PharmaShots Interview: AstraZeneca’s Alexander Bedenkov Shares Insight on First Virtual Events with Slush to Improve Patients Outcomes

In an interview with PharmaShots, Alexander Bedenkov, Vice President, Medical International Region & Global Health Innovation Hubs (A.Catalyst) Network Head at AstraZeneca shares his views on the First Virtual Events in collaboration with Slush to accelerate better health outcomes through innovation

Shots:

The companies collaborated to launch virtual events and enhance collaboration in the healthcare sector. The event was run through AstraZeneca’s A.Catalyst Network, a new platform for patient-enabled innovation
The AstraZeneca’s A.Catalyst Network supports startups, tech innovators, and founders to develop biomedical solutions to improve patient outcomes
On Oct 25, 2021, AstraZeneca’s A.Catalyst Network hosted its second Slush event to evaluate the practicalities and importance of forging non-traditional partnerships to bolster innovation

Tuba: Can we talk about the AstraZeneca A. Catalyst Network and Slush?

Alexander Bedenkov: A.Catalyst Network is an interconnected and dynamic global network of more than 20 AstraZeneca health innovation hubs, made up of physical locations and virtual partnerships, bringing together digital, R&D, and commercial resources to reimagine how we can improve patient outcomes.

Through our A.Catalyst Network, we are co-creating challenge-based solutions with and for patients, and working with partners to establish integrated and strong health systems that benefit the whole patient experience — from prevention and awareness, diagnosis and treatment, to post-treatment and wellness.

The network aims to address healthcare challenges, increase access to healthcare and scale and showcase patient‑enabled innovation through partnerships within the health ecosystem.

We have partnered with Slush because they are the world’s leading start-up event, and we want to provide innovative start-ups and organizations in the healthcare space with direct access to our resources and networks.

To date, our partnership with Slush has given us the opportunity to connect and collaborate with a variety of innovators and partners, providing guidance and direction and supporting them in the co-creation of patient-focused solutions that target unmet needs, and address existing gaps in diagnosis, treatment, and access.

Tuba: What is the aim of this collaboration between AstraZeneca & Slush?

Alexander Bedenkov: AstraZeneca’s collaboration with Slush focuses on our aim to find innovative partners who are aligned with our mission to develop solutions that improve outcomes for patients and enhance collaboration in the healthcare sector.

Slush facilitates relevant opportunities for start-ups to connect with us both online and offline. Our activities in 2021 have helped us to support and guide start-ups through digital content and virtual events, focusing on topics ranging from digital and artificial intelligence to government relations.

Tuba: What are all areas this partnership plans to target and which among them are on priority? Which start-ups or domains are of high interest to AstraZeneca?

Alexander Bedenkov: Each A.Catalyst Network Hub contributes to our goals by addressing different challenges based on its model. There are currently more than 20 health innovation hubs that are addressing local areas of unmet need.

Our 2021 priorities - Delivering AstraZeneca’s Growth and Therapy Area Leadership:

Improve early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease
Transform severe asthma care and treatment
Drive systemic lupus erythematosus awareness and early patient identification
Improve early detection of lung cancer
Scale-up integrated oncology patient care management platforms
Activate multidisciplinary teams to deliver optimal outcomes for cancer patients

Our 2021 priorities - Contributing to Accelerate Innovative Science, together with Open Innovation:

Support the development of Regulatory T cell therapy for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases
Identify sources of biological samples from diverse genetic backgrounds to enhance disease understanding
Generating multi-omics data in specific patient cohorts including NASH, rare cardiovascular diseases, and immunological conditions
Innovations in the delivery of new modalities; peptides, oligos, and antibodies across oncology, cardiovascular, renal, and respiratory diseases
Utilization of digital biomarkers and digital therapeutics that can improve patient-centric outcomes in heart failure and renal disease

Tuba: Multiple other events bring together various start-ups. So Why Slush?

Alexander Bedenkov: Slush is a student-driven, not-for-profit movement originally founded to change attitudes toward entrepreneurship. It has grown from a single gathering in Helsinki to a series of events organized all around the world. Like the A.Catalyst Network itself, Slush is built to be a vehicle for change.

Slush’s main event in Helsinki is the world’s leading start-up event, which brings together 3200 start-ups and 1500 investors. For that reason, we consider them to be the perfect partner to connect us with the most promising and innovative start-up companies, who are aligned with our goals.

Nevertheless, I’d like to highlight that Slush is not the only event or framework that we collaborate with. They are just one of our Network Partners where we have found a common purpose.

Tuba: Are there any start-ups that are of interest to AstraZeneca? Can we talk about their field/ area of work or domain without disclosing their names?

Alexander Bedenkov: Due to us focusing on local areas of unmet need and how we can make a tangible difference to patients’ lives, we are open-minded about the start-ups that we collaborate with and are seeking diverse groups who can bring a different perspective and skillset.

A good example of our work is in China. A nationwide observational study in China reported that half of COPD patients were diagnosed when the disease was already in the moderate-to-severe stage. Spirometry tests are the diagnostic gold standard in this therapy area, but the vast patient population and limited medical resources in China mean that primary care clinicians do not have sufficient time to do a spirometry test for every patient. In addition, the spirometry device is expensive, and cannot be afforded by most primary care institutes.

As a result, we set up CHIC and created an AI Enhanced Screening tool to reduce the cost and operational complexity of COPD diagnosis. The efficiency of this diagnostic tool has been proven by a pivotal study. By the end of 2020, more than 1200 hospitals had set up the screening system in their respiratory departments, and more than 3m screening tests have now been completed, making it the largest respiratory screening platform in China.

If you have the ambition to improve outcomes for patients around the world, we want to know about it. Entrepreneurs can submit a proposal for consideration or our A.Catalyst Network Hubs teams by accessing https://www.astrazeneca.com/partnering/a-catalyst-network.html

Tuba: What were the highlights of the second slush event hosted by AstraZeneca's A. Catalyst Network?

Alexander Bedenkov: The A.Catalyst Network’s second Slush event was titled ‘Better Together? Evaluating Big Pharma’s societal value’ and explored how non-traditional partnerships can drive innovation and improve patient experiences.

The virtual event brought together industry-spanning innovators to discuss how the health landscape is changing, why diverse patient-enabled insights are driving enhanced solutions, and how finding the right fit within partnerships supports the significant ability to scale. Key highlights included:

Tips and challenges healthcare can learn from the banking industry
Perspectives on raising the voice of patients in a network ecosystem
How female leadership and insights advance thinking on equitable access to health solutions
Cultural diversity as a driver for leveraging the value of entrepreneurs
Accelerating future drivers for change; how whole patient experiences can be reimagined

Tuba: What is your take on the solutions that help perspectives on raising the voice of patients in a network ecosystem?

Alexander Bedenkov: Patient centricity is a key priority for AstraZeneca and we are driven by contributing value to patients and society. By truly understanding the needs of the people we serve, we can ensure the life-changing medicines, products, and services we work to provide have the greatest positive impact on their lives.

A.Catalyst Network supports our drive to improve patient experiences and outcomes by embracing opportunities for collaboration to increase our impact and helping to ensure continued access to care and medicines, while at the same time thinking holistically about the patient experience.

We innovate and co-create with the entire patient network (caregivers, family, friends, co-workers, healthcare professions, and others) to help inform start-up companies and technology partners. We want to identify and understand the main challenges that patients face, so we can then co-develop and implement scalable solutions that address these challenges and improve the patient experience.

We are also aware that medicines can no longer be viewed in isolation from other aspects of a patient’s care, and we take a holistic view, pushing the boundaries of science while embedding patient-centric thinking in everything we do.

Tuba: Our readers would be interesting to know how and what learnings were gathered which can be applied in healthcare/ pharmaceuticals

Alexander Bedenkov: One of our key speakers at the second Slush event was slightly unusual in that it was Eugene Hong, Executive Director, Institutional Banking Group, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals at DBS Bank. A speaker from the financial sector isn’t someone you’d expect to hear from at a healthcare event and this reinforced that non-traditional partnerships can benefit the healthcare industry and drive opportunities for transformation. No company or individual can have all the answers to the challenges we are facing in the healthcare sector and we need diverse insights and ways of thinking to make progress.

Tuba: Is the focus is still on patient outcome/ engagement start-ups or you are looking beyond that?

Alexander Bedenkov: Our main focus is on working with our partners to establish integrated and strong health systems that benefit the whole patient experience — from prevention and awareness, diagnosis and treatment, to post-treatment and wellness. We also want to provide a framework for a range of stakeholders, both traditional and non-traditional, to work inclusively and collaboratively to accelerate innovation, increase healthcare access and improve outcomes for patients and society.

However, we are also looking for innovations across sustainability in supply chain and manufacturing, as this also aligns with AstraZeneca priorities to make a positive impact through community engagement initiatives,

In summary, we are seeking out the most innovative start-ups and partners who are aligned with our company’s vision.

Source: Source: HQ Vector

About Author: Alexander Bedenkov is the Vice President, Medical International Region & Global Health Innovation Hubs (A.Catalyst) Network Head at AstraZeneca. He has more than 15 years of industry experience in medical affairs, regulatory and clinical operations in global, regional, and country-level positions in Russia, Eurasia, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, and Latin America markets across multiple therapeutic areas. He holds an MD, Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology from the Smolensk State Medical Academy