60 seconds with Andrew Satherley, Joint Managing Director

Q: Tell us about you

A: My background is in clinical practice and health economics. This has given me a passion for research led consulting, to address complex challenges with speed and rigour, and effectively support patient access for new medicines. Since setting up Lightning Health in 2018, I’ve hugely enjoyed building our innovative platform for on-demand research and working with companies spanning a range of therapy areas throughout the lifecycle of the products.

Outside of work I’m a keen follower of cricket and recently started learning to play golf!

Q: What is important when obtaining payer and physician insights?

A: Access to the right stakeholder insights is critical throughout the life cycle of any healthcare product. Our team of consultants and expert advisors provide strategic consultancy support throughout the research process to ensure;

Access to the right stakeholder groups. Insight from relevant payers, physicians and other stakeholders is essential to inform decision making from early stage investment, to evidence generation and pricing and value communication. We work closely with companies to identify all relevant stakeholders for their products globally and develop bespoke panels to meet those research needs.

Access to the right insights at the right time. In-depth telephone research or advisory boards can take months to complete, preventing input into real-time decision making. Our on-demand platform provides verbatim insights on average in 5-10 working days and provides clients with insight based solutions for real-time decision-making.

Flexibility and transparency when investing in stakeholder research.  Commissioning research can involve poor transparency regarding consultant time and research deliverables. We ensure investment in stakeholder research is directly related to the number of questions and required number of respondents.

Q: How is Lightning Health adapting to meet the needs of its clients in a rapidly changing environment?

A:The impact of COVID-19 on the life sciences sector is profound. We are currently helping companies to look to the future and prioritise planning for the new landscape after the pandemic.

Many clinical trials that have been delayed will need to proceed quickly and re-engagement with relevant clinical and budget holding stakeholders will be essential. Where resources are scarce, support will be needed to allocate investment between portfolio products.

Where launches have been pushed back, companies will need to re-focus on ensuring readiness for market specific HTA/ formulary submissions, and collating required data synthesis and value communication materials.

There is a heightened interest in acquisition opportunities, due to lower valuations across the pharma and biotech sector. Companies are now evaluating the products that form their medium-long term corporate strategy, with an increased need for commercial due diligence.

Whilst we remain focused on supporting the industry to address the current pandemic, it is also highly important to ensure companies can prioritise actions now to accelerate long term innovation and future patient access for healthcare technologies.

Article published 17 April 2020.