Novo Nordisk

Liselotte Hyveled

What are some current innovations and technology in the pharma market?

The pharma market is in the mid of a new era of innovations, like pharmacogenomics, gene therapy, and biologics. There are also innovations in digital health driven by artificial intelligence.

Pharmacogenomics is an exciting and new technology in many ways, and it can fundamentally change the way we develop medications by looking at the person’s genetic makeup. With this, we can see how an individual’s genetic makeup influences the response to medicine, whether it is within the drug metabolism, effectiveness, or side effects. The data allows the industry to do a complete modulation of their products, which can be targeted to the patients for their individual needs.

However, pharmacogenomics is still a new field, but it has potential to revolutionize the way we develop drugs. There is still a lot to be learned, and we need to enter a dialogue with patients to create trust particularly around the safety of this new technology.

What are some challenges in the pharma market? Classical innovations and organic growth within the pharma market are decreasing, so we must look more to external players for innovation opportunities. There is a big competition among different pharma companies to get their hands on new technology platforms and new modalities to build on emerging capabilities.

“Drug development is often guided by scientific or medical considerations, however brining in patient perspectives and preferences into the drug development process can be very valuable and make room for new innovations and may influence company decisions throughout the treatment offering development value chain”

However, when trying to collaborate or co-create externally, there is an additional set of risk profiles that companies face as some may be hesitant to let go of control over their fixed set of processes. If we as big pharma want to engage and co-create with smaller start-ups and academia, we must understand each other and bridge mindset gaps for the sake of innovation.

How will external innovations help in the growth of companies?

Co-creation and partnering is necessary to secure future innovation and is key to bringing new drugs and methods into the market. Another important point to focus on, which is equally important, is to understand that many countries cannot afford the newest innovations, so we need to find a balance between new innovation and ensuring that we get broader access across the world with a range of product offerings.

For instance, we have been in diabetes care for 100 years but still only provide medication to a part of the people that are living with Diabetes. So, we must take social responsibility to reach as many patients as possible with current medications. And this also calls for innovations, like our recent heat stable insulin that will help the patients who do not have access to a refrigerator.

How is including patient voice in drug development impacting the innovation of drug development?

Drug development is often guided by scientific or medical considerations, however brining in patient perspectives and preferences into the drug development process can be very valuable and make room for new innovations and may influence company decisions in the treatment offering development value chain.

The inclusion of patient voice is a relatively new thing in the pharma domain.

However, the patients can certainly have an influence on new drug development, where one concrete examples could be, that their perspectives and view in how to best optimize the clinical trials can provide a higher recruitment and retention rate or improve the quality of trial data. They can also via their patient association groups use their experiences help to shape the direction of future research for treatment solutions.

It’s a win-win if pharma companies create trust with patient association groups because their experience can help develop the right treatment solutions and their support for the pharma companies and the treatment solutions can help secure success of the offerings created.

Do you have a particular method or process when including patient voice in drug development?

There are many ways to include patient voice and have a trusting relationship with patient association groups It all starts with listening and having a open mind to the unmet patient need.

We are in the process of creating a framework that ensures we in an aligned and systematized way include the patient voice throughout the value chain of treatment offering development. This framework secures a patient voice strategy for every therapeutic area and project and it could concretely include patient advisory boards and key patient opinion leaders (POL) . It could also include patient journey mapping, or engagement groups for clinical trials and get inputs on how we should run the clinical trials. These are just a few elements in the strategy.

In this way, we ensure we involve the patients throughout the value chain and listen to their needs and perspectives. By the patient voice strategies, we ensure that the patient voice is included as a decision factor, just as the regulatory strategy, the clinical strategy and more are included in the way we decide the way forward in a development process. By doing this we believe it can lead to more effective and patient-centered treatment development.

What advice do you have for peers in the industry?

For innovations and to make the best drugs available, it is essential to be curious. Understanding the problem, really listening to what is needed, and thinking out of the box are some key factors to revolutionary innovation. By co-creating and thinking unconventionally, you can get out of your bubble. Communicate effectively with partners and bring trust to the relationship. Additionally, to foster collaboration and trust, we need to create a culture of teamwork and mutual support and respect for each other.

My second advice would be to be persistent when trying to take a new direction. People are often reluctant to change and embracing new ideas. You must knock on many doors to get people to listen to your ideas and support you, before innovations can surface. So if you are a leader – listen to the ideas your employees are trying to give you.

My last, and key, piece of advice would be to listen to your customers. This is old new in many trades, but in the pharma industry it has not been a tradition to bring in the direct view of the patients we are trying to serve. Health care personal may think they know what the patients wants – but if we are not curious and ask open questions, we don’t necessary get all the information relevant to provide the right treatment offerings.