Q&A

Q&A with Zack King

Zack King, co-founder and CEO of Trinity Pharma, gave us insight on challenges and trends in the pharma industry, Trinity’s company culture and a look into life outside the office. Read Zack’s full bio here.

How do you see innovations in big data changing the dynamics of the pharma industry?
Pharma is entering an era where data will be the primary driver for most of its sales and marketing decisions, tactics, and strategy. Historically, life science companies relied heavily on pure science and patents as the underpinnings of brand success. With fewer blockbusters, big data will allow pharma to be smarter about the way it approaches its customers through deeper analysis and predictive modeling of prescribing behavior. Big data will also play a huge role in the evolving commercial and business model changes (Commercial 3.0) whereby brand performance is measured more on healthy outcomes rather than the number of prescriptions written. A confluence of factors will center on leveraging big data to drive change including consumerism, healthcare reform, health IT and value mining.
 
How has the culture within Trinity evolved since you founded the company in 2002?
I’ll first start by saying what hasn’t changed and that’s a relentless focus on customer value and service. We’re a technology company but real people whose jobs are on the line rely on us every day and we never lose sight of that. What has changed is a shift in our culture to enable a more innovative and dynamic workforce with a focus on freedom. Today’s knowledge worker is different and we continually enhance and evolve our culture to reflect a more positive, group-oriented, can-do ethos. We moved offices to a location that was a better fit with our culture (think loft, bricks, open floor plan and water views) that offers a more collaborative and creative space for team. We keep it fun with a company shuffle board and regular team building off-sites.
 
What are the greatest challenges affecting pharmaceutical companies in the current environment?
The biggest challenges in pharma right now are the prospect of fewer blockbuster products and the shift in commercial models with health outcomes as the new currency going forward. We’re focused on both opportunities. First by helping pharma drive more value from the products they market through better analytics. Specialized (non-blockbuster) products require sophisticated analytics to understand the customer and how best to engage them. Second – the Affordable Care Act will change the way pharma (and many other in the health ecosystem) measure success. Many of these changes involve new uses and sources of information that is forming the basis for a new class of analytics focused on health outcomes.
 
What is the most valuable marketing trend that pharma companies should be latching onto right now?
There’s a lot of talk about sales forces being cut, but the data shoes that quality, face-to-face interaction with reps remains an essential element to brands success. Still more than 50% of US pharma marketing spend is in detailing. Traditional marketing spend is not declining but is shifting and the channel mix has evolved dramatically over the past 10 years. The emerging trend is in what is called multi-channel marketing which simply means finding the right mix of face-to-face, phone, payor, digital and other means to influence and engage a customer (doctor, patient, etc.). We’re seeing more opportunities for our platform since these new channels are creating new sources of data (e.g. social media), new types of analytics (e.g. channel optimization), and a whole new level of detail needed to target and understand the customer.
 
What occupies your time outside the office?
My two kids (8 and 4) occupy quite a bit! Personally I try and lead an active lifestyle and I sail competitively in the summer which is part of the reason we live in Bristol, RI. In the winter we spend as many weekends on the mountains in Vermont skiing and snowboard as we’re able. I’m a mentor to tech startups in and around RI which is a rewarding way to give back to the business community, hopefully spur some economic development and sharpen my own skills by surround myself with smart and energetic entrepreneurs.