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Author: Anneka Baxter

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Technical PM/Scrum Master

Are you a highly skilled and dynamic Technical Project Manager/Scrum Master with a passion for driving innovation and excellence in the world of SaaS technology? Do you thrive in fast-paced environments and possess a proven track record of successfully leading and delivering complex technical projects? If you’re ready to take your career to the next level and join a cutting-edge SaaS team that’s at the forefront of innovation, we want to hear from you. Access Infinity Digital is an innovative SaaS company and is seeking a Technical Project Manager to spearhead our technical initiatives, collaborate with a talented team of professionals, and shape the future of our industry-leading products. If you’re ready to embrace the challenge and help us build the future, read on to learn more about this exciting opportunity.

 

What we can offer:

A leadership team with more than half a century of the highest-level pricing and Market Access and digital solutions development experience means that Access Infinity is a great place to develop your skills in the field as part of our innovative and growing team.

  • You will learn the best practices in product development and project management from leaders in the industry, in a friendly and fun environment
  • Support will always be available from the senior team in an accessible, flat company structure
  • Development opportunities and performance/promotion reviews to accelerate your development
  • We believe in rewarding high performance and offer a generous compensation package

Job overview:

As a Technical Project Manager at Access Infinity, you will play a pivotal role in leading and managing the successful delivery of complex technical projects that drive our innovative SaaS offerings. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including software developers, engineers, quality assurance experts, and product managers, to ensure the timely and high-quality execution of projects. Your ability to balance technical expertise with effective project management skills will be essential in our mission to continually push the envelope of innovation.

What we are looking for:

Key Responsibilities 

1. Project Planning and Strategy:

  • Work closely with stakeholders to define project scope, objectives, and deliverables.
  • Develop comprehensive project plans, timelines, and resource allocation strategies.
  • Experienced with executing projects using Agile/Scrum methodology
  • Experience of Set-up, planning and scheduling projects within Jira or Azure DevOps

2. Technical Leadership

  • Possess a strong understanding of Web/UI, API and DB technologies
  • Provide technical guidance and expertise to project teams, ensuring that solutions align with best practices and industry standards.
  • Collaborate with engineering and data teams to resolve technical challenges and ensure project success.

3. Project Execution 

  • Oversee project execution, monitoring progress against milestones, and ensuring adherence to project timelines and budgets.
  • Identify and mitigate project risks and issues promptly.
  • Deliver Status Reports, Project health (time and money) reports and end of project wrap up reports

4. Team Collaboration:

  • Foster a collaborative work environment, ensuring effective communication and knowledge sharing among team members.
  • Lead cross-functional project teams, including Data, Product Management, UX and Engineering, providing direction and support to achieve project goals.

5. Quality Assurance

  • Implement quality control processes to ensure the delivery of high-quality software solutions.
  • Conduct thorough testing and validation of project deliverables.

6. Stakeholder Communication:

  • Maintain clear and open lines of communication with project stakeholders, providing regular updates on project status, risks, and changes.

7. Documentation:

  • Create and maintain project documentation, including technical specifications, requirements, and project reports. 

8. Continuous Improvement:

  • Champion a culture of continuous improvement, seeking opportunities to enhance project management processes and methodologies.

Qualifications:

  • Overall 6-10 years of experience with Project Management experience of 3-5 years
  • Project Management experience on .Net platform or Java platform – hands-on experience must
  • Fair knowledge of MS SQL Server or other RDBMS platform – hands-on experience must
  • Good working knowledge of Agile/Scrum and Iterative methodologies
  • Excellent Oral and Written English communication skills
  • PMP, Prince II (or equivalent) or CSM qualification is desirable
  • Quality assurance testing understanding / experience is an advantage
  • Experience working on creation / maintenance of a software product is an advantage
  • Experience of creating functional and technical specifications with the UX and development teams
  • Must be a team player willing to get hands dirty

Benefits

  • Indicative salary range – INR 25-30 Lakhs.
  • Comprehensive health insurance benefits.
  • Opportunities for professional growth and development.
  • Collaborative and innovative work environment.

Please email your CV and cover letter along to careers.india@accessinfinity.com with the role you are applying for as the subject.

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Blog

Build or buy? Considerations for market access

As healthcare systems and regulatory landscapes evolve, pharmaceutical companies are facing greater challenges in getting their products to market. Market access professionals continue to play a critical role in navigating these complexities by ensuring timely regulatory approvals, cost-effectiveness evaluations, and securing favourable reimbursement and access agreements with healthcare providers and payers. As such, an increasing number of market access professionals are looking for digital solutions that bring efficiencies and allow them to make data-driven decisions.

However, as the demand for innovative digital strategies rises, a pivotal decision awaits these companies: Should they build an in-house digital application or buy pre-existing solutions from external vendors?

In this article, we delve into the complexities of this decision-making process and explore the key considerations that will empower market access teams to navigate the route towards the most optimal and cutting-edge digital solutions.  Read on to discover the pros and cons of both options and why we believe buying reigns supreme, nearly every time.

When should you BUILD?

Developing custom internal systems can prove advantageous when you want to retain full control over your unique processes and workflows. It is especially advantageous for systems that give a competitive edge or involve sensitive intellectual property. Bespoke home-grown solutions are also a better choice if off-the-shelf solutions seem too generic in comparison, and do not meet your specific needs.

Key considerations for BUILD

Building bespoke internal applications is not straightforward and can be complicated even for well-resourced teams.

1. Are you clear on your requirements?

When it comes to creating a custom application, having well-defined and documented requirements is crucial. Often, IT teams lack expertise in the subject matter and rely on their colleagues from the business side to explain what’s necessary. This means that if the main users (for market access, which includes both global and country teams) don’t actively contribute to shaping the requirements, the final solution may not be optimal. This challenge can be even greater for pharmaceutical companies due to their intricate organisational structure, the involvement of affiliates, and complex reporting hierarchies.

2. Are all your key stakeholders and users ready to commit time?

Consequently, the primary responsibility lies with the core market access team leading the custom application development. They must invest time in defining the requirements, providing clarifications to the IT team during the development phase, and conducting thorough end-user testing before release. Given the typically demanding schedules of market access professionals, this becomes a crucial factor to consider.

3. Have you considered the total cost of ownership?

Building software in-house carries higher development costs, longer timeframes and a risk of errors and defects — which can delay the roll-out. It is never a one-time effort and a one-off cost. There will be a need to commit to an ongoing budget and resources to provide support and take care of enhancements.

4. Have you considered the time it will take before you can start using the application?

Any bespoke application development follows a certain cadence.

It has to start with a detailed requirements elaboration phase so that the high-level requirements are well understood and documented. Starting with designing the user experience which requires intense end-user workshops, development of the application and testing, coupled with tight project management means that the entire process may take 6-12 months to complete. Many times, key personnel involved in the project change, the requirements evolve, and the end application doesn’t get the uptake that was expected.

Plug and Play: Explore the Perks of Purchasing SaaS

Although building software in-house can be a fantastic solution when done correctly — the reality is that for most companies, it’s simply not a practical option as they don’t have the necessary time or resources.

Market access teams in many pharma companies are accelerating their digital transformation by purchasing third-party software, that is then integrated into their existing operations and processes. This is particularly true when purchasing solutions from companies that specialise in market access and have built tailor-made solutions that cater to their needs.

Some unique advantages that SaaS solutions offer include:

  1. Lower total cost of ownership: Purchasing a SaaS solution does not have an upfront cost, and it is much easier to end the contract if businesses decide they no longer need the application. They can also benefit from new features and upgrades, without having to pay for all of them.
  2. Faster roll-out:  You start getting the value from day 1, as there is minimal set-up time involved in a SaaS solution.
  3. Customisation opportunities: Good SaaS platforms allow for many customisation opportunities to tailor to specific internal taxonomy and processes.
  4. Integrate to avoid duplication: Many SaaS platforms allow for integration with other internal and third-party applications. This eliminates duplication of efforts and increases adoption.
  5. Drive standardisation: Rolling out a SaaS solution already used by other leading pharma companies helps businesses stand a better chance of getting buy-in from the users. With an out-of-the-box system, pharmaceutical organisations are able to push through process standardisation and benchmark against some of the best in the industry.
  6. Try before you buy: Questions can be easily answered by gaining trial access, and simultaneously allay any concerns that the users may have.
  7. Long-term value and rate of adoption: Unlike a home-grown system that has been used by a handful of people, a SaaS solution benefits from years of evolution and feedback from clients — so a new client coming on board automatically benefits from having a robust, time-tested solution that already has the seal of approval by other businesses in the industry.

Building bespoke own solutions comes with risks, and adding to the complexity is the dearth of purpose-built SaaS solutions that cater to the digitisation needs of market access. So, it’s better for companies to avoid adopting generic or suboptimal applications. We have seen several market access teams try to build their own solutions and fail. This is particularly true for global launch activity tracking solutions that rely on affiliate teams to input lots of data into a system that isn’t easy to use. As a result, hardly anyone uses these applications, and it costs businesses a lot of money.

Discover our solutions

At Access Infinity, we have years of experience building solutions for market access and pride ourselves on delivering purpose-built platforms for Business Development, Pipeline, Early Assets and Launch teams.

Want to know more? Get in touch with our team, or browse our solutions, here.

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Event

ISPOR Europe 2023

Let’s meet in person

ISPOR Europe is a great opportunity to share ideas. Block some time for a product demo or chat with our P&MA experts. We look forward to seeing you in Budapest. 

Meet us at Booth C3-087.

LET’S BLOCK A TIME

About Access Infinity

Access Infinity is the world leader of digital transformation in the Pharma Industry. We are a trusted provider of digital platforms and consulting services to leading pharma companies

MORE ABOUT US

Our products and services

Consulting

The critical support you need to develop a successful value assessment and launch strategy.

  • Pricing and launch strategy
  • Evidence gap analysis
  • Multi-indication price optimisation
Digital products

Our cloud-based apps for rapid business intelligence, KPI tracking, access and evidence planning.

We look forward to meeting you

ISPOR Europe is a great opportunity to share ideas. Block some time for a product demo or chat with our P&MA experts. We look forward to seeing you in Budapest. 

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Blog

What is Analogue Analysis?

It’s no secret that the landscape for market access and pricing professionals is ever-changing. Today the role of the function has evolved to be a critical link between R&D, medical and commercial functions. It’s providing the foundation for clarity in evidence expectations, willingness to pay and market needs, all while communicating and connecting pharma’s other functions.

Within this challenging environment, data-driven decision making is fundamental to overall business success. Enter, analogue analysis – the process of looking at past products’ performance to guide strategy and planning for current and future brands

An “analogue” is essentially a brand in a similar situation to your own. No brand is entirely the same as another, but it can have many of the same characteristics. Analysing these analogue brands can provide critical insight for our own brands, as they have already navigated through similar waters.

Why is analogue analysis beneficial?

When we predict the price and health technology assessment (HTA) outcomes of pharmaceutical brands, we base many of our assumptions on previously approved drugs – otherwise known as analogues. This competitor analysis in the pharmaceutical industry is essential for benchmarking price and informing product launch strategies.

In market access, we have time pressures to answer a range of complex questions. We need to know how to produce more accurate analyses and provide evidence to support a product launch strategy. From TPP profile definition through to price estimation, we need to speed up analysis to present the best business cases for early asset investment decision committees.

Important considerations for analogue analysis

When searching for analogues, we might look at defining characteristics such as:

  • Product and disease characteristics
  • Considerations for the launch environment
  • Broad or specific product launches.

We also need to ask ourselves some key questions. For example, what pricing opportunities are there in a highly genericised landscape? Does our product have an orphan indication? What does differentiation look like in a crowded marketplace? How can we support a trial design acceptable to payers if our comparator is off label?

TPP versus aspiration-led approaches

Analogues are selected using one of two approaches. One involves starting with what you have and using your existing TPP to identify analogues.  Another is more aspirational, defining outcomes you wish to achieve and identifying analogues that achieved those outcomes.

The TPP-led approach

In this approach, analogues are selected based on how well they match to the target product profile (TPP) for the brand. 

This approach works well when the TPP is available, however, it can be long and iterative, as many different TPP variations are introduced.  It is also difficult for market access teams to influence clinical programmes and medical strategies to shape the TPPs. 

Aspirational pricing and market access approach

This approach is based on a target price, and HTA outcomes that are expected to achieve the price. We need evidence to reach the desired HTA outcomes, which we can achieve by reverse engineering the TPP.

This makes it possible to guide research and development teams on trial designs and optimal products, but it may be far from reality. Whatever the findings, adequate risk analysis in the pharmaceutical industry is paramount, so whatever is identified must be robust.

Best practices for analogue analysis

Many teams face challenges, whichever approach is followed.  Analogue identification is frequently restricted by limitations on yours and your team’s knowledge.  Up to eight in ten analogues are selected based on team members’ personal knowledge, rather than being identified in a systematic manner.

At Access Infinity, we have developed Nuro to help you identify analogues, and get the best out of your analogue assessments. We generally advise this approach to get the best results:

Step 1: Define product or disease characteristics

This may include therapy areas, clinical benefits, molecule types, acute or chronic treatments, orphan drug indication, route of administration, and adult or child use.

Step 2: Define the launch environment

This may include size of target population, number of indicated products, availability of price benchmarks, competitor activity and off-label/on-label comparators.

Step 3: Apply criteria comprehensively and systematically

Bearing in mind that the above factors are not exhaustive, we need to take a comprehensive approach. This means starting with all EMA or FDA approved products. We need to be systematic when applying matchability of criteria. This will ensure repeatability, making for better business cases.

Step 4: Create the funnel

With these steps, we can then create our own funnels, for example, filtering out other therapy areas and focusing on auto-immune disorders. But we also need to be aware of the limitations, and draw on our own experience in addition to existing data. Generally, nine in ten analogues start with the disease, but we cannot simply create a funnel in any order.

The future

As pharmaceuticals become more expensive and competitive, we need faster, more reliable methods to benchmark pricing and assist product launches. Technology such as Nuro helps us to see all the essential data in one dashboard, which we can augment with our own experience.

No single method is the ‘correct’ one for getting a product to market effectively, as there are so many variables. What we can do is refine our strategies by looking at historical data and grouping by key characteristics. In future, this will help us satisfy HTA outcomes faster and create competitive price benchmarks.

Find out more about Nuro for analogue analysis here.

You can also hear our Founding Director Shri Rao Mukku talk more about analogue analysis in this webinar recording: https://accessinfinity.com/webinar/analogue-analysis-dos-and-donts/

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Join us

Analyst/Senior Analyst – Market Access and Pricing

What we can offer:

A leadership team with more than half a century of the highest-level pricing and market access experience means that Access Infinity is a great place to develop your skills in the field as part of our innovative and growing team.

  • We have a strong training and development programme with 20+ learning modules to give you the best start to your global market access career. These include subject matter training in market access and pricing as well as transferable skills such as project management and presentation writing
  • You will learn the best practices in project management from true leaders in the industry, in a friendly and fun environment
  • Support will always be available from the senior team in an accessible, flat company structure
  • Development opportunities and performance/promotion reviews to accelerate your development
  • We believe in rewarding high performance and offer a generous compensation package.

About you: 

We are looking for people who have a proactive, solution-oriented approach, are great at managing their time and strong communicators.

What we are looking for:

Essential:

  • Likely 0 (Analyst) to 1 (Senior Analyst) year experience in global strategic market access consultancy
  • Experience researching medical and life science information (scientific and clinical literature, drug development pipelines, health system decision-making) and appropriately referencing literature
  • Experience using Microsoft Excel and similar tools for numerical analysis
  • Experience using Microsoft PowerPoint and similar tools for presentations
  • Excellent written and spoken English
  • An ambitious team player with a track record of working as part of a team.

Ideal:

  • Experience analysing HTA decision-making and outcomes (Senior Analyst)
  • Understanding of clinical trial processes
  • Familiarity with the structure and function of some international health systems (Senior Analyst)
  • Experience working as part of a team in a remote or mixed working model.

Please email your CV and cover letter along to careers@access-infinity.com with the Role you are applying for as the subject.

Categories
Blog

5 reasons to track market access performance

As the role of the market access function continues to evolve, tracking its performance is becoming more important. Today, market access is the bridge between clinical and commercial functions and plays a pivotal role in launch (and overall business) success.

With market access performance becoming increasingly on the agenda at board and leadership level, understanding why it matters becomes paramount. That’s why we are rounding up our top 5 reasons to track market access performance to help market access teams work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

1. Understand if we are making improvements:

One of the primary benefits of tracking market access performance is the ability to gauge whether improvements are being made. By using benchmarks such as competitor data or our own historical data, companies can set targets or adjust them in line with changing market conditions and evaluate their progress over time. This enables them to identify areas of success and areas that require further attention. Regular assessment of market access performance ensures that strategies are continuously refined and optimised to achieve better outcomes.

2. Quantify market access success:

Tracking market access performance allows professionals to quantify the value they bring to the business from a price and access perspective. Measurable figures allow market access professionals the chance to showcase their value to wider commercial teams. These figures help tell the story of the business, showcasing the impact of pricing and access strategies on the company’s overall success. This quantitative evidence strengthens their position and highlights the value they bring to the organisation.

3. Make better predictions:

Market dynamics are constantly evolving, making it crucial for businesses to anticipate and plan for the future. By tracking market access performance, companies can build on information from the public domain and their previous pricing or access strategies. This enables them to make more accurate predictions and informed decisions regarding future product launches. Looking both backward and forward allows organisations to learn from past experiences and adapt their strategies to align with changing market conditions.

4. Build institutional knowledge:

Tracking market access performance generates a wealth of data that can be consolidated into an accessible dashboard. This centralised platform ensures that all stakeholders can stay informed and build their institutional knowledge. By leveraging this knowledge, businesses can make informed decisions and seize opportunities while mitigating potential pitfalls.

5. Navigate changing market conditions:

With the volatility of drug pricing, understanding value-based pricing is critical. By continuously tracking market access performance, companies can identify trends and patterns over time. This insight allows them to adapt pricing and access strategies to align with evolving market dynamics. By staying ahead of the curve, businesses can navigate changing market conditions effectively and maintain a competitive edge.

Key takeaways

As we look ahead to the future, it is evident that the trends shaping market access performance will continue to gain momentum, especially with the rapid advancements in technology. By monitoring and evaluating market dynamics, companies can identify areas for improvement, quantify their value, make accurate predictions for the future, build institutional knowledge, and navigate changing market conditions. Through the continuous refinement of market access strategies, businesses can enhance their product launch strategies and ultimately benefit patients, who can get faster access to lifesaving healthcare.

The 5 reasons to track market access performance are also available as an infographic, download below. 

Download infographic
If you want to find out more about market access performance tracking then you can request access to our ultimate guide to tracking performance in market access by filling in the form below.
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Join us

QA/Test Engineer

What we can offer:

A leadership team with more than half a century of the highest-level pricing and Market Access experience means that Access Infinity is a great place to develop your skills in the field as part of our innovative and growing team.

  • We have a strong training and development programme with 20+ learning modules to give you the best start to your global market access career. These include subject matter training in market access and pricing as well as transferable skills such as project management and presentation writing
  • You will learn the best practices in project management from true leaders in the industry, in a friendly and fun environment
  • Support will always be available from the senior team in an accessible, flat company structure
  • Development opportunities and performance/promotion reviews to accelerate your development
  • We believe in rewarding high performance and offer a generous compensation package

About you:

We seek experienced QA/Test Engineers to join our fast-growing Digital Solutions team to work on new feature development, enhancements and bug-fixes for our suite of digital products that support Market Access teams for our Pharma customers. We are looking for people who have a proactive, solution-oriented approach, are great at managing their time and strong communicators.

What we are looking for:

Key Responsibilities 

  • Review requirements and provide timely and meaningful feedback
  • Create detailed, comprehensive and well-structured test plans and test cases
  • Estimate, prioritize, plan and coordinate testing activities
  • Design, develop and execute automation scripts using open source tools
  • Identify, record, document thoroughly and track bugs
  • Perform thorough regression testing when bugs are resolved
  • Develop and apply testing processes for new and existing products to meet client needs
  • Liaise with internal teams (developers and product managers) to identify system requirements
  • Track quality assurance metrics, like defect densities and open defect counts
  • Perform RCA for defects and identify patterns and opportunities to improve software quality
  • Stay up to date with new testing tools and test strategies

Technical Skillset:

  • Strong knowledge of software QA methodologies, tools and processes
  • Hands-on experience with Functional Testing, NFR Testing and UI Testing
  • Knowledge of databases and SQL queries
  • Hands-on experience with automated testing tools like Selenium, JMeter
  • Hand-on experience with Defect management tools like Azure DevOps / Jira
  • Experience with performance and/or security testing is a plus

Qualifications:

  • 2-5 years’ experience as a QA Engineer
  • Experience of working in Agile, Iterative and Waterfall projects
  • Strong communication and inter-personal skills.
  • Strong documentation skills required

Please email your CV and cover letter along to careers.india@accessinfinity.com with the role you are applying for as the subject.

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Join us

HTML/CSS/RWD Developer

What we can offer:

A leadership team with more than half a century of the highest-level pricing and Market Access experience means that Access Infinity is a great place to develop your skills in the field as part of our innovative and growing team.

  • We have a strong training and development programme with 20+ learning modules to give you the best start to your global market access career. These include subject matter training in market access and pricing as well as transferable skills such as project management and presentation writing
  • You will learn the best practices in project management from true leaders in the industry, in a friendly and fun environment
  • Support will always be available from the senior team in an accessible, flat company structure
  • Development opportunities and performance/promotion reviews to accelerate your development
  • We believe in rewarding high performance and offer a generous compensation package

About you:

We seek experienced UI developers to join our fast-growing Digital Solutions team to work on new feature development, enhancements and bug-fixes for our suite of digital products that support Market Access teams for our Pharma customers. We are looking for people who have a proactive, solution-oriented approach, are great at managing their time and strong communicators.

What we are looking for:

Key Responsibilities 

  • Design, develop, and maintain both new and existing code, using HTML5,CSS3, TypeScript, JavaScript and Bootstrap4
  • Translate UI/UX design into pixel-perfect front-end code using HTML, CSS and JS/TS
  • Be able to develop and integrate visualization/charting components built using D3.js
  • Experience with integrating with RESTful web-services and APIs
  • Able to write SQL queries
  • Continuous Integration with Azure Devops/Jenkins.
  • Keep up-to-date on best practices and new technologies.
  • Building reusable/extensible code for future use.
  • Optimizing web pages for maximum speed and scalability.
  • Designing and developing user interfaces using Angular best practices.
  • Have an interest in, understanding of, or experience with Agile development methodology

Technical Skillset:

  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, TypeScript
  • Some experience with Angular is a big plus
  • Knowledge of D3.js or similar Charting library
  • Integrating with RESTful APIs and webservices
  • Experience with SQL, T-SQL, Stored procedures is a big plus

Qualifications:

  • 3-5 years’ experience creating responsive UI/Web applications
  • Experience in consuming backend Restful services.
  • Proficiency in Jasmine/Karma and test-driven development.
  • Experience with Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
  • Superb communication and inter-personal skills.
  • Strong documentation skills required.

Please email your CV and cover letter along to careers.india@accessinfinity.com with the role you are applying for as the subject.

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