Conversations in Healthcare

In this episode of Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership talks to Bill Newell, CEO of Sutro Biopharma. Bill shared his views on the fundamental importance of ensuring patients, especially cancer patients, receive their treatment (as scheduled) despite pandemic related delays. He explained how they were uniquely positioned to continue trials and initial new ones safely and with minimal interruption due in large part to their onsite manufacturing facilities. Mike and Bill talked about how Sutro Biopharma successfully raised $98 million in a public offering through zoom calls which pre-pandemic would have been unheard of! They also explored the interesting dynamic they recently found themselves in when one of their major partners was acquired by another. 

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Hakan Goker, Vice President of M Ventures. Hakan gives a unique insight into how both COVID-19 and Brexit are affecting current investment opportunities for both investors and start-ups, including restrictions on travel, face to face pitching and pipeline requirements. He talks about the increasing importance on making sure all written communications and presentations are clear and sharp in this era to help executives secure and access finance, as well as patience while VC’s focus on existing partnerships. Hakan also gives an overview of the benefits of work with corporate VC’s, such as M Ventures, and how they minimize cross-contamination with the biotech and their pharma company.

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Seth Lederman, co-founder, CEO and chairman of Tonix Pharmaceuticals. Seth and Mike explored the two programs Tonix are currently developing in pain and psychiatry, areas where many larger companies have turned their back due to subjective endpoints. Tonix believes they have developed invaluable expertise to counter these challenges and Seth explains that the difficulty of the endpoints, will be compensated by the importance of bringing new medicines to market that will be significant to the pharmacopeia. Tonix is also working on a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 that is one of only a handful which is a live replicating virus vector platform. Seth discussed what the vaccine landscape might look like once COVID vaccines come to market and the adoption challenges we may face as a society. Seth also touched on the trend currently in the industry of biotechnology companies choosing to commercialise their products, how Tonix intend to do just this and discusses how technology has eroded big pharma’s advantage in this area.

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Sanjay Kakkar, CEO of San Francisco Bay-based start-up Tranquis Therapeutics. The company focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, an area where significant unmet medical need remains and that has presented the life sciences sector with major challenges for many years. Undaunted, Tranquis Therapeutics has successfully raised $30m in series A for their lead compound. In this interview Sanjay shares the milestones involved in both the development of their compelling compounds that are set to revolutionise the space, as well as the areas that attracted and intrigued their supportive investors. Mike and Sanjay also look to the future and touch on upcoming milestones such as clinical trials and possible commercialisation partnerships.

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In response to the pandemic, governments around the world have instituted policy changes intended to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus that could have long-lasting impacts. In this episode of Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership talks to DRG market access experts Steve Edgar and Judith Rubinstein about how new policies are reshaping supply chains, testing, development, approval and care delivery – and what it means for life sciences executives.

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Eric Elenko, Chief Innovation Officer of PureTech. Eric provides a unique insight into how they use a problem centric approach to identify and build out treatment programs, both internally and through their own founded entities. Eric also explains how this model has inspired them to repurpose one of their existing programs, LYT-100, to help solve the issue of pulmonary complications in recovering COVID-19 patients. He also talks about the affect social distancing has had on the industry, stating his expectation that telemedicine and digital health is here to stay and will gather momentum going forward.

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Mark Stevenson, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Mark talks to Mike about day-to-day pandemic effects on operations and priorities, and how they have redistributed resources to help combat impact and maintain longer-term business focus. He also explores how he feels the pandemic will change supply chains moving forward, as well as the life science ecosystem in general. Mark goes on to discuss exciting new developments for his company, including their bid to acquire Qjagen, drug discovery tools and innovation across the life sciences industry. Mark explains how important it is to work with other innovators in the industry and the growing clusters of innovators to look out for across the globe.

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Daphne Zohar, Founder and CEO of PureTech. Daphne sheds light on how their unique and innovative business model looks to solve unmet needs and problem areas across the industry, how they differ from your typical biotech and the benefit of their problem centric approach. She explores how they’re constantly innovating their internal pipeline and adapting to the needs of the market, such as using LYT-100, an existing program, to treat post-recovery complications from COVID-19. Daphne also shares her excitement at how the industry is becoming more open to new ideas and new models for developing medicines. 

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In this episode of Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership talks to Christian Hogg, Executive Director and CEO of Chi-Med, about how the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in China has shifted its priorities from generic medicines to more innovative therapies. Christian talks in depth around the driving factors and investment in innovation, including a reform of the regulatory environment and the vast expansion of access to patients. He also gives his take on why he believes some multi-national companies prosper, and why some fail, when trying to enter the Chinese biotech and pharmaceutical markets, and what they can do to make the most of the growing opportunities within this market. They finish by discussing the possibility that one day China will overtake the US to become the biggest pharmaceutical market in the world.

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In this fireside chat brought to you by Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership at DRG talks to Richard Erwin, General Manager and Managing Director of Roche Products Ltd (UK). Mike and Richard discuss what companies can learn from the pandemic and if the business world will operate the same way as before. Richard shared how they sped up their clinical trial lead time, from initial discussions through to first patient, to under a month (normally this could take a year)! Richard also talks about the new ways of doing things in healthcare such as telephone calls with patients.

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