Martin Young, Vice President, Corporate Development, Phase Forward
What are some of the most exciting developments or trends in the life sciences sector?
The pharmaceutical industry has not yet widely adopted technological innovation to assist in its clinical development activities, and specifically the running of clinical trials. Many of these trials are still paper-based. The opportunity to help these companies adopt a technology that dramatically optimizes the way they do business is very exciting. And of course because we’re talking about the pharmaceutical industry, we’re not just talking about increasing business efficiency – we’re talking about getting safe, effective drugs to the patients who need them as expeditiously but responsibly as possible. It’s exciting being part of a company that is leading this change.
What changes do you believe would draw more businesses to New England?
As one who has spent a number of years living in the Bahamas, bringing that climate to New England should help! Kidding aside, New England already offers a deep, rich pool of highly skilled professionals. But we can always be doing more to increase that pool. The larger the pool of talent, the more businesses will choose to settle here to take advantage of that talent. So anything that helps make the region attractive to skilled professionals and entrepreneurs will help. This could include trying to achieve a more reasonable cost of living and business-friendly tax laws. Certainly too events like “Power, Drugs and Money” play an important role in highlighting the attractiveness of our region to entrepreneurs, and enticing them to locate their businesses here.
In what way is your company reflective of the larger New England economy?
Phase Forward represents the coming together of two markets in which New England has established itself as highly successful: enterprise software and biopharma. Thanks to companies like Lotus – where Phase Forward’s CEO Bob Weiler was a senior executive – New England is known as a hotbed of enterprise software innovation. On the biopharma side, individual companies like Genzyme, Millenium and Biogen Idec, and the region’s healthcare services generally have created a strong biopharma sector. By providing innovative enterprise software to help life sciences companies bring products to market more quickly, Phase Forward embodies the best of both of these New England industry success stories.
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