And this doesn't apply to every storm, of course, like or every like, it applies to like a specific types of tech startups, for example, or ecommerce startups or SAS startups. So, like they each day, of course, each type of business is different. But like for a group of startups, what happens that is that you can even do fast prototyping, using GPS, whether if you use a GPT as a product, or you actually use GPS to create like, a simple MVP, minimum viable product. And they see you go to market and test the product market fit before assigning a lot of resources to this. Now, back to my other basically point. Now, it also you can basically go and test the market pretty quickly, you can basically keep iterating this until you get to like a marketing approach that works.

Now, when you get to that point that you have now that one marketing approach that works or marketing strategy or like overall strategy that now we can scale it quickly. So, it's like scaling with the help of generative AI is much easier and faster than basically you used to have like in the traditional methods. So that's basically another thing. Now, given the amount of innovation in this space, I would say a lot of new growth hacking will emerge also again, another different software to basically like to help in different places. And it will go any aspect of the business. You can now think that gentleman or maybe some help, and you can find some tools, whether is market analysis and going after a targeting given new users to just basically brainstorming given ideas. And using Betsy Gentiva as a very, very smart like executive assistant to basically like coming up with whole new models, marketing models, based on guarantee by AI to basically a scaling up what were what you were doing to even like help with the private aspects.

So, I would say everything about the business, or at least many businesses will change in the next couple of years. And different definitely even they are changing Did for good or bad? I mean, like, so if you follow the news quickly, and I'm not going to name names, but like there are some companies that they lay off quite a lot right now, because they already generally May I took some of their business. Now they are like some other Yeah, there are some other companies that they are hiring. And if you go like after jobs in the like, for example, machine learning space, there are so many new jobs in that space. So, like, meanwhile, in this transition, there is an overall shift in job market. And like in the business landscape, like basically, and there's so many, so I would say, I have been in business for about 20, more than 20 years, I've seen like a few of different waves, like really important waves from and I've been kind of involved with those, like VR, the blockchain wave before those social and mobile waves. And I would say I was not. Well, I mean, it's like, okay, so eternity probably counts, I would say this is really bigger than setting aside the internet really, like bigger than any other shift industry, like major shifts that I've seen, it's really like, is going to like have global impacts, I would say, there's so many things to think about, is going to completely change the labor market, is the first time that technology can replace us, as humans completely can do things better than us. So why multiple of right now? I don't know, like, the small multiples, but like in the future, maybe like 100x or 1000s? Then what do you do with something that can be 1,000x? is smarter than you, for example? Well, if smart is the right word there, yeah, but, but yeah, more capable than you. So at least right. So, everything is going to change now. And then we go somewhere that we don't know, I don't think even these big companies that they have this foundation of models, they exactly know.

That being said, okay, so what can you do on the individual level, what you can do is basically just be on top of these major shifts, and try to learn and try to understand and get as much help as you can, and see how you can use these new force, first of all, understand this new force, how it works, even what does it mean, I mean, when someone says, God, bear, so Right, so like, understand this new force, and then how to use it. And, and also, like, basically just follow the new waves and understand those, for example, again, like going back to Surah, that I mentioned, okay, surah was introduced, I think, is a couple of weeks now, like, more publicly, which is going to change the whole video creation scene, or space. Now, what does it mean for you? What does it mean for you if you are a videographer? What does it mean for you if you're a camera company, so now like, so there are so many things there to think about? But you can think about these things if you're really involved. And you basically follow the news, think about it, and try and brainstorm cetera. And then that becomes even if it is a trade for you, right? Now, it can become like an opportunity for you instead. So, I will say, that's what we can do. But it's a really major, major shift in everything. So that I think we are going to see, I would say the regulatory landscape overall, is very slow to move. And by the time they move, like it has, usually it has taken over everything. So, and then I wouldn't bet on a lot of regulations limiting gender pay, I would see here and there, but it's just, I would say, it's beyond the understanding of even like regulators to like, regulate it on time. So, it was what would happen is that is going to go fast. Then as a person, or as a company, or as a C suite, the only thing that you can do is like ACT, be very well informed and adapt as soon as you can.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, talks about what's coming marketing with the use of AI.

Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, talks about how he has successfully combined cutting-edge technologies with traditional marketing approaches

Combining Cutting-Edge Technologies with Traditional Marketing

Given your expertise in "fusion marketing," can you share any specific examples of how you have successfully combined cutting-edge technologies with traditional marketing approaches in past ventures?

This is an example, from launch of a product because those are the stressful times. So, when you want to launch a product. But let's say what we did for one of the companies was we Okay, so let me go on a step back. So as fractional CMO, one of the things that we do is that we tell people, the company is like, we analyze the market, and we tell them, okay, so these are your top three marketing channels, for example. And then we say like, these are the backup also channels for those marketing channels. So, we come up with any initial hypotheses of the top three marketing channels for a startup or for a company. And then we say, this is based on our competitor analysis based on the market analysis based on the keyword analysis based on all of that, and then we think that you should run with this.

The reason we don't go for more than that is that because even like the bigger companies, they have limited time and resources, and we don't want them for example, to focus on 18 different online marketing channels and once. And another reason is that if you even have one marketing channel, right, it can scale the business to millions of dollars and or sometimes billion-dollar business. So, like one marketing channel done, right? And bring the best people to do it, and then really do it properly. Can you scale a company quite a lot? Yeah. We that perspective. Now, let's say you have, for example, company, or we had a company that this strategy is where search engine optimization, Google ads, and let's say paid social. So, and basically, of course, as I mentioned before, a lot of these aspects become easier to do like basically like creating an app like using guaranteed AI, or like creating content for gender. But one thing that connects everything is this.

You basically go and let's say you have an idea, you want to test it down, or you're like you want you have one specific angle about the product. You want to test it out. You basically create a basic content for that one. And then you go and create a blog post based on that one, you create social posts based on that one, you create an email sequence based on that one, you create ads based on that one. And basically, run these ads like to like a specific target audience niche that you have, like a specific persona that you have taught based on your idea. And basically, you connect everything, whether it's like social ads, and Google ads, and also your content marketing efforts, and your email marketing efforts. So, all of them in one place. And basically, think as the whole thing as one campaign. For that you can run pretty quickly. So, like Agile method by like, kind of Agile method, even more agile than it used to be. You basically can create products very quickly right now. And you can test the market very quickly. So now, this brings a whole different way of thinking about marketing. Because now, basically, it's not about a go and plan, and I have a full marketing plan for the years to come. It will be okay, so I have an initial marketing plan, I have to figure out how this marketing plan aligns with my overall strategy and how I can iterate it and get results fast. How can I test something and see if it actually has a product market fit here? And then if it does, great, and then I can scale that, but if it doesn't, then I can go like and then run another iteration pretty quickly. It becomes like a quick iteration of marketing, execution in the scale that hasn't been there before.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, talks about how he has successfully combined cutting-edge technologies with traditional marketing approaches in his past ventures.

Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, explains utilizing generative AI for content creation and how AI-driven automation has increased visibility

Utilizing Generative AI for Rapid Content Creation and Distribution

Can you tell me about utilizing generative AI for rapid content creation across multiple platforms and how AI-driven automation of that content distribution increased visibility?

Essentially, what's happening is that content creation is becoming commoditized. Now, in the recent years, this has been a wave, in general that promoting content as gain more relative importance compared to creating content. So now, influence, for example, even social media now plays a much bigger role than it used to have like, say, how many followers you have, et cetera, right, you may create the best content, but you may have zero visibility. Now, let's say B, B, being able to create content at scale, this becomes even more so like in my opinion, the role of influence and promoting your content, comparative to creating your content, this becomes this skill gain even more important.

Now, that being said, you also need to be part of the generation that can create content at scale and fast. Now this is possible right now for a lot of things for presentations for of course, takes content blog posts for emails for ad copies for writing different ads for creating images recently, like open AI introduced Surah it's going to be like, videos soon, like so like or a wave actually of new innovation in videos. So, it's really everything. I have actually submitted patent even with the help of generative AI so a lot of that was it and I know like in universities right now, for these SBIR applications or STTR, etc., they use the antibiotic quite a lot. So everywhere. So, like in content generation, now he can escape. But the question is not just content generation, if you generate a lot of content that no one sees doesn't matter. So, while it helps, while it is still definitely needs manual supervision for each aspect, so you definitely need to review, it has mistakes. It also becomes about how you scale it. Now, again, there generally are tools for doing that part, to basically automate for an auto AI engine or do most like tools that they can do that. And they can automate. Basically, sending messages, automate applying for jobs, automate anything that you can think of right now, again, we then this huge wave of new tools, but I would say, the content generation piece itself, since it was so time consuming, and more expensive. Now, that is less expensive and less time consuming, it will shift this attention towards the content promotion even more.

Now, let's say if you spent so much time on writing a really good blog post in the past, and then didn't have more time to promote your blog posts. Now, you do that for much easier and faster. And then okay, so it becomes okay, how now I go promote my blog post where I share it or thinking of strategies, that, how can I now use this scale to basically build more following build more influence? So that that is really the question that like these days exist. And that is something that actually like, again, like so we as fractional CMO, help that we have different companies. That's one of the questions that we try to address. So, like how, how we bring this scale to like, scale the company faster and grow them faster, basically. And about just thinking about just content creation alone is not going to be enough. So, you definitely need a cohesive strategy and just system in place.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, explains utilizing generative AI for rapid content creation and how AI-driven automation of that content distribution has increased visibility. 

Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, discusses how AI could have helped address past challenges

How AI Could Have Helped Past Challenges

In your experience with leading startups to market leadership, what specific challenges did you encounter, and how do you believe AI could have helped address them?

I would say like one main challenge for startups is fast iteration and faster scaling in general. And then just in general, startups have much less capital than, then like these bigger brands, right. So, like established brands, where they can win is in their speedy process and like going to market and capture and like also like focusing on the niche markets that this meat brands don't pay too much attention to, but also like in like going to market, like in a very fast manner. Now, this generative AI basically, like, it's something that it can help quite a lot with that. So basically, like, when you want to launch a product, let's say like a new product, right? So, you have a lot of moving elements, you do have a lot of development, things that you want to test out and should not be broken, but also going to market on a timely fashion. It needs a lot of marketing materials to be created from blog posts to like going to press to even videos to like images, to emails, to sequences to sometimes running ads, etc. So, a lot of that actually can be sped up.

These guaranteed AI tools are a big help there, I would say so. And so, in my experience, we actually helped the company as fractional CMO, and they are actually in healthcare. And that was one of these cases, they wanted to launch a new platform. And this new platform and they had not communicated with their basically, customers for two years somehow. Now they wanted to say, oh, we are alive. And well. And we have been working for the past two years and this amazing platform that has so many new features. And then basically also like but then this was the sequence of emails that should have been created for this big launch, it should have been a lot of social media that should have been created a new website event like should have gone live. And then basically also like, a lot of blog posts, a lot of informing the clients. And for example, their medium of choice was LinkedIn, one of the big ones was LinkedIn, and, of course, Facebook, etc., that they should have engaged everyone.

So these, like in the past without generative AI was much time consuming a lot more like planning involved cetera, right now you basically can prompt a lot of things. And basically, you can have, for example, generative AI, create really good sequences of emails, for example. And of course, it's still like a lot of manual supervision is still involved. So, it's like, it's not like you cannot like just to dedicate yet at least like to generalize, go figure out everything and do everything. But like, at least like, it speeds up things quite a lot. And for something, a launch like this, it takes away a lot of the marketing headache from the CEO, because like he has a request, less than a week later, all of them are done, like which in the old times, you should like the same thing could have taken one month or more. And so, like that, that increases the speed of the startups quite a lot.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Kaveh Vahdat, Founder and President of RiseOpp, discusses how AI could have helped address past challenges. 

Jill Jaroch, Senior Director, Women’s Health & Urology Marketing at Astellas, discusses the decision to continue VEOZAH's presence during the Super Bowl 58

Putting Menopause Medication on the Main Stage

What factors influenced the decision to advertise during the Super Bowl? Did Taylor Swift's relationship with Travis Kelce play any role in the decision?

Well, as you know, we debuted at the Super Bowl last year, Astellas had its first ever Super Bowl commercial last year. And after the positive feedback that we received, particularly from women, we were thrilled to be back at the Super Bowl this year. Super Bowl 58 had 120 million viewers this year, about half of which were women. So, what we know is that the number of women involved in the football community continues to increase so from coaches to employees to fans, and as a result, the topic of women's midlife health is actually more relevant to the football community than ever before, which makes the Super Bowl a tremendous platform to educate about vasomotor symptoms due to menopause, which is hot flashes and night sweats, but also visa and to spark unnecessary conversation.

So, our hope really was that viewers walked away with a greater awareness of moderate to severe hot flashes due to menopause, as well as visa because ultimately, we want women to feel acknowledged, validated, empowered to talk openly about their experiences, and have more informed discussions with their health care providers about VMFS and about whether VEOZAH is right for them. But to answer your question about Taylor Swift her relationship did not play a role in our decision to be at the Superbowl.

Running a menopause ad during the Super Bowl, a time known for commercials like "Puppy Monkey Baby," was an unexpected choice. When was the decision to book the advertising space made?

Since October, our TV viewers have seen a VEOZAH ad that has been aired during other sporting events. So, it wasn't just the Super Bowl that we were focused on. But having a new cut at the Super Bowl was a natural part of our strategy to reach our audiences where they are during key cultural moments that that we know they're tuning in for. In addition to the Super Bowl, things like the Oscars, Bravo con, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, again, at Astellas, we just want women to feel heard and their unique needs validated, which is why we're continuing to try to elevate this conversation on the national stage and you can't get more national than the Super Bowl.

Let’s talk about the commercial itself. Can you tell us about the inspiration and message behind the creation of the commercial?

The inspiration behind the concept of fewer hot flashes more not flashes was really a core tension that we discovered through expansive qualitative market research and social listening, which revealed that many women believe that nothing can be done about their BMS, which results in them being resigned to really grin and bear it. This is not surprising since menopause is a time in a woman's health journey that has historically been overlooked. But what we mean by fewer hot flashes more not flashes is that when women with VMS are having are not having a hot flash. That's a not flash. So, our Superbowl ad showcased relatable hot flashes, night sweat moments that may impact women in midlife. For example, one scene shows a woman sticking her head in the freezer to cool down, which really goes to show the lengths some women may go to find relief. But the ad encourages women to speak up and seek appropriate treatment options with their health care providers and emphasizes that fewer interruptions from moderate to severe VMS due to menopause can be possible.

The commercial features diverse representation in terms of age, ethnicity, situations, and daily activities. Can you elaborate on the creative decisions to communicate inclusivity and the importance of this message?

The campaign is designed to reach a diverse group of women in the US impacted by moderate to severe hot flashes and night sweats, who are looking for a non-hormonal prescription treatment option. So, what we know is that in the US, nearly half of women going through menopause may experience moderate to severe VMS. But what we also know is that black and Hispanic women often experience VMS earlier and longer than their Caucasian and Asian counterparts. So, we recognized early on the importance of representing diverse women experiencing hot flashes and that flashes to really reinforce the capability the strength and power within each woman to seek appropriate treatment options.

Are there plans for future VEOZAH ads during events like the World Series? How do you anticipate your Super Bowl ad influencing the marketing strategies of other women's health products?

so first, we would welcome others to follow our lead, right? But again, what we know is that half of the Superbowl audience is women. So, we are really just trying to reach our target audience where they are. And during these key cultural moments, the first ad that we had did launch back in October, and it has been airing across all big three networks in the US cable networks like Bravo HGTV, CNN during primetime Morning News, evening news and during big TV and sports moments. Additionally, we're on multiple streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. And as I mentioned, during key cultural moments, which of course includes sports, things like the World Series, and the Super Bowl that we know our audience is tuning in for. So, the new cut, again aired for the first time at this year's Super Bowl, but it will continue airing throughout the summer across these platforms, and during the major cultural moments, which of course will include sports.

In this Pharmaceutical Executive interview, Jill Jaroch, Senior Director, Women’s Health & Urology Marketing at Astellas, discusses the decision to continue VEOZAH's presence during the big game, the inspiration and message behind the commercial, and if Taylor Swift played a factor in their decision making

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