Kelly Chamberlain has been with Norstella, Evaluate’s parent company as Partner, Market Intelligence since 2024. She’s an expert in supporting competitive intelligence workflows and ensuring that CI teams can maximize the strategic value of market intelligence across cross-functional stakeholder groups. At Norstella, she brings together life science consultants, data scientists, and subject‑matter experts to build custom intelligence programs and products that leverage the full breadth of Norstella’s assets. I caught up with Kelly to talk about how she sees the market today, her approach to leadership, and what she has in common with small children.

1. Where do you see pharma companies leaving competitive intelligence value on the table?
   Siloing across business functions has always been a challenge in large pharma, and it remains one of the biggest sources of untapped value in CI. Even as AI-enabled platforms create new opportunities for cross-functional connectivity, there will always be elements that require human expertise to connect the dots.

   Take patient switching as an example. A well-run CI program might pick up early qualitative signals, such as key opinion leaders making remarks at a conference, patients discussing their experiences on social media, or subtle shifts in the conversation around a competitor’s product. These signals are critical, but real power comes from pairing them with quantitative data, much of which our clients already have access to. In this example, the challenge would be that in most pharma organizations, the team tracking competitive signals and the team crunching real-world data (RWD), which could semi-quantitatively inform patient switching behavior, are not translating signals in any structured way.

   What makes my job so fun is that Norstella is uniquely positioned to bridge that gap. Running with the RWD example – we run comprehensive CI programs at Evaluate, while our sister organization MMIT brings sophisticated RWD capabilities. Both live under the Norstella roof, meaning we can support our clients as they make internal connections in real time. When our CI team detects a signal worth investigating, we can rapidly bring the client’s RWD leaders into that conversation to pressure-test the hypothesis. That combination of qualitative CI with quantitative analytics is powerful- it boosts confidence of leadership that the signal is worth acting on.

2. What’s the most interesting type of project you’re seeing demand for right now?
   One of the more interesting trends we’re seeing is coming from smaller and mid-size pharma organizations. These companies are often running very lean and don’t have a dedicated CI function at all, which is dangerous given that many of these organizations are competing in some of the most crowded therapeutic spaces in the industry – think obesity and immunology. These markets are extraordinarily dense and fast-moving, which means keeping up with them is difficult even for well-resourced teams.What we’re seeing as a result is a real appetite for what I’d call executive-level competitive intelligence – not granular pipeline tracking, but strategic signal detection. These teams need to know if their asset is still going to be competitive and commercially viable as this market continues to evolve. And they need to be able to answer that quickly enough to actually pivot.
3. Which areas of the industry are you most fascinated by? Why?
   All things neuro! As a neuroscientist by training, I will never stop being humbled by the complexity of the brain. It is particularly exciting to see large pharma re-invest in the space and gain momentum with disease-modifying therapies. I’m also fascinated by novel approaches to target treatment-resistant mental health disorders. I’m watching these spaces carefully!
4. Other than working for Evaluate (of course!), what’s your career highlight to-date?
   My proudest career moments all relate to leadership, whether in my prior consulting roles or at the bench. If I had to pick one highlight, it’s having learned to lead with empathy, encouragement and enthusiasm. These qualities have helped me build resilient teams and gain support when rapid pivots are needed to better support clients with evolving market needs.
5. How did you end up working in this industry?
   I never grew out of that annoying “but why?!” phase young kids are famous for. A few of my college professors nudged me towards neurobiology, encouraging me to figure it out for myself! After over 12 years at the bench, I was motivated to learn more about what it takes to bring innovative therapies to the market. I shifted to supporting life science organizations through various consulting and commercial roles and haven’t looked back!
6. What’s the best thing about your role?
   The continuous challenge! Our customers have unique business priorities, competitive intelligence needs and investment preferences. Active listening and creative solutioning is the name of the game to support them optimally. It’s particularly rewarding to take on this challenge at Norstella – with so many strong data resources, capabilities and subject matter experts to leverage, it is incredible to watch these deployed to support strategic decision making and bring more therapies to patients.
7. What’s your favourite drink?
   Old Fashioned (with Bulleit Rye if I’m being specific!)