T2B Monthly | April 2025

T2B meetups across the country; Fierce takeaways; the impact of comms cuts in Washington; and more

Q2 is already off to a flying start for T2B. We’ve hit 1,000 community members, have had a huge amount of interest in our inaugural forum, and have more meets planned than we’ve ever had before.

I’m so looking forward to catching up with many of you at an event very soon, or even meeting you for the first time if you’re new to the community!

Today's email is 1,795 words, an 9-minute read.

🗓️ T2B Programming Snapshot

» Q2 T2Bmeet @ San Diego | TODAY! | Wednesday, April 30, 2025, from 6-8:30 p.m. PT | Hosted by Real Chemistry | This casual, come-and-go networking event will be open to all biopharma communicators in the T2B community, including those local to San Diego and those visiting for the Fierce event.

» Q2 Media Minds Panel | Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 12-1 p.m. ET | “Top-Tier Perspective on ASCO and Beyond: How to Stand Out During Concentrated News Moments.” | This virtual session will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how reporters from WSJ, STAT, and Forbes approach deep therapeutic areas like oncology. (Exclusive to Pro & Student members)

» Q2 T2Bmeet @ SF Bay Area | Tuesday, May 13, from 4-6 p.m. PT | ​Our Q2 meetup in the SF Bay Area will be at one of our favorite wine bars! Whether you're in town for STAT Summit Breakthrough West or you're a local, drop by between 4 and 6 p.m. for our private networking meetup.

» Q2 T2Bmeet @ ASGCT, New Orleans | Thursday, May 15, from 4:30-7 p.m. CT | ​Hosted by Tulane School of Medicine, this come-and-go networking reception is open to all biopharma communicators in the T2B community, whether you're visiting for ASGCT or are local to NOLA.

» Leadership Lab Q2 Masterclass. Building Trust and Leading Without Authority | Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | Registration now open! Unlock the secrets to creating and leading high-performing teams with our comprehensive workshop, facilitated by leadership coach Carmen Bolivar. (Exclusive to Pro & Student members)

» Q2 Fullintel partnered seminar | Thursday, May 22 | This event will be free for all T2B members. More info coming soon!

» May Comm Convo: Securing Strategic Buy-in | TBA soon!

» Q2 T2Bmeet @ ASCO, Chicago | Monday, June 2, from 4:30-7 p.m. CT | ​Hosted by AbbVie with support from Weber Shandwick | This come-and-go networking reception is open to all biopharma communicators in the T2B community, whether you're visiting for ASCO or are local to Chicago.

» Q2 T2Bmeet @ NY/NJ | Thursday, June 12, 2025, from 4:30 - 7 p.m. ET | ​Hosted by Mission North at their Manhattan office | This come-and-go networking event is open to all biopharma communicators in the T2B community.

» T2B Biopharma Comms Forum | Tuesday, June 17th, 11:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. ET | Takeda,125 Binney St. Cambridge, MA | Today is the last day we can guarantee tickets (free) for T2B Pro and Student members. Any remaining forum tickets will be available to T2B Basic Members starting tomorrow for $475.

» Q2 T2Bmeet @ BIO/Boston | Tuesday, June 17, 2025, 5-7 p.m. ET | Save the date! This reception will immediately follow our Biopharma Comms Forum | Tickets to this meetup will be available for T2B Basic members to purchase starting tomorrow, priced at $50 (or as part of your forum ticket).

🚀 Take your pick from 6 T2Bmeets!

There will be no less than 6 T2Bmeets in Q2!

In addition to our regular quarterly meetups in San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, and New York/New Jersey, we’ve also added networking gatherings in New Orleans (to coincide with ASCGT) and Chicago (during ASCO).

These super-chill, informal gatherings are the perfect opportunity to meet folks within the T2B community in a sociable way. Come and go as you please; stay for the whole event or just swing by for some nibbles. Either way, we’d love to see you there!

📣 T2B Biopharma Comms Forum

The response to the inaugural T2B Biopharma Comms Forum has been fantastic. We’re extremely pleased to see that so many Pro and Student members have already signed up for this event and are as excited as we are for the unique knowledge-sharing and networking opportunities that we have in store.

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And T2B Basic members, your turn is just around the corner! The remaining forum tickets will be available for purchase starting tomorrow at a rate of $475. You’ll be able to buy your tickets through the main event website.​

🧠 Q2 Media Minds

With ~1,600 oncology medicines and vaccines in development and the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting around the corner, reporters are about to face a deluge of data and story pitches.

So, among all of this information, what do journalists find compelling in a crowded news cycle?

T2B’s Media Minds Roundtable is at it again. Their Q2 panel is called, “Top-Tier Perspective on ASCO and Beyond: How to Stand Out During Concentrated News Moments.” Taking place on Thursday, May 8th at 12-1 p.m. ET, it will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how reporters from WSJ, STAT, and Forbes approach deep therapeutic areas like oncology.

As with all our roundtable events, this is exclusive to T2B Pro and Student members.

🚨 Q2 Masterclass announced: Building trust and leading without authority

Whether you’re an aspiring leader or an experienced manager, our next masterclass, "Building trust and leading without authority," will provide you with practical insights and strategies for cultivating collaboration, identifying and nurturing talent, conducting effective performance evaluations, and boosting team motivation and engagement.

Led by leadership coach, trainer, and consultant Carmen Bolivar, this session will help you unlock the secrets to creating and leading high-performing teams by following four easy-to-apply strategies.

This event is exclusive to T2B Pro and Student members.

🎉 Our membership is now 1,000-strong!

We very recently welcomed our 1,000th member to the T2B community.

From 0 - 1,000 in less than 18 months (we launched in October 2023). That’s pretty incredible!

Beyond the sheer growth, I continue to be impressed with the experience we have within our community. About half of our members have more than 15 years of experience, and two-thirds have over a decade of expertise.

And those comms rockstars have been absolutely vital in helping us develop the next generation of talent. Around a tenth of folks within T2B have fewer than three years of experience, and our veteran communicators have been inspirational in sharing advice to help our more junior members advance in their careers.

So, to all of you who have joined us and supported us on the journey so far: thank you.

And to those of you who will join us in the future, we can’t wait to have you on board!

🔥 Fierce Pharma Engage takeaways so far

Yesterday at Fierce Pharma Engage, I had the chance to moderate a panel on strategic storytelling with some of the sharpest communicators in the business.

To kick things off, I shared something I heard recently from Shonda Rhimes. In a podcast interview, she was asked to name her core storytelling principles, and her answer stopped me in my tracks. She said:

1. “If you’ve seen it before, don’t do it again… Truly, what is your story?”
2. “Don’t bury the lede ever.”
3. “Paint a picture… People talk and they say lots of words, but they don't necessarily say something that holds somebody's imagination because you're not painting a picture.” (I found that second part particularly characteristic of jargon we see across our industry!)

That guidance stuck with us throughout the discussion, because storytelling is actually a necessity nowadays, even if it may not be top of minds for us.

We talked about the environment we’re working in and what’s changing: trust gaps, global complexity, and how AI is reshaping media and content workflows. We also got into what communicators uniquely bring to the table, and why we can’t afford to let our narratives become static blocks of text no one uses.

Some of the takeaways that resonated most:

• Really ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish by building a narrative in the first place. And when you have it, train people across the organization to use it, adapt it, and carry it forward.
• Words matter. Let’s stop calling medicines “products” and people “consumers.”
• Corporate affairs should be the connective tissue, translating strategy into stories people actually hear.
• Finally, if the stories we craft don’t reach the people who need to hear them—internally and externally—they’re not doing their job.

​Here's a one-pager our panel put together of some of our storytelling best practices and resources.

Thanks to everyone who came, stayed after to chat, and shared such kind feedback. It was a privilege to be in the room.

📰 April Biopharma Beats Bulletin: Anastassia Gliadkovskaya

As a Senior Writer at Fierce Healthcare, Anastassia Gliadkovskaya specializes in healthcare equity and enterprise reporting.

She gravitates toward complex healthcare stories showcasing the interplay between business interests, policy, and patient outcomes, and is particularly drawn to hospital operations and insurance coverage issues: “What unifies these stories for me is this complicated intersection of money, third parties, and lots of different stakeholders, and basically how the patient has zero visibility into that entire process,” she remarks.

Anastassia looks for stories with multimedia potential, such as data graphics, podcast episodes, or photos, noting that “stories with multimedia elements are more captivating, so long-form with multimedia is always best.”

T2B Pro and Student members can learn more about Anastassia and how to pitch to her Fierce Healthcare colleagues through this month’s bulletin, accessed via your account.​

👀 Seen on Social

I think it’s fair to say that the industry is still reeling from the recent comms cuts in Washington.

The reaction has been, understandably, one of widespread concern, with biopharma comms pros from all walks of life voicing their fears on social media.

​Erica Jefferson highlighted that we’ve lost, among other critical messages, drug and medical device safety communications and warnings about harmful products on the market, and relevant updates to the FDA website and social media platforms on important public health announcements.

And Matt Shipman further highlighted the impact this is going to have on information flow: There’s no longer anyone at the FDA that reporters or the public can ask about emerging pharmaceutical treatments, about new medical devices, or the safety, security, or availability of existing or emerging "biological products".

It’s times like this when we need to stick together: to help each other out, share relevant information wherever possible, and watch each other’s backs.

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