Jenny Sheng, ’09 MBS, has felt something has long needed to improve in the pharmaceutical industry: the inclusion of patient voice.
“There is a gap when it comes to bringing in the patient voice earlier in drug development,” she says. “At the beginning of 2023, I left my commercial development job (as New Products Lead, Neuroscience) at Novartis to found Innomaven Consulting to close that gap.”
She has been consulting with pharma to redesign their research and development to put patients at the center and to better design the patient journey, Sheng says.
“For example, I am working with one patient group in the MS [multiple sclerosis] space when it comes to the black female MS experience,” she says. “We’re learning more about health inequities and friction points and that is incredibly important. This gives me a chance to be a part of making a big impact.”
There are four main aspects to the design thinking-inspired work she does, Sheng shares. The first is market research with an eye on empathy, the second is defining problems, the third is ideating with different stakeholders on what potential solutions may be possible and the fourth is engaging in piloting to potentially have a greater impact.
Sheng assesses that part of pharma’s shortcomings is as a science-driven industry, it can overlook the lessons from other industries obsessed with their end users. “It’s about designing target profiles with patient feedback,” she says. “It’s really through partnerships with patient advocate organizations and including them in the product design that will improve understanding of what the patient experience and challenges access-wise are.”
The KGI Edge
Sheng credits KGI with helping her better understand the marketing and psychological components when it comes to her work. Receiving a Master of Business of Bioscience from KGI, she found Gary Cohen’s teaching related to bioethics and Steven Casper’s teaching focused on marketing to be an important influence. “It’s thinking beyond the product to what it represents and what it means to the consumer,” she says. “KGI helped me think on a deeper plane.”
Her deeper thinking even reflected in taking home a WIN: Women in Innovation Award last year. “To be honored with so many other talented women was a great feeling and motivates me in what I’m doing,” she says.
Another key motivation will be continuing to keep the patient in mind.
“Innomaven is increasing impact in the life science industry by moving the industry in a direction where products are co-designed with patients to ultimately put that ‘patient first’ mindset in everything they do,” she says. “It’s not only the right thing to do, but it’s truly from a business standpoint a smart thing to do by putting the end user at the center of the product design and optimizes the product for market uptake and success.
“I often think about a particularly perceptive cartoon. It has a scientist taking a compound, they throw it over multiple walls and the last wall is market approval. You end up with a patient on the other side given a product, but it’s one they can’t recognize and don’t want. Hopefully being more patient-centric can make that cartoon ring less true in the future.”