Live from eyeforpharma Philadelphia 2019— eyeforpharma Chairperson Paul Simms kicked off today’s conference with 5 bold predictions for our industry:
- Pharma becomes irrelevant—According to Simms, close to 50% of recent drug approvals in recent years came from companies who had never had a drug approved before.
- The fastest growing company in healthcare isn’t a healthcare company. Amazon, Apple and Google are on Paul’s radar, but for him, Amazon takes the cake. Amazon’s unprecedented growth, massive customer base, and ingrained customer obsession are key drivers for this claim.
- Pharma will realize it must find new partners in other fields to change and diversify its DNA. We should take a lesson from mother nature and look for more diverse partners to generate fresh DNA. As Bob Nelson, co-founder and managing partner of Arch Ventures says, “the CEO—and the board—of a pharma that buys another pharma should be fired. Fire them all, that day. March them out of the office.”
- Prevention becomes unpreventable. As an industry, we must move from symptomatic support to getting in front of the healthcare challenges facing humanity.
- Patient-created medicine will arrive. According to Simms, “Mainstream pharma organizations like LEO Pharma are enabling patients to create their own medication. Craig Venter and Dan Gibson have already developed the first Digital-to-Biological Converter (effectively a machine that can be emailed with genetic instructions and then manufactures a new drug, wherever in the world it is needed).
Why This Matters
We’ve lived in the Age of Accelerations for the past decade. The sheer speed at which technology, media, marketing, and medicine are changing is bringing new hope, new opportunities and new possibilities… and so many new distractions. In fact, what it often feels like is that we live in an Age of Congestion – and our industry has too often fallen prey to this mindset.
In light of these shifts, the future belongs to companies who can:
- Look beyond their immediate space to reimagine the products and services of healthcare’s future
- Think holistically about challenges and opportunities facing patients, providers and payers
- Find partners who diversify their skill sets, offerings and ways of working
- Take a lesson from Ben Franklin and act on the insight that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
- Partner with patients as real-world problem-solvers
