Pinching’s Pathway

I always said that one day pharma would be unmasked, demystified and fully inducted into popular culture. Admittedly, I didn’t realise it would take an international pandemic for this wildly optimistic vision to unfold.

Nevertheless, that is the status quo in which we find ourselves; people are talking about the life sciences industry more than Amazon, Apple and Netflix put together (no, I do not have the data to back this up). Our industry is talked about all over the world and it is great to be gripping the PharmaTimes helm and navigating the waves of an astonishing period in healthcare history.

In retrospect, I now realise that the subjects I had previously written about – academic research, politics and sport – were simply gateways to pharma, one of the most important industries in the world. At its best, pharma is innovative, experimental and transformational.

This new chapter, however, promises more. We have a unique opportunity to ignite drug development, digital medicine and the design of clinical trials. But we can also turn up the amplifier on sustainability, diversity and inclusion and we can do these things because pharma makes things happen.

The magazine is going to be a reflection of what is going on throughout the brave new pharmaverse – the possibilities, the collaborations, the conversations, the breakthroughs and, who knows, the odd vaccine. That’s the thing about this industry – it gets in your blood.

Enjoy the magazine.