Pierre Fabre Group

Dr Sarah Tregenza BSc(Hons) PhD MAICD is an accomplished Medical Affairs leader with over 18 years of oncology experience across academic research and the pharmaceutical industry. With a PhD in cancer biology and expertise spanning solid and hematologic tumours, she has led product launches and life cycle strategies at GSK, Novartis, and Pierre Fabre. Currently Director of Medical Affairs Oncology APAC at Pierre Fabre, she combines scientific depth with leadership, communication, and cross-functional team expertise.

In an exclusive interview with Life Sciences Review APAC, Sarah shares her valuable insights into cancer biology research and the pressing challenge of staying ahead in the rapidly advancing field of oncology.

Trends to Combat Information Overload

Over the past decade, the pharmaceutical landscape has undergone significant transformation, marked by an explosion of new treatments and an accelerating pace of innovation. Part of our role in the pharmaceutical industry is to help doctors stay on top of the changes relevant to their clinical practice. In this effort, there has been increased digitization, with information required to be tailored for, and presented across, multiple channels, such as emails, newsletters, websites, portals, and apps, according to individual doctor’s changing preferences. We have also had to ensure the information is available when the doctor’s need it, i.e. on demand, or timed for release when most relevant. Other trends include a shift to increased personalization of the information, so it is targeted to the specific stakeholders needs. These changes ensure doctor’s can stay up-to-date with the treatment information they need in the limited amount of time they have, i.e. the right information, at the right time, in the right format.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an increasingly valuable tool in this effort, helping all to stay up to date with the fast pace and large volumes of new information released by summarizing all relevant information in the area of interest. Pharma can add value by providing AI applications that assist physicians in distilling and understanding key datasets aligned with their clinical interests. But as the saying goes “garbage in garbage out”, the quality of information AI can provide is only as good as the information sources the AI tool uses. We need to ensure AI applications used are only relying on high quality reputable validated data sources.

Addressing Evolving Challenges in Oncology

A critical factor in oncology today is ensuring patients are tested for relevant mutations. This is best done early on in their diagnosis, and in some cases retested throughout the course of their disease, so they can receive the most appropriate treatment at each stage in line with their unique cancer biology to give the best outcomes. Pierre Fabre’s current innovative oncology portfolio in APAC supports patients with a particular mutation in melanoma and colorectal cancer (CRC). We are also expanding into the lung cancer space, a particularly urgent need in the APAC region where lung cancer prevalence accounts for nearly 50% of the global lung cancer burden, and where some mutations occur at double the rate of eastern populations. Colorectal cancer, especially early-onset CRC, is also on the rise in the APAC region.

"These changes ensure doctor’s can stay up-to-date with the treatment information they need in the limited amount of time they have, i.e. the right information, at the right time, in the right format."

A key difficulty lies in keeping pace with the ever-expanding range of tumor types and their corresponding treatments as we uncover new layers of understanding to cancer biology. This complexity also impacts the drug development process, including budget, timelines, and speed to market. Phase III registration trials can take up to 4 years to complete. By the time a trial concludes, the standard of care may have already shifted. This can render the trial’s comparator arm no longer relevant, making it necessary to conduct further studies, such as retrospective indirect comparisons and/or real-world studies, including registry or retrospective data analysis, to demonstrate a new drug’s value.

Navigating this dynamic environment also involves combating misinformation. In a time when information is abundant but not always accurate, e.g. ask “doctor” Google or ChatGPT, our responsibility as a pharmaceutical organization is to serve as a trusted source of reliable information. The gold standard of information for pharmaceutical drugs is Phase III trial data published in a reputable high impact peer-reviewed scientific journal. This standard of information is not necessarily available to reflect all patient cases, including rarer disease subtypes, or for newer compounds and/or novel compound combinations. However, doctors are still interested in these rare cases which they have to treat, and in upcoming compounds or unique compound combinations. In these instances, we can still reactively provide relevant scientific information, e.g. published Ph I/II results, conference posters/abstracts/presentations, or case studies, we just caveat the limitations of the information as such.

Local Adaptation

To register drugs in the APAC region, we typically adapt one of the global regulatory dossiers to meet the local country regulatory submission standards. It’s often sufficient to obtain approval in APAC countries when there is European or FDA approval for the same indication/drug. However, regulatory authorities often want to know if people from their country were included in the registration trial. If not, we sometimes need to submit, or agree to collect, additional data on how the medicines affect people in that country to obtain approval.

Thriving Through Emotional Intelligence and Insight

My advice to young professionals entering this field is to prioritize emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. In an era dominated by technology, maintaining genuine human connections is more important than ever. The ability to anticipate, sense, and interpret stakeholder needs, even when they aren’t explicitly stated, will remain a critical skill that technology can’t replicate. This involves recognizing different communication styles and preferences and tailoring the type and timing of information delivery accordingly. Meeting stakeholder needs consistently and thoughtfully is increasingly important factor in determining success in today’s healthcare and pharmaceutical landscape.