In October I attended a personalized medicine dinner discussion hosted at the Washington, D.C. offices of the National Journal (a division of the Atlantic Media Company). The discussion was developed into an upcoming feature, “Are You Prepared For The Pending Personalized Medicine Revolution?” in Life Science Leader magazine’s December 2014 issue. One of the hot discussion topics revolved around who is going to pay for the various products and services that constitute personalized medicine.

When I was asked to participate in the 2015 BIO International Convention’s Program Committee as the co-chair, I weighed the decision very carefully. I know that my most precious, limited, and nonrenewable resource is time. If I am to commit some of this resource to BIO, it will necessitate me, by default, choosing not to spend some time doing other things — especially if I want to do a good job. I imagine other members of the 2015 committee similarly weighed their decision.

With such a focus these days on buzzwords such as "patient-centric," "patient-centered," and "patient-centricity," some people are predicting “patient engagement” to be the next big movement in our industry, much as blockbuster drugs were a decade or more ago. 

Have you ever had an experience that forever changed the course of your existence? I know I have.

On October 6, 2014, I received an invitation from Poppy MacDonald, president and publisher of the National Journal, for a private dinner conversation on the topic of personalized medicine with AstraZeneca’s Dave Fredrickson, VP of specialty care and William Mongan, VP of business development, new product planning and foundations portfolio. Leading the on-the-record discussion would be Marilyn Werber Serafini, VP for policy at the Alliance for Health Reform. Wanting to be well prepared, I thought it a good idea to seek some fresh personal medicine perspectives from a cross section of folks within my network. Sharing a list of exploratory questions, here is what they had to say.

In September I traveled to Boston to meet with the Jamie Heywood, cofounder and chairman of PatientsLikeMe, a for-profit company that has created a platform where patients can share, learn from, and contribute real-world outcome-based data to research.

In my role as the 2015 co-chair of the BIO International’s educational planning committee, I am privy to what goes into creating one of our industry’s largest annual events. As many of you are involved in organizing your own customer educational programs (e.g., The Emerson Exchange) or have been asked to serve on an event planning committee, I thought a behind the scenes look into how BIO goes about the process would be helpful to your efforts. Here are some of the best business practices I have witnessed thus far.

Like you, I have attended a lot of educational events and conferences over the years. I’m sure we both could list some that were unique, valuable, and memorable while others could be simply categorized as “been there, done that.” And since time is my most precious resource, the last thing I want to do is spend this ever-diminishing asset on attending — or planning — a conference that’s just like all the rest.

Regardless of your opinion of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (IBC), which has catapulted the ALS Association’s (ALSA’s) charitable coffers to feverish heights, there are valuable business lessons from which pharma and biotech executives can learn.