T2B Monthly | June 2026

Hi!

You tell me. Are we creating magic?

That's how one of our forum speakers summed up T2B.

To pursue a career as a biopharma communicator requires intention, grit, and high EQ. So, despite working in an industry steered by data, I'd agree that convening this community (all of you!) – across coast-to-coast meetups, our second annual forum, member-led virtual sessions – is a privilege, and yes, a little magical. ✨

Today's email is 2,604 words, a 9-minute read.

🗓️ T2B programming snapshot

» July Comm Convo: Why Only Some Platforms Are Trusted When Everyone Has One | Thursday, July 23rd @ 12-1 p.m. ET

A researcher's independent Substack can carry more weight than a corporate press release, and the most credible voice on a given issue may not sit in our department. July's Comm Convo includes comms leaders who will examine what this credibility shift means for how we identify, activate, and work alongside the voices our organizations need.

Speakers TBA + registration details coming soon!

» Q3 AI Roundtable Event – How Agentic AI Is Moving Strategic Communicators From Prompting to Delegating | Tuesday, July 28th @ 12-1 p.m. ET

AI already helps biopharma communicators work faster. The next shift is learning how to direct AI beyond individual tasks and across entire workflows. In this interactive session, participants will explore what agentic AI looks like in practice, with a focus on responsible use in regulated, high-trust environments.

Sign up here. | Free and exclusive to T2B Pro and Student members (Basic members not permitted).

» Q3 Masterclass | Wednesday, August 5th @ 12-1 p.m. ET

Save the date for our Q3 professional development masterclass.

Stay tuned for more details.

» Save the Dates: 2nd Annual Virtual Biopharma Comms Forum | Tuesday, October 6th & Wednesday, October 7th

Our second annual Virtual Biopharma Comms Forum returns this October with two half days of original programming. This year's virtual forum will feature entirely new content and discussions, distinct from our June in-person forum, bringing together industry leaders and peers for our community's ongoing dialogue about the issues shaping our profession.

This year's forum theme TBA soon!

🎥 ICYMI: Recent event replays

We aim to record most T2B virtual programs so you can revisit useful discussions or catch up when schedules get busy. Recent replays are available to T2B Pro and Student members on via your Dashboard.

• ​Q2 Masterclass: Thriving Beyond Limits: Fear Less & Flow More​
• ​Q2 Media Minds Roundtable Event – From Newsroom to Newsletter: Why Healthcare’s Top Journalists Are Going Independent​

👥 Peer-Learning Practicum enrollment now open

The next cycle of T2B's Peer-Learning Practicum is here! Designed to foster meaningful conversations that go beyond traditional networking, the PLP is an alternative to one-way mentoring, recognizing that many communicators don't always feel they're at the "right" stage to be either a mentor or a mentee. Instead, participants learn alongside peers with diverse experiences, perspectives, and expertise through five months of facilitated discussion and connection.

Today we're announcing this cycle's outstanding cohort leads:

• Paulina Bucko (Servier Pharmaceuticals)
• Amanda Galgay (formerly Tango Therapeutics)
• Amanda Guisbond (Iambic)
• Ken Inchausti (CSL)
• Angelyn Lowe (Guidelight Advisors)
• Sarah Mena Guerrero (Sanofi)
• Amy Speak (Third Rock Ventures)

If you’d like to join our next PLP cohort, enrollment is now open for T2B Pro members through Monday, July 20th. Spots are guaranteed; registration is not competitive. And if you've participated in the past, you're welcome to enroll again – we strive to place folks in a different cohort each program cycle to facilitate new connections and conversations!

​Enroll here.​

📸 Clarity at the Flashpoint: Biopharma Comms Forum photos & takeaways

Whether you traveled across the country or across town, Michelle and I are grateful to everyone who joined us for our second annual Biopharma Comms Forum, Clarity at the Flashpoint, in Boston.

📸 View the forum photo gallery.​

Throughout the summer, we'll be sharing our takeaways from the various sessions. First up, our learnings from the Trust, Influence, and the Staying Power to Lead panel:

1. Earn credibility by knowing the business cold. Standing comes from understanding enterprise risk, competitors, and corporate strategy well enough to recommend an unexpected move, such as skipping the press release that most expect you to write.
2. Embed communications into the company scorecard. When narrative movement and reputation metrics sit among the goals that determine bonuses, colleagues begin to treat the function as core business strategy and engage with it on those terms.
3. Draft the narrative to expose where alignment breaks. Leaders often assume they agree until words land on the page, and surfacing that missing clarity is where the communicator holds real influence over corporate direction.
4. Let stakeholders feel the cost of skipping your counsel. Pushing endlessly against a resistant executive rarely lands, and a single rough media interview or weak town hall often teaches the lesson faster and brings them back sooner.
5. Invest in the relationships that get you warned early. Business functions like regulatory and clinical operations flag changes before they act only once you earn that standing, which is what allows for time to prepare before a public moment.
6. Treat converged audiences as one room (sometimes). Employees now read the same posts as investors, and patient advocates track IR sites, so weighting one group heavily over could sometimes create exposure you did not plan for.
7. Make emerging executives earn their access to speak on behalf of the company. Strong scientists do not automatically make strong spokespeople, so withholding that access until they prepare protects both the message and the credibility of the person delivering it.
8. Recognize AI as a stakeholder that reshapes content. Large language models have returned value to the press release and its grab-and-go boilerplate, and earlier accessibility work for screen readers now helps machines surface key messages, too.
9. Accept that influence will not always hold. A new chief executive or a restructuring can dissolve your standing overnight, and when an organization is not ready for the corp affairs function, the limits are not always yours.
10. Build a confidential space to carry the role. Communicators hold sensitive information and should not vent in the hallway, so a trusted peer or two outside the building protects both your judgment and the leadership confidence you guard.

We also had an onsite artist this year to capture key themes, ideas, and conversations from throughout the forum. The first visual storytelling board offers a different vantage point of a few of the 'you had to be there' moments from this panel:

📝 By the way, we’d still love your feedback! If you attended the forum and haven’t yet filled out our post-event survey, we'd greatly appreciate your input, which will help directly shape our third annual Biopharma Comms Forum next year!

Finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't thank our sponsors, Waterhouse and Addison McLeod, for helping make this event possible!

🤝 Q2 T2Bmeets recap & thanks to our hosts!

From coast to coast, we saw again and again that biopharma communicators continue to show up for each other. Our Q2 T2Bmeet series brought the community together in NYC, Chicago (ASCO), the SF Bay Area, and San Diego (BIO), creating space for meaningful conversations, new connections, and a shared commitment to strengthening our profession.

A heartfelt thank you to our hosts — Weber Shandwick in Chicago, Mirum Pharmaceuticals in Foster City, and LifeSci Communications in San Diego — for your generosity!

And if you want to see even more T2B photos, check out my LinkedIn recaps from each stop:

• ​T2Bmeet @ NY/NJ​
• ​T2Bmeet @ Chicago / ASCO​
• ​T2Bmeet @ SF​
• ​T2Bmeet @ BIO / San Diego​

📊 AI in Biopharma Communications Survey: Initial results are in

T2B's AI Roundtable with Knowledge Partner Syneos Health Communications recently released the results of our inaugural AI in Biopharma Communications Survey. The data is giving us a first-hand look at how AI is being used across the profession today, where orgs are still catching up, and the skills communicators say they need most as AI becomes part of everyday work.

Watch this BiotechTV clip for an overview of the results. And read the executive summary to learn what 117 biopharma communicators told us about AI. Top-line findings:

1. Al is already part of the work. Most respondents are using Al more than they were a year ago, and top use cases sit squarely inside core communications work.
2. Individuals are moving faster than organizations. Communicators are adopting tools and building habits faster than many organizations are standardizing workflows, governance, and access.
3. Access, governance, and trust are uneven. Many respondents have some guidance, but fewer see it actively communicated and enforced, and fewer than half trust their organization or clients to use Al responsibly.
4. The appetite is there, but support is thin. Respondents want to do more with Al, but time, output trust, tool access, and task-specific training are holding them back.
5. The next phase is about professional evolution. Al is delivering efficiency today, but the bigger opportunity is helping communicators strengthen judgment, manage more complex workflows, and prove value.

We're using these insights to guide future programming, peer discussions, and resources that help members use AI with greater clarity and confidence... starting with the AI Roundtable's next event, How Agentic AI Is Moving Strategic Communicators From Prompting to Delegating, on July 28th. RSVP here.​

💬 Digital & Social Media Roundtable resource: Authenticity isn’t a tone – how life sciences brands should really use Reddit

Reddit has become an increasingly important source for search engines and AI-generated answers. In this month’s Digital & Social Media Roundtable resource, Meghan Donovan (Thermo Fisher Scientific) looks at what that means for life sciences communicators and why “be authentic” is not enough guidance on its own.

A few takeaways from the piece:

• Don't look at Reddit as just another social channel. It is increasingly part of the answer ecosystem, especially for specific, technical questions.
• On Reddit, authenticity is less about tone and more about behavior: transparency, usefulness, and respect for the norms of each community.
• Communicators need to understand subreddit culture before deciding whether to post, respond, listen, or bring in subject matter experts.
• Some of the strongest brand participation may come from experts who can answer real questions clearly, vs. polished brand messaging.
• The bigger opportunity may be using Reddit to understand what audiences are confused about, curious about, or trying to solve.

View the full article here.

📰 Media Minds Roundtable resource - Biopharma Beats Bulletin: Spotlight on Andrew Han, Ion Genomics

In our latest Biopharma Beats Bulletin, Betsy Yates (Complete Genomics) profiles Andrew Han, founder of Ion Genomics, an independent publication and podcast covering genomics, precision medicine, diagnostics, and the technologies shaping the future of biology.

Drawing on nearly a decade of reporting at GenomeWeb, Andrew shares how his approach to journalism has evolved, why he launched an independent platform, and the types of stories that interest him most.

The profile also offers guidance for communicators interested in pitching Andrew, including what makes a pitch stand out (hint: teach him something new), why he values candid conversations over transactional announcements, and how subject matter experts can create more meaningful media relationships by discussing broader industry trends.

Read the full media Q&A here, and be sure to check out the replay of the Media Minds Roundtable's Q2 webinar, Why Healthcare's Top Journalists Are Going Independent.

🌱 Culture Connect Roundtable resource: Stop the silos – building a cohesive culture in the life sciences

We know all too well that, as life sci organizations grow, it's easy for teams to become disconnected from one another, as well as from the bigger picture, even when everyone is working toward the same mission.

In this month’s Culture Connect resource, roundtable member Carolyn Noyes shares practical ways communicators can help employees understand how their work connects to the organization’s goals, while building stronger relationships across other teams.

Highlights include:

• Silos often start with good intentions: teams focus deeply on their own goals, but lose visibility into what others are doing and why it matters.
• Internal comms can help close those gaps by consistently connecting team-specific work to company-wide priorities.
• Message mapping can help communicators tailor updates for different audiences without losing the central thread of mission, values, and strategy.
• Culture is one of the strongest bridges across functions, especially when employees can connect their day-to-day work to patients, colleagues, and the broader purpose of the company.
• During periods of change or instability, a clear and consistent culture can give employees a stronger sense of continuity and connection.

View the article here.

💙 Welcoming our new Patient Advocacy & Engagement Roundtable members

The T2B Patient Advocacy & Engagement Roundtable comprises communicators who are passionate about elevating patient voices and strengthening partnerships with patient communities. This group supports us communicators advance patient-first storytelling and demonstrate the strategic value of patient engagement across our industry.

Join us in recognizing our 2026 roundtable team:

• Chair: Michele Lentz, Founder & CEO, Stand Up for Patients
• Susan Brisendine, VP, Partnerships & Innovation, NephCure
• Heather Goldman, Associate Director, Executive & Business Administration, Neumora (Roundtable Chief of Staff & Project Manager)
• Erin Murphy, Corporate Affairs Consultant
• Jonathan Naylor, Associate Director, Patient Advocacy, DISC Medicine
• Lauren Walrath, Head of US Communications & Media, Organon

Thank you to our returning members for continuing this important work, and welcome to Michele, Jonathan, Susan, and Erin as they help shape T2B's Patient Advocacy & Engagement programming.

🔍 New: Search the entire T2B content library

We know it's impossible to tune into every T2B webinar, read every article, and attend every event.

Now you can search the entire T2B website and content library, using our new search feature here or via our website's top nav, to quickly find past event replays, articles, speakers, key takeaways, and other content. Sort by relevance or date.

A quick note: This search feature is separate from our T2B member directory and biopharma PR & comms firms directory, which help you connect with people and organizations.

👀 Seen on social

"Scientists in the future will not read articles like this." A recent Nature editorial posited that, while journal articles aren’t going away, audiences are communicating information differently and science communicators need to adapt. (🙋‍♀️ Hard agree.)

As Ben Johnson, Chief Editor at Nature Health wrote on LinkedIn, the editorial is a call to action for “all researchers to start communicating using modern approaches, including social media.”

The editorial cites Reuters Institute research showing that 18-24-year-olds are now more likely to get their news from social media than news websites, with individual creators increasingly favored over established news brands.

It also highlights the downside of this trend: an analysis of nearly 1,000 Instagram and TikTok posts about medical screening tests found that misleading information was widespread, often shared by creators with financial interests in the tests they were promoting.

For us at T2B, this reiterated yet again the importance of meeting audiences where they are (acknowledging that audiences are converging in some instances – see forum key takeaway #6 above), while bringing rigor, transparency, and evidence to our work.