New approaches for novel challenges
The global healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries are shifting as the world deals with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear five Executive MBA alumni working in different roles within healthcare discuss how they and their organisations are adapting.
In terms of therapeutic areas, some of the reservations that we’re seeing is that clearly the focus post-COVID have been towards therapeutic vaccines, that having an impact and certainly showing great efficacy in the clinics– are people willing to spend money on those type of products? And preventative vaccines were sort of seen as something a bit boring, not much growth, and been there for ages.
That’s changed now as a result of COVID. So with the alignment of genomic analysis and so forth, having an effective preventative vaccine for these types of pandemics, et cetera, is now being seen as a huge, huge priority. So there’s several companies that were initially thinking about divesting of their preventative vaccine manufacturing within Asia. As a result of COVID, business has actually boomed as a result, and that’s certainly now become the main value growth driver.
So I would say that the viewpoint is that preventative vaccines has now shifted from being something– a nice-to-have, but not at the forefront of technology, to now being a crucial element to growth and combining that with a genomic analysis to have the best preventive vaccine has now become a very, very important growth subsector.
And is that designed for more early-stage assets, or is it also related to more late-stage assets?
So– and again, a lot of the late-stage assets– so a bit of large-cap pharma companies which have got established pharmaceuticals weren’t seeing much growth in that the margins are pretty stable. They’re now pretty low. So actually, they started divesting those off. And OTC, non-core parts of– as you’ve seen a lot of large-cap pharma, they’re divesting off or doing JVs with the animal health, OTC, established pharmaceutical businesses. And they’re reallocating that capital to key growth areas, like gene editing, cellular therapy. So it’s early stage but innovative platforms is where the focus is going to be, and the later stage, established, more molecule type stuff has become more and more sort of non-core for large-cap pharma strategy.
Great. I’m conscious of time, and I think we just have a couple of minutes left. So I think that’s time to thank you all so much. [LAUGHS] If you were at the Judge, I would have given you a nice mug with our logo, and I’m sure it– but I’m sure you already have one of those at home. So, yes, we can’t thank you enough for your time. That’s so precious.
I also want to thank the MBA office, the EMBA office, and Jack Cooper for all his hard work behind the scenes. And of course, thank you all from the audience for joining us, for making time for this. I’m sure you found it useful. Yeah, and we’ll see you again in six or nine months, right? All of you to keep us up to date with what you’ve been up to.
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Watch the video with transcript
Developing healthcare leaders for challenging times
Hear our participants, alumni and faculty talk about their experiences on the Cambridge Executive MBA.
The subjects took me out of my comfort zone provoking me to think about different options and perspectives.
Why study an Executive MBA at Cambridge?
Cambridge is a centre for healthcare, technology and engineering
The region surrounding Cambridge is sometimes referred to as Silicon Fen because of the large cluster of high-tech businesses focusing on software, electronics and biotechnology. Investment in the Cambridge Biomedical Campus had put the city on at the forefront of healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology research.
Being a member of Cambridge Judge Business School offers tremendous networking opportunities – within the Business School, the University and Colleges, and wider Cambridge environment. Linking up ideas with business angels and venture capital companies is important in the formation of new ventures – something that happens a lot in Cambridge.
Designed to work around your life
Our 2 Executive MBA programmes are designed to give you a choice of formats, so you can choose the one which best fits in with your work, and best suits your work-life balance.
- The Cambridge Executive MBA is delivered over 16 weekends and 4 week-long blocks over a 20-month period, making it a feasible commitment for the busiest professionals.
- The Global Executive MBA is delivered in week long blocks, around half of which are in Cambridge and half in Shenzhen, China.
The schedules are demanding but the coursework involved is designed to complement your organisational responsibilities, as the programme encourages you to apply what you learn to your own role and organisation.
Access to an unparalleled network
The programme offers the opportunity for you to network with peers in your cohort and with the Cambridge Judge Business School community. You will also have access to the huge networking potential of the wider University: its students, academics and alumni. EMBA participants benefit from unparalleled opportunities to engage with and learn from innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders who contribute to the programme as guest speakers, mentors and coaches.
Meet Executive MBA alumni
What we do as clinicians is based on an understanding of physiology, but I hadn’t had any education on how organisations worked. I wanted to understand the evidence around management practice, technical skills involved in running large organisations, and personal development. A highlight of the programme was the diversity of participants – I think I learned as much from my classmates as I did from faculty members.
When colleagues heard I was planning to undertake an EMBA they asked if I was fed-up with science. My answer was that it will help me become more successful in my science: having a laboratory with people who are very talented and come from all over the world represents a management challenge – they have their own personalities, cultures and points of view about science and I need to help them work together.
I’ve always been interested in healthcare service management, and wanted to think about transferring from a clinical role to a healthcare business role. Having nearly completed my EMBA, I now have all the tools and all the confidence to move into the next stage of my career; I’ve decided to become an entrepreneur, working alongside tech start-ups.
Connect with us at an event
Meet the Admissions Team and programme alumni at an upcoming information event.
Meet Executive MBA Admission & Recruitment Manager, Daniel Simmons, in Luxembourg.
Join us in Singapore with Professor Vincent Mak, for a keynote entitled ‘Using behavioural insights to influence people’.
Join us in Jakarta with Professor Vincent Mak, for a keynote entitled ‘Using behavioural insights to influence people’.
Meet Director of Operations and Global Executive MBA student Aradhana Galgotia at our Women and the EMBA webinar.
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