Problems for statisticians to take on

Interview with Stephen Pyke

Many statisticians stay in the statistics department for their entire career. But not Stephen Pyke. After climbing the corporate ladder in statistics very high at GSK, his career brought him to various parts of the pharma world – and his new job is a combination of lots of aspects – including statistics and data. 

Stephen shared some important learnings from his career during the PSI strategy day in 2019. In today’s episode, Stephen and I discuss the main points of his presentation and the take-away learnings for every statistician – even if you don’t work in a large pharma company. We specifically cover following questions:

• What are the unique skills of statisticians – beyond just knowing about stats – compared to many other functions in the pharma world?
• Which problems do statisticians need to take care of beyond the current regular work?
• How can we make time to tackle these problems?
• What skills do statisticians need to improve on to successfully tackle these problems?

Through these questions we touch on the following topics:

• how a statistician can have a career outside of statistics
• how people respond to incentives
• The main job in clinical development: minimize value destruction
• Addressing the challenges of low productivity
• Problems that needs more attention
  • Time – Study enrollment time is often an important source of uncertainty in project plans
  • Quality – Detecting site quality issues quickly is critical
  • Cost – Trial costs are more likely to increase than reduce
• Statistics at the interface – Partnering with other disciplines
  

Stephen Pyke

SVP, Development DDA
R&D Site Lead, Stockley Park

Steve is SVP, Development DDA (Digital, Data & Analytics), a newly created role with accountability to deliver enhanced productivity and efficiency across Development by leveraging technology, data and advanced analytics.  Steve trained as a statistician, first joining the pharmaceutical industry in 1996, since when he has held various leadership roles, mainly in Clinical Development.  Steve began his career in academia (NIMR, LSHTM) where he held research and teaching positions.  He has served in a number of honorary professional positions, including: Chair, PSI (2009-11); Vice President, RSS (2013-2016); Chair, CDISC (2018); Advisory Board, Mathematics in Education & Industry (2017-present).  Steve studied Mathematics and Statistics at, respectively, University of York and Imperial College, London.

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