Today is a special day for me. Not only does it mark my five-year anniversary with IntraLinks, it also marks the launch of our expanded solution for clinical study management. Since joining IntraLinks in 2005, I have built relationships with our life sciences client base and the expansive community who use IntraLinks every day to manage their clinical trial work. From heads of clinical operations and study start-up managers at pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs), to principal investigators and study coordinators at investigative sites, I have had the invaluable opportunity of hearing first-hand what drives these individuals, what keeps them up at night and what they would like to have to make their life easier. To a product marketer, this kind of direct market insight is pure gold because it’s the kind of information that drives innovation to ensure product relevance, value and distinction.

Efficiency and the delivery of results are paramount, whether you’re with a large pharmaceutical company looking to standardize the way it manages the preparation and due diligence related to licensing, divestitures, and other strategic events or a small biotech seeking to maximize the results of capital raising or out-licensing activities. Pharmaceutical companies are tasked with maintaining top-line growth, and, as a result, business development and licensing teams are increasingly challenged to in-license promising new compounds and out-license those that are no longer a good strategic fit. Biotechs, meanwhile, must present their products in the most effective possible way to both optimize deal valuation and ensure closure.

Like so many other people from my generation, I grew up watching movies and sci-fi programs that dramatized futuristic technologies. I was always intrigued by the magical user interfaces that were available on a wristwatch or part of a room’s wall that securely brought up any information one requires to facilitate decision making. Being that Star Wars was my favorite galaxy far, far away, I often thought about how cool it would be to have my own C-3PO, to provide me with information whenever I needed it, on demand.

In a utopian community, the beauties of society reign — perfection, harmony, peace, happiness, sunshine, red velvet cupcakes, coffee from that place on 44th & Lex (oh, wait… that’s getting into my specific vis

Recently, major changes in drug safety reporting and enforcement have placed enormous pressure on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which in turn is prompting pharmaceutical companies to proactively reduce potential risk. In this new regulatory environment, a major convergence of trends is making conditions tougher and more uncertain than we’ve ever seen.