Katherine Gann 

Welcome to the Medical Affairs Professional Society Field Medical Focus Area Working Group’s podcast series, entitled “Field Medical Stakeholders: Partnering for Today and Tomorrow.” In this first podcast we will discuss global communication. I’m Katherine Gann and I’ll be the moderator for this podcast. I serve as a member of the Field Medical Focus Area Working Group. Currently, I’m an independent consultant in Medical Affairs, having spent my 30-year career as an MSL and MSL manager and an MSL trainer. Our legal disclaimer is as follows. The views expressed in this recording are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect on the opinions of MAPS, or the companies with which they are affiliated. This presentation is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as legal or regulatory advice. We encourage you to engage in conversations about Partnering with Field Medical Stakeholders with other MAPS members by the community portal on the MAPS website. Simply log in with the email address and password associated with your MAPS account and click on the discussion tab. Then scroll down to Field Medical to post a question or review previous postings. The objectives for this series of podcasts are that at the end of the series, the participant will be able to one, discuss the functions and activities of key internal stakeholders and to identify potential areas for compliant collaboration by MSLs with key internal stakeholders. I’d like to thank today’s panelists for sharing their subject matter expertise with the MAPS membership. Speaking today are Robin Winter-Sperry, president and CEO of Scientific Resilience, and Aimee Christian, Vice President and Global Head of Mommunications Specialty Care at Sanofi-Genzyme. Robin, could you please briefly provide a little information about your current position?

Robin Winter-Sperry 

Sure. Thank you, Kathy. And it’s really a pleasure to be here today. And I am also a proud member of the MAPS Focus Area Group dealing with Field Based Medical and also on the Board of Medical Affairs Professional Society. Currently, I am for, as Kathy said, president of Scientific Resilience and prior to that I had the pleasure of working with Aimee as Global Head of field based medical excellence in Sanofi Genzyme and have been in the industry like Kathy for about 30 years, with many roles, especially focusing on Field Medical building teams like Novartis is and Sanofi as well as many others. So it is truly a pleasure to be here today. And with that, I would like to welcome Aimee and asked Aimee to please give us a good brief explanation about what global communications is, and what does it really mean within the organization?

Aimee Christian 

Absolutely, thank you. My name is Aimee Christian. I’m currently the global communications head at Sanofi-Genzyme. Alittle bit of background about me, I started in the industry about 20 years ago, I have a PhD in biochemistry, and I entered the workforce doing clinical research. And then I found actually scientific operations. And then I went into communications. I think we’re going to talk a little bit about my career path later in the podcast. But I did want to give you a little bit of background there. Before we started, Kathy asked me to explain what is global communications and how it may be structured within my company. So global communications fits within typically a Corporate affairs organization or an external affairs organization. Sometimes it sits within HR, but typically it’s within Corporate affairs. And at least in my role, currently, I am responsible for product communications, executive communications, as well as internal communications and employee engagement. For the specialty care business unit of Sanofi. We work really closely with other communication entities such as communication, corporate communications, and media relations with the ultimate goal of always enhancing protecting or maintaining the reputation of the organization with with where we work. Although the product communications teams work very closely with medical communications, which is maybe something that your listeners are more familiar with. And this is particularly around medical congresses. That is a separate group that reports into medical and is not part of the global communications organization. Typically, an easy way to think about that is in global communications. Our primary audiences are the media, sometimes investors and very often the general public, but from medical communications, their primary audience to scientific, whether it be investigators, HTTPS, and so forth. So the scope of their comms and hence scientific exchange is much different than the scope of the comms that I mentioned. Currently responsible for.

Robin Winter-Sperry 

So Aimee, I mean, it’s I know you have a really fascinating role. And it’s great to see your deep scientific background being used in many different ways. Who would you say are your main internal customers? internally, I would say our main customers really are the business franchise, particularly for our product communications, because we really weren’t need to work in lockstep with the business franchises in order to make sure that the messages are aligned and consistent with the business strategy, as well as Investor Relations. We work very, very closely with executives for our executive comms platforms and our thought leadership, and leaders as well as employees for all of our internal and employee engagement. So you mentioned that your role is global? And is there also a US Communications Group? You know, you went through it briefly for a minute ago. But just to clarify a little bit more around that. Could you elaborate about the US Communications Group, and how you work together?

Aimee Christian 

Yeah, absolutely. So I’m the head of global communications. And of course, the US is part of the globe. So we work very, very closely together. Yet, as your listeners are probably very well aware, the US is very specific in terms of legal and regulatory compliance. So we have a separate us Communications Group at fantasy and fantasy Genzyme, we work very closely with that group to make sure our communications are coordinated, and make sense across the spectrum of topics that we communicate. However, they know, the nuances and intricacies of the FDA and other regulatory matters. And so it is very important that we have a separate group that is really working on that as their primary objective.

Robin Winter-Sperry 

So it sounds like both of those groups are globally and locally, you really have to know a lot about the regulations in terms of communications as well.

Aimee Christian 

Oh, absolutely. I mean, in terms of similar to how MSL needs to manage their balance of it, and scientific exchange of information, we have to from a specially from a product communication side, be very cognizant of ensuring that we are not communicating about things and at times of which would not be appropriate. I’m thinking in terms of like pre promotion of information. And so it’s a very nuanced, but really interesting kind of work that we do. And that, you know, we want to share messages and tell the narratives and the stories of all the exciting innovations that come out of our research and development. But we have to be very careful because we cannot be promoting things before they enter the market. And we have to make sure that we abide by all of the US regulatory rules as we do that.

Robin Winter-Sperry 

Well, so as as you mentioned, MSL and I know it does have a piece of your heart in there. And I’ve had the pleasure of knowing you for quite a while. So what’s the tell us you know, especially for the folks that are listening that are very interested in medical science liaisons or Field Medical, what’s your understanding of the role of MSL?

Aimee Christian 

Oh, that question is very easy Robin, because I used to be an MSL. So that was my first job, actually in industry was to be a medical liaison, actually at Sanofi center lebeau, which is the group that you started all those many years ago. So an MSL is a medical professional, either MD PhD or PharmD, that engages in fair balanced discussions with their KOL universe in their specific therapeutic area. For example, when I was a cardiovascular MSL in California, I had KOL, academics, physicians, investigators, and I engaged with them to help them understand our studies, our investigator-initiated trials, I did information sessions with their staff and other KOL in order to educate inform them about new products, mechanisms of action, other sign areas of scientific exchange, actually, when I moved into communication, I thought finally of my time as an MSL is my first step towards a role in external communications even though I didn’t realize it at the time. So that’s wonderful. and i and i think that you know, also hopefully is sharing some ideas. I know this is part of a series we’ll be covering other functional areas as well. But communications is so key to being an effective MSL and certainly something that that you do every day so well.

Robin Winter-Sperry 

So it as far as the MSLs are concerned, how does medical interact with your department as well as different functions within medical and you know, how do they interact with you in medical communications? And do you have any bread best practices to share, especially with the MSL or Field Medical?

Aimee Christian 

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the question. So in terms of, you know, daily interactions, I would say that, you know, aside from medical congresses, there, there probably isn’t a lot of interaction between the global communications group and The MSL. But that doesn’t mean that that there shouldn’t be. You know, as I said for medical congresses, I know that’s probably the best example of where the medical communications and product communications work together in order to give the MSL a fair balance information that they may need in order to stay current with the trials and the other messages that can help them do their job with their kll universe. But I should mention that most everything we produce in communications is public information, whether it be press releases, or output from media interviews, or social media. So the deliverables coming out of my department are often great sources of reliable approved messaging on a variety of topics. Now, of course, not everything can be shared with an MSL customer or KOL. But in terms of educating yourself, and becoming aware of what your company finds important, these these materials are great places to start. I know that fantasy, our CEO actually does a lot of media interviews. And you can get a great sense of what a company stands for, what are the priorities of the company, and what is important by listening to these public sources of information. In terms of best practice, I might suggest doing something quite simple, which is signing up for your company’s media RSS feed, that basically means that every press release that is released or just distributed from a organization would go right into your email, so you don’t have to go hunting for it and or following your company’s social media channels. Now, I would absolutely encourage if not mandate, that, that you also become very aware of the your company’s social media policy, as well as your media policy to make sure that you are not sharing anything and appropriate. But definitely in terms of ways to stay connected, and become engaged with your company’s strategic priorities.

Robin Winter-Sperry 

These are really great places to start in terms of collaborating with any communications function from an organization standpoint. But I think that’s really terrific advice. Because I think a lot of times when people look at a company and want to know more about it, they check the website and they look at Clin trials.gov. But they’re not always, especially to those with the scientific background, you know, they don’t always go and look for what’s the latest in the press releases and what’s going on, on some of the levels that you suggest in social media certainly is growing more and more every day. So that’s, that’s terrific advice. So another main question that I have is, as you’re talking about the twists and turns of your career, and, you know, tell us how your career path has led you to your current position, because I know you’ve got some wonderful different types of experience out there.

Aimee Christian 

Yeah, so I love telling this story. Because if you look at it, and I would love to say that I was so proactive and judicious about all the choices that I made. But you know, in actual fact, my career path has been extremely eclectic. But when you look at it retrospectively, it does have some some logic to it. As I said, at the beginning of this podcast, I started my journey in the industry as an MSL, I had achieved my PhD in biochemistry, I knew that my personality was not such that I would be able to stay in the lab for the rest of my life. So I was really looking for that kind of externally facing role. That would give me some experience with people and customers. And the MSL was an absolutely perfect fit at the time. During the nearly 10 years that I did that job both here in the United States and in Europe, I gained a ton of experience around product medical strategy, and how that work appropriately dovetails into marketing strategy. So once I gained that experience in the field, and then later, as I said, I lived in Europe, I worked as a manager overlooking the training and the communication of MSL outside of the United States. I realized that synergies between what I was doing in scientific operations, and what I could do in communications were absolutely great. Once I took the leap into development Communications at Novartis in Basel, Switzerland, I absolutely never looked back. I’ve had so much opportunity to grow in communications. And if you like variety, this can definitely be a field that you might want to consider. I have never had the same day twice in my in my 15-20 year career in communications. So my advice to any MSL who has done their job very successfully, and is looking at other things that might be appropriate is is to really be open and accessible as you move through your career. I actually never aspired to be in communication. I never knew that that was a path that I could do. But I was open to opportunities as they presented themselves and I might Fully assessed what I didn’t didn’t like, in each role that I took throughout my career, which, as I looked back, enabled me to really pinpoint what, what I really liked about the jobs that I had, and most importantly, what I what I could do without in the job that I had, which, which then pointed me very much in the direction of communication. So essentially what I liked, was I like to order I like things to be organized. But I’d like the opportunity to be creative. That is a very weird combination of skills that that you may want to have. So that was a challenge for me early on in my career. I like expressive roles that enabled me to be to interact with people. And I love a fast paced work environment full of variety. As I took my different roles, everything kind of funneled me into a career in communication. And when I identified what I didn’t like, which was single focus, work, a slower pace, little opportunity for interaction, that choice became easy for me, even though I was a scientist. And I should perhaps like those things, I needed to be realistic with myself that I did not. And so that’s when the opportunities and communications became very logical for me to pursue a career.

Robin Winter-Sperry 

Well, you know, it really speaks to not only taking your career, and really managing it yourself, but not being afraid to take those bold steps. And really knowing yourself because it’s, you know, as you said, it’s so important to not just know what you like, but also know what you don’t like, but I admire your ability to really ferret out what were those things that you liked, as you know, to really pursue and then also the foundation of the MSL role, as you mentioned, as taking you from local to global to the role that you’re in now, which I think gives a lot of people food for thought that are listening to this podcast today, as well as the importance you know, as you mentioned, again, to managing your own career, and being open to different opportunities that may present themselves or that you create yourself by knowing who you are and what you want and going forward. So thank you for being such a leader in the many different areas that you’ve been in and sharing with us your career path, which has really been an amazing path to where you are today. And all that communications is currently doing for both Sanofi Genzyme as well as and the impact in the industry and places to look to know more about other companies in terms of social media and a lot of other food for thought for people that are listening today.

Aimee Christian 

Thank you, Robin. And thank you Kathy for having me on this inaugural Pat podcast. It was a true pleasure. I really very much appreciate the time and the opportunity I was able to spend as an MSL and I find it extremely gratifying to come back after all these years and and share my experience as a real viable communicate a career path for MSL.

Katherine Gann 

Thank you, Robin. And thank you, Aimee, I really want to thank you both for participating today. I think you’ve really helped us meet our learning objectives of having the audience gain a better understanding of the role and function of global communications. And also how MSL may compliantly interact with that team, and also with the US medical communication. So Aimee, I appreciate your being able to tie it back to the US also. And certainly an added bonus has been hearing how Aimee was able to use her MSL skills to build her career. So this has been the first podcast in a series on the topic of Field Medical stakeholders Partnering for today and tomorrow. The next podcast will be with a member of a global Product Strategy Team. If you’re a MAPS member, thank you for your support of MAPS. If you’re not yet a MAPS member and would like to access additional resources in this area, please visit the MAPS website to explore joining that is MedicalAffairs.org/membership. This concludes the podcast.