APMS Annual symposium

"UNLOCKING THE VALUE OF MEDICAL AFFAIRS"

10th October 2019

This was a one day meeting covering a variety of "hot" topics relevant to medical affairs professionals. Sessions included:

• Reinventing the Role of Medical Affairs
• Medical Affairs as a Strategic Partner for Launch Excellence
• Measuring the Impact of Medical Affairs
• Medical Affairs Capabilities - how to enhance your career
• Using Digital in Medical Affairs to Drive Patient Outcomes
• APMS Annual Awards for Excellence in Medical Affairs (new for 2019).

The event brought together almost 100 medical affairs professionals working in Singapore. The meeting started with an overview of the APMS from its President, Dr Ajay Tiku, Novartis, who explained the aims of the Association. Then we listened to an excellent keynote lecture from Christopher Hardesty from KPMG entitled “Reinventing Medical Affairs – What the future may look like and are we prepared?”. This was an insightful talk looking at global trends over the next decade. Three pharma company archetypes are forecasted by KPMG – an Active Portfolio Company buying and selling products and services based on their competitiveness and sales growth, a Virtual Value Chain Orchestrator which deals more in informatics and potentially manages patients from cradle to grave and finally, the Specialist Pharma Company which focuses on particular disease areas. He concluded his talk with an overview of the capabilities which medical affairs professionals will need to thrive in the next decade.

The keynote lecture was followed by four lively panel discussions on how to launch products effectively, demonstrating the value of medical affairs, attracting, developing and retaining talent in medical affairs and the use of digital for better outcomes.

The meeting finished with the annual awards ceremony and there were 2 winning teams. The team from MSD of Ivan Su and Tun-Ying Su won in the category of “Evidence Generation to Address Asian Patients’ Needs” for their innovative and transparent approach to working with the Agency for Care Effectiveness (ACE) in Singapore. The other winning team consisted of Yacine Hadjiat from Mundipharma, and Rachel Chan & Kuldeep Singh from Biofourmis who, in the category of “Digital Excellence to Improve Patient Outcomes”, designed a new health platform for objectively measuring pain.

The first APMS symposium for over 2 years was concluded by Dr Alan McDougall, Vice-President of the Association, with a vote of thanks and an appeal for more members to join. The immediate feedback on the Symposium has been very positive and has ensured nextt year's event will be a highlight in the medical affairs calendar in 2020.

Finally, the APMS Executive Committee would like to express their sincere gratitude to our 2 platinum sponsors, Takeda and Veeva, who made the event affordable for all.

the 6 PRINCIPLES OF PERSUASION

30th January 2019

A light-hearted lecture by Dr Alan McDougall, Head of Medical Affairs for Asia-Pacific, Astellas and Vice President of the APMS, summarising the work of Professor Robert Cialdini and other social psychologists who have extensively studied the science of influence. The audience heard about the 6 principles described in Professor Cialdini's original book "Influence; Science and Practice" which lie behind most attempts at persuading us namely; reciprocity, social proof (consensus), authority, scarcity, commitment (consistency) and liking. Examples were given from real-life situations and how they can be used by everyone for little or no cost.

The evening ended with a buffet and a chance to network with over 40 colleagues who attended.