We would like you to get to know us better. So, let’s introduce Przemek, our Partner!
How did you become interested in life sciences?
I will get one thing out of the way first - I am not a scientist by background. In fact, my background is quite unorthodox for our industry, but I have come to appreciate that it gives me a unique perspective and flexibility when working on challenges faced by early stage pharmaceutical and medical devices companies.
My first two degrees were Law and Business Administration and ever since I was a small kid my goal was to become a lawyer. My first job, still during my studies, was for a law firm. There I was involved in a number of high value transactions, which sparked my interest in strategy and the commercial side of things, and eventually pushed me to pursue a career in strategy consulting with McKinsey & Company.
With McKinsey I focused on international M&As and, as you can imagine, many of them were in life sciences. These early projects were an eye-opening moment. I enjoyed the learning, the need to deep dive into topics that initially were very unfamiliar, the possibility to work in an industry where we have no customers, but a complex ecosystem of patients, physicians, and payers - all with their unmet needs.
Fast forward some years and I got to work with some of the top companies in life sciences, helping in the development of novel biologics, setting strategy for cutting edge heart pumps, or introducing AI solutions into IVF, among many others. The clients, partners, friends, and mentors I met on the way (shout out to Kx Advisors) made me grow beyond my expectations and now I could not imagine working in any other field.
Why did you decide to start milepoint?
In my work as a strategy advisor I have very often seen the same problem that early stage pharmaceutical and medical devices were facing - they were absolutely brilliant in terms of technology and their R&D capabilities, but struggling with the commercial development, ranging from pinpointing the right lead indication, to market assessment, to regulatory and market access strategy. And no wonder!
Larger companies typically have dedicated teams comprised of commercial leads, insights managers, regulatory affairs specialists, market access and pricing experts, etc. that partner with the scientific and clinical colleagues throughout the product development. Additionally, for all specific questions that they cannot cover internally, they can count on external consultancies with their specialised knowledge and process experience.
Obviously, this setup is very far from the possibilities of an early stage company. This is the gap that we want to bridge.
At milepoint we are offering earlier stage companies the possibility to access these insights and capabilities in a format much more adapted to their needs. We help smaller pharma, biotech and medical devices companies to work with project-based or fractional executive advisors that can work with them as an extension of the internal team. For every situation when founders think, for instance, "I wish I had an experienced Chief Commercial Officer for a couple of days per week", or "It would be great to have a trusted Head of Regulatory for the next three months", we have an answer.
We hope that with this network we will be able to assist companies in using the scarce resources that they have for the development of their products in the best way, which in turn will translate into more innovative technologies reaching patients. What I like the most about that is that we only have people in our network that share that vision - they genuinely want to see new life sciences companies grow and be a part of the journey.
Now the usual cringey question - what do you do for fun?
If I had to pick one thing, it would be cooking. I love making up new recipes and testing them on my family and friends (mostly with success). Other than that I am a huge geek and I will watch / read anything remotely fantasy or sci-fi. Whenever possible I enjoy long road trips, typically with planned stops at any food hotspots I can find, modern and contemporary art museums, and some interesting architecture.
