It’s really heartening to see that the UK’s smaller, privately owned pharma sector continues to thrive in an operating environment peppered with uncertainty and financial restraint. Alantra’s annual ranking of the 50 fastest-growing firms in the field clearly shows there is much to celebrate. For one, it highlights that the top seven all delivered compound annualised revenue growth of more than 50% over the past two years, an impressive feat. So who is powering ahead, and what is driving this success? Take a look on page 20.

Elsewhere, the team at Wilmington Healthcare consider why the NHS could do with a fresh approach from pharma key account managers (p16), while on page 31 experts at Veeva outline top predictions for pharma and healthcare in 2020, with innovations in data and analytics set to take centre stage.

On page 34, Gilead’s Hilary Hutton-Squire sets out her vision for healthcare technology assessment at a critical juncture for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and on page 40 Biljana Naumovic, vice president commercial strategy leader for Oncology for Europe, Middle East & Africa at Janssen, gives an insight into her role at the firm and views on the current oncology landscape.

Critically, the deadline for entries to the 2020 PharmaTimes Clinical Researcher of the Year – The Americas is fast approaching, so if you’re thinking of taking part sign up now at www.pharmatimes.com/clinical_researcher_americas

Also of note, finalists for International Clinical Researcher of the Year 2020 have now been announced (www.pharmatimes.com/intcr), with tickets for the prestigious awards gala now available (www.pharmatimes.com/intcr/tickets), while the 2020 Marketing, Communications and Sales competitions are set to launch this month.

I hope you enjoy the issue!