Behind Evaluate’s data and insights about the biopharma space, there are people who work to make sure that our clients have the data and insight they need to make the right decisions for their business. In the latest of our Meet the Team blog series, we speak to Andreas Hadjivasiliou, Managing Analyst, Data Operations about new scientific approaches, R&D productivity and when is too early in the morning to be looking at pictures of sliced up eyeballs.
What do you think is going to have the biggest impact on the pharma industry in the next five years?
There are a few big things, but one that I think is already changing the wider healthcare industry, as well as biopharma in particular is the rise of digital health, or telehealth. Covid had a huge impact in changing how we interact with doctors, for example, and I think that’s here to stay. However, there is a journey in terms of getting people on board with the idea of managing their health through virtual channels – it’s not something that everyone will be comfortable with, at least in the short term.
What’s the biggest challenge facing pharma and biotech companies at the moment?
R&D productivity is a big one – and always has been. Ultimately, translating R&D budgets into approvable drugs that patients can benefit from is why the biopharma companies exist, and it is clear the industry is a long way away from optimising that at the moment. This is challenging for patients and companies’ bottom line. There is a lot of potential technologies available now that can help with things like trial design and ensuring you have a better pool of potential drug candidates and the journey companies are on to start embracing these opportunities is fascinating to track. Ultimately in a world of finite budgets every pharma R&D dollar needs to count towards improved patient outcomes.
Which areas of the industry are you most fascinated by? Why?
There are some really fun, exciting areas of science around new protein mapping techniques – things like Alpha Fold. The exciting thing here is that it can really allow research to focus on high value approvable drug candidates that are most likely to deliver results. Improved drug discovery, candidate selection, patient populations segmentations can save a huge amount of time and resource. I really believe this is an area that will revolutionise the industry over the next few years.
Other than working for Evaluate (of course!), what’s your career highlight to-date?
I used to edit review journals, mostly medical ones which was quite good fun. There was quite a wide range so I got to review a lot of very interesting summaries of different research areas. They were essentially great snapshots by experts in the latest goings-on in their fields. Although, I did edit an ophthalmology journal for a while and found some of the surgical pictures of eyes were a bit much for 9am.
What’s the best thing about your role?
I get to work with lots of fun, interesting people. I currently work across a number different areas of the product so there’s some trouble shooting and lots of work on improving our products. The main thing we always ensure is how we can make our solutions work better for our clients so that’s a big focus on everything I do.
What’s your favourite drink?
Coffee. We have quite a coffee culture at Evaluate – or perhaps it’s just a Data Ops thing…
What really irritates you?
I can’t bear people who accept things for the way they are when something clearly isn’t working. There’s no point saying “this doesn’t work, it’s rubbish” if you don’t then try to change things. A lack of self-starting really doesn’t wash with me.
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself
I recently started to try to learn Spanish. It’s going fairly well, I think. I managed to have a passable conversation with a Spanish taxi driver recently which seems promising.
