The Medical Affairs function is responsible for communicating—and often translating—important clinical knowledge about research conducted within the company to healthcare professionals, patients and other stakeholders outside the company. Recently, one of the field’s leading professional organizations, the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS), highlighted Amgen’s expertise in the Asia Pacific region by publishing a Q&A featuring Victoria Elegant, vice president of Regional Medical for Amgen’s Japan Asia Pacific (JAPAC) region, and Ka Weng Mah, director of Medical Capabilities for JAPAC.
The article, Medical Affairs Lessons from a 2-month Pandemic Preview, shared their perspective of having experienced COVID-19 in Asia months earlier than their colleagues in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world. The conversation offers an engaging look at what it was like driving an unprecedented transformation inside one of the world’s leading biotech companies, in some of the world’s largest and fastest growing pharmaceutical markets.
Elegant shared anecdotes about how mask-wearing became practically universal overnight in Hong Kong, while a deep-rooted culture of face-to-face meetings presented challenges in the transition to remote work in countries like Japan and Korea. They also discussed how the pandemic made clear many ways in which companies like Amgen can do more to help patients, including amplifying the voices of patients, caregivers and others, while also looking for ways to make care more convenient, such as delivering clinical trial supplies to patients’ homes.
Read the full article at the MAPS website, and help spread the word by liking, commenting and sharing the article on LinkedIn.
