Tick Tock… The World is Changing. Innovate or Else!

Maria Goutsou Executive Director Global Brand Leader Merck & Company www.merck.com

Stephen Godwin Group Research Director Synovate www.synovate.com

Greg Chu Senior Vice President Head of North American Healthcare Custom Synovate www.synovate.com

Presentation Abstract

In the face of the uncertainties of healthcare reform, it is easy to overlook the significance of what is already happening, and what will likely continue to happen-- regardless of the outcome of healthcare reform. Disruptive innovation, as Clayton Christensen describes it in his book, The Innovator’s Prescription, is already at work in our industry. In this presentation, Maria Goutsou, a senior commercial leader from Merck, along with Stephen Godwin and Greg Chu of Synovate Healthcare, take a systems thinking approach to understanding innovation in the complex environment which shapes the discovery, development and commercialization of CNS drugs. This systems thinking approach will lay out a framework for supporting commercial decision-making and making sense of disruptive innovation in the CNS area.

The speakers will draw on their own extensive experience, but will also incorporate insight from leading KOLs through original research conducted exclusively for this presentation. They will explore the applicability of Christensen's model to the CNS area and put forward a systems thinking framework for commercial leaders to make sense of disruptive innovation. The speakers will also make recommendations for how traditional core market research competencies will need to evolve in order to help decision-makers understand and address the underlying changes underpinning the storms of industrial transformation. This evolution in research will be characterized less by the creation of novel methodologies than by the integration of existing methodologies into a systems thinking framework.

Speaker Biographies

Maria Goutsou is currently a Global Brand Leader in neuroscience at Merck, with 20 years of experience in setting and implementing marketing strategies, new product development, launch planning, and business development in pharmaceutical and high technology industries. She is focused on innovation and change management, and has extensive experience in leading large cross-functional teams to solve complex problems. Maria holds a MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a MPH from Harvard University.

Stephen Godwin heads Synovate Healthcare’s Thought Leader Unit which works exclusively with international key opinion leaders. He is a regular invitee on BBC Radio and TV as a business analyst for pharmaceuticals and his articles and papers have been widely published. His professional career includes marketing positions at Merck and Eli Lilly. Stephen received his B. Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Bristol and conducted post-doctoral research at l”Ecole Normal Superieure, Paris on a Royal Society Fellowship. (30 years pharma experience)

Greg Chu heads the North American custom research division of Synovate Healthcare. Prior to joining Synovate, Greg was VP of Business Analysis at Novartis where he led the operation of a comprehensive analytics function spanning market research, marketing science, sales analytics and forecasting. His professional experience also includes leadership roles in market research and product management at Forest Laboratories and Merck & Co. Greg holds degrees from Cornell and Harvard Universities.

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