Empowered Patient Podcast

Jeff Beck is the Chief Development Officer at BioCareSD, a specialty pharmaceutical distributor. The field of specialty drugs has grown from the first drug for hemophilia in the 1980s to today, with about 50% of the drugs in the pipeline being specialty drugs. BioCareSD is an important component of the supply chain to ensure that these life-saving and life-sustaining drugs are available at the right time and in the right place.

Jeff explains, "I'm actually right now at the World Orphan Drug Conference, and it's unbelievable the number of studies that are underway for diseases that maybe a hundred people have, or a thousand people. What we're seeing now is more, and more of these patients are being able to live a really great life, no longer worried about having debilitating conditions. Sometimes, it's life-saving medicine. Sometimes, life-sustaining medicines. At BioCareSD, we're an important cog in the wheel to get those products to the patients."

"Specialty pharmaceuticals, it seems like the term has expanded a lot over the days. Sometimes you used to think that specialty pharmaceuticals were just infusible drugs, really high-cost drugs. There are specialty pharmaceuticals now that are pills, but they're unique. They're drugs that usually treat smaller patient populations, so I don't see them moving out of that niche or that term, so to speak."

@BioCareSD #BioCareSD #BioCare #SpecialtyDistribution #MedicalSupplyChain #RareDiseases #Pharmaceuticals

BioCareSD.com

Listen to the podcast here

Jeff Beck is the Chief Development Officer at BioCareSD, a specialty pharmaceutical distributor. The field of specialty drugs has grown from the first drug for hemophilia in the 1980s to today, with about 50% of the drugs in the pipeline being specialty drugs. BioCareSD is an important component of the supply chain to ensure that these life-saving and life-sustaining drugs are available at the right time and in the right place.

Jeff explains, "I'm actually right now at the World Orphan Drug Conference, and it's unbelievable the number of studies that are underway for diseases that maybe a hundred people have, or a thousand people. What we're seeing now is more, and more of these patients are being able to live a really great life, no longer worried about having debilitating conditions. Sometimes, it's life-saving medicine. Sometimes, life-sustaining medicines. At BioCareSD, we're an important cog in the wheel to get those products to the patients."

"Specialty pharmaceuticals, it seems like the term has expanded a lot over the days. Sometimes you used to think that specialty pharmaceuticals were just infusible drugs, really high-cost drugs. There are specialty pharmaceuticals now that are pills, but they're unique. They're drugs that usually treat smaller patient populations, so I don't see them moving out of that niche or that term, so to speak."

@BioCareSD #BioCareSD #BioCare #SpecialtyDistribution #MedicalSupplyChain #RareDiseases #Pharmaceuticals

BioCareSD.com

Download the transcript here

Marty Gauvin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fertilis, an Australian-based company creating micro medical tools to be used in cell culture such as IVF to improve outcomes. There is a vast difference in outcomes of IVF across different clinics in part because of the human intervention that is required in the cell development process. Fertilis has developed a system that controls the environment around each cell and mimics what would happen in the body.

Marty explains, "The first way it makes it cheaper is simply by having one less cycle. Patients are not paying for a baby. Patients are paying for a cycle. And so if it takes one less cycle, the average at the moment is three cycles, if you could have a baby in two cycles, that's a very major saving. A saving well into the five figures that you're going to make in any marketing in the world."

"It further makes it efficient because, at the moment, IVF is so expensive because it's what the economist would call supply constraints. There aren't enough embryologists and IVF clinics for the number of people that would like to become parents. And so, by making the process more automated, we can make it so that the best embryologists are not required for every single cycle. We can make it possible for an embryologist to be trained in much less time, for example. So the constraint that's on that capacity can then be removed."

#Fertilis #IVF #IVFClinic #CellCulture #Embryologists #IncubatorMakers

fertil.is

Listen to the podcast here

Marty Gauvin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fertilis, an Australian-based company creating micro medical tools to be used in cell culture such as IVF to improve outcomes. There is a vast difference in outcomes of IVF across different clinics in part because of the human intervention that is required in the cell development process. Fertilis has developed a system that controls the environment around each cell and mimics what would happen in the body.

Marty explains, "The first way it makes it cheaper is simply by having one less cycle. Patients are not paying for a baby. Patients are paying for a cycle. And so if it takes one less cycle, the average at the moment is three cycles, if you could have a baby in two cycles, that's a very major saving. A saving well into the five figures that you're going to make in any marketing in the world."

"It further makes it efficient because, at the moment, IVF is so expensive because it's what the economist would call supply constraints. There aren't enough embryologists and IVF clinics for the number of people that would like to become parents. And so, by making the process more automated, we can make it so that the best embryologists are not required for every single cycle. We can make it possible for an embryologist to be trained in much less time, for example. So the constraint that's on that capacity can then be removed."

#Fertilis #IVF #IVFClinic #CellCulture #Embryologists #IncubatorMakers

fertil.is

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Jenny Ahlstrom is the Founder and CEO of the HealthTree Fouon and a multiple myeloma patient and patient advocate. The HealthTree Foundation was the winner of the GSK Target the Future Think Tank Challenge and will receive financial support and technical expertise to extend equal access and diversity in multiple myeloma research, clinical trials, services, and education. This effort includes patient navigators who are members of the Black community as well as Spanish speakers who can provide patients access to material translated into Spanish.

Jenny explains, "I was diagnosed in 2010 and had some hypotheses about what I wanted in terms of my own therapy and my own types of support that I was looking for. And so, in 2012, we started the foundation, and we have been building up different patient programs for multiple myeloma over that long period of time. We've just gone to look and see what is available already in terms of support services. Then we identified different gaps that we saw as patients ourselves and tried to fill those gaps. And that's been the primary effort of our work, to fill those gaps for patients."

"So, we are going to apply this funding to our equity and diversity program. And specifically on this blackmyelomahealth.org website. This website will do outreach to the African American community. Like I said, they are two or three times more likely to develop multiple myeloma. And it's really essential that they learn broadly about what multiple myeloma is."

@HealthTree #HealthTreeFoundation #GSK #TargettheFuture #MultipleMyeloma #PatientAdvocate

healthtree.org

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Interview with Dr. Tania Small GSK

Podcast and Transcript

Jenny Ahlstrom is the Founder and CEO of the HealthTree Fouon and a multiple myeloma patient and patient advocate. The HealthTree Foundation was the winner of the GSK Target the Future Think Tank Challenge and will receive financial support and technical expertise to extend equal access and diversity in multiple myeloma research, clinical trials, services, and education. This effort includes patient navigators who are members of the Black community as well as Spanish speakers who can provide patients access to material translated into Spanish.

Jenny explains, "I was diagnosed in 2010 and had some hypotheses about what I wanted in terms of my own therapy and my own types of support that I was looking for. And so, in 2012, we started the foundation, and we have been building up different patient programs for multiple myeloma over that long period of time. We've just gone to look and see what is available already in terms of support services. Then we identified different gaps that we saw as patients ourselves and tried to fill those gaps. And that's been the primary effort of our work, to fill those gaps for patients."

"So, we are going to apply this funding to our equity and diversity program. And specifically on this blackmyelomahealth.org website. This website will do outreach to the African American community. Like I said, they are two or three times more likely to develop multiple myeloma. And it's really essential that they learn broadly about what multiple myeloma is."

@HealthTree #HealthTreeFoundation #GSK #TargettheFuture #MultipleMyeloma #PatientAdvocate

healthtree.org

Download the transcript here

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Interview with Dr. Tania Small GSK

Podcast and Transcript

Dr. Tania Small is the Vice President and Head of Global Oncology Medical Affairs and Chair, R&D Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Counsel at GSK. To improve clinical participation and outreach to a more diverse multiple myeloma community, GSK created the Target the Future Think Tank Challenge to find partners to meet unmet needs.

Tania explains, "This is where this whole Target the Future program stems from. It was really understanding what the needs are in the multiple myeloma community so that we get an earlier diagnosis so that we get improved access so that we get improved outcomes. What we did at GSK is we asked those questions. Then we paused and said actually the people who are best equipped to tell us is, are the patients themselves and their caregivers. And so, our goal was to take a grassroots approach to really understanding what are the key needs in this community to have the optimal outcome."

"So, we launched something called Target the Future to your point, this think tank for anyone in the community who could come up with innovative and impactful solutions to address these problems. We wanted them to let us know, and what we decided to do was fund their idea, not only fund the idea but give help to implement this idea."

"Yes, and we were extremely impressed with all three of our finalists. But this one really checked all the boxes and what they pitched was a HealthTree Equity and Diversity program. When you go through it, it really shows me an optimal model because not only did they check all of the boxes, but they were creating a real, sustainable solution within the communities that they were trying to strengthen and trying to help."

@GSK #TargettheFuture #MultipleMyeloma #HealthTreeFoundation

gsk.com

Listen to the podcast here

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Interview with HealthTree Foundation

Podcast and Transcript

Dr. Tania Small is the Vice President and Head of Global Oncology Medical Affairs and Chair, R&D Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Counsel at GSK. To improve clinical participation and outreach to a more diverse multiple myeloma community, GSK created the Target the Future Think Tank Challenge to find partners to meet unmet needs.

Tania explains, "This is where this whole Target the Future program stems from. It was really understanding what the needs are in the multiple myeloma community so that we get an earlier diagnosis so that we get improved access so that we get improved outcomes. What we did at GSK is we asked those questions. Then we paused and said actually the people who are best equipped to tell us is, are the patients themselves and their caregivers. And so, our goal was to take a grassroots approach to really understanding what are the key needs in this community to have the optimal outcome."

"So, we launched something called Target the Future to your point, this think tank for anyone in the community who could come up with innovative and impactful solutions to address these problems. We wanted them to let us know, and what we decided to do was fund their idea, not only fund the idea but give help to implement this idea."

"Yes, and we were extremely impressed with all three of our finalists. But this one really checked all the boxes and what they pitched was a HealthTree Equity and Diversity program. When you go through it, it really shows me an optimal model because not only did they check all of the boxes, but they were creating a real, sustainable solution within the communities that they were trying to strengthen and trying to help."

@GSK #TargettheFuture #MultipleMyeloma #HealthTreeFoundation

gsk.com

Download the transcript here

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Interview with HealthTree Foundation

Podcast and Transcript

Joe Landolina is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cresilon, the only fill-and-finish operation in the five boroughs of New York. Building on a discovery about the ability to stop all kinds of bleeding, Cresilon is using recycled algae, meaning algae or kelp that has washed up onto the shoreline. The vendors they work with are highly sustainable as they are not damaging kelp forests but salvaging material that has already washed up on beaches.

Joe explains, "So I was very experienced in plant-based chemistries, and one day I was trying to run an experiment. The original intent of the experiment failed, but what I came across was this blend of two polysaccharides, long chains of sugar, that formed a gel that would immediately reassemble and stick to tissue, like skin or an open injury. It wouldn't let go until you wanted it to."

"That's not quite what we do today, but that led to the technology that we now have commercially under the brand name VETIGEL, which is a hemostatic gel that immediately stops anything from the most traumatic of bleeding, like gunshot wounds, arterial bleeds, all the way down to small nicks and scrapes surgically, on contact, without the need to apply pressure, allowing the patient to produce their own healthy clot and heal the wound normally."

@Cresilon #Cresilon #StoptheBleed #BleedingControl #Vertigel #Hemostatic #PlantBasedChemistries

cresilon.com

Listen to the podcast here

Joe Landolina is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cresilon, the only fill-and-finish operation in the five boroughs of New York. Building on a discovery about the ability to stop all kinds of bleeding, Cresilon is using recycled algae, meaning algae or kelp that has washed up onto the shoreline. The vendors they work with are highly sustainable as they are not damaging kelp forests but salvaging material that has already washed up on beaches.

Joe explains, "So I was very experienced in plant-based chemistries, and one day I was trying to run an experiment. The original intent of the experiment failed, but what I came across was this blend of two polysaccharides, long chains of sugar, that formed a gel that would immediately reassemble and stick to tissue, like skin or an open injury. It wouldn't let go until you wanted it to."

"That's not quite what we do today, but that led to the technology that we now have commercially under the brand name VETIGEL, which is a hemostatic gel that immediately stops anything from the most traumatic of bleeding, like gunshot wounds, arterial bleeds, all the way down to small nicks and scrapes surgically, on contact, without the need to apply pressure, allowing the patient to produce their own healthy clot and heal the wound normally."

@Cresilon #Cresilon #StoptheBleed #BleedingControl #Vertigel #Hemostatic #PlantBasedChemistries

cresilon.com

Download the transcript here