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Veeva Systems Summit, Madrid – pharmaphorum reflects

Veeva Systems invited pharmaphorum to attend its industry summit in Madrid this week, a huge event that gathered
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Veeva Systems invited pharmaphorum to attend its industry summit in Madrid this week, a huge event that gathered together over 1,000 individuals from life sciences and pharma.

The Marriot Auditorium & Conference Centre was the venue for this occasion, the largest global conference of its kind in Europe, the titular space made clear just how ‘big’ these systems are in facilitating what pharma does, today and very much tomorrow.

Veeva Europe’s president, Chris Moore, officially commenced the summit in an opening keynote entitled ‘Ready or not? The race to high-value engagement’. Discussing how the energy crisis is squeezing budgets and how healthcare costs have become higher than ever, Moore stated that the time is right for high-value engagement. The question is, how can the journey there be accelerated, when on the horizon awaits a life sciences future very much immersed in speciality medicine?

A 10th anniversary reconnection, reassessment, and race for relevance

Moore thanked everyone for coming in person for the 10th anniversary of the summit, signifying a reconnection as an industry. The biggest gathering of pharma companies in Europe right now on the commercial side, the Veeva Systems Summit permits the sharing of best practices and of new ideas. For those who were new and for those who revealed themselves to be frequent attendees, there should be something to learn, Moore hoped.

As we come out of the pandemic, hit by the cost-of-living crisis across Europe sparked by the Ukrainian war, and coupled with extended lifespans that are ever-widening an ageing society, more care will be needed – but how? And what is society’s part in providing that care? Moore asked. How can it fund the necessary production of medicine? This, he said, is something Veeva’s business consulting team has been looking into it. Facts that they gleaned included:

  • Across Europe, only 52% of HCPs will accept a visit from a pharma company (i.e. almost half won’t);
  • Of those, 65% will engage with three or fewer pharma companies;
  • In the UK, as many as 94% of HCPs will engage with three or fewer.

In the past, Moore said, the go-to solution was to hire more reps, but that doesn’t carry forward anymore. The difference is the relevance of engagement: how much does the HCP take away from the interaction? The race for relevance is on. How can you become more relevant? Help physicians to better understand the medicines and, by that means, prescribe them.

Veeva Systems – a journey from Silicon Valley into the life sciences

In short, Veeva builds the industry cloud for life sciences. Founded in 2007 by Peter Gassner, a luminary of Silicon Valley with a net worth of circa $5.25 billion, Gassner created Veeva after early retirement in his 40s, seeing an opportunity with a Salesforce-type product that could instead be used to focus on individual industries. Together with Matt Wallach, Gassner began with the life sciences, and they never looked back.

As an industry, pharma has specific needs; it is driven by targeted regulations and rules and has not been well served by technology. Pharma organisations operate over long periods of time, with the drug-to-market process taking upwards of 12 plus years, working across different functions of those organisations with technology designed to focus on individual bits of the puzzle.

What Veeva has done is helped make each piece of the puzzle that bit better, the multiplier effect meaning companies don’t have to join the bits together because Veeva has done it for them. As Moore explained, Veeva wants to produce something so valuable to the industry that it is essential; something that is appreciated, also.

Revolutionisation through digital commercialisation

Moore was then joined for a Fireside Chat with COUR Pharmaceuticals’ CEO Malcolm Crooks.

Crooks has worked in multiple big pharma companies, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Merck Serono, but he now heads COUR, a small organisation of 50 individuals (increased from 15 as of last year) that aims to expand to a headcount of 75 in 2023.

Working in the allergy and autoimmune space, COUR looks at nanoparticles and allergens – such as peanut and coeliac (which he had experience with whilst at Takeda) – and infuses these into patients as a treatment so that the body accepts it because of the precise combination technology, patients forming a tolerance to the antigen. It is what Crooks deems a revolutionisation of allergen and autoimmune care.

Asked what the biggest challenge has been, Crooks stated a 20% decrease in biotech funding from last year, so the company has been spending a lot of time private fundraising, selling technology to raise funds to run the programmes. The balance to be achieved is based on the essential question, do they buy people, buy talent, or do funds go towards equipment for the lab?

With an eye on launch and commercialisation, the key is gaining access to patients for studies. COUR currently has 12 sites for its peanut allergy trials. Via a digital campaign with meta-platforms costing only around $500, it is an investment in digital opportunities that facilitates communication to patients.

Prioritisation and the evolution of the sales, medical, and marketing triumvirate

Moore asked how Crooks prioritises in such a funding crisis as at present and the immediate answer was a ‘brutal’ process, prioritising market and disease readiness, country specific, and asking whether there is access to be had. Entirely focused on the US at the moment, COUR will later expand its focus to Europe for recruitment, but it is currently a secondary consideration to the US market. The big five in Europe will be focused on, which in its mindset still includes the UK – an attractive, though hard market, but one which has a higher predictability than France these days. Indeed, Crooks said France is the most fragile at the moment; Germany, though, is still predictable.

Standing out, however, is crucial. And that’s where digital comes into play. As Crooks said, data is data, but companies have to constantly try to transfer that into actual knowledge. The real essence is to transfer the data into the right questions to show the difference of the product. Sales, medical, and marketing evolving together and building medical content creates communication and an agility to work with commercial partners.

Moore asked Crooks how the representatives from across the industry and its partners present at the summit could help companies such as COUR. His response was that through targeting, the right knowledge, the right data, the right questions – a veritable checklist for doing things simply, at speed and with agility – a process of giving back, of training the next generation, is critical. All things considered, training talent is vital.

Simplification of company processes and commercial strategy

Veeva’s EVP of commercial strategy Paul Shawah came onto the stage afterwards, buoyant about seeing the ‘fun’ of innovation that small companies are bringing to the industry. He reconfirmed the fundamental position of technology, how it can either enable simplification or create complexity, before explaining the development of the systems used, how – historically – they were bought individually and then stitched all together. The strategy, therefore, has been to build great software natively integrated and connected. Next, the envisaged evolution will be to simplify the data like the software, embed it into the software.

Now, then, Shawah told us, industry cloud has software plus data plus consulting. The third leg of the stool, so to speak, consulting helps adaptation.

The Veeva Systems Summit is about sales, medical, and marketing – the commercial side of things, but on the development side Veeva also works in clinical data, clinical operations, regulatory, quality, and safety – and it is starting to connect the functional areas.

Excellence, coordination, and connection

When we think about the problems, Shawah said, it’s about getting the right medicine to the right patient. Veeva’s strategy is to help simplify that with excellence in and connection between sales, medical, and marketing. It wants to deliver the technology that creates that collaboration and benefit for the customer. That, he said, is commercial excellence. It is an aspirational vision, and one that isn’t new, but one that is very much in evolution.

The whole pharma industry is built on compliance. It is foundational, one step along the journey, Shawah said. Channel excellence has become important over the last three or four years, wiring seamlessly all the channels, and optimising resources across those, including role coordination. The next step along this path is the connected customer.

Adding all the pieces together, he explained, you need each one, and they are delivered through software, data, and consulting – the key is for Veeva to do this for the industry so that individual companies don’t have to do it individually over and over again.

Announcements, aims, and awards

Shawah revealed some of Veeva’s plans, including an engagement platform centred around starting and scheduling the conversation so that it becomes much more meaningful and impactful. He also revealed Outlook calendar integration is to be part of the platform (to which there were pleased rumblings and applause from the audience). Veeva is equally ‘super excited’. Coming in April 2023, this will be part of the Engage license.

On the theme of continuing to advance and evolve meeting capabilities as well, Shawah noted that most doctors are not on LinkedIn, so it is difficult to be connected with reps. A potential game-changing way of creating that lasting relationship with customers, inclusive of compliant content sharing – the Engage platform will facilitate this capability also (as shown in an instructive little ‘vignette’ of one Dr Morris in need of a rep and an MSL digital introduction).

Additionally, Shawah covered Link Key People, used by small and large pharma companies alike: the next stage is Link Key Account, for the payers, the key people. Available today in both the US and UK markets for early adopters, Veeva aims to take it globally.

To close, Shawah reminded those in attendance that the race to high-value engagement starts with them.

Moore returned to the stage at this point – with the company’s orange mascot not far behind – to announce the ‘Veeva Heroes’: Dave Yates, global product director at GSK; Irene Buesa Escribà, global promotional compliance specialist at Almirall; Pascal Vande Gucht, medical affairs transformation lead at UCB; Konstantinos Kofinas, head of business innovation at Menarini Group; Baptiste Omont, director and team leader of commercial systems at Idorsia; and Elodie Privat, sales analytics & operations lead at Novartis, gene therapies.

And so, the opening speeches came to a close and the summit rolled into its multi-track part – to be summarised separately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Red Candle In The Wind

Red Candle In The Wind

By Benjamin PIcton of Rabobank

February non-farm payrolls superficially exceeded market expectations on Friday by…

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Red Candle In The Wind

By Benjamin PIcton of Rabobank

February non-farm payrolls superficially exceeded market expectations on Friday by printing at 275,000 against a consensus call of 200,000. We say superficially, because the downward revisions to prior months totalled 167,000 for December and January, taking the total change in employed persons well below the implied forecast, and helping the unemployment rate to pop two-ticks to 3.9%. The U6 underemployment rate also rose from 7.2% to 7.3%, while average hourly earnings growth fell to 0.2% m-o-m and average weekly hours worked languished at 34.3, equalling pre-pandemic lows.

Undeterred by the devil in the detail, the algos sprang into action once exchanges opened. Market darling NVIDIA hit a new intraday high of $974 before (presumably) the humans took over and sold the stock down more than 10% to close at $875.28. If our suspicions are correct that it was the AIs buying before the humans started selling (no doubt triggering trailing stops on the way down), the irony is not lost on us.

The 1-day chart for NVIDIA now makes for interesting viewing, because the red candle posted on Friday presents quite a strong bearish engulfing signal. Volume traded on the day was almost double the 15-day simple moving average, and similar price action is observable on the 1-day charts for both Intel and AMD. Regular readers will be aware that we have expressed incredulity in the past about the durability the AI thematic melt-up, so it will be interesting to see whether Friday’s sell off is just a profit-taking blip, or a genuine trend reversal.

AI equities aside, this week ought to be important for markets because the BTFP program expires today. That means that the Fed will no longer be loaning cash to the banking system in exchange for collateral pledged at-par. The KBW Regional Banking index has so far taken this in its stride and is trading 30% above the lows established during the mini banking crisis of this time last year, but the Fed’s liquidity facility was effectively an exercise in can-kicking that makes regional banks a sector of the market worth paying attention to in the weeks ahead. Even here in Sydney, regulators are warning of external risks posed to the banking sector from scheduled refinancing of commercial real estate loans following sharp falls in valuations.

Markets are sending signals in other sectors, too. Gold closed at a new record-high of $2178/oz on Friday after trading above $2200/oz briefly. Gold has been going ballistic since the Friday before last, posting gains even on days where 2-year Treasury yields have risen. Gold bugs are buying as real yields fall from the October highs and inflation breakevens creep higher. This is particularly interesting as gold ETFs have been recording net outflows; suggesting that price gains aren’t being driven by a retail pile-in. Are gold buyers now betting on a stagflationary outcome where the Fed cuts without inflation being anchored at the 2% target? The price action around the US CPI release tomorrow ought to be illuminating.

Leaving the day-to-day movements to one side, we are also seeing further signs of structural change at the macro level. The UK budget last week included a provision for the creation of a British ISA. That is, an Individual Savings Account that provides tax breaks to savers who invest their money in the stock of British companies. This follows moves last year to encourage pension funds to head up the risk curve by allocating 5% of their capital to unlisted investments.

As a Hail Mary option for a government cruising toward an electoral drubbing it’s a curious choice, but it’s worth highlighting as cash-strapped governments increasingly see private savings pools as a funding solution for their spending priorities.

Of course, the UK is not alone in making creeping moves towards financial repression. In contrast to announcements today of increased trade liberalisation, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has in the recent past flagged his interest in tapping private pension savings to fund state spending priorities, including defence, public housing and renewable energy projects. Both the UK and Australia appear intent on finding ways to open up the lungs of their economies, but government wants more say in directing private capital flows for state goals.

So, how far is the blurring of the lines between free markets and state planning likely to go? Given the immense and varied budgetary (and security) pressures that governments are facing, could we see a re-up of WWII-era Victory bonds, where private investors are encouraged to do their patriotic duty by directly financing government at negative real rates?

That would really light a fire under the gold market.

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 19:00

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Trump “Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes”, RFK Jr. Says

Trump "Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President…

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Trump "Clearly Hasn't Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Joe Biden claimed that COVID vaccines are now helping cancer patients during his State of the Union address on March 7, but it was a response on Truth Social from former President Donald Trump that drew the ire of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a voter rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. (Mitch Ranger for The Epoch Times)

During the address, President Biden said: “The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer, turning setback into comeback. That’s what America does.”

President Trump wrote: “The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The VACCINES that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer—turning setback into comeback. YOU’RE WELCOME JOE. NINE-MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU.”

An outspoken critic of President Trump’s COVID response, and the Operation Warp Speed program that escalated the availability of COVID vaccines, Mr. Kennedy said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Donald Trump clearly hasn’t learned from his COVID-era mistakes.”

“He fails to recognize how ineffective his warp speed vaccine is as the ninth shot is being recommended to seniors. Even more troubling is the documented harm being caused by the shot to so many innocent children and adults who are suffering myocarditis, pericarditis, and brain inflammation,” Mr. Kennedy remarked.

“This has been confirmed by a CDC-funded study of 99 million people. Instead of bragging about its speedy approval, we should be honestly and transparently debating the abundant evidence that this vaccine may have caused more harm than good.

“I look forward to debating both Trump and Biden on Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas.”

Mr. Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would challenge President Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination before declaring his run as an independent last October, claiming that the Democrat National Committee was “rigging the primary.”

Since the early stages of his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has generated more support than pundits expected from conservatives, moderates, and independents resulting in speculation that he could take votes away from President Trump.

Many Republicans continue to seek a reckoning over the government-imposed pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

President Trump’s defense of Operation Warp Speed, the program he rolled out in May 2020 to spur the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines amid the pandemic, remains a sticking point for some of his supporters.

Vice President Mike Pence (L) and President Donald Trump deliver an update on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Nov. 13, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Operation Warp Speed featured a partnership between the government, the military, and the private sector, with the government paying for millions of vaccine doses to be produced.

President Trump released a statement in March 2021 saying: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”

President Trump said about the COVID-19 vaccine in an interview on Fox News in March 2021: “It works incredibly well. Ninety-five percent, maybe even more than that. I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.

“But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also. But it’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”

On many occasions, President Trump has said that he is not in favor of vaccine mandates.

An environmental attorney, Mr. Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that aims to end childhood health epidemics by promoting vaccine safeguards, among other initiatives.

Last year, Mr. Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan that ivermectin was suppressed by the FDA so that the COVID-19 vaccines could be granted emergency use authorization.

He has criticized Big Pharma, vaccine safety, and government mandates for years.

Since launching his presidential campaign, Mr. Kennedy has made his stances on the COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general, a frequent talking point.

“I would argue that the science is very clear right now that they [vaccines] caused a lot more problems than they averted,” Mr. Kennedy said on Piers Morgan Uncensored last April.

“And if you look at the countries that did not vaccinate, they had the lowest death rates, they had the lowest COVID and infection rates.”

Additional data show a “direct correlation” between excess deaths and high vaccination rates in developed countries, he said.

President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have similar views on topics like protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

COVID-19 is the topic where Mr. Kennedy and President Trump seem to differ the most.

Former President Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” when he took office in 2017, but he was “intimidated by bureaucrats” at federal agencies and did not accomplish that objective, Mr. Kennedy said on Feb. 5.

Speaking at a voter rally in Tucson, where he collected signatures to get on the Arizona ballot, the independent presidential candidate said President Trump was “earnest” when he vowed to “drain the swamp,” but it was “business as usual” during his term.

John Bolton, who President Trump appointed as a national security adviser, is “the template for a swamp creature,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Scott Gottlieb, who President Trump named to run the FDA, “was Pfizer’s business partner” and eventually returned to Pfizer, Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy said that President Trump had more lobbyists running federal agencies than any president in U.S. history.

“You can’t reform them when you’ve got the swamp creatures running them, and I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do something different,” Mr. Kennedy said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump “did not ask the questions that he should have,” he believes.

President Trump “knew that lockdowns were wrong” and then “agreed to lockdowns,” Mr. Kennedy said.

He also “knew that hydroxychloroquine worked, he said it,” Mr. Kennedy explained, adding that he was eventually “rolled over” by Dr. Anthony Fauci and his advisers.

President Donald Trump greets the crowd before he leaves at the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in Washington on Dec. 8, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

MaryJo Perry, a longtime advocate for vaccine choice and a Trump supporter, thinks votes will be at a premium come Election Day, particularly because the independent and third-party field is becoming more competitive.

Ms. Perry, president of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights, believes advocates for medical freedom could determine who is ultimately president.

She believes that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling votes from Trump” because of the former president’s stance on the vaccines.

“People care about medical freedom. It’s an important issue here in Mississippi, and across the country,” Ms. Perry told The Epoch Times.

“Trump should admit he was wrong about Operation Warp Speed and that COVID vaccines have been dangerous. That would make a difference among people he has offended.”

President Trump won’t lose enough votes to Mr. Kennedy about Operation Warp Speed and COVID vaccines to have a significant impact on the election, Ohio Republican strategist Wes Farno told The Epoch Times.

President Trump won in Ohio by eight percentage points in both 2016 and 2020. The Ohio Republican Party endorsed President Trump for the nomination in 2024.

“The positives of a Trump presidency far outweigh the negatives,” Mr. Farno said. “People are more concerned about their wallet and the economy.

“They are asking themselves if they were better off during President Trump’s term compared to since President Biden took office. The answer to that question is obvious because many Americans are struggling to afford groceries, gas, mortgages, and rent payments.

“America needs President Trump.”

Multiple national polls back Mr. Farno’s view.

As of March 6, the RealClearPolitics average of polls indicates that President Trump has 41.8 percent support in a five-way race that includes President Biden (38.4 percent), Mr. Kennedy (12.7 percent), independent Cornel West (2.6 percent), and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (1.7 percent).

A Pew Research Center study conducted among 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 showed that Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (42 percent) are more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (15 percent) to say they have received an updated COVID vaccine.

The poll also reported that just 28 percent of adults say they have received the updated COVID inoculation.

The peer-reviewed multinational study of more than 99 million vaccinated people that Mr. Kennedy referenced in his X post on March 7 was published in the Vaccine journal on Feb. 12.

It aimed to evaluate the risk of 13 adverse events of special interest (AESI) following COVID-19 vaccination. The AESIs spanned three categories—neurological, hematologic (blood), and cardiovascular.

The study reviewed data collected from more than 99 million vaccinated people from eight nations—Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, and Scotland—looking at risks up to 42 days after getting the shots.

Three vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines as well as AstraZeneca’s viral vector jab—were examined in the study.

Researchers found higher-than-expected cases that they deemed met the threshold to be potential safety signals for multiple AESIs, including for Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), myocarditis, and pericarditis.

A safety signal refers to information that could suggest a potential risk or harm that may be associated with a medical product.

The study identified higher incidences of neurological, cardiovascular, and blood disorder complications than what the researchers expected.

President Trump’s role in Operation Warp Speed, and his continued praise of the COVID vaccine, remains a concern for some voters, including those who still support him.

Krista Cobb is a 40-year-old mother in western Ohio. She voted for President Trump in 2020 and said she would cast her vote for him this November, but she was stunned when she saw his response to President Biden about the COVID-19 vaccine during the State of the Union address.

I love President Trump and support his policies, but at this point, he has to know they [advisers and health officials] lied about the shot,” Ms. Cobb told The Epoch Times.

“If he continues to promote it, especially after all of the hearings they’ve had about it in Congress, the side effects, and cover-ups on Capitol Hill, at what point does he become the same as the people who have lied?” Ms. Cobb added.

“I think he should distance himself from talk about Operation Warp Speed and even admit that he was wrong—that the vaccines have not had the impact he was told they would have. If he did that, people would respect him even more.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 17:00

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There will soon be one million seats on this popular Amtrak route

“More people are taking the train than ever before,” says Amtrak’s Executive Vice President.

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While the size of the United States makes it hard for it to compete with the inter-city train access available in places like Japan and many European countries, Amtrak trains are a very popular transportation option in certain pockets of the country — so much so that the country’s national railway company is expanding its Northeast Corridor by more than one million seats.

Related: This is what it's like to take a 19-hour train from New York to Chicago

Running from Boston all the way south to Washington, D.C., the route is one of the most popular as it passes through the most densely populated part of the country and serves as a commuter train for those who need to go between East Coast cities such as New York and Philadelphia for business.

Veronika Bondarenko captured this photo of New York’s Moynihan Train Hall. 

Veronika Bondarenko

Amtrak launches new routes, promises travelers ‘additional travel options’

Earlier this month, Amtrak announced that it was adding four additional Northeastern routes to its schedule — two more routes between New York’s Penn Station and Union Station in Washington, D.C. on the weekend, a new early-morning weekday route between New York and Philadelphia’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station and a weekend route between Philadelphia and Boston’s South Station.

More Travel:

According to Amtrak, these additions will increase Northeast Corridor’s service by 20% on the weekdays and 10% on the weekends for a total of one million additional seats when counted by how many will ride the corridor over the year.

“More people are taking the train than ever before and we’re proud to offer our customers additional travel options when they ride with us on the Northeast Regional,” Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Eliot Hamlisch said in a statement on the new routes. “The Northeast Regional gets you where you want to go comfortably, conveniently and sustainably as you breeze past traffic on I-95 for a more enjoyable travel experience.”

Here are some of the other Amtrak changes you can expect to see

Amtrak also said that, in the 2023 financial year, the Northeast Corridor had nearly 9.2 million riders — 8% more than it had pre-pandemic and a 29% increase from 2022. The higher demand, particularly during both off-peak hours and the time when many business travelers use to get to work, is pushing Amtrak to invest into this corridor in particular.

To reach more customers, Amtrak has also made several changes to both its routes and pricing system. In the fall of 2023, it introduced a type of new “Night Owl Fare” — if traveling during very late or very early hours, one can go between cities like New York and Philadelphia or Philadelphia and Washington. D.C. for $5 to $15.

As travel on the same routes during peak hours can reach as much as $300, this was a deliberate move to reach those who have the flexibility of time and might have otherwise preferred more affordable methods of transportation such as the bus. After seeing strong uptake, Amtrak added this type of fare to more Boston routes.

The largest distances, such as the ones between Boston and New York or New York and Washington, are available at the lowest rate for $20.

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