Veranex Participates in the 3rd Annual Leaders in Life Sciences Breakfast Roundtable

Eight leaders in Life Sciences came together for a virtual breakfast roundtable devoted to leading Life Sciences organizations through these unprecedented times. The event was sponsored by Leaders in Life Sciences, led by Timmy Garde, Chief Innovation Leader, LevLane Advertising, Edward Allera, Shareholder, Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney PC, and Thomas Goss, PharmD, Senior Vice President, Veranex. The theme of the discussion revolved largely around how participants’ leadership has managed their teams through the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shifts they’ve had to make to adapt to the new landscape.

The event produced ten key insights and takeaways for all leaders in Life Sciences. The key insights from the roundtable, which will be expounded upon in the forthcoming playbook, were:

1. COVID-19 accelerated and accentuated the structural weaknesses in the healthcare delivery system.
2. Telehealth and other technologies focused on people and their overall health will be at the forefront of the revolution.
3. The impact of the social determinants of health has been exposed and highlighted.
4. An opportunity exists to adapt or change your brand to be more technical and consumer oriented.
5. Capital is extremely important. The ability adapt to the changing environment is in part related to access to capital. Keep investors you know in close and frequent contact.
6. Take the time to analyze the industry and competitors from your business perspective to truly gauge competition, inefficiencies, middlemen and more to make sure you are getting the largest slice of the revenue stream possible.
7. Virtual management has been difficult and created inefficiencies. It takes longer to uncover problems and implement solutions.
8. People with children, disproportionately women, have taken on additional responsibility when it comes to providing primary care and educational support, pushing their obligations to the maximum level between work and family life. It is important to allow for working boundaries in this virtual environment so that employees do not burn out. It is equally important to allow for personal lives to bleed into the working environment at a reasonable level to show flexibility and understanding for employee needs.
9. Life Sciences leaders must become more politically active with Washington and individual States to remain competitive and in tune with insurer political activity.
10. Academia is facing a crisis with decreased enrollment as people are less willing to pay a premium for a virtual learning experience.

The group is now working to turn those takeaways into a publicly available playbook which will be available within the next few weeks.