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good afternoon and welcome once more to our Network corner our next guest speaker is Aaron Denny PhD as a woman of science Aaron rings her special perspective to the Commerce of pharma with degrees in biology start out in biology and then biotechnology and she concluded part of her doctoral work at the City of Hope here in Los Angeles Aaron now serves as senior licensing manager of oncology business development at Amgen one of our major los angeles-based pharmaceutical companies although of course Amgen does research and development on a global scale Aaron is also the co-director and I'm really excited about this the Los Angeles and Ventura County Association of women in science encouraging young women to pursue careers in science and her topic today is business development in the pharmaceutical industry and you can take it from there Aaron wonderful Thank You Carol for the introduction it's really a pleasure to be part of the first virtual undergraduate research week so I'm really excited to tell you a little bit about business development in the bio pharma industry and then I'm hoping that we can open up the dialogue for any questions so I just did give you a brief overview the rule of business development and licensing of the global bio for my industry has really grown significantly over the past couple decades as pharmaceutical companies have sought to supplement their internal R&D efforts with innovative therapeutics and technologies that they're sourcing from external companies those external companies kombucha bees you know small biotech companies they could be other large pharma who have deprioritized parts of their pipeline for example and you know bee bee can really allow companies to expand their pipeline and toolbox of capabilities as well as to increase their little own presence through access to new markets and so to put this into perspective a recent survey demonstrated that over 25% of Big Pharma sales actually come from external innovation and so that's you know looking at ways that we can partner with other companies and so detective deals that business development is involved with can range from simple patent licenses to more complex go development and commercialization ideals and when we think about overall deal structures in order to be successful in business development we need to consider what makes the most sense for both her partner and the opportunity at hand and rather than look at a one-size-fits-all approach business development is really most successful when we leverage the unique strengths that each partner brings to the relationship and so the way that business development is is often segmented is into three broad buckets of activities and so the first and foremost is searching evaluation team and that's where I sit and search evaluation is much what it sounds like it's the folks who are responsible for identifying and prospecting and so technically doing that assessment of the therapeutic or the technology that's of interest and these individuals typically have strong scientific backgrounds what's why your feet have done the technical to diligence on an opportunity will start to bring in our transactions colleagues and these folks will drive the deal process forward internally and they'll also be the folks responsible for negotiating with prospective partners and while everyone in business development comes from a unique set of backgrounds our transactions colleagues typically have backgrounds in business finance type of degrees and then the third component of business development is alliance management and integration and this is a critical piece to the business development equation because the alliance managers are those who will manage the partner relationships after we signed a deal to ensure that we're really looking to create the most value from the partnership and so within you know my specific rule I focus on oncology searching evaluation and maybe I'll pause here and open it up for any questions happy to talk a little bit more about what I do on a day to day basis or business development in the industry more broadly so I see a question coming in the chat box question for Danielle over email about what are some creative ways that we're seeing or imagining will come in mentorship as a result of the global pandemic so I think this is a really timely question and in terms of mentorship I'm not sure you know I think we'll we'll start to see a little bit more of this going to a virtual model that I think within business development specifically we've seen really innovative deals being executed in really short timelines to figure out how we can actually you know figure out therapeutics that could be used for Cova 19 you know how can we look at the plasma from patients who have had cope in nineteen and recovered and so you know all across the industry we're seeing deals being announced in this you know to figure out what is the most rapid way that we can get therapeutics out there for patients a nether question coming from Rob over email we'd love to hear more about your experience day to day so it's a great question and so in you know kind of my roll day today I am meeting with companies both small biotech companies as well as peers at you know large pharma to discuss new oncology therapeutics that range from discovery stage through marketed products and following these conversations with external companies I will distill these opportunities and summarize them for our internal team to digest and seek feedback from our research and development and commercial colleagues to figure out you know how does this opportunity really align with what our strategic interests are and is there a way that you know we could think of a creative way you know to partner with this company and you know one of the things that's most important in business development is that it's it's really relationship building and so you know we look at thousands of opportunities every year and obviously we transact on very few of these but a lot of times you're looking to build that relationship over time and to really you know follow a company as its technology evolves or as those therapeutics move you know from early discovery and into the clinic and so I have a question from JP over email what advice do you give to undergrads starting in your field so this is a really great segue to talk a little bit about you know how do you get into business development and I would say you know if you're an undergrad thinking about what you want to do next internships are a fantastic way to explore what you may want to do buy down the line you know I could say I did a number of internships many of my you know peers and colleagues started off doing internships and so you can think about you know are you interested in exploring venture capital are there any VC firms that you could work with you know do you want to go more you know down the research route for a period of time you know could you do allow based research position or perhaps you want to work in a tech transfer office and you want to learn more about you know licensing and patents and IP what is that what is intellectual property and why is that so important in biopharma so those are ways that you may want to think about getting involved in and I would just say you know business development is one of the things that's really interesting is it brings people together from a variety of backgrounds so you'll have people who have really deep scientific expertise you've done their PhD and postdoc and maybe worked in in labs for a number of years you'll have people who have you know come from MBA programs or JD's you know we're all coming together to figure out all of those components that go into you know assessing a potential you know opportunity and actually transacting on it so I see a question from Ella over email have you seen a shift in strategic direction over the past few months and if so how's this what is required from you so you know obviously with transition to the virtual environment as well and I think you know business development is in a fortunate position within the larger biopharma you know departments that are you know able to work from home very successfully you know where we're often traveling to conferences and meeting with potential partners and so you know thankfully with resume and you know WebEx were able to do a lot of this on digital it digitally Aaron let me jump and just ask given some of the background that you've given how important do you think it would be to have an MBA as well as a PhD or how important can that influence success in the field I think that's a great question and it's one that I'm actually grappling with myself and so you know I think that having an MBA is certainly extremely useful in the field to really understand you know the business dynamics and to you know really be able to evaluate you know how you're thinking about structuring ideal and so I think that there are a number of people who have that background and you know it really depends on where you'd like you know where you're interested in sitting within business development I think you know for those folks who have very strong scientific backgrounds that are interested in you know perhaps the search evaluation role is as necessary to have an MBA however I think you know if you're interested in transactions or you know the valuation component of a deal you know it's certainly very important you always come back to Andersen to get that MBA plug for that it's how how for you as a woman how easy or difficult has that been for you at Amgen what advice do we've been asked what advice do you have what's sort of the culture for women in science I'm so I am very glad you asked that question and so you know I am very fortunate that Amgen is an absolutely wonderful place to work we have a very supportive employee resource group that's women empowered to be exceptional and so you know it's really a wonderful network of women who are really you know wanting to enable success for their peers and you know I couldn't say it's you know a better place to be I'm obviously you know very involved in empowering women in science both through you know internal you know internal Android but also you know in the broader Los Angeles area and so as you mentioned I've been a part of the Association for women in science as well as the healthcare business women's association and these are really great organizations you know in which you know undergrads graduate students in industry leaders come together do you work through any you know career development you know challenges and to think about you know how can we brought in our network and really solve you know to ensure that there's equality for women and in the STEM fields do you think that holds true for other but other of companies as well no you know I have a number of colleagues and other companies and I think that you know we're seeing really great representation of women you know across the departments you know and particularly in business development I think you know a number of our peer companies have similar employee resource groups which is really wonderful there do we have any other questions Kelly coming in I do see another question coming in from Hill already from YouTube regarding you know what impact is killed in 19 having on the pharmaceutical industry and you know I think that this is a really broad question because you know obviously there's been a number of impacts they think you know maybe perhaps our most tangible is you know with you know clinical trials and how we think about drug development and obviously you know Cova 19 has caused you know many of the sites to really do prioritize you know clinical studies and really ensure that you know physicians are you know treating those patients with Cova 19 I think you know we're starting to see how the world is doing with you know - you know a lot of the contract research organizations and clinical it's opening back up in China that's transitioning through Europe now and I will start to see that you know in the US as well but it's you know been a very slow you know process over the last couple of weeks and I think you know remains to be seen you know we've been very fortunate to see that the supply chains have really held up very well across the pharmaceutical industry which is fantastic okay great Thank You Erin so much of I wonder if you have any other comments you'd like to to make to our audience and to our young undergraduate researchers you know for their comments I really I just say you know I think it's absolutely wonderful you know that the folks have been able to participate in this undergraduate research week so I really you know thank you for inviting me to be a part of it and I've really enjoyed watching the presentations from the students and I'm looking forward to you you know seeing work the pre-recorded sessions throughout the week great thank you so much Erin for your time and for your audience bye