We Are Norstella

Melody Marden

Vice President, Custom Solutions | Evaluate

Melody Marden is an industry veteran who currently holds the role of Vice President, Custom Solutions at Evaluate. While Melody has had a long and diverse career in healthcare, working across the spectrum of pharma and life science organizations, she has always stayed true to her driving mantra: Strive to make a difference.

How did you join the company? What in your background brought you to pharma?

The main driver to join Norstella was the opportunity to make a difference. I joined the organization in early 2020, after nearly 20 years with my former employer. My background, while being quite varied, also is complementary to my overall journey in healthcare. Some highlights include developing and implementing disease management programs for a nationally-based pharmacy benefit manager, including designing and implementing the largest national smoking cessation program, which went out to over 40 million people and became the basis for the Committed Quitters program sponsored by Marion Merrell Dow. I also implemented programs focusing on asthma, allergic rhinitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

I took a hiatus from that position to attend Dartmouth Medical School, where I got my Master’s degree in Evaluative Clinical Sciences. I studied several key areas in healthcare including health policy, clinical decision making, epidemiology and biostatistics, quality improvement, and survey design. In addition, I completed a quality improvement practicum at the High-Risk Diabetes Foot Clinic and Revascularization Department at the VA Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont, and completed research and defended a poster on kidney transplantation and living with AIDs. Through the program at Dartmouth, I had the remarkable opportunity to study under numerous industry-leading experts and thought leaders, including Jerry O’Connor, Paul Bataldin, Jack Wennberg, John Ware, and Anna Tosteson.

From there I rotated through pharma, where I was responsible for driving strategic direction for all key brands for a Top 10 Pharma, and for the last two-and-a-half decades I’ve been working with data and solutions to advise and support clients across the full spectrum of key stakeholders in life sciences and healthcare, including: pharma, biotech, med device, lab and diagnostic, as well as payers – health plans and self-insured employers, pharmacies (retail, mail order, and specialty), patient advocacy groups, regulatory agencies, professional organizations, contract research organization and contract development and manufacturing organizations, financial clients, and more.

What does your day-to-day usually look like?

It varies significantly day-to-day. Speaking to clients, of course, is something I do almost daily. I lead discovery, working to address clients’ business and data needs, which often includes ongoing follow-up and collaboration across the organization, tapping into colleagues and resources that cover a wide spectrum of offerings and perspectives that run the gamut of the product life cycle continuum, with greater focus on the portfolio strategy and business development, encompassing competitive intelligence, real-world data (RWD)-driven insights, forecasting, portfolio optimization and indication prioritization, and partner search and screen initiatives. I am committed to supporting our clients, making sure we stay on point as we work to ensure the success of the franchise/business, while supporting their strategic planning and tactical execution.

What are some of the larger projects you’re working on?

There are many, but I’ll share a small sample.  There’s a major top-tier client that we have been working with for several years; they are starting to transition away from the more traditional oncology drugs, as they face a significant patent cliff, which is going to have a direct impact on their portfolio, industry position, and the bottom line. As they assess the landscape, they’re making a major corporate strategic shift to focus on the role of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and the impact of biomarker testing in determining treatment protocol. We’ve already done some work with them in this area, and we’re in discussions on how to expand that and give them even greater insight by leveraging our RWD—not only our biomarker data, but our unstructured data and physician notes as well.

Another top-tier client is focused on expanding their role in biosimilars. As loss of exclusivity and patent expiry continues in key therapeutic areas, we see growing R&D initiatives and increased presence in this class of drugs across the client base. This particular client is changing their corporate strategy to take advantage of this. Their goal now is to be the #1 biosimilar drug company in the US. The initial project is underway and is focused on forecasting and leveraging both Evaluate and client data. We are supporting that through consultative collaboration, along with the rich information we have through our platforms, data assets, deep insights and industry knowledge, experience, and expertise.

Yet another Top 10 Client is focused on early-stage forecasting to support their overall corporate strategy and organizational alignment. This underscores a trend where clients are going further and further upstream as they prioritize their portfolio and focus R&D efforts.  However, that does not come without challenges. As you get further away from anticipated launch and later stages of R&D, forecasting can become a bit of an art and less of a science because of the limited amount of information and increased unpredictability. Through our industry experience, expertise and teamwork, we won a large pilot that spans multiple products, indications, and global regions, for both the R&D and commercial teams which is really exciting. This is helping to create greater consistency across business units, while providing increased precision, transparency and insight into their forecasting activities across major parts of the company. That will set up our team to pursue a very large, corporate-wide forecasting solution for all products, indications, and global regions across the broader organization.

Another major client is focused on hypertension. We’re looking at several different aspects in this therapeutic area, including patient journey and how patients are titrated up in their regimen before a switch occurs so that they can understand patient flow and determine the best inflection point for them to introduce their drug into the treatment protocol for patients. We’re also exploring additional use cases around the German market and hope to confirm additional opportunities for the Chinese market as well.

In mid-tier, we have a large project that we are working on advancing around COVID and immunosuppressed patients. The hypothesis is that these patients did not experience disruption or dramatic change to their treatment flow and health challenges during the COVID pandemic and still have consistent needs following COVID. Our RWD assets are helping to address their business needs and provide insights into the total addressable market for this population as the client begins to finalize their overall corporate strategy and work to bring treatment to market for these patients.

What are some of the common challenges of your role?

Early-stage or preclinical data, especially for privately held companies, is a challenge. Consensus forecasts are not always available from analysts, so I’m frequently on the quest to dig a bit deeper and get further insights in that context.

Regarding data outside the US, I don’t think the quality or granularity will ever rise to the level of the depth and robustness of the data we have within the US. I hope it improves significantly, but that’s a challenge. So, we find ourselves in advisory services, often augmenting with secondary research, literature reviews, and primary market research to fill those gaps. We also are using analogues to leverage what we know and project what we don’t know. Overall, data certainly is a powerful asset, but not without challenges depending on specific therapeutic areas, global regions, and business needs.

I think access and process around RWD internally has improved significantly, which is exciting as we position ourselves to support clients’ business needs with more information, deeper insights, increased alignment, and a leaner process. A major accomplishment here is the introduction of NorstellaLinQ. This is a major game changer.

Scalability can be a challenge for any organization. Here, we are addressing this at a remarkable pace. We have the opportunity to focus more holistically on process across the broader Norstella organization in the context of our advisory services and platform solutions to ensure we’re bringing best-in-class content and insights to all of our clients with more scalable offerings, enhanced utility, and increased cross functional collaboration. I’m pleased to say we’re well on our way with scalable solutions as evidenced by the competitive intelligence platform, the introduction of RWD dashboards, and the analog tools and forecasting platform supported by J+D Forecasting. I fully expect to see more solutions in this context in the near future.

This leads us to internal alignment. We must ensure that the various roles are aligned to optimize collaboration, process, and results across the organization, covering the spectrum of the sales process, such as prospecting, discovery, scoping, closing and delivery, as well as ongoing product development. This will help address not only overall process challenges but ensure that we hit or exceed bottom-line goals and leverage staff and capabilities in a way that is optimal both for clients and the organization.

What’s been your career highlight to date?

One of my biggest highlights is designing and implementing the largest and most successful nationally based smoking cessation program at the time. The program achieved an unprecedented 42% abstinence rate at six months, which is even more remarkable given that many of those program participants were hardcore smokers with decades of smoking behavior. Intrinsically, we improved their quality of life, and I believe we changed the trajectory of their health for the remainder of their lives, which is very fulfilling. Honestly, that is why we are here and do what we do, right?

Following my work in implementing disease management programs and working for a top-tier pharma driving strategic direction for all key brands, including supporting patient-physician dialogue and clinical decision making, I was inducted into the National Who’s Who of Professional and Business Women for my contributions in informed decision making and disease management. This underscores the value of these initiatives and the benefits to patients and their families, as well as to physicians.

Also, I was the only non-physician to date asked back as an instructor by the American College of Managed Care after earning my certified-in-managed care designation. That provided a unique opportunity to share different perspectives on the patient journey and the vitally important patient-physician relationship.

Lastly, playing a role in bringing treatments to market to save lives and improve quality of life continues to be a major highlight that runs throughout my career in healthcare and life sciences. I remain fiercely committed to doing that and that is what gets me up and drives me every day. That is why I’m here.

What trends are you seeing across the industry right now that Norstella is in a unique position to help with?

One of the key trends that I’m seeing is the increased prominence of ADCs. We are seeing signals already that pharma and biotech companies are pursuing development and expansion of ADC treatments in oncology and other areas. Having comprehensive RWD that supports analysis and insights in lab testing, as well as oncology biomarkers, linked to physician notes is a notable differentiator and brings additional value to our clients to support their efforts in this area. The fact that we have unification across our data assets, link them with an industry standard token, and now can leverage NorstellaLinQ – the first and only fully integrated resource combining RWD and proprietary content and insights from the collection of best-in-class solutions and assets across the broader Norstella organization – establishes us as an industry leader.

Secondly, the role of biomarker testing and its propensity to impact physicians’ treatment protocol is notable. We are seeing a direct correlation between the results of testing and the trajectory of how the patient flows through the system. I think we’ll continue to see increased acuity and precision in how physicians are implementing those practices in the treatment of patients. Biomarker testing is here to stay and will continue to be a part of the patient journey for many diseases and conditions.

In addition, genetic mutation data and the ability to identify patients earlier with rare and ultra rare disease and to provide insights into the patient journey will continue to be vitally important to clients in that space.

Lastly, new mechanisms of action and technologies and their impact on patients and healthcare in general continues to be a focus for all key stakeholders. We will continue to see innovation in healthcare, especially as information technology, including AI, is enabling discovery to happen at a more rapid pace. Aside from monitoring the competitive landscape and providing deep information and insights on that front, sometimes there are unexpected consequences of new treatments, and it important that those are identified quickly so we can assess the impact and inform and empower our clients. A great example of that is the GLP-1 market and its impact on the obesity market, which also had a significant impact on the supply chain for these drugs. These types of advancements and new science require that we remain on the ready with powerful data, industry knowledge, therapeutic area experience, and actionable insights along with commitment and drive to support our clients and serve our overarching mission of bringing treatments from pipeline to patient.

I would be remiss not to mention the ongoing attention and focus on the anticipated impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, a transformative piece of legislation aimed at several things, including improving access to affordable healthcare. We continue to monitor that and have integrated insights already into forecasting projects we have done for a number of clients as we look to the future.

Which company principle resonates most with you?

The one that I gravitate towards the most is bold, passionate, mission-first. Passion, to me, is that fire in the belly. You don’t learn it; you either have it or you don’t, and you can tell rather easily and quickly when someone possesses it. Also, mission-first is vitally important for me – pipeline to patient. It’s why I’m here – to make a difference. My legacy, at the end of the day, is to look back and know that I’ve done that.  And of course, be bold. We have the right to win.

What would you tell someone just starting their career with Norstella?

Stay focused on the endgame and what drives you as an individual. This is more than just a J.O.B. It is a unique opportunity to make a difference. It will be challenging, and at times, demanding, but stay the course. Learn, own, and live the guiding principles, as well as strive to support our mission of ‘pipeline to patient’ and commit to making a difference. It is a gift and well worth it!

Where do you see Norstella in the next year or two?

There are micro as well as macro perspectives to consider here. Internally, I think we’ll continue to expand data assets and the way those are linked and leveraged for the benefit of our clients.  I think we also will continue to grow and recalibrate from a human capital perspective. I see us bringing folks on board with targeted skills and expertise to help guide the organization in key areas that are tagged for growth, while ensuring that all teams are aligned to maximize synergies, efficiencies and ultimately the bottom-line.

In addition, I expect we’ll continue to look for, assess and vet other best-in-class companies, looking for organizations who can strengthen Norstella and support our overall vision and financial targets.

Lastly, I anticipate further product enhancement and product development, as well as the evolution of advisory services, to ensure that offerings, are organizationally efficient, profitable, and synergistic within the greater Norstella ethos – leveraging expanded data assets and capabilities, new solutions, evolving technology, and organizational alignment. Norstella is solidifying its position as a leader in healthcare providing comprehensive solutions for clients across data, platforms, and advisory services.

What do you like most about working at Norstella?

It gives me an opportunity to continue to make a difference. For those that know me well, they know that is something that I take very seriously, and I live it every day. We are impacting patient lives, including the individuals involved in the care of the patient, whether it be family, friends, physicians, payers, or others. To me, it’s about saving lives, extending lives, and improving the quality of life. I believe we are getting it done!

What do you like to do outside of work?

At this particular point in my life, I’m at a juncture where it is more about what I need to do versus what I would like to do. However, as I look to my future, I’m hoping to be able to do more travel. I want to pursue my writing, whether it be focused on a book, poetry, or lyrics. I really want to explore my European lineage and ancestry and hope to focus on that soon. I enjoy public speaking as well; I’ve addressed groups as large as 2,000+ focused on motivational speaking and would love to do more of that. I find creative cooking fun and engaging and expect there will be more of that in my future. I currently lead three fitness classes per week and would like to expand those to a wider audience.

In addition, I want to do more to support homeless shelters, especially helping children, and want to continue to support our veterans. I’m very interested in donating time to local pet shelters to care for neglected, wounded, or abandoned animals, and have been thinking about fostering them too.

I look forward to getting more involved in social activities in my new community and extending beyond that. I’m an avid tennis player, so I would love to try my hand at pickle ball; I also want to take some dance classes. And lastly, I believe the gift of laughter is one of the most precious gifts we can give. To that end, I just tried standup comedy. It was very well received, and the organizer wants to book me at more venues, so I think I may give it a go. It’s never too late to try something new or pursue those things we find fulfilling and worthwhile or just fun. Here’s to making a difference!

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