Video Script Writing

Hello to the entire PAH/Rare Disease Business Unit,

I’m very excited to be here with you today to announce our first annual PAH/Rare Disease Business Unit Award. These awards were designed to recognize both field and headquarter members of our BU that demonstrate excellence in planning and execution on behalf of our customers and our business.  Before I get to the winners, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to submit nominations, and for all of those nominated beyond our selected award winners.

We had a total of 19 nominations, consisting of 47 people for both the individual and team nominations [RG1] from across our business unit and our cross-functional team in IAM.  A small committee of leaders from the PAH/Rare Disease BU and IAM, as well as Kate Robinson and I had the very challenging job of narrowing it down to just two award winners.

Now before we announce our winners, let’s take a quick look at the award criteria[RG2] : [SLIDE 3]

·       We have two awards, The Key Initiative Award revolving around HQ related activities and The Customer Impact Award focusing on field related activities.

·       For each of these awards, either an individual or a team of individuals can win.

·       They were assessed on one or more of the following categories and must be in good standing with the company [SLIDE 4]

o   Execution Excellence (ELS)

o   Change Catalyst (ELS)

o   Motivation & Inspiration (ELS)

o   Fearless to Fail (Experiment, Act, and Learn)

o   Customer Experience (Customer Centricity)

·       And what’s in store for the winners?

o   Up to 5,000 INSPIRE points for any individual

o   OR up to 20,000 INSPIRE points for team awards, with up to 5,000 INSPIRE points per individual on any team winning the award

o   Should an ARM individual win either award, it will be at the discretion of Syneos whether they provide any reward to the ARM.

I will preface the announcement of our winners with the fact that there was so much great rationale submitted as to why they should win, that we will just be giving a taste of that today.

Announce awards

OK, so on to our winners…First up is the Headquarters award, the

Key Initiative Award [SLIDE 5]

This award goes to the group of

[Carolyn Henning

Meghan Vazquez

Jody Ellsworth

Chris Wolf

Greg Marchak

Jeffrey Castillo

Lyn Walsh

This group is being recognized for their Execution Excellence (ELS). 

This group had outstanding cross-functional collaboration and coordination, as appropriate, for planning, execution and continuous improvement monitoring for our first year-end reauthorization and reverification process. Some innovative methods introduced by the HQ members of this group aided the field and improved the process for the hub and SP approach giving the opportunity for approximately 1000 patients to effectively move through the reverification/reauthorization process over approximately 30 days[RG5] [NV6] [NV7] . The executional excellence managed by the access leadership team was instrumental in deploying these approved methods.  The[RG8]  teamwork, focus, and commitment to excellence truly set a high bar and contributed to the impact on our customers and their patients.

Next up we have our Customer Impact Award, recognizing excellence in the field [SLIDE 6]

And this award goes to an integrated sales, reimbursement and account management group in[RG10]  the Northeast.  That group included

Lisa Hodges

Jackie Jensen

Christopher Gack

Kerri Harvey

Scott Ebersol

Kari Schulsinger

Kimberly Kaloz

Anne Zenzer[RG11] 

Recognition Category & Rationale:

 Execution Excellence (ELS)

The Northeast region has used an ecosystem approach to excel in collaboration and coordination, holding monthly ecosystem calls with all cross-functional members to consistently engage, where appropriate by role, in discussions about successes, performance, and issues. This team was driven by individual performances and teamwork like the following:

 Change Catalyst (ELS)

Lisa Hodges quickly engaging and activating her Merck team to facilitate and expedite a hospital purchase of WINREVAIR with the goal of the patient receiving the product within a day or two.

Motivation & Inspiration (ELS)

Over in New Jersey, Chris Gack was tackling account access challenges and during an Ecosystem update, he informed the IAL, Anne Zenzer who used her relationship with a staff member to arrange a meeting between the Chris and the office manager. This collaborative group mentality and mutual support led to requests for product education and potential new patient enrollments!

Fearless to Fail (Experiment, Act, and Learn)

Teamwork was also on full display at a COE in NYC where the group worked tirelessly over a 10-month period, bringing various approved resources to move the customer along the product continuum. In early March, Lisa Hodges opted[RG12]   invited the neighboring Jackie Jenson to[RG13]  join her for an upcoming customer appointment, providing additional insights and experience. Following all product discussions, the ARM then separately addressed any potential enrollment issue in one permitted appointment.

This collaborative and coordinated effort involved hours of engagement with the customer, who ultimately felt comfortable to start using the product.

Customer Experience (Customer Centricity)

And rounding out the issues was tenacity to overcome access challenges. During an ecosystem call, the ARM identified an issue regarding their payer benefit being unable to access the product. The ARM quickly activated Payer AE Kari Schulsinger to gain additional insights and work with the payer and the customer to resolve the issue. As a result, the product was added to the formulary on January 15, 2025

As I said upfront, all of the nominations were impressive examples of individuals or teams working hard to help their customers help their patients.  But here we highlight two winning teams among many.  So one last time,

Congratulations to all our winners and the impact you have created

Thank you to management who took the time to nominate and congratulations to all who were nominated! [SLIDE 7]

Thank you to our review committee.

And thank you to each and every one of you for your unrelenting focus on supporting our customers supporting their patients [RG14] 

Keep up the great work!

Hello Sales Teams!

S meetings – favorite events – get to talk with all of you

Could not be at all regional meetings this year - conflicts – including ESMO, daughter’s freshman college drop off

Hard decisions – yet you are in good hands with DCOs and your leadership - S meetings focused on your roles and region

thank you for great work this year

 Performance:

·       Bruce has covered numbers.

·       I see the numbers – both what you’ve accomplished (on track and very often exceeding expectations – congratulations!) and what we’re asking you to achieve by the end of the year.

·       I know we all own the ambitious objectives for 2S – confident we will achieve them together, but we have a lot of work to do.

·       You are out there keeping your eye on the most important thing – the patients we can help. Need you to think – can I do more? Reach a few more customers each week?

·       The competitive intensity will heat up.

o   Two of our three biggest growth drivers – ES Lung and Endometrial -- will have new competition.

o   Intensifying competition in mNSCLC, MSI high

·       Together, we have built this business and helped educate providers and we must continue.

·       Can’t get complacent, as there will be noise and confusion, and we have to help bring clarity in the face of even more choices. 

·       We also have to continue to drive growth where we have meaningful clinical benefits for patients – IL bladder, Welireg in aRCC, adjuv RCC with OS – critical given the clinical profile to ensure every eligible patient is given the option of these regimens

·       Back at HQ our focus is on helping to support your success; how you engage your customers, and supporting your work with digital marketing to supplement when you are not in front of your customers.

Customer Feedback:

·       Yes, we look at a lot of numbers – what you’re doing every day with the tools we ask you to use, and at HQ, how our digital campaigns are doing. And those are important ways we measure our work.

·       But want to talk about another gauge of the work you’re all doing – what I hear from customers.

·       Just this year I have met with providers and practitioners from Moffit, Tampa General, FCS, OneOncology, and TX Oncology, and I’m scheduled for many more visits this fall.

·       Customer opinions of us and our products are shaped by so many things, from our clinical data to our focus, to their interactions with the Merck team

·       They hear from us in many ways – targeted ads on websites they frequent, targeted emails, conferences, etc.

·       But none is more important than the personal interaction that you have with your customers.

·       You are the face of Merck to them.

·       You make sure they have the information they need, so they can do their very best by their patients.

·       Everywhere we have been, there is gratitude for the work you do.  Providers and accounts continue to share how quickly the market is changing, and it can be challenging to keep up with the latest information. New combinations require new knowledge of AE management. Advances in earlier lines require discussion and understanding of sequencing. Your presence helps address these questions and help providers identify appropriate patients for our treatment options. 

·       Thank you!

Patients:

·       It is those living with cancer who drive us to do our best.

·       Every patient who is still with their family, making a difference in their community, living MORE LIFE – is possible in part because of your work.

·       You’re here this week to work on Keys to Good Selling, and do deep dives into the indications you carry, and come together as districts and teams to make sure you’re working together as effectively as possible.

·       But at the heart of all of that is the patient you can impact tomorrow, next month, next year.

·       I know there is a red chair in the room there with you.

·       And every one of us can imagine a loved one in that chair.  I have lost two of my dearest friends to cancer  

·       A family member, a friend whose life was changed forever by cancer.

·       Take that image with you into your workshops.

·       Take it home with you.

·       Envision it before you walk into your customer’s office.

·       You’re not just doing your job.

·       You’re making a difference in the lives of people whose friends and families love them.

·       Thank you for everything you have done and will do for the rest of this year to help bring our treatments to the people who need them.

·       Because as always, we aspire to bring more life, to more patients, for more cancers.

·       Together, we will do it!

Insights can make all the difference in business decisions.

Want to know what providers are thinking

when making product decisions

or how to quickly understand characteristics of patient populations?

Or maybe you need to identify diverse patient populations

to inform site selection for a clinical trial?

[PAUSE]

These are just a few examples of the business research insights

our RWDEx platform provides.

Some of you are already using the RWDEx platform

and some of you may just be discovering

that it’s available to make your job easier.

The RWDEx is a next-generation, cloud-based analytics platform

that has transformed how we manage, analyze,

and share real-world data and evidence

with the goal of breaking down traditional siloes

and democratizing the use of data across our company.

We are dedicated to empowering our colleagues

to unravel critical business insights across diverse therapeutic areas

and our commitment to help the organizations

meet the needs of patients, providers,

and healthcare decision makers across the globe.

[PAUSE]

Our vision is to continue to revolutionize the RWDEx platform

by leveraging high-quality real-world data

in support of organizational clinical, health economic

and real-world evidence decision-making needs.

Our mission is to scale and enhance the existing real-world data platform

using cutting-edge technological and analytical methods

to generate valuable real-world evidence

for the advancement of healthcare research and patient outcomes.

[PAUSE]

The RWDEx platform is built on three foundational pillars.

The first pillar is Transparency.

Our company licenses real-world data

from external vendors and acquires data

through external partnerships with internal functional groups.

It provides a view of all data assets licensed or acquired.

Our second foundational pillar is Infrastructure.

With a few clicks,

users can easily perform heavy computational analyses.

RWDEx offers some analyses to be performed with no-code,

self-service, standardized tools to help users

benefit from our company’s licensed data

and to be inclusive of all types of user personas.

Cohorts of interest can be built visually

by selecting inclusion and exclusion criteria

to divide segments of large databases

into cohorts before performing analysis.

Our third pillar is Governance.

All patient data are anonymized,

and users can query treatment interventions, timelines,

and outcomes assuring user compliance

for internal and external regulations and

with vendor data licensing agreements.

RWDEx assures we perform checks,

so users always have access to the right data

at the right time for the right purpose.

[PAUSE]

Within these foundational pillars,

there are 3 layers of platforms:

Knowledge management, self-service applications,

and advanced analytical tools.

This is reflected in user personas. There are 3 user personas:

Insight consumers, Citizen data scientists,

and Quantitative Data scientists.

These levels represent the level of access a user may have.

The Insight consumer is read-only for top-line results.

A citizen data scientist has a moderate level

of access with a self-service application

for entering and computing data.

Finally, the Quantitative data scientists

have full access to pull data from

various sources to explore and analyze raw data sets.

RWDEx enables users to leverage a variety of data sources

including health insurance claims, electronic health records,

group purchasing organizations, and even public records.

These data can be used to generate insights

and inform decisions, follow a patient's journey,

or gain insight into consumer behavior,

ultimately accelerating time to market.

To ensure that you can fully leverage the capabilities

of our latest platform, we offer comprehensive trainings.

This series walks you through the platform's features,

capabilities, functionalities, and best practices.

[PAUSE]

RWDEx platform engagement has grown

at an incredible pace since its inception.

Users are employing it to solve business research questions,

conduct feasibility analysis, create cohorts, and much more.

We hope this platform makes your work easier

and helps you contribute to our ultimate goal

of meeting the needs of patients, providers,

and healthcare decision makers across the globe.

If you do not already have access to the RWDEx platform,

you can obtain it by going to the RWDEx website,

choose the level of access that works for you,

and take the training.

For those of you have provided

unwavering engagement from day one, we thank you.

You have been the driving force behind the success

and phenomenal growth of this platform. 

As we embark on the next wave of the RWDEx platform

as RWDEx 2.0, you will see enhanced Data Quality

and Interoperability, Robust Governance

 and regulatory compliance and cutting-edge

AI powered modernized technology

and analytical methods enabling traceability.

[PAUSE]

I invite you all to join us in continuing

to shape the future of data-driven solutions! 

Script Option 1: Feature both Art and Paula

Paula: At Merck,

we have a long history of advancing research

to help tackle infectious diseases where unmet need remains.

We’re building on this legacy to help address

respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

Art: I am proud of our talented colleagues

who are working hard to help reduce

the burden of this disease on infants.

On behalf of all of us at Merck,

thank you to the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians

who contribute to these efforts.

Alternative version

Paula: At Merck,

we have a long history of advancing research

to help tackle infectious diseases

where unmet need remains.

We’re building on this legacy

to help address respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

Art alt: My sincere thanks to our dedicated colleagues

along with the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians

who contribute to this work.

Script Option 2: Feature both Art and Paula

Paula: As a former pediatric infectious disease physician,

I frequently saw infants with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

At Merck, my colleagues and I are committed to advancing

scientific research to help address infectious diseases,

like RSV, where unmet need remains.

Art: This work is meaningful to me –

not only in my role at Merck,

but also as a father.

Thank you to the dedicated colleagues

across our company and the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians who contribute to these efforts.

Script Option 3: Feature Art only

Art 3a: At Merck,

we have a long history of advancing research

to help tackle infectious diseases

where unmet need remains.

I am proud of our talented colleagues

across the company who are building on this legacy

to help address respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in infants.

On behalf of all of us at Merck,

thank you to the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians

who contribute to these efforts.

Alternative version

Art 3b: At Merck,

we are committed to advancing scientific research

to address infectious diseases like respiratory syncytial virus,

or RSV, where unmet need remains.

This work is meaningful to me – not only in my role at Merck,

but also as a father.

My sincere gratitude to the dedicated colleagues

across our company and the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians who are instrumental

in advancing these efforts [alt: …who contribute to these efforts].

Script Option 4: Feature Paula only  

Paula 4a: At Merck,

we have a long history of advancing research

to help tackle infectious diseases where unmet need remains.

I am proud of our talented colleagues across the company

who are building on this legacy to help address respiratory syncytial virus,

or RSV, in infants.

On behalf of all of us at Merck,

thank you to the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians who contribute to these efforts.

Alternative version

Paula 4b: As a former pediatric infectious disease physician,

I frequently saw infants with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

At Merck,

my colleagues and I are committed

to advancing scientific research to address infectious diseases,

like RSV, where unmet need remains.

My sincere gratitude to the dedicated colleagues

across our company and the clinical trial participants,

investigators and physicians

who are instrumental in advancing these efforts [alt: … who contribute to these efforts].

CAPVAXIVE and WINREVAIR video scripts

CAPV video script: “At Merck,

we use leading-edge science

to tackle the most pressing public health concerns.

I’m proud to be part of a team dedicated to advancing

pneumococcal disease research for over 40 years and counting.

My sincere gratitude to our Merck colleagues,

as well as the clinical trial participants, investigators and physicians

who have all supported our efforts in pneumococcal disease.

WINREVAIR video script: At Merck,

innovation is at the heart of what we do.

As a company,

we are committed to the pursuit of transformative science

that provides meaningful advancements for the patients we serve.

Today is an important moment for patients

living with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare, progressive disease.

On behalf of all of us at Merck, I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude

to the patients and their families, clinical trial investigators and physicians.

Michelle Kehily and Gabe Smith:

MICHELLE: After more than a decade of research and collaboration,

we’re proud to share that the U.S. FDA has approved [TRADEMARK]

for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus,

or RSV, in newborns and infants born during

or entering their first RSV season.

GABE: RSV is a leading cause of hospitalization

among infants in the U.S. and globally.

[TRADEMARK] builds on our company’s longstanding legacy

in pediatric vaccination and immunization

as the first and only preventive option to help protect infants

throughout their first RSV season with the same 105 mg dose

regardless of how much they weigh

and whether they are born in or outside of the season.

MICHELLE: Now, let’s hear from a few colleagues who,

alongside their teams,

have been instrumental in making this approval possible.

Michelle Kehily and Gabe Smith Alternate Script:

MICHELLE ALT: After more than a decade of research and collaboration,

we’re proud to share that the U.S. FDA has approved [TRADEMARK],

a monoclonal antibody for the prevention of RSV disease

in newborns and infants born during

or entering their first RSV season.

GABE ALT: Our company has a longstanding legacy

in helping fight infectious diseases.

We are building on this legacy with [TRADEMARK],

the first and only preventive option

to help protect infants for the duration of their first RSV season

with the same 105 mg dose regardless of how much they weigh

and whether they are born in or outside of the season.

MICHELLE: Now, let’s hear from a few colleagues who,

alongside their teams,

have been instrumental in making this approval possible.

Anushua Sinha

ANUSHUA: It’s an absolute honor

to lead the product development team for [TRADEMARK]

and work with talented colleagues

who share a passion for addressing unmet public health needs,

such as RSV.

As a former practicing physician,

I’ve seen firsthand the impact this disease can have on infants,

families and healthcare providers.

Every day I get to work on this program is a gift.

I’m especially grateful to share our clinical data,

which make [TRADEMARK] a promising [alt: an important]

new immunization option for infants.

Kara Cox

KARA: I’ve been part of the discovery

and development process for [TRADEMARK] from the beginning,

dating back over a decade.

What started as a ‘needle in a haystack’

in our West Point lab unexpectedly

led to the discovery of [TRADEMARK].

Every phase brought new insights and a deeper understanding

of how our immunization could help protect infants.

This approval is a testament to the dedication

of our scientists who helped to bring this new option forward.

Megan Calafati

MEGAN: I’m with our Manufacturing Division

and am so proud of our team’s relentless commitment to quality,

innovation and access.

The U.S. FDA approval of [TRADEMARK] is a huge achievement,

and this is only the start.

We’re working hard every day to plan

for strong supply and delivery of shipments in the U.S.

before the start of the upcoming RSV season.

Looking ahead, we’re also committed to facilitating global access,

including in low- and middle-income countries.

Raymond Ogagarue and Bill Campbell

RAYMOND: To our U.S. and Global Vaccines teams

and cross-functional colleagues across the enterprise,

thank you for your hard work and dedication.

BILL: The approval of [TRADEMARK] is an incredible milestone

for our company and for public health.

We can’t wait to see what we continue to achieve together

as we work to reduce the burden of RSV on infants and families.