Continuing our series on Professional Identity and Medicines Development, we are pleased to publish another insightful essay from a graduate of our 2022 cohort. Robin Henocque is currently Global Medical Director at Pfizer and graduated from the Academy in the year 2022. Robin has a PharmD from the University of Pharmacy of Grenoble (France) and completed a university degree in methods and practice in medico-economic evaluation, as well as a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Marketing and Health Technologies.
“Discuss Professional Identity and the Sense of Purpose in Medicines Development and their relevance for professionals involved in the field.”
“The aspects of professional identity and sense of purpose are very important to define because they determine our purpose as Medicines Development professionals. From my point of view, the role of Medicines Development was created for a very clear purpose: to create a medical and scientific link between our pharmaceutical industry, the scientific community and society. Indeed, for the pharmaceutical industry to be recognized as a public health actor, it was necessary to create a department of experts and scientific referents. Medicines Development professionals contribute to the scientific foundations of the pharmaceutical industry.
Our professional identity is defined by our role as a scientific expert within the pharmaceutical industry. We are responsible for the quality of the data generated and the communication of scientific messages to the medical community and the public. Clearly, we are the bridge between clinical research and drug commercialization. We are involved in setting up clinical studies and research projects in collaboration with clinical centers and academic structures to develop new treatments and generate new scientific data. These studies are based on the identification of unmet medical needs through collaboration with the health care ecosystem, the scientific community, and patients.
Global Medical Director, Pfizer
Also, we are responsible for the scientific communication of these medical data to the scientific community through publications, participations in medical congresses and organization of medical conferences. Our role is therefore to communicate the right data to the right audience in an ethical and proper manner to ensure that our science and drugs benefit patients.
The skills required are therefore numerous and the following list is not exhaustive: scientific expertise, curiosity, emotional intelligence, ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, project management, learning agility and leadership skills.
From a Sense of Purpose perspective, we are moving from an operational role to a strategic role. Our mission must be to contribute to the improvement of patient care. In this context, all our activities must be geared towards this very clear objective:
1) Contribute to the scientific enrichment of the medical community, respond to unmet needs and better characterize new molecules (in terms of efficacy, tolerance and impact on patients) through the generation of medical data.
2) Inform the scientific community in an ethical manner, health professionals, patients, and society through the dissemination of medical data.
3) Contribute to the medical and scientific training of health professionals to fill medical gaps and to ensure the constant updating of their knowledge for better care of patients.
4) Play a central role in access and medico-economic strategies through the implementation of specific studies to ensure better access to treatments for patients.
5) To participate in societal debates on public health through our scientific prism. I think this is a relatively new objective, but it is essential. We are the scientific representatives of the pharmaceutical industry. As health actors, we must participate in these debates to improve research, and the development of molecules, and to improve the health system and patient care.
Finally, I think the most important point is to impact the global strategy of our pharmaceutical industries at the highest level. If we really want to move from an operational role to a strategic role, we need to take part in the strategic axes of the laboratories and give our vision to meet the current and future challenges: breakthrough therapy, personalized medicine, medico-economics, patient-centricity, real-world data, new technologies / artificial intelligence.”
Disclaimers
- The material in these reviews is from various public open access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
- Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
- No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred
