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Cutting Edge Conversation: Biotech Market Access

Scientist on September 24, 2021


On September 21, Scientist.com and speakers from PRECISIONheor, PRMA Consulting and OpenHealth participated in the second episode of the Cutting Edge Conversations series. This interactive event showcased the innovations from three marketplace providers regarding “Biotech Market Access”. The event began with an introduction from Scientist.com and HealthEconomics.Com’s subject matter expert, Patti Peeples, RPh, PhD. Peeples provided an overview of the topics to be discussed — the challenge research manufacturers face when they need to maximize access for patients with payers, the many considerations for a biotechnology company during various phases of drug development and how companies could use efficient sourcing strategies for market access.


Sajjad Raza, Director at PRECISIONheor

Dr. Raza is a Director at PRECISIONheor with expertise in a wide variety of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) projects including evidence strategy development, real-world database analysis, chart-reviews, and economic models. He is a physician-scientist by background with over 60 publications in leading medical journals. After completing medical school in 2011 from Dow Medical College, he pursued a full-time career in outcomes research starting at the Cleveland Clinic where he worked for over 5 years.

The shift to value-based healthcare has reshaped the commercialization landscape for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Evidence that demonstrates, to important stakeholders like payers and HTA bodies, that a therapy is both clinically and cost effective is critical for successful commercialization. To ensure robust evidence is available, the commercialization strategy must be considered early in the product development process in order to deliver evidence at launch that communicates product value. Moreover, to maximize access, companies must continue to provide stakeholders with credible scientific evidence of product value. PRECISIONheor works with clients to develop evidence generation strategies that ensure the right evidence package for commercial value demonstration, support the demands of payers, and effectively communicate research findings. Companies with a strategic plan for evidence generation and a comprehensive evidence package are better positioned for regulatory submissions and market access and coverage discussions.


Dr. Steven Fountain, Client Partnership Director from PRMA Consulting

Steven has more than 15 years’ experience in sales, marketing, and market access roles in both consultancy and industry and has worked directly with payers and providers to facilitate market access of pharmaceutical products. He has a deep understanding of HTA/P&R processes and evidence requirements in major markets and has worked in numerous therapy areas, including oncology, hematology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, endocrinology, and rare diseases. Steven holds an MBA from the University of Durham Business School.

Steven presented several case studies where PRMA Consulting partnered with biotechnology companies on multiple workstreams to overcome the value, evidence, and access challenges. PRMA Consulting is the go-to consulting partner, using insight-based strategic consultancy and transformative digital applications to deliver smarter market access solutions. They were glad to share their experience of collaborating with numerous biotechnology companies, the common value, evidence, and access challenges they face, by using key case studies of how they have partnered with them to overcome these challenges.


Sonya Snedecor, Executive Director in HEOR and E&A Global Digital Lead at OPEN Health Group

Since joining OPEN Health in 2005 (then Pharmerit), Sonya has been working in and leading in the areas of modeling and meta-analysis. Sonya has expertise in computer modeling and economic evaluations and has considerable experience in the area of systematic reviews and evidence synthesis. With formal PhD training as a biomathematician, Sonya combines her technical skills and consulting experience to develop interactive tools and interfaces to enhance scientific evidence dissemination and communication.

OPEN Health brings deep scientific knowledge, global understanding, and broad specialist expertise to support biotechnology and pharma clients in improving health outcomes and patient wellbeing. OPEN Health works with Medical Affairs, Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), Market Access, and Commercial teams across a wide range of therapy areas. In addition to methodologically robust studies demonstrating product value and deriving evidence, OPEN Health develops unique communication tools that resonate with payers, patients, providers and other stakeholders, using key features of narrative stories and data visualization to create your evidence story.


Learn more about the innovations and services offered by PRECISIONheor, PRMA Consulting and OPEN Health from the webinar recording.
You can also view the presentation slides here.