Finance and pricing

Introduction

Yasha is a senior at UC Berkeley Haas with a lifelong passion for entrepreneurship. While she has always been a founder at heart, her professional path recently led her into the specialized world of biotech pricing at Amgen. Even with no prior experience in the field, she quickly discovered how this niche intersection of finance and healthcare impacts lives. Read on to learn about her journey navigating complex regulations, mastering drug pricing strategy, and balancing a corporate career with her startup

goals.

Key Ideas

• biotech finance directly affects patient's access to life-saving treatments

• Important to learn all the policies of pricing like Most Favored Nation pricing

• Pricing requires extreme attention to details

Major and Early Interest in Entrepreneurship

Yasha has been set on entrepreneurship and been a founder of small startups since childhood, which influenced her business major at Haas(UC Berkeley). She currently still has her own startup which she plans to keep working on after graduation.

The reason she mainly chose the business major was so she could understand all the different parts of business that are needed to become a founder. As a founder you are needed for all the areas in business.

Later her shift into the bio tech pricing industry was the most impactful industry she could think of close to entrepreneurship which can impact people's lives.

Current Field: Biotech + Finance/Pricing

Currently she interned at Amgen a biotech finance role which will also be her full time job after graduation. So, the field of business she works in their is finance.

Biotech first appealed to her because she felt immense pressure at Berkeley to figure out a corporate path in case her startup couldn't immediately support her financially. She also loved how biotech actually helps save lives, and how she would be involved with helping patients with rare diseases.

Day-to-Day Work in Her Biotech Finance Role (Internship)

Yasha interned at Amgen in a pricing role which now led her to the same role as a full time position. During her first two weeks of the internship it was mostly understanding the industry and terms.

"It's such a niche industry.”

She described that the way money moved between hospitals, customers and Amgen is extremely complicated. Her role required her to undertand drug pricing, regulations, and policies like Most Favored Nation drug pricing which is a policy to make US drug costs with the lowest prices paid in other developed nations.

“It's a very, very regulated industry… there's a lot that you have to follow in terms of laws.”

Balancing Profit and Patient Access

One of her main projects was her pricing strategy for Prolia where she had to price bone health drugs for woman with rare conditions like osteoporosis. Her task was to make a strategy to set the price to stay competitive with other companies. So Yasha made 27 scenario models, with mid to worst case scenario, and took in every single discount or price change into it.

“It was a very difficult project and very tedious.”

She mentions how during her internship she also had done a lot of networking. She had at least three "coffee chats" or small conversations a week with VP's, directors, and managers. At some point she even talked to the CEO of the company. All of this helped her land her full time role at the end.

Challenges in Her Field

She said how the biggest challenge was the complexity and learning curve.

“The biggest challenge is just understanding… the product and the money flow… understanding the terminology. It's just a big learning curve for someone who hasn't been in the industry before.”

Since Each drug and disease area is different the way money moves or product for a bone drug is different than for a cancer drug. You also need deep knowledge to price well since you have to know the product really well to know how the money moves through different stakeholders. (communities)

Surprises About the Job

Most surprising was how open and accessible people were.

“I think it was how accessible everyone was… as just an intern, what I was telling you, I was going on calls with these really high people.”

About pricing work specifically, she says she had no idea what to expect. She described everything being surprising in this industry as she didn't know anything about it and said it was very niche and complicated.

Future Plans and Long-Term Goals

She loves the job and company, but ultimately wants to be a CEO/founder.

“I love this job. I love that it's remote, and I have so much freedom. And I love the people at this company… But I do really want to be a CEO one day.”

She wants to continue job but still hopes to be a founder someday in the future.

Conclusion

Overall, pricing industry is extremely analytical and depends a lot on the economy. As Yasha's journey shows, success in this field requires a mix of technical skills and lots of deep understanding of policies. So if you enjoy analyzing data and trends, makes an impact on people's lives then this area of business is perfect for you!