Laura Blair
SVP, Business Development
ConnectiveRx
The Relationship Builder
Raised by Italian immigrant parents who expected her to become an accountant, Laura Blair began her career as an accountant in the finance department of a pharmaceutical company. After a developmental day of shadowing a pharma sales rep, the fire was lite and she joined the sales team never looking back, ultimately landing her a role at ConnectiveRx in 2010. As the company grew their patient services offerings, Laura has spearheaded the creation of many solutions which have driven sales into hundreds of brands over the last 13 years.
“Laura is a dynamic leader that has a terrific understanding of the needs of patients and manufacturers—particularly in the specialty medication arena,” says Frank Dana, President and Chief Commercialization Officer, ConnectiveRx. “Interestingly, her approach was not only shaped by professional aptitude. She was an oncology patient recently and found herself utilizing all her professional knowledge of the healthcare sector to navigate that experience and advocate for her own treatment. I can see how that’s honed her dialog with clients in a standout way. She combines business problem-solving with a tremendously human-centered approach to their desired outcomes, examining a brand’s specific ability to impact access and speed along the patient prescription journey.”
Laura is not shy about sharing her cancer experience. Laura has educated the new ConnectiveRx employees on the “real” patient journey. She recruited another ConnectiveRx teammate who’d had a patient experience and they created a short video to tell their stories in a fast but emotional way and explains how ConnectiveRx can alleviate real-world problems for patients working to access medication.
“I’d never promote anything I couldn’t stand by,” Laura says. “There are clients I have worked with across many years who I now get to call my friends. We have created many amazing patient service programs that we are so proud of. It is a heavy lift standing up these programs. You must work arm in arm and handle all the bumps together to deliver a solid program. The key to success in Business Development is strong relationships, there must be trust and open communication to win!”
