expect our people to be able to provide guidance, not just follow cookie cutter templates. We want them to be dynamic. At the same time, we also look for people who are extremely detail oriented. We are in a highly regulated industry, so the ability to adhere to rules and regula-tions is also some- thing we look for. How is it that such a young CRO has so quickly reinvented the sponsor-consultant dynamic? RM: Since DFS Pharma is a relatively new player in the CRO world, we haven’t had the growing pains that some of the more established CROs have; however, we have been able to leverage our previous experiences to have the foresight to see where the industry is headed. We’re ba-sically a fresh company with a wealth of industry experi- ence and this has allowed us to align ourselves with the right technologies and partners without ever sacrificing quality or vision. DFS Pharma is the CRO of the future, now. That’s because we have reinvented the sponsor-consultant dynamic. Tra- ditional CROs are tied up with trying to be every- thing to everyone. We know we can’t be that, so we look to our equally forward-thinking partners, leveraging their individual experience and industry focus to cover what we, ourselves, don’t. Again, a tradition-al CRO would try to force what they have
tions are key to our robust working relationships. Earlier you spoke about leveraging the indi- vidual experience of your partners in order to pro-vide an adaptive package to your clients. Who are some of these partners and how do they help the DFS Pharma team achieve its goal? RM: I’m glad you asked. LLX is our key biostatistics and SAS [Statistical Analysis System] pro-gram- ming partner. Its team has proven expertise in supporting global clinical trials for compa-nies of various sizes in the United States and in various therapeutic categories such as cardiol-ogy, oncology, rare disease, medical devices, pain, infectious diseases, neurology, allergy and immu- nology, endocrinology and metabolism, as well as gastroenterology and pediatrics. Medrio, IBM Clinical Development, Oracle, and Veeva EDC are all technology partners of DFS Pharma as well. All four of these systems are EDC (Electronic Data Capture) platforms that also have supporting modules to allow for ePRO (Electron- ic Patient Reported Outcomes), Ran-domization, eSource, Clinical Coding, etc. By having a range of partners in this space, we are able to work with clients based on their study and budgetary needs. The phase of a trial, the number of patients, amount of data points, module needs and inte- gration, and other aspects go into the selection process of which technology would be the best fit. What has been the industry response to your business model? RM: Well, it’s an industry like no other. I guess you can say that in this line of work, those who do it right, inevitably teach. DFS Pharma attends and presents at many con-
ferences and indus-try events every year. We reg- ularly participate in panel discussions and present at conferences. This year, we attended the Medrio Explore con- ference in March but didn’t present. At the end of June, I’ll be attending the DIA (Drug Informa- tion Association) conference in San Diego. And in September, Tom and I are expected to attend the SCDM (Society of Clinical Data Manage-ment) conference in Baltimore and the Veeva Summit in Philiadelphia. If you are attending either the DIA, SCDM, or Veeva Summit conferences, please make sure to make sure to connect with me. What does 2019 look like for DFS Pharma? RM: 2019 looks great for DFS Pharma. 2019 has already been our best revenue gener- ating year to date and saw the company add to its headcount. Looking at the partnerships that we have, both with our vendors and our existing clients, coupled with the increasing number of proposal requests we’ve gotten this year, we expect to continue our growth in 2019. Long term, we hope to continue to expand the number of partners we have to continue to pro-vide greater and greater flexibility and client focus thereby delivering high quality data for regulatory submission and a healthier, happier populace.
at the client and say, “this is what we’ll do.” We look at their needs and create an adaptive, flexible package. You can kind of think of DFS Pharma as the hub of the wheel. I think everyone reading this will get a sense of the progressive posture you take as a compa- ny, but can you please tell the readers about your employee culture specifically? RM: Absolutely. DFS Pharma values its employ- ees. We know they are the greatest asset we have and we try to be flexible – there’s that word again – with their needs as well. We expect people to do their job and do it well and take pride in their work. This is a stressful industry, so we don’t want to add any additional stressors. In fact, we want to remove them as best we can. DFS Pharma believes in team building and has activities outside of the office to develop successful relationships among the employees. Our social activities often include our families, so you can imagine we’re a pretty close-knit group here.
At DFS Pharma, meaningful employee connec-
95
94
JUNE 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2019
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter