FAQs

Berkley Life Sciences Risk Management is a resource provided to all of our policyholders. We are life sciences industry experts that have extensive practical knowledge from past experience in the areas of clinical development, medical research and product manufacturing. We know the industry inside and out. Click here to learn more about us.

We will work closely with your organization to identify your risk management service needs, then interpret those needs to prioritize risk mitigation within your organization. We are flexible and able to provide practical, common sense solutions.

Berkley Life Sciences Risk Management brings a life sciences industry perspective and third party expertise to your organization. We can partner with you to provide best practices and strategic resources that meet your specific life science’s needs.

There are multiple operational elements that make the life sciences industry more vulnerable to potential losses such as:

• Perishable products
• Complex supply chain, manufacturing and distribution networks
• Sensitive scientific property and equipment
• Potential cross product, bioburden or other contamination
• Critical warehouse operations with qualified materials that are susceptible to damage and even theft
• Intellectual property and protected health information
• A highly specialized employee base
• Aggressive plaintiff litigation bar
• The direct sales and marketing typically used within the industry as well as the associated marketplace surveillance activities inherent in the life science product realm

Berkley Life Sciences Risk Management offers a variety of services designed to help our customers manage, control and reduce risks for all lines of coverage. We complement our in-house expertise with a global network of life sciences focused specialty firms that have both the knowledge and the capacity to provide even more in-depth services that meet your needs.

We appreciate the opportunity to engage with you and we want to make your experience working with Risk Management beneficial to your organization. Therefore, to make the most of this opportunity, we will initially meet with you to develop a risk management strategy that is crafted to meet your expectations, your business strategy, and to utilize those resources which you would like made available to you as part of your insurance policy with Berkley Life Sciences policyholder. We will then meet with you on a regular basis to conduct the service opportunities identified as well as to make any necessary updates to your service plan based on any organizational changes that have occurred.

Your insurance broker just told you that a prospective insurance carrier, Berkley Life Sciences, would like to conduct a risk management visit to better understand your operations. You are probably thinking “Who are they and why do they want to visit our site?”

Berkley Life Sciences underwrites insurance tailored to meet the specialized risk management needs of the life sciences industry. At Berkley Life Sciences, the risk managers that will be meeting with you are industry professionals that have worked extensively in the life sciences space and can share their experiences with your organization.

The principal objective of a risk management visit at your facility is to better understand your story, your business operations and your company practices. The risk management visit will focus on the specific lines of insurance coverage that you are interested in purchasing, whether product liability, worker’s compensation, and/or property. As part of the visit, there may be some observations that the risk manager makes to your organization to enhance the management of your business risks.

To make the most of the visit, your risk management professional will initially call you to discuss certain items such as the requested coverage and other areas of interest such as quality control procedures, facility maintenance or safety policies. We will use this information to then select the experts who can best address these matters. Finally, we will follow up via email with an agenda and timeframe for the visit.

Recommended frequencies of meetings and service visits will vary depending on your needs. We will tailor our engagement to achieve the risk management goals we develop together.

We are able to provide worldwide risk management services to our policyholders.

We are able to stay abreast of the emerging trends in the life sciences industry by:

• Attending industry association meetings.
• Providing ongoing, specialized training to our staff.
• Working with our litigation partners and compliance specialists to review litigation trends.
• Tracking domestic and international regulatory changes, guidances and updates.

In this manner we are able to provide the necessary resources that your organization requires to stay up to date.

Berkley Life Sciences believes that collaboration with our clients is the key to developing a successful risk management program. Sharing industry knowledge and “lessons learned” allows us to work in partnership with our clients to implement unique programs designed to help them avoid financial loss and damage to reputation.

Berkley Life Sciences embraces a preventive approach to risk management. LSPrime® policyholders receive not just insurance coverage but also access to a wide array of risk management resources and expertise specific to your industry.

The risk management professionals at Berkley Life Sciences are not typical insurance loss control inspectors. Our consultants have extensive practical experience from working in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device fields in the areas of clinical development, medical research, and product manufacturing. Decades of experience in managing property and casualty claims and performing varied risk management functions complements the industry specific background of our staff.