Mike Pursel is the Director of Medical Health Relations, North America Medical Affairs, and General Medicines and Establised Products at Sanofi, a global pharmecuetical company focused on human health. He is a graduate of Drake University where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Pharmacy followed by a Masters of Business Administration. Throughout his career, Mike has held positions with the Iowa Pharmacy Association, Promethus Laboratories, and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
Mike's experience includes employer relations, payer and health systems advocacy, professional and patient relations, pharmacy affairs, and professional education. Mike is also professionally affiliated with multiple medical and advocacy organizations including the Academy of Managed Care, American Pharmaceutical Association, National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, and Iowa Pharmacists Association.
Alongside his pharmacy and business education, Mike has pursued a Certificate in Health Policy from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In his current position Mike develops relationships and services as a key liaison to the health care and purchaser community that are focused on those therapeutic areas within Generalized Medicine/Biosurgery. Through collaboration and engagement understand the health care and purchaser community needs and business challenges in order to develop programs, projects, campaigns addressing those unmet needs.
Question for the Advisory Board: Why is innovation critical to pharmacy?
"It is a critical innovation time for the profession of pharmacy with the quickly changing healthcare marketplace and technology driven applications that can alter the healthcare marketplace. The drive toward Chronic Disease Self-Management by patients, the impact of companies such as Amazon on the distribution side of the profession, and healthcare being driven by purchasers of health care (Amazon, JP Chase Morgan, Berkshire Hathaway initiative) rather than insurance companies and PBMs opens the door for the pharmacy profession to create innovative practice models that demonstrate the value of care to patients and provides data that can be utilized with purchasers for reimbursement."
