By ZOYA KHAN

Jessica DaMassa interviews Paul Simms, the Chairman of eyeforpharma. Eyeforpharma are the “media moguls” when it comes to the Pharma industry. In order to innovate the industry, they are holding two different conferences this year to bring pharma leaders and health technology startups together to foster relationships and strategic partnerships with one another. Their first conference will be held in Barcelona in March, and the second one will be in Philadelphia in April.

Paul speaks to Jess about how health tech startups are maturing in their ways and realizing that health care is an institutionalized game, causing them to pivot their companies’ directions to fit that model. He also comments on how the pharmaceutical industry is trying to build strong relationships with particular startups to innovate their business practices, whether it be in R&D, drug discovery, or clinical research. Paul argues that the future of Pharma is more akin to a platform model, where pharma companies are not just limited to their internal capacity but are much more reliant on a larger ecosystem of moving parts that will help develop and grow the space. He also mentions that Pharma companies could really benefit from taking a page out of Google’s or Facebook’s business model which allows people to innovate and create their own content on these platforms. He further states that large B2C companies, like Amazon, will change the entire game of how people receive and curate their health insurance plans. 

eyeforphrama’s conference theme is “medicine is just the beginning”. Paul and his team believe if they bring together specific groups of people, it will benefit the pharmaceutical industry in the short term as well as the long term. Paul believes that “Pharma companies need to have a wider portfolio of innovation that goes far beyond medicine, whether that is drug+plus a solution or without the pill at all.”  Currently, Paul states, that the merging of pharma companies with other pharma companies is like having “s*x with your cousins” and believes that Pharma companies need to bridge out of their own space to keep up with the times. If you are a startup in this space, be sure to check out eyeforpharma’s upcoming conferences.

Zoya Khan is the Editor-in-Chief of The Health Care Blog and an Associate at SMACK.health