Patricia Keegan & Katja Stettin
Covance Market Access, London, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.99.38

Patricia Keegan, Senior Consultant (PhD in Physiology, Cambridge 2009), writes:

When I was a student, I had no idea that there was a big group of specialist consultancy companies servicing the pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturer markets.

Originally, I started working for a healthcare ThinkTank, believing this was the only place I could use my science background and apply my skills to topics that really mattered to me: shaping the healthcare industry and finding affordable ways to bring innovation to the NHS. Gradually I became aware of a large number of consultancy companies specialising in exactly that. I was offered a job at the level of Senior Analyst (one above entry level due to having some prior work experience) and I now work as a Senior Consultant in a room full of people with biology-based PhDs, including a few people who were on the Downing Site with me. We all survived the days and nights looking down a microscope in the dark room and now make use of the skills we learnt during our PhDs to further the development of novel products for the healthcare industry.

We are market access consultants, medical research writers, “value communication” experts and health economic modellers. Our clients come to us with questions like:

We are developing a product and have so far achieved these phase II clinical trial results. Please can you let us know if we should keep moving forwards with the development of this product, or if you think it will never be able to compete with other products currently on the market?

We are thinking of buying one of these three biotechnology companies. Please can you evaluate their product portfolios and let us know which one to buy?

We have been manufacturing this product for years. It is off patent and much cheaper than its competitor. Why are all the clinicians in France still prescribing the more expensive competitor?

We have evidence showing that our product has significantly fewer side effects than the current product prescribed on the NHS. How can we communicate the value of our product to clinicians?

We are putting together a launch strategy for our new product in Europe. Please can you help us decide in which country we should launch first?

We are developing our clinical trial program. Which competitor do you think we should use as a comparator?

In order to answer these questions, we carry out literature searches in MEDLINE and Embase databases through the Ovid interface as well as PubMed, research clinicaltrials.gov, review data from our clients, interview experts in the field, attend conferences and NICE appraisals. We also keep up to date with changes in the healthcare field by attending lectures – colleagues, who are alumni from Imperial, LSE, UCL and KCL, let us know when interesting speakers are lecturing and now and again we will all head out to one of the universities after work to attend a lecture together.

The best thing about our jobs is that we make use of all the skills and scientific background knowledge we learnt at university. I find myself reading through papers to understand the mechanism of action of a new cancer therapy, or reading through some early trial data and checking out the p-values to decide if one therapy has a significant advantage over another. I use my maths background when asked to help build a cost-effectiveness model to demonstrate that the use of a new drug will save the NHS millions through reduced hospital readmissions and I certainly make use of my thesis-writing skills. If you have kept up your language skills while at university, this will help when you find yourself on the phone with a world expert in France or Germany and want to discuss their views on how effective a new drug is likely to be compared with the drugs already in use today.

Katja Stettin, Analyst (PhD in Zoology, Cambridge 2014), recently completed her PhD at Cambridge, gives her thoughts on moving on from academia and her tips for current students:

When I was approaching the end of my PhD – and therefore the end of my funding – I started to apply for all kinds of different jobs. I panicked a little when I received the invitation to interview for my current position because I only had a really vague idea what the job required. This motivated me to contact Patricia via GradLink (the service offered by the Cambridge Careers Service) and she gave me a great introduction to what the job would entail – and is now my team leader. Still, moving from academic research to this new world of pharmaceutical consultancy was a scary prospect. But I have not regretted it once. From day one, I have been involved in interesting projects that have broadened my knowledge and skills immensely. Since starting about a year ago, I have:

Built a user-friendly Excel model to demonstrate how new drugs will affect payers’ budgets

Developed content for an eLearning tool to be used by a big pharmaceutical company to train new employees

Produced documents that demonstrate the value of new and existing products

Interviewed stakeholders over the telephone in multiple countries to understand their view on new products and where these products might fit into the current treatment landscape

Researched the healthcare environment of different countries

Carried out all kinds of work related to project management

This is only a selection of the things that I have worked on.

All the time I am surrounded by intelligent and open-minded people who like me, have a passion for science. The best thing is that I use my scientific background – a good understanding of science is surely a prerequisite for this job. I think this job is a good option for everyone who feels that academia is not their future but still does not want to cut all ties with science. Also, due to the growing pressure on healthcare budgets, not only in the UK but all over Europe and the US, the healthcare industry increasingly relies on experts like us to help them understand the challenges of the current environment and better communicate the value of their products. Healthcare Pharmaceutical consulting and value communication are surely industries with a promising future, something one might want to consider when choosing a new job path.

My day at the office usually starts with me checking my emails to see if I have received anything important which requires my immediate attention. I then start working on one of my projects, which might involve drafting content for the project lead to review, implementing feedback received from a client or a colleague, or researching clinical papers or other kind of information. Usually, I am assigned multiple projects at the same time, which means that there is a lot of variety in what I do throughout the day. I also have regular meetings with clients, where we discuss project progress or present deliverables. In between, I discuss aspects of the projects with colleagues; depending on the project this might also involve our in-house programming and design team. Another aspect I really like about this job is that everything we do is a team effort. The responsibility for the project is shared and even in a junior position like mine your input is highly valued.

I am hopeful that this article will help more students become aware that the industry I am working in exists and that this might be an ideal option for someone with extensive scientific training, who is keen to enter a world founded on science that is different to academia.