Welcome to the First Edition of the Quill Quartet
Originally published July 7, 2025 in The Quill Quartet
Whew—it’s finally happening! Welcome to The Quill Quartet, a monthly dose of four insights to sharpen your medical communications strategy.
At Quill Science, we believe life-changing medicines and scientific breakthroughs deserve messaging that works. Too often, the impact of great science stalls—not because it’s flawed, but because it doesn’t spread beyond the bench. We’re here to change that.
We help biopharma teams refine their messaging, build trust, and move science forward—through strategy, clarity, and deep scientific understanding.
In a world flooded with mis- and disinformation, trustworthy science needs a stronger signal. In this newsletter, we aim to boost that signal through stories worth sharing and insights to help you optimize your scientific and medical communications.
Clinical Highlight:
We were excited about the recent 2-year Phase 2 results for frexalimab in multiple sclerosis (MS). While this is still early, 92% of participants remained relapse-free for the 2-year study period. Relapse rates in MS are highly variable, so this study (with 162 participants) is too small to draw definitive conclusions. However, we can still take pride in the progress we’re making in neuroinflammatory disease, thanks to the hard work from bench to bedside.
This shows why continuing to invest in research, especially in challenging therapeutic areas, is so important. We’re watching Phase 3 studies closely for frexalimab and agents that may help in less common forms of MS—like primary progressive MS—that still have limited treatment options.
Avoid these Three Messaging Mistakes in your Slide Decks:
We’ve been working on a series of slide decks recently, and we come across similar problems in messaging and clarity, especially with healthcare providers (HCPs) as the end audience. Whether it’s sales training to speak to HCPs or messaging narratives to guide the entire brand, here are three common pitfalls we’ve seen.
Not speaking to the right audience: Back before Quill Science was a company, I assumed speaking to HCPs was like speaking to scientists. After all, we’re all highly educated and steeped in research, but it’s not the same. Many academics who transition into science communications make the same mistake. As communicators, our job is to make sure our audience gets the right message. HCPs are less interested in the ins and outs of experimental design unless it is critical to understand the patient impact.
Too much information: Simple is better. If you’re making a slide deck for an HCP audience, focus on the key problems and messages. Extra information dilutes the key messages. This goes beyond slide content—it affects overall clarity. When you’re outlining your slides, keep to a single key message per slide, and support that message as needed.
Takeaways are not clear: Each slide should have a distinct point. One of my favorite simple approaches is to give the slides action-oriented titles. For example, if you have a mechanism of disease slide, don’t just call it “Pathology of MS” but instead give it an action-focused title like “Immune cell infiltration drives demyelination of neurons in MS.” The latter, while longer, increases engagement and primes the audience to focus on the key message but leaves enough open that the audience will explore further.
Neuroimmunology Research Roundup:
The MIROCALS Phase 2 trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) showed a potential survival benefit for interleukin-2 (IL-2) as an adjunct to standard ALS therapy. This one caught my eye because we’re just starting to crack the code in immunomodulation using interleukins. For example, we worked with a client that was developing IL-2 as a potential therapeutic agent in oncology.
Nipocalimab, a neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) blocker, is a new class of treatment for generalized myasthenia gravis that depletes autoantibodies involved in the disease. This offers a treatment option other than broad immunosuppression. As we learn more about the immune system and the myriad diseases that involve the immune system, we hope to see more targeted treatments that improve efficacy and safety compared to broad treatments.
Although it may be old news at this point, since it occurred in January, we’re still thrilled by the approval of suzetrigine, the first non-opioid analgesic, for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain in adults. This is exciting for us because we’ve been following the development of Nav1.8 blockers for pain since graduate school, and we love seeing it progress to the clinic. We hope this class will offer non-addictive alternatives to managing severe pain.
From my Desk:
Having spent 2 years full-time in PR agency work before starting Quill Science, we understand the importance of summer vacations for in-house staff and the challenges of a small scientific team supporting an agency of hundreds. We’ve also experienced the dread returning to an account with clients who expect everything. So for the summer, we’re offering plug-in coverage for your agency’s scientific accounts to help lighten the load and allow your scientific services staff to unplug.
Want help refining your decks or clarifying your scientific messaging? Hit reply or reach out at hello@quillscience.com.