Author: Christian Velten

Yes, pharma is behind most other industries in terms of digital transformation, e.g. of customer engagement and solutions. As a permanent repetition of the evident, multiple studies (example), journal articles and blog posts are frequently reporting about pharma’s digital retardation. But that is not a fair comparison. Also part of the truth, markets for treatments, medical devices and health services are actually no free markets as with other industries, but highly regulated. I am not complaining, there are good reasons for having limitations in place. It is just a general circumstance which needs to be considered with the challenge of…

Limiting digital customer engagement in pharma to commercial and medical communication would be like asserting that the violins are the most important part of a symphony orchestra. If you ask a violinist, he certainly will confirm. But dare asking the trumpeter. Across any pharmaceutical organization there is typically a variety of digital ‘music’ played for physicians and patients … Obviously, different projects, initiatives, tools and solutions are touching similar customers if not the same, depending on the disease area. For example in rare disease, the likeliness to interact with exactly the same individuals in parallel (patients & physicians) is quite…

Earlier this year, I was visiting a presentation by the Basel business development agency on the challenges of Medical Device Regulations (MDR) for the providers of health apps. There had been around 30-40 IT guys locally supporting pharma with the development of health-related digital solutions, some from agencies, some freelancers. What they all had in common were shocked faces at the end of the presentation. I was not really surprised. During many years I have now been involved in the development and realization of various digital tools and solutions in pharma, I got used to digital agencies’ naivety if not…

I was leading a global biomarker+genetic testing program aiming to  identify hidden patients with Niemann-Pick type C, an ultra-rare and severe neuro-metabolic disease (prevalence 1:89’000, ~1’000 patients on treatment worldwide). The project included 44 countries, mostly in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa. We used a highly specific and sensitive biomarker, Lyso-SM-509, provided by the Centogene AG lab, who was also performing the analyses. We were able to identify >200 additional patients, achieving surprisingly high hit rate of 5 in 100, corresponding to 4 patients per month on average. Investment per patient identified was in the range of 5.2% of yearly…

Jun 2018 – Oct 2019 / ACTELION PHARMACEUTICALS & JANSSEN – Led the global digital customer & patient engagement strategy for commercial & medical functions (digital transformation of business). • Established a cross-functional and cross-departmental internal network linking internal digital activities, expertise and passion. • Aligned global/regional/local layers, IT, R&D, compliance/legal, and with overarching Janssen (J&J) digital strategies.

At least inside the pharma branch of industry I am working in, there clearly is a preference for iOS devices, iPhones and iPads. Everyone has at least one of those devices in his pocket, if not in his or her hand most of the time. iOS devices are internal corporate if not even industry standard. Now, I am not going to start an ideological discussion today if this is good or bad, respectively which mobile platform would be the better one. In all pharma companies I was working with so far, iPhone is standard and many people really love it.…

Why do agency representatives always show up in the same black or dark blue and ill-fitting suits?

A few questions to the colleague who is coming to office with a severe cold or even flu. Do you really think that coming to office sneezing and coughing would be an achievement, a sign of commitment, or in any way productive? No, sorry, to my opinion this is just an explicit mindless, inconsiderate and irresponsible behavior. So, just stop it … please! Stay at home, take a short break, sleep a lot, recover well, and be back restored and filled with energy.

We are currently facing a system migration. From Google tools (with Gmail and Google calendar) to Office365 (with Outlook in the cloud). Allow me to publicly share my very personal user perspective on how it goes.

How to smartly manage being off for 2-3 weeks without caring for business email and phone.