employee stories
Life as a Senior Consultant in Market Access
Smarth | Senior Consultant | Singapore | 9/22/2023
Smarth, based in Singapore, works as a Senior Consultant at Avalere Health. Here, Smarth discusses what it takes to succeed in market access and why he finds his work so rewarding.
Why work for Avalere Health?
The organization really focuses on the well-being of its employees, both on an individual and a group level. For example, when you work for a global organization, it can be challenging working with teams across multiple time zones. But at Avalere Health, these details are carefully taken into consideration. Small things like being mindful of scheduling meetings to accommodate different time zones and empowering employees to determine their own working schedules have a significant impact on our work-life balance. There is a real people-focused culture here, and it’s refreshing to witness the organization’s purposeful approach to employee satisfaction.
What does it take to succeed in your role?
There are several core skills required to work within market access consulting. These vary from hard skills such as a deep knowledge of health economics, reimbursement, and regulatory processes, to softer skills, including strong analytical competencies and problem solving.
However, to really succeed in this role, you need the foresight to anticipate the multifaceted impact of decisions made across all functions—starting from upstream clinical design to downstream commercialization—on establishing the value of a proposed intervention. This is important not only to the healthcare ecosystem in general, but also to patients as the end users. I believe this foresight and awareness is the differentiating factor that can really enable someone to thrive in market access consulting.
What impact has your work made to the organization?
Our Asia-Pacific (APAC) team brings a lot of new thinking that spurs innovation within the wider business. Working in a complex market access environment where the stakeholders are varied and challenges are unique really enables you to think about access in APAC more holistically and redefine strategies—most of which are then transferrable to markets in the rest of the world. Incorporating a global perspective into the organization is the most valuable contribution we make.
Why pursue a career in market access?
In short, it’s about making a difference to people’s lives. Improving patient access to novel healthcare innovations is the ultimate objective of a career in market access. Knowing that you have made an impactful contribution to this cause makes this area of work deeply rewarding. It also helps that, along the way, you are working with a global network of talented individuals who share the same purpose and drive as you!
What do you most value in your team?
Collaborative thinking and active listening are two skills that I really value in my team. I also appreciate our shared passion for improving patient access to healthcare, which keeps us focused and serves as a constant reminder of why we do the work that we do.