📰 Spotlight on Mandy Jackson, Managing Editor, US Commercial News, Scrip

Background

-Name: Mandy Jackson

-Home Base: San Diego, CA

-Role: Mandy is part of the US team for Scrip. She covers daily biopharma developments, writes feature stories, and produces Scrip’s Finance Watch column.

-Expertise: Mandy has been a business reporter for nearly 25 years, but since joining the Los Angeles Daily Journal in 2010 to cover biotech law and then Scrip in 2012 as west coast editor, she’s been completely focused on all facets of biopharma. In 2016, she became managing editor for all US commercial news.

Beat Overview

-Publication: In 2022, when Informa sold Scrip, The Pink Sheet and its other publications and data products (e.g. In Vivo, Biomedtracker, Datamonitor, etc.) to Norstella, the group collectively became known as Citeline. Norstella claims to be “one of the largest global pharma intelligence solution providers,” owning other brands like Evaluate.

-Coverage Areas: In addition to managing US commercial news, Mandy’s reporting purview includes finance, start-ups on up to big pharma, dealmaking, clinical trial results, quarterly earnings reports, commercial competition, corporate strategy, and interview pieces around industry events.

-Angles of Interest: Mandy says her publication’s differentiator is the perspective they can add to the day’s news. Her team has deep institutional knowledge as well as access to databases that, together, provide a broader or more nuanced view. “We’re not going to be usually the first to publish a story, but we’ll be in-depth.”

Pitching Tips

-Pitch Earlier in the Day: Even though she’s on the West Coast, Mandy takes the lead on the US team to review the day’s news when she logs on around 5:45 a.m. PT. “Part of my managing editor role is rounding up the news in the morning and saying, ‘OK, this is what we could possibly work on today.’” Afterward, she’s in and out the rest of the morning, but is usually working until ~5 p.m. PT.

-Aim to Share Embargoed News ≥One Day in Advance: Mandy encourages PR folks to include her on your embargoed media outreach lists. She isn’t usually* that picky about when she receives embargoed news, but she prefers to receive news at least a day ahead of time, when possible.

-Know Individual Focus Areas: Mandy and her team all cover deals, clinical trial results and other news across disease areas and drug modalities. She notes that during earnings season, “since we’re a global team, we split things up pretty regionally.” Here are a few of her team’s specific interest areas, but when in doubt about who may be the right person to cover your US news, send it to Mandy.

• Joe Haas– MASH (formerly NASH), also writes the Deal Watch
• Alaric DeArment– CAR-T for cancer, cancer drug data, cell and gene therapy/editing.
• Jessica Merrill– big pharma news.
• Mandy– Alzheimer’s, migraine, IBD; also covers big pharma news as well as most finance news, including the Finance Watch She shares that, depending on the volume, she may separate the finance column into three different weekly editions: public companies, private companies and restructuring announcements.

-On Ex-US News: The US team tends to defer to Scrip’s UK team on European company news and the Asia team on Asian company news, but if breaking news occurs during the US team’s working hours or if the other teams didn’t have capacity to cover something during their working hours, the US team will pick it up. For pitches about ex-US companies, it may be best to defer to the appropriate ex-US reporting team, unless the news has to do with a US deal, approval or conference.

-FYI Updates Are OK: Mandy says she doesn’t mind receiving routine updates on companies that her team is following, such as clinical trial initiations or orphan drug designations, but PR folks shouldn’t necessarily expect a full story to result, aside from mid- to late-stage clinical trial readouts, major deals and financings, and similar news.

-Pressure-Test Your Trend Pitches: Mandy says that her team is “always interested in trends,” but due to bandwidth, she and her team are selective with those pitches that they pursue. So, be sure that your pitch will stand out when it lands in her inbox. She also notes that trend pieces are often tied to industry conferences, like this one coming out of BIO.

-“Honest and Open” Sources: During interviews, sources should not repeat what’s in the press release or corporate talking points; Mandy can see right through that. “Give us something new and give us something that gives us context and helps people understand better.”

Pet Peeves

-Know “What We’re Likely to Cover:” Mandy reminds us that her team doesn’t cover clinical trial initiations, preclinical data, and rarely, Phase 1 data (exceptions may include oncology readouts with efficacy results).

-Avoid Background Briefings: The volume of news is so great that Mandy says her team is unlikely to agree to background briefings pitched “out of the blue.” Instead, focus outreach when milestones are approaching.

-No Awards Pitches: Her team is not involved in the annual Scrip Awards and advises contacting Alex Shimmings, executive editor, Europe commercial, for questions about that.

Events and Conferences

-ASH: Mandy and Alaric DeArment are planning to attend ASH in person in December 2024.

-JPM: Mandy and Jessica Merrill cover JPM, though Mandy doesn’t start scheduling interviews until after Thanksgiving.

-BIO: Mandy, Sarah Karlin-Smith and Kevin Grogan tend to be the BIO crew.

-Other Conferences in San Diego: Mandy is likely to attend conferences hosted in San Diego, but otherwise, it’s rare for her to travel for medical conferences.

–*Pro Tip: For data at a conference that you know is coming, she advises, “If we can get that a week or two in advance so that we can write some of that ahead of time, that’s amazing because we’re so busy around these big medical conferences that the earlier we can get things the better.”

Key Quote

“We’re not covering everything. We’re picking things where we think we can take the time and add some perspective – something that’s valuable to people that are in the industry to help them understand what the news means to them and their business.”

Lightning Round

-Favorite Conference of the Year: I have a love/hate relationship with JPM.

-One Word That Characterizes Your Reporting Style: Thorough.

-Headline You Hope to Write Within the Next Five Years: Company X has found a way to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

-Dream Interview: In industry, Amgen CEO Bob Bradway; outside of industry, Barack Obama.