I Hear You

By Dan Schell, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

In early October I posted the first Life Science Leader LinkedIn poll, which had a single question: What are your favorite topics for life science-related articles? As of press time, about 50 people had taken the poll with the majority favoring pharma/biotech success stories (much like the article on Lux Biosciences on page 8). Although a small response rate, these results still helped validate that the editorial subjects we focused on during our first publication year were, in fact, interesting to our readers.

But beyond the actual poll statistics, it was the comments that readers left that most intrigued me. For instance, Randy Vogenberg, the executive director at the Biologic Finance & Access Council program at the Jefferson School of Population Health, wrote, “Another aspect may be looking at successful and unsuccessful ventures along with how they worked for their personnel. One of the things I’ve found is a lack of alignment for training with company goals and objectives. Given the high risks associated with biotech, effective and efficient execution/implementation of the business plan is even more important.” Michael Rosenberg, president & CEO at Health Decisions, Inc., said, “R&D is the basis of success stories. Stories are great, but I want to know why things happened. Failure stories are also useful.” And Alex Kanarek, a senior consultant at BioProcess Technology Consultants, explained why he felt regulatory compliance articles were his favorite topic. “I suppose it’s nice to read about other people’s successes, but, without adequate expertise in regulatory compliance, a lot of potential successes are going to be bogged down in Form 483s, warning letters, and repeated inspections,” he commented.

As Chief Editor of the magazine, I intend to take all of these suggestions seriously. In fact, with our social media presence increasing (we currently have about 408 members in our LinkedIn group and 465 followers of our Twitter feed), so too is the feedback we are receiving from our readers. For example, articles like this month’s “Valuing A Life Sciences Company” (page 26) and “When Will RPS Get Here, And What Will It Bring?” (page 40) were both suggestions by readers.

Help us make this a magazine that is useful to you — our reader — and unlike any other publication in the industry. Tell me about pharma or biotech companies that are making huge strides or even the ones that are struggling. Email or call me about any upcoming trends you may be seeing or general business best practices that could help the industry. Make Life Science Leader more than just a magazine you receive — make it a valuable business resource.