On the Road to Ireland road trip campaign, Kate Coleman and Jane Lyons of PharmaLex speak to Nigel Walker about the future of healthcare and how PharmaLex brings innovation to the industry. Watch the full video or read the transcript below to learn how PharmaLex's services, from technical consultancy to outsourced program management, help bring products to market faster.
Nigel Walker (NW): Can you tell me how PharmaLex has contributed to the future of medicine here in Ireland and around the world?
Kate Coleman (KC): PharmaLex have been really conscious to hire key people with the depth and breadth of expertise so that they can help our clients to navigate all of the pathways that they have to. For example, cell and gene therapies need a certain set of expertise, and we make sure that our consultants have that expertise to help those types of innovative clients.
NW: With some recent expansion and further acquisitions of businesses around Europe, can you tell me of the expanse of services that PharmaLex is currently offering?
Jane Lyons (JL): PharmaLex offers a comprehensive service range to our clients with a diverse range of services, from high value expert technical consultancy all the way through to longer outsourced program management. For example, our integrated product-in-development solution encompasses all cross-functional activities to help bring our clients’ products to the marketplace to patients.
As part of our outsource end-to-end program management services, we take responsibility for our clients' portfolios in the marketplace. We work with our clients to prioritize and optimize efficiencies in their market access and in their compliance of their products.
KC: Young, innovative companies are generally very excited by what they’re doing, but they really don’t know what they don’t know. We try and give them a pathway for how they’re going to move forward in the market. We have them identify what markets are going to be most suitable for their products and then we also have them navigate all of the compliance and regulatory constraints that they might face. Particularly going into the European market, they might think it’s all one market, but there are nuances in each country that they need to navigate, and they need our expertise to help them get through those challenges. So, we help them from the very start, right to the very end: commercialization. We hold their hand through the entire process. We tend to help them with the practicalities of what they need to do and we’re there for them every step of the way.
NW: Can you explain how PharmaLex has addressed corporate responsibility across the globe?
JL: PharmaLex takes its responsibilities toward corporate social responsibility extremely seriously. On the social side we look at education, empowerment, and inclusion — and work at a global and a local level on initiatives to help people within our local communities but also in a global society — to make it an environment where people grow and prosper.
NW: We’ve already talked about the expansion of PharmaLex. Can you tell us how you were able to handle the local expansion and the talent that ultimately serves your customer base?
JL: PharmaLex has over 3,000 employees in 32 countries, with 67 offices — so that’s why we are able to provide our clients with a global solution. We have global support, but local people on the ground who understand in-country legislation in the markets that our clients want to release their products.