Purdue Pharma CEO Mark Timney Reveals Key Trends For 2016: Trendsetter Series Part 2 of 4

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

From The Cutting Room Floor: December 2015 Issue
Read the full magazine article: What Nine Of Biopharma’s Biggest Trendsetters Expect For 2016?

As was mentioned in Part 1 of Life Science Leader magazine’s 2016 Trendsetter Series, when we sought executives to participate in our inaugural comprehensive 2016 industry outlook issue, published in December 2015, the response was incredible. A positive problem this can create for a print publication is — too much good content to fit on all the printed pages. To eliminate the possibility of not sharing all of the executives’ comprehensive insights, we created a series of online articles as a supplement to the feature, What Nine Of Biopharma’s Biggest Trendsetters Expect For 2016?  The second trendsetter of our four part series features Mark Timney, Purdue Pharma’s CEO since 2014. A past Life Science Leader magazine cover feature in 2015, prior to Purdue Timney spent 15 years in leadership roles with Merck, including president of Merck U.S., seven years as country manager in Korea, then Japan, with additional leadership experience in Australia. Timney also held additional international placements in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The following are his previously unpublished insights on global macro trends and nontraditional companies he thinks will impact biopharma in 2016.

What global macro trends do you think are going to have the biggest impact on biopharma in 2016 and why?

“The global payer squeeze will continue as national budgets are pressured by general economic conditions and high-priced new therapies in oncology and orphan indication. Payers will evolve in many different ways in response to these pressures. The challenge for biopharma is to find ways to be a partner in this evolution. U.S. electoral politics will keep pharma in the global spotlight throughout 2016. At the moment, pricing is drawing the most attention, but a number of other issues could also re-enter the public discussion, potentially including Medicare Part D pressures, high profile M&A, or the ongoing debate around the Affordable Care Act,” Timney prognosticates.

Which nontraditional biopharmaceutical companies do you expect to have the biggest impact on our industry in 2016 and why?

“Big Data initiatives led by companies like IBM and Oracle are becoming an increasingly prominent part of our customer landscape. We are very aware that payers and providers are adapting to their own pressures by investing heavily in data gathering and analysis tools, traditionally a core biopharma strength. We will need to adapt to remain a central driver of real world pharmacoeconomic analysis. At the more personal level, smartphone/smartwatch manufacturers like Apple are having an ever-more important role in the lives of our patients. I’ve asked my team to stay on top of the changes coming rapidly in disease management, personalized therapy, adherence programs, and clinical trial management,” concludes Purdue’s trendsetting CEO.