Pharmaceutical Executive

Elizabeth (Beth) Garner, chief scientific officer for Ferring Pharmaceuticals, speaks with Meg Rivers, managing editor, about: 1) her journey into the world of pharma, including her transition from being a physician/surgeon to working in clinical trials; 2) both women’s and men’s reproductive health; 3) the latest technologies in fertility treatment (for men and women); 4) unmet needs in fertility care; 5) trends in contraception and fertility treatment; 6) DE&I and access to care, and 7) predictions for the contraception and fertility treatment spaces in the coming years

Two companies join forces to unlock the hidden potential in existing drugs to save lives suffering from rare diseases. In 2010, Dr. David Fajgenbaum, co-founder, Every Cure, was a third-year medical student when he became critically ill with Castleman disease (CD). After months of hospitalization and in critical condition, nearly dying several times, he launched an initiative to find treatments to save his life and others. Fajgenbaum and Michelle Longmire, CEO and co-founder, Medable—both physicians and entrepreneurs—team up in a new partnership to treat rare diseases by repurposing drugs that are already on the market and finding other therapeutic areas where these drugs can have an impact.

Cathi Ahearn is a seasoned biotechnology leaders with formative stints at Genentech, Roche, and now at Bristol Myers Squibb, as SVP of worldwide commercial portfolio strategy. Cathi is focused on one goal: shortening the path between creating medical innovation and getting that innovation to patients. Cathi chats with senior editor at Pharmaceutical Executive about her experiences in the past 20+ years and most importantly, the power of cross-functional collaboration, bringing different teams together and tearing down silos that limit the impact new innovations can have for patients.

Across most industries, finding and keeping the right talent is a constant challenge for companies. This challenge is perhaps even more prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry, which requires a significant amount of specialization. Rebekah Martin, senior VP of reward, inclusion, and talent acquisition for AstraZeneca, discusses recruiting talent in pharma with Meg Rivers, managing editor. Specifically, Martin talks about 1) her journey into pharma; 2) reasons that finding and keeping talent is a challenge today in pharma; 3) ways to address the need for talent; 4) identifying and nurturing young talent; 5) increasing interest in working in bio/pharma, particularly among students; 6) how talent can be nurtured; and 7)how the industry can support and encourage diversity in the workforce.

Join Tina Fascetti, CCO of The Agency Network at MJH Life Sciences for a podcast interview with Ryan Potter, ACD Art, and Priscila Ramos, ACD Copy, from McCann Health as they share the "behind the creative" story of their Apex Award-winning consumer creative campaign for Entresto. The Apex Awards is judged by none other than the people they are aimed to connect with, the patients themselves.

In his position, Faruk Capan leads thousands of employees around the globe with a focus on bold innovation—one can imagine how excited he is about Chat GPT, which set the record for fastest-growing user base in history. Senior editor Fran Pollaro and Faruk go back and forth about positives, negatives, hopes, and fears attached to generative AI for us as regular humans, and as pharma marketers. The pair delve into content creation, creative, video production, research, sales and marketing…it’s clear that we’re on the precipice of life-changing innovation.

It is no easy feat to break into a male-dominated field as a woman, no less the bio/pharmaceutical industry. Piper Trelstad, PhD, head of chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC), Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, shares with Meg Rivers, editor-in-chief of Pharmaceutical Executive, her experiences working in the industry, specifically in the vaccines space, as well as what it was like for her moving up the ranks as a woman. Other topics discussed include Trelstad’s predictions for more women working at the C-suite level, the inner workings of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (including work on an infant probiotic), insight into her personal journey, and more.

Amanda Powers-Han, chief marketing officer at Greater Than One, has a couple of decades in the industry and is always on top of the latest trends in marketing and media for the pharma industry. She talks with senior editor Fran Pollaro about the ascension of social media as an incremental investment to one that is foundational. The pair delve into the honed focus on HCPs, especially in the rare disease space, building out sophisticated targeting strategies via multiple data partners, and the different uses across the social landscape, especially with video—from HCP social sites like Dermo and Medscape to the topical Twitter and its recognized peers like TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Cell and gene therapies are at the tip of everyone’s tongues in biopharma. Significant headway has been made in this space, though there is more research that needs to be done and many more therapeutic areas to eventually apply this method of treatment to. Chris Fox, president of Novartis Gene Therapies, shares insights into her work with gene therapies and discusses commercialization challenges. Through its gene therapies business, Novartis builds on the capabilities created through its experience with Zolgensma, a gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy. Fox also dives into how she entered the pharma space, her role at Novartis, balancing work and home life, and what the Novartis team is most proud of from 2022 as well as what they are most excited about in 2023.

As a society and industry, we’re emerging out of a period of hyper-accelerated digital and virtual growth, a positive born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many in the industry are wondering how the sales force is going to look and how they’re going to approach and communicate effectively with HCPs and patients. Pratap Khedkar, CEO of ZS, discusses this time of change with senior editor, Fran Pollaro, as well as the implications associated with the Inflation Reduction Act, the focus and importance of patient-centricity, what we might see in 2023 in the sales and marketing vertical, and more.