One Life at a Time: Using your MBA to impact lives
Does someone with an MBA and no background in science or medicine have a place in the pharmaceutical industry? This was the question answered by an elite panel moderated by Laura Furstenthal, principal and leader of the west coast healthcare practice of McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting company. Panelists, Alexander Hardy of Genentech, Rodney Cotton of Roche, Shawn Hawkins of Eli Lilly and Company, and Vanessa Broadhurst of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, described the need for business-oriented professionals in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in this era of personalized medicine. "It takes a team of people with many areas of expertise to be successful in the pharmaceutical industry," says Hardy. Although science drives his company and culture, having people with extensive business knowledge prevents the development of a product for which there is no market. Healthcare is undergoing a significant change with the development of diagnostic tests that identify the genetic reasons for an individual’s disease. This has created the development of medications that are targeted to focused groups of individuals who share the same genetic markers. "Rather than produce a medication that is a one size fits all, we can tailor therapies to an individual’s needs," says Hawkins. The days of prescribing one medication for all individuals and saying, "Well it worked for 80 percent of the patients" has changed to "Why didn’t it work for the remaining 20 percent." The increasing ability to study genes and the role they play in disease and cures will lead to even more personalized healthcare for everyone. MBAs who are considering healthcare as a field will find it rewarding, says Hawkins. "If you go into consumer products goods marketing, you look for a way to differentiate your cheese packaging from another company’s packaging. In pharmaceutical marketing you market a drug that saves lives." |
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