Dear clients and friends: Given your interest in health and medicine, we would like to share with you our collection of the most interesting perspectives on our industry's trends and developments. We are happy to share them with you — and hope you share your thoughts with us.

1. How to Network in a Virtual Environment

The list of things that are open – movies, schools, Florida – grows every day. But it’s not clear if, when, or how in-person healthcare conferences are coming back. This doesn’t mean we need to abandon our goals for conferences. It just means we need to retool our strategies.

High Lantern Group has put together a short white paper sharing the best engagement ideas we’ve seen from our clients and friends. With all the uncertainty in conferences of 2021, we hope these ideas help you think through your plans.

2. When Brits Watch American Pharma Commercials

Oprah’s interview of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exposed Americans to the complex inner-workings of Britain’s most revered institution. The interview also exposed Brits to American TV commercials. The Queen’s subjects took to Twitter to share their disdain for DTC ads:

If these medicine ads are what it’s like to not have an NHS I never want to experience that

Nah…how are the side effects of the medicine in American ads more lethal than the thing they’re treating???

Maybe unregulated free market capitalism isn’t the best model for healthcare.

Got a dry mouth? Put down that glass of water. Try Hydrobouche. Side effects include death and anal leakage. Ask your doctor if this is right for you but first watch a pretty middle age woman on a swing during sunset.

3. A New Era Under Woodcock?

FibroGen, Kadmon Holdings, and Acadia are each “facing unexpected hurdles” with applications before the FDA. Endpoints argues these “hurdles” may forebode a new era:

The cluster of decisions has stirred speculation that acting FDA chief Janet Woodcock, often criticized for being too close to industry, is taking a tougher stance as she angles to be nominated as commissioner. In addition to the delays, the FDA also gave Athenex a surprise rejection on their oral chemotherapy, demanding a new trial. And they issued a rare public letter about ALS developer Brainstorm Therapeutics, trying to set the record straight on the efficacy (or lack thereof) of a drug their CEO has been touting.

4. Emma Walmsley Stands Alone

This Women’s History Month, we took a look at how many pharma companies on Fortune’s Global 500 list had women CEOs. Of the 13 qualifiers, only one – GSK – has a woman as top boss. The latest glass-ceiling index by The Economist shows that we are seeing “cracks in the glass ceiling,” but that we still have a long way to go:

A recent study by SIA Partners, a consultancy, found that in Britain bias against women in senior corporate hiring remains systemic.

At least signs of progress can be seen even in traditional laggards like Japan. Mori Yoshiro had to resign as chief of the Tokyo Olympics in February after he complained that women talked too much in meetings. A woman replaced him.

Like all things internet, the comments section looks unkindly at the experiment: “Do you have any thoughts on the risks/hazards involved here? Some thoughts / priors: Snorting chemicals I got from the Internet / mixed up myself without really knowing what I was doing: Superficially, seems potentially pretty risky.”

5. Beyond Sinovac

In just three years, China’s healthcare industry is projected to become the world’s largest. Industry leaders in the West have noticed. In 2020, cross-border licensing partnerships with Chinese companies rose 50%, marking a 300% rise since 2015. It’s a two-way street, according to a Goldman Sachs analyst:

There has been an increase in both deals where Chinese companies will develop and commercialise innovative drug candidates discovered by western companies and where multinational companies will do the same with cutting-edge Chinese-invented pharmaceuticals outside China.