The Brave New World of Information Professionals:

Juggling Career Changes with

Robin Merrill Elan Pharmaceuticals

SLA DPHT Meeting St. Petersburg, FLApril 8, 2008

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How I got to Elan

• About me: background as information specialist/manager at several management consulting firms and other professional services companies

▶ background in business research

▶ little pharmaceuticals/scientific experience

▶ MLS (Simmons College)

▶ BA, German (Smith College)

• Came to Elan October 2004:

▶ recruited by SVP who worked at one of the strategy consulting firms and came over with new CEO from Merrill Lynch

▶ named Manager of Market-Competitor Intelligence within newly-formed Corporate Strategy & Alliances, a new position

▶ office located in little brick house in Cambridge, rest of small team in NY and SSF; co-located with people from IR, marketing

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About Elan

• Medium-sized neuroscience-based biotechnology company headquartered in Ireland with large R&D facility in South San Francisco

▶ 2007: $570MM revenues, 2,000 employees worldwide

• 4 marketed products: Tysabri (MS), Prialt (pain), 2 off-patent hospital anti-infectives

• Pipeline and pre-clinical research programs in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS/autoimmune

• Nanotechnology and contract manufacturing businesses in US and Ireland

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Embedded in Corporate Strategy

• My role is fully integrated into Corporate Strategy department:

▶ participate in monthly conference calls

▶ attend quarterly and annual offsite meetings

▶ responsible for annual data budget, manage db subscriptions etc

▶ based in tiny Boston office, have remote relationship with small team in NY, SSF

− virtual collection – no “library”

▶ formerly compiled weekly newsletter for team with edited therapeutic area/topic news, company/partner financials and events listings (now use LexisNexis Publisher)

▶ provide proactive/responsive research support for team

− deal comps

− pipeline products

− company/competitor research and profiles

− market research data

− partner with Library, Communications, IR, marketing managers, scientists, Legal, IT

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Time of Turbulence

• In 2004/5 Elan was in midst of turnaround, repositioning as biopharma/nanotech company from a larger, less focused one

▶ financial, legal, product challenges

▶ new strategies and executive team in place

▶ products sold off and several offices consolidated, shut down

▶ Tysabri taken off market shortly after launch due to AE (since re-introduced)

− Stock price dropped 90% overnight

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Impact on Information Services

• Lots of data redundancies from legacy operations

• Conducted company-wide global database inventory, partnering with Library, Finance, other depts, sister company, overseas locations

• Market Research dept dissolved – no longer relevant to refocused and slimmed down company

▶ took on information budget, slashed it to match current strategies and products

• Commercial Library in San Diego was consolidated within S San Francisco information center and office was closed, Librarian eventually left

• S San Francisco R&D Library reported to 2 different depts, staff turmoil, finally landing under my boss in June 2008

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AIM Services is Born

CEO

EVP, Corp Strategy, Communications, Branding, Commercial

AIM Services

Named manager of Library in June, 2007

▶Manage 2 FTEs and a part-time contractor in SSF remotely from Boston

▶ Responsible for budget

AIM enjoys top-level support and visibility

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Promoting/Rebranding and Rebuilding AIM Services Continues

• Team of 2 great new information specialists and part-time assistant

• Increased presence on intranet, post filtered newsfeeds via LNP

• Participate in weekly science group meetings

• Adding more databases/subscriptions/alerts based on user feedback and company priorities

• In-person visits with R&D managers to assess info needs

• Present at all new employee orientations in SSF, in-person & webex trainings

• Focus on developing user analytics to guide decisionmaking

• Processing lab notebooks and working with Legal on e-notebooks

• Company-wide IP/corporate document archiving initiative

• Implementing Quosa content management tool for Med Affairs, scientists, etc

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Library/Cafe Redesign Underway to Bring Scientists Together in Library

wall between library & cafe to be taken down, space created for knowledge-sharing, quiet reading, playing pool with scientists!

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Takeaways from my Experience at Elan

• Flexibility is key, “rolling with the punches”

▶ opportunities come from challenges

• Managing remotely is tricky

▶ need for enhanced & constant communication with staff, travel, hiring challenges

• Fusion of roles

▶ both embedded and traditional

• More partnering with other departments, not isolated

▶ co-located with other groups

▶ physical library as place for “knowledge sharing”

• Need to keep abreast of clientele’s needs continuously, gather metrics and change accordingly

• Top-level management support, flat hierarchy is best

• I’m glad I didn’t leave when the stock sunk to $3!