Podcasts classical CFO THOUGHT LEADER 666: When Vision is the Plus Multiplier | Manmeet Soni, CFO, Reata Pharmaceuticals

666: When Vision is the Plus Multiplier | Manmeet Soni, CFO, Reata Pharmaceuticals

Published: Jan. 17, 2021, 11 p.m.

It\u2019s a phrase that has historically never roamed far beyond the corridors of pharmaceutical companies, but now\u2014thanks to COVID 19\u2014the term \u201cclinical trials\u201d has entered the vocabulary of the public at large.

Perhaps at no time in history have the \u201ctrials\u201d that pharma companies use to generate data on the safety\xa0of a particular drug, vaccine, or treatment been as heavily scrutinized\u2014and at no previous time has CFO Manmeet Soni of Reata Pharmaceuticals believed that the processes and approaches that govern Reata\u2019s \u201ctrial design\u201d have been more ripe for innovation.

\u201cOur learnings from the past 9 months are going to influence how we operate for the next 90 years,\u201d explains Soni, who says that these learnings were put into motion last spring as COVID\u2019s arrival shut down trials and began curtailing Reata\u2019s data flows.

\u201cThat\u2019s when we began asking: \u2018Why can\u2019t we do trials in a way similar to how home health services are provided? Why don\u2019t we deliver the drug to the patient\u2019s home?\u2019\u201d recalls Soni, who says that serving the company as both CFO as well COO allowed him to be more hands-on when it came time to tweak Reata\u2019s \u201ctrial design\u201d and the daily activities performed to keep trials on track.

\u201cThere will always be certain trials that will have to be completed at the lab, but the pandemic has allowed us to regularly consider how things can be done differently,\u201d adds\xa0Soni, who believes that today\u2019s impulse to regularly reconsider current methods and approaches is the biggest change to yesterday\u2019s business as usual. \xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney