Member Spotlight

Our second Member Spotlight focuses on PMSA Board member Nuray Yurt, Heron Therapeutics. Nuray joined the PMSA Board in 2015 and has been working on the program for the 2016 Annual Conference. We asked her a few questions about her history in the industry, and her thoughts on the future.

PMSA: How many years have you been in the industry?
Nuray Yurt: I have been in the industry for almost 10 years. Prior to that, I spent five years in academia, specializing in health economics.

PMSA: What attracted you to the field?
NY: After moving to New Jersey for family reasons (New Jersey being the capital for pharma), and with much of my academic work being related to pharma, I joined the industry.

PMSA: How did you first hear about PMSA?
NY: I joined the industry through MarketRx, an analytics consulting company which later became part of Cognizant. I learned about PMSA during my time there.

PMSA: What are you goals for serving on the PMSA Board?
NY: Vendors and Manufacturers are partners. One must do well for the other to succeed. Successful vendor and manufacturer matching is important, and I think PMSA creates the environment for this. Vendors explore the issues that manufacturers are facing, and can therefore develop faster solutions. Manufacturers explore different thinking based on everyone’s experiences. This creates efficiency in the analytics space.

PMSA: Please describe any current projects you are excited about.
NY: The PMSA webinar series and the CUPID initiative are both exciting. Webinars are a very valuable learning tool in this fast-changing space. CUPID will exponentially increase the value of all the data out there, for everyone.

PMSA: Do you have any predictions for the future?
NY: Well, as an analyst it wouldn’t be right if I said no. We have to learn from history and predict the future. Given the growing volume of data, information, insights and analytics, I think PMSA will become more important for manufacturers to keep up with trends and for vendors to create solution-based offerings.

PMSA: What are your hobbies?
NY: I am a very social person. I like to mentor college students from different walks of life, mostly international young women. I spend a lot of time giving speeches to help support their adoption to the United States and their path to success. On top of this, I have three kids with busy lives, so driving is a mandated hobby.

PMSA: We are sure that your mentees are in good hands. Thanks, Nuray!

This month's spotlight focuses on Nathan Wang, Johnson & Johnson, who is currently serving on the PMSA Marketing Committee.

PMSA: How many years have you been in the industry?
Nathan Wang: I have been with the pharmaceutical industry for 17 years. I started in advanced analytics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2001 and rotated through a few functions in the commercial analytics field, such as forecasting, market research, and data management. Advanced analytics and market research are the two functions where I stayed the longest.

PMSA: What attracted you to the field?
NW: My background is in statistics. I am passionate about applying analytics to drive business impact. Stepping into the pharmaceutical industry was not planned. Looking back, I feel lucky that I joined this field. There has never been a lack of opportunities to drive business impact and I like the continued innovation in this field as well.

PMSA: How did you first hear about PMSA?
NW: When I first joined GSK, GSK was one of the leading sponsors of PMSA with colleagues serving on the board. We have been encouraged to attend PMSA regularly to build connections and stay on top of the evolution of the field.

PMSA: How many years have you attended the PMSA conference?
NW: I attended PMSA four times before moving into market research. I’ve returned to advanced analytics recently and joined the 2017 conference. It was great to see the new developments in this field and connect with industry peers.

PMSA: Please describe any current projects you are excited about.
NW: I am excited about the patient journey capability we are building. It maps out the emotional journey and the treatment pathway patients go through by integrating market research and real world data analytics. It helps us understand the decision points and treatment paradigm associated with a disease state and develop brand strategy around the identified key moments.

PMSA: Do you have any predictions for the future?
NW: The analytics function in the pharmaceutical industry will have more and more opportunities to drive impact. Most companies in the industry are facing or will face the challenge of competing with more competitors with reduced budgets. It is critical to continuously optimize resource allocation and improve promotion execution. Those are the areas where analytics can really add value. The ability to turn data into insights and drive decision making will continue to be highly valued.

PMSA: What do you like to do during your free time?
NW: I am a morning person. I get up early and start the day by running for two miles. It is a good habit my father started me on when I was little. I started practicing tennis with my 11-year-old son recently. We play a lot. I enjoy the exercise as well as the bonding time with my boy.

PMSA: Thank you, Nathan!

This month's spotlight focuses on Nadia Tantsyura. Nadia serves as Sr. Associate Director, Data Strategy and Innovation (Analytics and Insights) at Boehringer Ingelheim. In this role, she leads innovative analytics projects in the areas of Market Access, Payor and Digital Analytics. Nadia is a member of the PMSA 2019 Conference Program Committee.

PMSA: How many years have you been in the industry?
Nadia Tantsyura: I have been in the pharmaceutical industry for 14 years. My experience spans application development and data warehousing to advanced analytics.

PMSA: What attracted you to the field?
NT: I like solving problems. I started in IT, building data warehouses and designing data marts, and later was invited to join the advanced analytics group. It was the best career move that I could have made. I absolutely love working on complex problems looking for hidden information and patterns, and transforming raw data into useful and actionable business insights. Most importantly, I see that my work has real impact on the lives of patients.

PMSA: How did you first hear about PMSA?
NT: I wanted to learn more about emerging industry trends so I asked my colleagues for their recommendations. PMSA was their top choice.

PMSA: How many years have you attended the PMSA conference?
NT: This year will be my second year attending the conference. I enjoy connecting with so many bright people and bouncing ideas off each other.

PMSA: Please describe any current projects you are excited about.
NT: My focus this year is to deliver advanced analytics solutions to drive our Market Access and Digital strategies. We are building a data-driven decision-making tool to optimize our market access investments at both the state and national levels. We want to ensure that we have solid programs in place to help our patients get on and stay on therapy. To support the digital transformation journey, we will be focusing on owned channel optimization by finding cost-effective opportunities to engage target audiences and deliver personalized customer experiences by leveraging channel and content affinity data as well as learnings from A/B tests.

PMSA: Do you have any predictions for the future?
NT: I believe that there will be more innovative products with stronger efficacy profiles coming to the market and intense competition from generics. We should expect copay accumulator adoption in primary care as well as additional restrictions around the copay card programs. Pharma should prepare for and react to new pricing policies. Moreover, as the new industry trends emerge, the demand for data scientists will continue to grow. What makes data science so exciting is how fast it is evolving, so we have to continue learning to keep up. If you're not moving forward, you're falling behind.

PMSA: Thank you, Nadia!

This month's spotlight focuses on Tatiana Sorokina, Associate Director, Digital & Advanced Analytics, Novartis, who is currently serving as a member of the PMSA Marketing Committee.

Tatiana leads Advanced Analytics for Oncology at Novartis and is focused on building scalable technology and driving automation in marketing. Tatiana has been developing machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions for the healthcare industry for more than 5 years. Prior to joining Novartis, she has run Parceed, an AI-based guidance system for medical students. Before starting her own company, Tatiana was a Head of Data Science at Prognos, a healthcare technology company that applies AI to clinical lab diagnostics. Tatiana holds M.Sc. in Advanced Analytics in Marketing from Columbia University and B.Sc. in Economics from Moscow State University. She blogs about data science and entrepreneurship at www.insightmine.com.

PMSA: How many years have you been in the industry?
Tatiana Sorokina: I have been in healthcare for 6 years with the majority of my experience being on the healthcare data and advanced analytics side.

PMSA: What attracted you to the field?
TS: I have always wanted to be in a field that is ripe for innovation. I felt like this would be a great opportunity for me to make a change for the better. That said, I wanted to make a change in the field that could have the biggest impact on people. Healthcare concerns every one of us, and innovation applied in healthcare may lead to big improvements in longevity and quality of life. I am humbled by the thought that I can contribute to this improvement.

PMSA: How did you first hear about PMSA?
TS: Through my former boss and my mentor. He has been in the pharma industry for over 30 years and is a big fan of PMSA. He is the one who introduced me to the PMSA family.

PMSA: How many years have you attended the PMSA conference?
TS: I have been coming to every PMSA conference since 2013. The only year I skipped was 2016, when I ran my own company.

PMSA: Please describe any current projects you are excited about.
TS: I love writing. When I first started in 2014, I mainly wrote about analytics and structured my blogs as hands-on case studies. When I became an entrepreneur I started writing about my startup life, so my blogs became a little bit more business-oriented, though they still focused on analytical themes as my company was a tech startup. Once I joined the pharma world, my blogs became more about building an analytically-driven culture, rather than about specific analytical problems. I am very pleased with the turns my blog took as I’ve progressed in my career. I am also very excited by an opportunity to expand content marketing efforts for PMSA through blogging. PMSA is such an amazing community for data scientists and analytically-minded marketers. There is a lot of great content that comes out of each conference which can be shared more broadly with the analytical community.

PMSA: Do you have any predictions for the future?
TS: I am a big believer in automation and on-demand analytics, especially in healthcare. With the tremendous growth in M&A deals in recent years, I think healthcare will further consolidate, opening an opportunity for key partners to establish common technology and seamless data connection streams, so that pharmaceutical companies don’t need to spend so much time acquiring, storing, cleaning and analyzing the data, but rather invest their efforts in uncovering insights that help their business to dynamically evolve.

PMSA: What do you like to do during your free time?
TS: As I mentioned earlier, I love writing and sharing my stories with others. I also really enjoy conducting various thought experiments, no matter how unrealistic or crazy they might sound. I’m pretty active and enjoy running, biking and hiking. I am also a big fan of road trips. My husband and I try to go on a road trip almost every long weekend.

PMSA: Thank you, Tatiana!

This month's spotlight focuses on Mehul Shah, Director, Performance Management & Analytics (DCV Business Unit), at Sanofi US. Mehul provides brand performance and reporting support to Executive LT, analytical support on performance execution, and secondary market research support to brands. Mehul joined the Board of Directors of PMSA in 2018.

PMSA: How many years have you been in the industry?
Mehul Shah: I have been in the pharmaceutical industry for 14 years.

PMSA: What attracted you to the field?
MS: At first, I would say nothing in particular drove me to the pharma industry after I graduated. As a matter of fact, I worked in the retail and communications industries prior to joining the pharma industry. But, working in the pharma industry has surely made me realize the tremendous impact that innovative drugs have on patients and their lives. Listening to patient stories, seeing tangible change that pharmaceutical drugs can bring to patient’s lives right in front of your eyes is such a fulfilling experience. Working on what you love for this fulfilling purpose is why I am still here.

PMSA: How did you first hear about PMSA?
MS: Seven years ago I heard about PMSA through my colleague, who was a PMSA member. I am surely thankful to him for opening the door of possibilities at PMSA.

PMSA: How many years have you attended the PMSA conference?
MS: I have attended PMSA for 5 years.

PMSA: Please describe any current projects you are excited about.
MS: As we all know, the use of AI/machine learning has been rapidly picking up in pharma in the last few years. While ML algorithms are extensively used for brand investment decisions, they are used less so in performance tracking. I am working on a module which can be deployed on demand by ABLs that essentially performs driver analysis locally, to understand promotional levers impacting HCP prescribing behavior. Findings of such analysis need to be presented in an intuitive way with storytelling features available in new BI tools to get more buy-in from the sales force. I am excited to work on this project as the objective of the project is to bring data science mainstream locally with the 1st line leaders of the sales force.

PMSA: Do you have any predictions for the future?
MS: I truly feel that we are on the cusp of tremendous change in the pharma landscape, as cheap data storage and high computing power are making things possible which previously were hard to achieve. Growing price pressure is putting downward pressure on pharma manufacturers' bottom-line, and leaders are motivated to use data science to their advantage to stay ahead competitively. This represents an amazing opportunity for all of us in marketing data science. We are collectively responding to this, and PMSA has brought the community together like never before.

PMSA: What do you like to do during your free time?
MS: I love outdoor adventurous activities (bungee jumping, skiing and sky diving). I also enjoy reading biographies and history books.

PMSA: Thank you, Mehul!

This month's spotlight focuses on PMSA Program Committee member Jing Jin, Sr. Manager, Business Analytics, at CSL Behring.

PMSA: How many years have you been in the industry?
Jing Jin:I have been in the industry for 12 years. Early in my career as a statistician, I worked on primary research data modeling and forecasting for pharmaceutical companies, then I transitioned into the Pharma commercial analytics field. I worked for GSK for a couple of years and am currently at CSL Behring.

PMSA: What attracted you to the field?
JJ: I enjoy problem solving and I strongly believe in data-driven analytics and decisions. I have worked across many therapeutic areas and healthcare data assets, and I naturally developed a strong interest in pharmaceutical marketing science. I’m passionate about mining data and uncovering key insights that help commercial organizations make better decisions and, ultimately, to improve patient lives.

PMSA: How did you first hear about PMSA?
JJ: I first heard about PMSA in 2008 after my manager attended the annual conference and brought back material for the team to read and learn. Since then I have closely followed activities in the PMSA community.

PMSA: How many years have you attended the PMSA conference?
JJ: The last time I attended the conference was 2018, and I’m excited for the upcoming 2020 conference.

PMSA: Please describe any current projects you are excited about.
JJ: My passion always lies in translating data and analytics into actionable insights. It’s critical to bring to stakeholders the right level of analytics and insights that can be operationalized. There are a few areas I’m excited about in my current role:

• Promotion effectiveness measurement and investment guidance in rare disease markets that help optimize commercial resources
• Patient journey analytics that enable effective marketing and patient services
• Visualization/dashboards with timely and synthesized insights that can be accessible by cross functional partners, including marketing, sales, health care system teams, medical affairs and sales operation teams

I’m also very excited to be a part of the PMSA Program committee, to keep up and learn about cutting edge approaches and innovative solutions to solve a variety of business questions in the field.

PMSA: Do you have any predictions for the future?
JJ: The amount of healthcare data will continue to grow exponentially along with technology and digital transformation. Rigorous industry regulations and data privacy laws will create challenges and opportunities for marketing science communities. It is critical to put appropriate resources in place for data integration and management, which will allow more effective application of machine learning and advanced analytics. Real time personalized marketing will be within our reach, and it is exciting for marketing science professionals to continue to learn and add value to the evolving industry.

PMSA: What are your hobbies?
JJ: I love outdoor activities. I enjoy running regularly, hiking, skiing, paddle boarding, biking and traveling with my husband and daughters.