Through a series of portraits, Le Courrier Australien takes a look back at the careers of several of the winners of the French-Australian Excellence Awards. A former pharmaceutical industry executive turned ambitious entrepreneur, Jason Macey has dedicated his career to improving access to innovative medical programs, profoundly transforming the way patients today can use scientific advances to treat themselves. In 2024, he received an award in the “Tech Startup” category, the fruit of work still in its infancy.
“Imagine if”. From every idea or project comes a dream, however ambitious it may seem. “Imagine if patients could access innovative medicines faster than ever before, thanks to technology that’s quick to implement and fun to use.” The equation sounds complex, almost unattainable, but it hasn’t deterred Australian Jason Macey, who in 2020 founded the Imagine If Health project, a name to match his ambitions.
With a bachelor’s degree in medicinal chemistry and a master’s in business and administration, Jason Macey initially took the “conventional” route in his chosen field. Beginning his career with a contract research company, carrying out clinical trials for third parties, before progressing to higher ranks in medical management, marketing, and commercial, he accumulated a total of 25 years’ experience with multinational pharmaceutical companies… before changing sides.
“I’m a dreamer”
“The higher you climb the entrepreneurial ladder, the more you realize that it’s a slow and complex process,” judges Jason Macey, “I reached a stage in my career where I was quite young and had enough experience and network at the same time to give it a go. I consider myself a dreamer. A lot of people dream of a business but don’t do anything about it, or don’t have the courage to see it come to fruition. I didn’t want to be that person.”
The premise behind Imagine If Health is that “patients really take a long time to get access to innovative medicines, and there is a real gap of funding in general“, explains Jason Macey. It was an encounter with Kristian Anderson, an Australian suffering from colon cancer who became famous after being discovered on the Oprah Winfrey Show, that finally convinced him to get involved in this field. Anderson’s case, receiving $250,000 from the American host to help him access an advanced medical program, is unique, and that’s exactly what Jason Macey wants to fix.
“Pharmaceutical companies are carrying out access programs to try and resolve this situation, but it’s just extremely time-consuming and fragmented,” explains the Australian entrepreneur. “And it’s so frustrating because you know these drugs are so effective and you’re dealing with very sick people in most cases and there’s a sense of urgency, that you just want to get it to them as quickly as possible, but that’s not always possible.“
Jason Macey wants to fill a gap in the industry that persists today. “And it’s so exciting to be able to help these people get these drugs, it’s very inspiring for everyone on our team to be working on this.“
“Software as a service”
Imagine If Health is built on a “software as a service” (SaaS) model, a feature that makes all the difference in the field where he works: “The current model for managing these programs is outdated,” he explains. “In general, they are run by agencies and have very high costs, slow processes, and a lot of inflexibility. The users of these programs are generally a prescribing doctor and the ordering pharmacist who are sorely short of time and generally have a very bad experience trying to navigate the program offerings from many companies using outdated software and inefficient processes.“
Concretely, thanks to Imagine If Health, a pharmaceutical company wishing to launch a particular drug can now generate its own access platform, all up and running in a matter of minutes. “We’ve modernized access to medicines by building an interface that uses pre-configured modules so that companies can create a completely bespoke access program portal in a matter of minutes. Usually, it takes at least six months for it to be ready for use.“
“At the end of the day, this means that patients can get access to medicines faster, but our programs also allow the company to configure and modify all sorts of things in real time without interrupting patient access, just like in any SaaS business.” The platform is sold through a licensed subscription model and via the cloud, guaranteeing instant access for customers. An improvement roadmap is then drawn up, and part of the license fee is directly reinvested in the development of software enhancements.
“This type of service didn’t exist before,” explains Jason Macey. “Unlike clinical trials, where protocols are strict and structured, medicinal access program offerings can vary widely, making them difficult to administer, especially when a company offers many different offerings for many different products.” It’s a process that takes three years to devise and develop, but which he believes is a “win-win” for all concerned: “it’s accessible, affordable, extremely valuable, patients have access to medicines and pharmaceutical companies enjoy an excellent reputation […] But what we have now is definitely better than anybody else out there.”
On the field
For Jason Macey, claiming Imagine If Health‘s singular and unique status is an obsession. “We don’t do anything other than what we know how to do. Some providers offer a platform and then produce advertising campaigns or brochures… We don’t do any of that. All we do is access-to-medicine programs, and that’s what we want to focus on.“
An important part of the Australian startup’s work is also done in the field, in contact with industry professionals: “We’re obsessed with improving the user experience, so we interviewed a whole network of doctors and pharmacists,” he explains. “We have to anticipate the needs of pharmaceutical companies as well, so it’s really good, thanks to my experience, to be able to sit face-to-face with an industry player and be able to say: ‘I’ve been in you, I know your challenges because I’ve been there too, so I understand you’. I have the feeling that we’ve managed to attract a lot of customers this way, because we speak the same language and we’ve faced the same difficulties, so we know what to do to make their lives easier.“
But how do you ensure that the platform remains easy and enjoyable to use, while also being efficient and effective? “That’s one of our biggest challenges,” admits Jason Macey, “Making things simple is hard. The biggest challenge in this area is having to manage the combination and permutation of drug access programs that can exist: a drug can be used for many different indications, and each of those indications can have different offerers, even if it’s the same drug.“
Including this diversity and complexity of existing programs in a pre-configured ecosystem, and then making it easy to use, is a challenge that Jason Macey and his team, consisting of 3 full-time employees, are constantly working on. “We also provide a lot of ‘after-sales’ support for our customers, offering training and help. We don’t just want to be a provider that gives a piece of software and says ‘see you later’“.
“Australia’s biggest problem“
In an environment as fragmented and fixed as that of the pharmaceutical industry, the Australian startup wants to shake things up: “I don’t like to use the term ‘disruptive’, but in this world where knowledge of these new drugs is increasing among the general public thanks to the Internet and social networks, and where there is real pressure on doctors to meet their patients’ needs ever more quickly, we are indeed trying to make things simpler“.*
It is with this leitmotif that Imagine If Health continues to establish its expertise and innovative approach. Currently operating in Australia and New Zealand, Jason Macey does not rule out expanding to other parts of the world in due course. “But for now, there’s too big a gap to fill here.” A gap symptomatic of the potential shortcomings from which the sector suffers today: “In terms of medicines and their access times, this is probably the biggest problem in Australia that nobody has ever heard of“.
There’s a real need to highlight and raise awareness of these issues. “And I have the feeling that it’s not a problem we’re going to solve if we think too far ahead. We need to provide incremental solutions, little by little. The system is not, in my view, ready for structural changes so quickly.“
Winner of the French Australian Excellence Awards
Last November, Jason Macey received the “Tech Startup” award at the 2024 French-Australian Excellence Awards. “My introduction to this initiative came through the French pharmaceutical company Servier,” he explains. “Servier trusted us with their new drug, which was a first-in-class molecule for a deadly type of brain cancer. They’d approached us just after some amazing data was released from their pivotal clinical trial. On August 24, the drug was registered by the US FDA, and just one month later, the first Australian patient received this medicine via our platform. Now, there are a significant number of patients who have accessed Servier’s medicine, and we are expanding access to more of their products.“
The award punctuates an already rich year for the entrepreneur, a sign that things are moving in the right direction. “Winning this award was such a shock and very humbling. We had so much great competition, but I guess it ultimately validated the unmet need and the mission for us to modernise medicine access for patients.“ The award is also synonymous with increased reach: “Since winning the awards, we’ve even had investors reach out, so this is potentially transformative for us to get to the level that I dreamed about when I first began this company.”
To future entrepreneurs and participants in the French-Australian Excellence Awards, Jason Macey advises to “stay true to the problem you’re trying to solve. In the end, it’s the market that will validate whether you’re on the right track. Starting a business is also a solitary activity, and you need to be able to accept criticism and have the self-confidence to move forward and not take it personally“. Finally, “have fun and be proud of yourself!“
“I’d like to thank the French Australian Excellence Awards, and the sponsor of my category, La French Tech, as well as Servier Australia, for partnering with Imagine If Health, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!”
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