1. COVID-19 has changed how we do science. Okay, technically, this happened at the end of the day yesterday—but it’s still important to note.
“We do think the pandemic has changed how we do our science. So, when you’re in quarantine, self-isolation, staying at home for an extended period of time, it allows all of us to reflect on what matters most,” said Sharon Chan, Head of JLABS @ Shanghai, Johnson & Johnson Innovation.
“It emphasizes the need for collaboration,” she continued. “We’ve always said no single company has a monopoly on innovation—and no single company can do it alone. We need partners.”
2. The pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technology in health care. During a panel sponsored by Merck, patient advocates spoke about how telehealth has broadened access to medical care, including clinical trials, which Nicholas Brooke, Executive Director of Patient Focused Medicines Development, said he hopes will become the norm rather than the exception.
In a fireside chat with BioCentury, Dr. Mathai Mammen, Global Head of R&D for Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, talked in more detail about how technology has transformed trials by allowing opportunities for remote evidence collection via video or home health visits, home delivery of medication, and iPad-based monitoring.
The industry would’ve ended up there eventually, he said, but COVID-19 “kicked us into high gear” and got us there quickly.
3. We can’t forget mental health care. COVID-19 has exacerbated mental health challenges—especially for health care workers, as Michelle Williams, Dean of the Faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health explained.
“The pandemic has shined a bright light on a pre-existing burden of mental illness that exists across the globe,” she said. “Front line health care workers are particularly at high risk, largely because of the massive amount of physical and emotional strain that they are under as they move forward to help protect the population from this evolving pandemic.”
4. The bottom line: say goodbye to business as usual. In a fireside chat with Meg Tirrell, CNBC Senior Health and Science Reporter, Pfizer’s Chief Business Officer John Young said, “When the scale of the pandemic really became apparent, we saw that this is not business as usual. We realized this is not a time to think about a typical ROI or how we would prioritize our R&D investments in a way that would bring the greatest/biggest return in capital. Frankly, the world needs a number of safe and effective vaccines and certainly effective treatments for patients who contract the virus.”
Pfizer’s primary concern has been speed, but they’re also in active conversations around pricing efficiencies and how to help patients pay their co-pays.
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