Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Sam Clark, Founder and CEO of Terran Biosciences, is developing a long-acting once-daily formulation of a new class of antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia. The use of a prodrug approach to modify the new drug Cobenfy allows for improved bioavailability and has been shown to have fewer side effects than traditional antipsychotics. This novel class of antipsychotic drugs targets the muscarinic receptor system, which is a different mechanism of action compared to existing treatments.

Sam explains, "Schizophrenia is a very severe disease. It has both hallucinations and delusions. It also has a set of symptoms called negative symptoms, which encompass social withdrawal and symptoms that can resemble depressive symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, and memory issues. So, with this patient population, there are a number of drugs that are approved to treat schizophrenia called antipsychotics. But until now, there hasn't been a new drug approved with a new mechanism. So, all drugs have the same mechanism to treat the disease since the 1950s."

"But we just got, right now in the space, a new drug approved from Bristol Myers. It just got approved, and Cobenfy is the first new mechanism to treat schizophrenia since the 1950s. But there are some downsides to that drug in that it's dosed twice daily as an oral drug, and there's currently no long-acting injectable. And so, twice daily can be difficult for patients with schizophrenia to take. The space is moving towards long-acting injectables, which can last just one injection for several months."

"Now, that strategy has been used with other anti-psychotics on the market, such as Invega, to improve their bioavailability and make long-acting forms. So we took that same approach and created the long-acting prodrugs of Cobenfy, which are TerXT, those long-acting prodrugs. We believe that that will enable a once-daily form and a long-acting injectable that can go multiple months from a single injection and thus improve options for patients with schizophrenia."

#TerranBio #Prodrug #Antipsychotic #Schizophrenia #MentalHealth

terranbiosciences.com

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Joe Tucker, CEO of Enveric Biosciences, is developing non-hallucinogenic psychedelic drugs that aim to induce neuroplasticity and beneficial changes in the brains of patients with mental health disorders. The FDA rejected the approval of MDMA for PTSD treatment due to concerns about the inability to run blind trials to separate the placebo effect from the effects of the drug. Enveric addresses the promise of neuroplastic drugs that stimulate the neural connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala without hallucinations.

Joe explains, "And the problem, endemic to hallucinogenic psychedelics, is that there's no question in the patient's mind, in the doctor's mind, in everybody's mind whether or not they got an hallucinogenic agent. And so when everybody knows whether they got it or not, that's what you call functional unblinding. And so the FDA was very concerned about this. They said you must be able to separate the placebo from the actual drug. Until we see data that gives us confidence that you separated it, we can't approve it, even though it looks like a very positive impact for the patients."

"We were looking precisely to see if we could remove the hallucination without removing the benefit. So that's the field we're in. What's it being called right now? It's a very, very new field being called the non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen- neuroplastogen indicating that it induces neuroplasticity, in other words, rewiring of the brain, but does so without inducing hallucination. We saw two challenges coming: How do you separate placebo from non-placebo effect and the treatment?"

"Then the idea would be, hopefully, this psychedelic treatment was so impactful, you didn't need to take any other treatment again for a long period of time. And that seems pretty aspirational, honestly, and likely to get in the way of real patient acceptance that you want something which is not so sort of rock your world. Most people don't want that. They like to be able to have a drug that is like, take an aspirin. You take it every day. You don't have a big impact. You can go about your life. You don't really notice it other than you feel better. And that's the idea behind the non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen. It fits much more in line with what patients are looking for and expecting and doctors, the whole healthcare system. It just makes a lot more sense."

#MentalHealth #MentalHealthDisorders #MentalHealthEpidemic #Depression #Anxiety #PTSD #Neuroplastogens #Psychedelics

enveric.com

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Joe Tucker, CEO of Enveric Biosciences, is developing non-hallucinogenic psychedelic drugs that aim to induce neuroplasticity and beneficial changes in the brains of patients with mental health disorders. The FDA rejected the approval of MDMA for PTSD treatment due to concerns about the inability to run blind trials to separate the placebo effect from the effects of the drug. Enveric addresses the promise of neuroplastic drugs that stimulate the neural connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala without hallucinations.

Joe explains, "And the problem, endemic to hallucinogenic psychedelics, is that there's no question in the patient's mind, in the doctor's mind, in everybody's mind whether or not they got an hallucinogenic agent. And so when everybody knows whether they got it or not, that's what you call functional unblinding. And so the FDA was very concerned about this. They said you must be able to separate the placebo from the actual drug. Until we see data that gives us confidence that you separated it, we can't approve it, even though it looks like a very positive impact for the patients."

"We were looking precisely to see if we could remove the hallucination without removing the benefit. So that's the field we're in. What's it being called right now? It's a very, very new field being called the non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen- neuroplastogen indicating that it induces neuroplasticity, in other words, rewiring of the brain, but does so without inducing hallucination. We saw two challenges coming: How do you separate placebo from non-placebo effect and the treatment?"

"Then the idea would be, hopefully, this psychedelic treatment was so impactful, you didn't need to take any other treatment again for a long period of time. And that seems pretty aspirational, honestly, and likely to get in the way of real patient acceptance that you want something which is not so sort of rock your world. Most people don't want that. They like to be able to have a drug that is like, take an aspirin. You take it every day. You don't have a big impact. You can go about your life. You don't really notice it other than you feel better. And that's the idea behind the non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen. It fits much more in line with what patients are looking for and expecting and doctors, the whole healthcare system. It just makes a lot more sense."

#MentalHealth #MentalHealthDisorders #MentalHealthEpidemic #Depression #Anxiety #PTSD #Neuroplastogens #Psychedelics

enveric.com

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Ray Jordan is the principal at Putnam Insights, a strategic communications and policy consulting firm, and a partner at Echo Research. The core elements of reputation building are consistent across large and small companies. Many companies mistakenly think that a good reputation comes naturally, but building and maintaining a strong reputation requires a clear mission statement and an authentic voice to reinforce the company's message.

Ray elaborates, "In particular, when I've worked on reputation matters, including a lot of reputation on companies, smaller companies are more instinctual rather than based on data. The core elements of reputation are still there. What you need to do is build it, what you can do to lose it, and how it adds value to what you're doing. All of those elements are consistent in some respects. Very different situations, but they have much of the same core elements. That's true from the clinical side, the regulatory side, and the patient care side. From the opinion leader side across the spectrum, including reputation communication."

"So, to my mind, building it involves first knowing who and what you are and having a clear definition of yourself. The second is acting consistent with that characterization of who and what you are. The third is being seen acting that way, so being visible in those actions. Those are simple steps. They're not easy steps to accomplish, but they're simple. Who you are, how you behave, and whether you behave accordingly and are seen in that behavior."

#CorporateCommunications #LeadershipInHealthcare #CrisisManagement #ESGStrategy #ReputationManagement #HealthcareLeadership

putnaminsights.com

echoresearch.com

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Ray Jordan is the principal at Putnam Insights, a strategic communications and policy consulting firm, and a partner at Echo Research. The core elements of reputation building are consistent across large and small companies. Many companies mistakenly think that a good reputation comes naturally, but building and maintaining a strong reputation requires a clear mission statement and an authentic voice to reinforce the company's message.

Ray elaborates, "In particular, when I've worked on reputation matters, including a lot of reputation on companies, smaller companies are more instinctual rather than based on data. The core elements of reputation are still there. What you need to do is build it, what you can do to lose it, and how it adds value to what you're doing. All of those elements are consistent in some respects. Very different situations, but they have much of the same core elements. That's true from the clinical side, the regulatory side, and the patient care side. From the opinion leader side across the spectrum, including reputation communication."

"So, to my mind, building it involves first knowing who and what you are and having a clear definition of yourself. The second is acting consistent with that characterization of who and what you are. The third is being seen acting that way, so being visible in those actions. Those are simple steps. They're not easy steps to accomplish, but they're simple. Who you are, how you behave, and whether you behave accordingly and are seen in that behavior."

#CorporateCommunications #LeadershipInHealthcare #CrisisManagement #ESGStrategy #ReputationManagement #HealthcareLeadership

putnaminsights.com

echoresearch.com

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Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and Co-Founder of Ocugen, is developing gene therapies for rare blindness diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease, which have significant unmet medical needs. The modifier gene therapy approach aims to reset homeostasis and create a healthy environment for photoreceptors to stabilize vision loss. Ocugen is also working on a gene therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration, which has the potential to address the late-stage geographic atrophy form of the disease.

Shankar explains, "Vision is the most important part for all of us. Many years ago, when we founded Ocugen, it was based on targeting the ophthalmology disease area. We looked into many blindness diseases related to the back of the eye/retina. We have diseases such as AMD- and many people get into that – age-related macular degeneration. Then, there are diseases that are inherited in nature, like retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease. A lot of these diseases impact many families globally. Therefore, our passion for patients has driven that. If there is a significant unmet medical need, we want to take that as a challenge and provide solutions for patients and provide that hope."

"There are two rare blindness diseases. One is retinitis pigmentosa. There are about two million people globally who struggle with it. About 300,000 patients are in the US and EU. Effects in about 100 genes can cause retinitis pigmentosa. With our modifier game-changing gene therapy technology, potentially, our one product, which is currently going through a Phase 3 clinical trial, can target this entire population, rather than building or developing 100 products with the traditional gene therapy gene. The second inherited retinal disease we are working on, Stargardt, affects about 100,000 patients in the US and EU. Similar to RP, there are no therapies today to treat these patients' significant unmet medical needs."

#Ocugen #CourageousInnovation #GeneTherapy #ModifierGeneTherapy #BlindnessDiseases #RetinitisPigmentosa #GeographicAtrophy #Stargardt

ocugen.com

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and Co-Founder of Ocugen, is developing gene therapies for rare blindness diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease, which have significant unmet medical needs. The modifier gene therapy approach aims to reset homeostasis and create a healthy environment for photoreceptors to stabilize vision loss. Ocugen is also working on a gene therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration, which has the potential to address the late-stage geographic atrophy form of the disease.

Shankar explains, "Vision is the most important part for all of us. Many years ago, when we founded Ocugen, it was based on targeting the ophthalmology disease area. We looked into many blindness diseases related to the back of the eye/retina. We have diseases such as AMD- and many people get into that – age-related macular degeneration. Then, there are diseases that are inherited in nature, like retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease. A lot of these diseases impact many families globally. Therefore, our passion for patients has driven that. If there is a significant unmet medical need, we want to take that as a challenge and provide solutions for patients and provide that hope."

"There are two rare blindness diseases. One is retinitis pigmentosa. There are about two million people globally who struggle with it. About 300,000 patients are in the US and EU. Effects in about 100 genes can cause retinitis pigmentosa. With our modifier game-changing gene therapy technology, potentially, our one product, which is currently going through a Phase 3 clinical trial, can target this entire population, rather than building or developing 100 products with the traditional gene therapy gene. The second inherited retinal disease we are working on, Stargardt, affects about 100,000 patients in the US and EU. Similar to RP, there are no therapies today to treat these patients' significant unmet medical needs."

#Ocugen #CourageousInnovation #GeneTherapy #ModifierGeneTherapy #BlindnessDiseases #RetinitisPigmentosa #GeographicAtrophy #Stargardt

ocugen.com

Download the transcript here

Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and Co-Founder of Ocugen, is developing gene therapies for rare blindness diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease, which have significant unmet medical needs. The modifier gene therapy approach aims to reset homeostasis and create a healthy environment for photoreceptors to stabilize vision loss. Ocugen is also working on a gene therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration, which has the potential to address the late-stage geographic atrophy form of the disease.

Shankar explains, "Vision is the most important part for all of us. Many years ago, when we founded Ocugen, it was based on targeting the ophthalmology disease area. We looked into many blindness diseases related to the back of the eye/retina. We have diseases such as AMD- and many people get into that – age-related macular degeneration. Then, there are diseases that are inherited in nature, like retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease. A lot of these diseases impact many families globally. Therefore, our passion for patients has driven that. If there is a significant unmet medical need, we want to take that as a challenge and provide solutions for patients and provide that hope."

"There are two rare blindness diseases. One is retinitis pigmentosa. There are about two million people globally who struggle with it. About 300,000 patients are in the US and EU. Effects in about 100 genes can cause retinitis pigmentosa. With our modifier game-changing gene therapy technology, potentially, our one product, which is currently going through a Phase 3 clinical trial, can target this entire population, rather than building or developing 100 products with the traditional gene therapy gene. The second inherited retinal disease we are working on, Stargardt, affects about 100,000 patients in the US and EU. Similar to RP, there are no therapies today to treat these patients' significant unmet medical needs."

#Ocugen #CourageousInnovation #GeneTherapy #ModifierGeneTherapy #BlindnessDiseases #RetinitisPigmentosa #GeographicAtrophy #Stargardt

ocugen.com

Listen to the podcast here

Allen Cooper, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of ReadyList, highlights the challenges environmental services (EVS) leaders face in hospitals: controlling healthcare-associated infections, managing facility maintenance, and meeting patient expectations. Ensuring efficient room turnover for patient rooms and operating rooms is critical to maintaining workflow and avoiding delays. Real-time tracking, task management, and data-driven insights help EVS managers and staff eliminate outdated, inefficient methods and improve patient outcomes and safety in hospital operations.

Allen explains, "When you look at it from a patient's perspective, I think meeting and exceeding patients' expectations of getting great quality care is probably at the forefront of everyone's mind. There's a lot of competition out there between hospitals and health systems. I think, looking from a patient's point of view, making sure that the patients are delighted is number one. A close number 2, if not number 1, is making sure that the hospitals themselves are controlling and reducing their healthcare-associated infections. I think that's been such a hot topic in the last 10-plus years, making sure that the patients are safe and taken care of, and when they leave, they're in a better spot than before they came."

"We have four core modules of ReadyList. One is called ReadyList Room Care, which empowers the EVS cleaners to understand what's expected of them to turn over a room in a given day or hour. And it details out what's expected in a given room. Each unit in the hospital typically has different requirements and ensures that the equipment is what is actually supposed to be in place and that cleaning is done appropriately and done repeatedly the same way every single time. So the tool provides almost like a script for the cleaners so they understand exactly what their expectations are. On the flip side, for the supervisors, it also allows them to understand exactly what is going on, which rooms are cleaned or being cleaned, and who's doing what."

#ReadyList #HospitalOperations #EVSManagement #EVSLeader #EnvironmentalService #EVS #HospitalFloorcare #FacilityOperation #Healthcare #HospitalSafety #HospitalInfectionPrevention

ReadyList.com

Listen to the podcast here

Allen Cooper, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of ReadyList, highlights the challenges environmental services (EVS) leaders face in hospitals: controlling healthcare-associated infections, managing facility maintenance, and meeting patient expectations. Ensuring efficient room turnover for patient rooms and operating rooms is critical to maintaining workflow and avoiding delays. Real-time tracking, task management, and data-driven insights help EVS managers and staff eliminate outdated, inefficient methods and improve patient outcomes and safety in hospital operations.

Allen explains, "When you look at it from a patient's perspective, I think meeting and exceeding patients' expectations of getting great quality care is probably at the forefront of everyone's mind. There's a lot of competition out there between hospitals and health systems. I think, looking from a patient's point of view, making sure that the patients are delighted is number one. A close number 2, if not number 1, is making sure that the hospitals themselves are controlling and reducing their healthcare-associated infections. I think that's been such a hot topic in the last 10-plus years, making sure that the patients are safe and taken care of, and when they leave, they're in a better spot than before they came."

"We have four core modules of ReadyList. One is called ReadyList Room Care, which empowers the EVS cleaners to understand what's expected of them to turn over a room in a given day or hour. And it details out what's expected in a given room. Each unit in the hospital typically has different requirements and ensures that the equipment is what is actually supposed to be in place and that cleaning is done appropriately and done repeatedly the same way every single time. So the tool provides almost like a script for the cleaners so they understand exactly what their expectations are. On the flip side, for the supervisors, it also allows them to understand exactly what is going on, which rooms are cleaned or being cleaned, and who's doing what."

#ReadyList #HospitalOperations #EVSManagement #EVSLeader #EnvironmentalService #EVS #HospitalFloorcare #FacilityOperation #Healthcare #HospitalSafety #HospitalInfectionPrevention

ReadyList.com

Download the transcript here