New Year, New Aspirations

Nicholas Saraceno

As Mike Hennessy Jr. alludes to in his "Publisher's Note," the February installment of Pharmaceutical Commerce marks our first issue for 2024. As the old adage goes, time does fly when you’re having fun, and there truly is plenty to be excited about as we look ahead through the year.

The publication’s redesign, as many readers know, went live in the December 2023 issue. However, what many may be unaware of is that it was actually built off the back of our new and expanded editorial calendar, which has undergone quite a few updates over last year’s version (see https://bit.ly/3HwjEyP).

These differences can be summarized by one word: organization. The 2024 calendar is powered by three main buckets of coverage: supply chain and logistics, patient services, and trade and channel.

The third item, trade and channel, can be defined as "the flow of money and key financial relationships in the pharmaceutical supply chain," described as such in a Kaiser Family Foundation report (https://bit.ly/3vPHHq0) that although almost 20 years old, I believe still presents the most accurate and simplest description.

Speaking of this bucket, being that I chose to focus on the recent Access Insights show in this month’s “Conference Connect” (see the next page), I figured that this was as great a time as ever to segue to another conference that the Pharma Commerce team attended in December, Informa’s Trade & Channel Strategies in Philadelphia. Associate Editor Donald Tracy and I were on hand to cover sessions revolving around:

• A Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) update
• Aligning patient access
• Ways to enable holistic hub and providers services
• Pharmacy and the distribution channel
• DE&I within the life sciences space

We even had the opportunity to conduct video interviews with various subject matter experts (SMEs) who were scheduled speakers at the show. They included Cheryl Allen, founding partner, Curatio Scientia; Bill Trombetta, PhD, professor emeritus, healthcare strategy & marketing, St. Joseph’s University; Spencer Miller, director, market access, trade and payer, Bayer; Paul Chen, senior director, trade and channel, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals; and Douglas Bock, partner, Archbow Consulting. Readers can view and listen to these SME insights, along with the rest of our conference coverage at bit.ly/3u4l7Jw.

Nicholas Saraceno is Pharmaceutical Commerce's Editor. He can be reached at [email protected].