Introduction:
Qamar Khan is currently the Sr. Director of Contract and Pricing at Pfizer, an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation known for developing and manufacturing medicines and vaccines. He is someone who exemplifies resilience, a quality that has made him a role model to me throughout my life. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview him and see how data supports his day-to-day work. During our conversation, we talked about his career journey, the significant role data plays in making informed decisions, the importance of proper relay of findings (understanding your audience), and his tips for those just starting out.
Sana: To start, could you walk me through your career journey and what led you to your current role as Sr. Director in Contract Strategy and Pricing? I’d love to hear about the key experiences or milestones that shaped your professional path.
Qamar: I was fortunate to start my professional journey as a financial analyst at a small pharmaceutical startup. While working at the company, I was provided an environment that allowed me to gain exposure to many different areas of the business. This broad visibility became a valuable learning opportunity and helped me expand my skill set early in my career. During this time, I was introduced to the market access function, which handles contract negotiations with both private and government accounts, and it quickly captured my interest. In expressing my interest, I was given the opportunity to learn the function, which led to my ultimate transition from the accounting department to the market access team.
With this transition, the first role I stepped into was as a contract and pricing analyst, where I provided analytical support to contracting decisions and customer invoice reconciliation. Eventually, the role grew more geared towards strategy and analytics. Over the course of ten years with the company, I advanced to senior manager of contracting and pricing. At this point in my career, I decided I wanted to shift to work for a midsize or larger company to further grow in breadth and depth of experience across different therapeutic areas. I went on to pursue a similar role at another company, where eventually I became the head of the contracts and pricing team.
While in this role, I made it a priority to actively network, seek mentorship, and establish advocates who could support my career growth. In doing so, it helped open many doors. A prime example is when one of the people within my network reached out to me with a unique opportunity at a different company, which led me to take on the role as the senior director of the same function there. Similar opportunities arose several times through peers and professional connections. In my current role, I joined the company as part of an acquisition. Today, I work at one of the largest Pharma companies in the world, and I am enjoying learning and growing every day.
Sana: As a current master’s student at the Institute for Advanced Analytics, we are constantly seeing how data plays a big part in what we do and in the decisions we make. How would you describe the importance of data in your day-to-day and in the decision-making process?
Qamar: Data and analytics are crucial in understanding the competitive landscape and key business trends that drive decisions. In my current role, we have to make recommendations on what discounts or pricing to give to insurance companies to attain coverage for the drugs we sell to ensure patients can get prescribed drugs and get them at the lowest out-of-pocket cost. In order to do this, we need to understand the volume and share shifts of the competitive categories and provide the organization insights on deal vs no deal analysis from a company and customer perspective. This analysis helps us determine potential outcomes and shifts in share as well as profitability. These insights also drive assumptions on the trade off between market growth and a net profitability approach with perception of competitiveness. Without the right data, there is likelihood of making bad business decisions that can impact negotiations, share attainment, ROI, and most importantly, a patient’s ability to get a medicine they may really need.
Sana: One of the main projects we take on at the Institute for Advanced Analytics is the Practicum, where we work together with a sponsor and utilize data to help in optimal decision-making. One of the main benefits in gaining such experience is getting to see how data supports such decision-making in a real-world setting. Can you describe a specific time recently when data directly influenced a major decision you made? What kind of data was it? Where did it come from? What was the outcome?
Qamar: Data influences all decisions, and if data is not used to learn and drive decisions, you are just guessing and hoping for the best.
Without going into specific details, we recently had to make recommendations on a strategy for a drug that is about to have Loss Of Exclusivity (LOE), meaning the drug’s patent will expire, which in turn allows generic manufacturers to launch their own version of the LOE drug.
In order to provide accurate insights, we had to use several different data sources to triangulate a comprehensive set of assumptions. To help review these data sources, we used IQVIA, which helped to aid us in our evaluation of prescription trends, shares, and tackle patient out-of-pocket analysis.
For payer access landscape, we used the MMIT platform and had internal data sources that provided information on numbers of prescriptions written, how many Rxs get filled, what numbers of Rxs were rejected, and fulfillment rates. There were also third-party data sets, which helped us to identify and align on what analogs to use for erosion curves. If the drug that’s going LOE is a biologic vs a small molecule, it requires specialty pharmacy or retail pharmacy analog in understanding the shift to generics or biosimilars, respectively.
After an extensive set of analysis (using the various forms of data I detailed ) and cross-functional collaborations, the team collectively was able to make a recommendation on the LOE strategy for pre/post generic availability timeframes.
Sana: Building off of that, another key skill we work on at the Institute is communication and relaying our findings in an effective way. Based on a previous conversation, you mentioned you work with both data analysts and consultants, what would you say makes for an effective and meaningful relay of results?
Qamar: General rule is to lead with CRM; Clarity, Relevance, and why it Matters. Most analysts fall into a trap of simply just showcasing the analysis and presenting data. Instead, upfront, discuss the key findings to the question or problem that’s being solved. This can be followed by the insights that led to the findings: drivers, trends, benchmarks, analogs, challenges, etc.. You then can close with “why does this matter?” and clear next steps. As an analyst, it’s key to learn how to deliver the appropriate message to the right stakeholders. Think and present like a strategist and not a data reporter.
Sana: Last question, if you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice at the start of your career, what would it be?
Qamar: Listen more and talk less. Listen to understand and not to respond. Always assume positive intent, recognize that this is just business and nothing personal. Always create relationships as this can open doors you didn’t know were there. Don’t chase perfection, but chase progress. Chase learning and growth over money and titles. Most importantly, always find time to invest in yourself.
Take Away
“Most importantly, always find time to invest in yourself.”
What a powerful way to conclude our conversation, and what an impact it left. It was refreshing to hear about the use of data outside of familiar contexts. Having only encountered data in certain settings, seeing it through a different lens was truly valuable. I appreciated hearing familiar concepts applied in new ways. This interview provided great insight into fresh approaches for longstanding challenges. Beyond exposing me to different applications of data, it also offered valuable perspectives on communication, networking, and navigating the professional environment.
Columnist: Sana Khan