Welcome to edition six of The Beghou Biopharma Review! This month, we spotlight two recent happenings. First, October 28 saw the premiere of our “Commercialization that Works” research activities at Reuters Pharma Customer Engagement.
Second, last week's pharma drug-pricing deal with the White House centered around primary care meds – the hugely popular GLP-1s. But direct sales of specialty drugs is right around the corner.
On the same day Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk execs met with the president for their announcement, Beghou partners laid out their vision for specialty selling platforms in a thought piece for Pharmaceutical Executive. Read on for more information on both items, including a webinar we’re hosting this week to continue the dialogue on some of these important issues.
Cohesion crisis
It’s hardly unusual to hear pragmatic AI use cases discussed at conferences, yet adoption throughout the industry remains uneven. We’ve been studying some of the reasons behind the lack of consistency in this and other areas of commercialization.
The fact is there’s a crisis of cohesion among biopharma companies. According to the first survey-based input for our “Commercialization that Works” research, 60% of commercial leaders say they’re launching alongside new teammates. Yet only 13% list “team readiness” among their top improvement priorities.
This mismatch, said AstraZeneca’s Jing Jin during a panel discussion at the Reuters event, amounts to “under-investing in team cohesiveness.”
By neglecting foundational elements like operational excellence, companies also may undermine their ability to experiment with advanced analytics, AI and personalized engagement. Indeed, leaders said data, analytics, tech and evidence weaknesses had the biggest negative impact on success.
Our study traces the fragmentation to four pillars: teams, data, tech and experience. The same four areas provide a framework for fixing the issues.
During the panel discussion, Jin and peers from Averitas Pharma and Novo Nordisk talked about solutions. These ranged from medical affairs teams that treat launch not as a milestone but as an “always-on” process of modular playbooks and rapid learning, to marketing groups that allow for agility atop a solid omnichannel structure.
Read my full recap of the Reuters session here. Plus: Register here for our webinar, taking place this Thursday, November 13, to hear senior commercial leaders from Gilead and Stemline Therapeutics unpack our data into what’s driving — and derailing — commercialization today, and what large and small companies can do.
Will more specialty drugs go direct?
In a PharmExec thought piece this month, Beghou partners Rohit Gupta and Robert Rouse explain how pharma’s “three directs” — DTC, DTP, and DTE — are converging to redraw the pre- and post-Rx commercial map for specialty treatments.
In their view, DTC (direct-to-consumer) builds awareness, and DTP (direct-to-patient) closes the loop between diagnosis and delivery. Then, direct-to-employer (DTE) links manufacturers directly to employers footing the healthcare bill. Together, they promise fewer intermediaries and faster, cheaper access.
This process, authors write, “is neither a complete reality nor a total fantasy.” But it can help commercial execs “draw ever closer to demonstrating patient-centric leadership.”
Indeed, early movers like Novartis, whose DTP Cosentyx platform offers a “proof-of-concept" and a promise to explore a DTE model, along with Roche, which has signaled similar plans, are testing just how close specialty drugmakers can get to the customer. Meanwhile, employers are flirting with direct contracting to escape the rebate maze.
As Gupta and Rouse argue, this isn’t “post-PBM” so much as “power rebalanced.” Manufacturers, employers, and patients share more value, while PBMs assume an infrastructure role.
And field forces? Manufacturers will still lean on sales reps to engage physicians around brand differences, a reminder that even in a digital-first model, relationships remain the last mile. Read the full article here.
Beghou Deep Cut: When AI stops chatting and starts thinking
Readers may recall a series of videos I shot over the summer with Beghou Partner Nicole Ventrone on the differences among “chatbots,” “genAI,” and “agentic AI” for biopharma. Nicole recently followed up with a highly digestible, visual explainer on the topic.
In short, chatbots may answer questions, but agentic AI can solve problems. That shift demands stronger data infrastructure and active oversight. “Garbage in, garbage out,” Nicole reminds us, noting that humans still need to question what AI provides.
Yet the potential upside is enormous: Agentic AI can automate multi-step, decision-based workflows, from trial monitoring to omnichannel orchestration. Where chatbots respond, agentic systems hold the promise of reason. Watch our full video on what agentic AI can do in the life sciences industry.
On the road: Lessons from the frontlines
Here's what else we’ve been up to at Beghou:
HBAAC 2025, Sept. 29 – Oct. 1: At the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Annual Conference, Nicole spoke about “leadership trees,” a concept drawn from legendary coaches whose protégés carry forward their philosophies. She shared how her own career taught her that finding the right leadership tree matters just as much as climbing one.
HLTH 2025, Oct. 19 – 22: Beghou Partner Yair Markovits attended HLTH 2025 in Las Vegas for four days of healthcare innovation, health policy modernization, and next-gen clinical care. Check out his LinkedIn for event recaps.
That’s it for now. If you’re looking for more context on any of these stories, drop me a line at marc.iskowitz@beghou.com
Cheers,
Marc Iskowitz
Editorial Director, Beghou
P.S. Thank you for reading and to my Beghou colleague Sravya Narayanaswamy for helping me put this together.