The Future of Pharma

My guest in this episode of The Future of Pharma is Nikhil Bhojwani.

Nikhil is an entrepreneur, investor, strategist, and TedTalk speaker. He is a Managing Partner at Recon Strategy, a boutique consulting firm that he founded in 2010. At Recon Strategy, Nikhil works with executives and boards on strategy at the portfolio and business-unit levels for payers, hospitals, life science, and digital health companies.

Nikhil stays close to the startup community as an investor, board member, and advisor to several companies. These have included CIC Health, a national leader in COVID testing and vaccinations, which was founded based on a blueprint set out in an HBR article Nikhil co-authored with Dr. Atul Gawande.

Nikhil was the 2023 Dorothy R. Eisenberg Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School/ Brigham and Women's Hospital, where for the 50th anniversary lecture of this series, he presented a lecture on the future of AI in healthcare.

He has also lectured at Harvard Business School and the Harvard School of Public Health and is a member of the Massachusetts Governor's AI task force healthcare working group.

In this wide ranging talk, we discuss about - What AI can do that humans can't - How Moderna is using AI to respond to regulatory queries (among other things) - AI in pharma competitive landscape (and it's not just technology) - Where multiple big companies need to collaborate due to the scale - His tedtalk ("Unlock potential of Generative AI by Conquering the Spooky Mountain") - Responsible use of AI - Rational and irrational fears about AI - Why AI's growth seems scarier than other historical technological advances - Real impact in the pharmaceutical industry (and on the regulatory agencies) - And instead of writing a book, what he would do with the existing knowledge.

Hope you enjoy this informative talk with Nikhil Bhojwani.

Gareth Shaw is the President, the UK & Europe of Doceree, the first global network of physician-only platforms for programmatic messaging. Prior to joining Doceree, Gareth was the General Manager, Global Programmatic, of PulsePoint where he led the programmatic and operations divisions.

Previously, he has held roles at Yahoo! and Experian.

Throughout his career, Gareth has gained vast experience in sales and operations across the digital media and advertising technology sectors. He has a well-regarded background in building high-performance teams and implementing strategic plans to facilitate the growth of his organizations.

My guest today is Brian Hagopian who's known as or at least I call him "the Kevin Bacon of the Boston life sciences industry", either you know him or you know someone who knows him. He is currently the President of Clear Water Consulting, Inc.,and received his chemistry degree from Colgate University. He has over 35 years of design, manufacturing, and operational experience and is currently a highly sought after high purity water subject matter expert. Brian is an instructor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is also a Massachusetts certified instructor offering licensing courses for industrial wastewater operators. Brian is the Past President of the ISPE Boston Area Chapter where he helped to lay the foundation for the Boston Chapter’s highly successful Product Show at Gillette Stadium. Not surprisingly, Brian is one of six people to have received the Hank Moes Lifetime Achievement Award for significant contributions to the Boston chapter and the life sciences industry.

Some key takeaways from the interview. - Brian's dad was an entrepreneur - You have to be in the game to win it - We underestimate how much time and money everything’s going to take - When you're an entrepreneur, say goodbye to the 40 hours per week schedule - No matter your industry, it'll continue to evolve. You must try to keep up. - Being "thrifty business owner" got him to develop a new wastewater training course - Advice to Young Professional - avoid debt, plan for big expense in advance, use credit card only for emergencies, learn to negotiate, set goals and make plans to achieve them - His potential Ted talk - General water safety - Role models - Bill Russell (ex-Celtics player) - true team player, one of the greatest basketball players of all time - Books recommend to others - Outliers and Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, Dale Carnegie public speaking course - it helps with a lot more than just public speaking, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - Quote he lives by - The harder I work, the luckier I get (the world is full of brilliant but lazy underachievers)

For me, he's been a friend and a mentor. In this interview, we talk about his beginning as an entrepreneur and all the excitement and challenges that come with that, how the industry has changed over the years and where it's headed. You'll also hear some nuggets about how to build your professional career, develop new skills and why hard work will outperform everything else every time. Hope you enjoy this talk from a very generous individual who's always given more than he has received. Here's Brian Hagopian.

My guest today is Francesca McBride. Francesca completed a Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Delaware in 1985, majoring in Pre-Veterinary Science. As a pharmaceutical/ biotechnology regulatory compliance specialist Francesca works with international companies to support the design, start-up, licensing and operation of clinical and commercial product manufacturing facilities.

She has been with Jacobs (Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology) for 25+ years and currently in her capacity as a Director, Regulatory Compliance is involved in the support of client and design teams to ensure the design meets the applicable international cGMP / cGTP requirements.

During her tenure at Jacobs she has lived and worked in the US, UK, Ireland and India. She has both presented and published papers at global conferences.

Most recently she has worked with hospitals and universities in the design and startup of new cell therapy facilities that support the treatment of cancer. Francesca's goal is to build a stronger relationship with the cell therapy facilities to advance the cancer treatment opportunities - an area which is very close to her heart and you'll understand why after listening to her story. Last but not least, she's also a Triathlete.

Some takeaways from the interview - Francesca's global journey - Say yes to new opportunities - When a new technology is introduced, everyone's learning at the same time - Regulatory 101 lesson - Which regulations apply during which stage of the drug development - How regulatory agencies' approach have changed over the years - How different regulatory agencies differ - Regulatory Dos and Don'ts at the beginning of a project - Advice for young women: Research careers to match your interest, Develop your expertise - Impact of a good professor on a student - Book she keeps going back to (given to her by her sister) : The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Enjoy this interview with Francesca and listen how she simplifies the complicated global regulations around the life sciences for us to understand. Here's Francesca McBride.

Dr. Mukesh Hariawala is a world-renowned heart surgeon, a highly sought after keynote speaker and Chairman of American Healthcare International (AHI). Prof Chintan Vaishnav is a professor at Sloan School of Management at MIT and Director of MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design. Mr. Jayesh Mankodi is an IT industry veteran with expertise in Infrastructure Architecture and Cloud Computing. Chintan and Jayesh are advisors to AHI. Using blockchain technology and cloud computing, Mukesh, Chintan and Jayesh at AHI are working to solve the problem of fake drugs in the market.