Making Medicine

Investors are logical people. They invest in medicines that they expect will give them a return.
Right now, there’s far too little investment in developing new antibiotics. The pipeline of treatment is thin, but the need is greater than ever.
Enter the AMR Action Fund.
Hear our conversation with Dr. Henry Skinner, Chief Executive Officer at AMR Action Fund about:
The increasing cost of AMR and policy challenges
How to build the pipeline to reach the new antibiotics we need to save millions
Leveraging healthcare innovation for AMR before it’s too late
AMR Action Fund’s first two investments and future outlook 


More information about Henry and today’s topics:
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/henryskinner/
Company Website: https://www.amractionfund.com/ 


As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

We’ll be the first to say that the healthcare system is broken, especially in patient access complexity.
However, we see three areas where we can execute actionable change for patients in 2022: intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, and the FDA’s reauthorization.
In this episode, Coalition Manager and podcast host Ashlyn Roberts interviews John Stanford, Executive Director at Incubate Coalition, about opportunities for pro-patient reform.
Join us as we discuss:
A level set of what’s been happening in Washington lately
Why drug pricing issues are still evergreen
3 areas for improvement: IP, M&A, and PDUFA
Shifting the narrative about pro-patient reforms



As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

If we want data and clinical trials that meaningfully represent the population of people who take the drug, we’ll need to do more than just issue guides.
In this episode, we interview returning guest Kirsten Axelsen,Senior Advisor for Charles River Associates, about making medicine more accessible to lower income people and creating a more equitable health system with better data.
Join us as we discuss:
The detrimental effects of price controls on early life stages of drug development
Why a price control on one is a price control on all
The deep concerns about health disparity and equity
How data can address racism, ageism, and poverty in health systems
2022 as the year of the non-COVID vaccine



Check out these resources we mentioned:
Report referenced at 1:16 here and here.
Build Back Better Act 



As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

Drug development is a relay race because you pass the baton to the next runner who will take it to the next level. You are proud to have made it onto the stairs at the end of the race not as an individual but as a huge team of experts of subsequent talents.
In this episode we interview Johannes Fruehauf, Founder and CEO at LabCentral/BioLabs, about how the relay race metaphor shapes our understanding of drug development and why we need knowledgeable capital to forge ahead.
Join us as we discuss:
Solving challenges that face scaling entrepreneurs
The stages of the drug development relay race
Investing in a drug development ecosystem that diversifies talent
The need for investors who understand pharmaceutical startup proposals  


As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

Drug policy debate today is like a wetland. It’s the heart of the ecosystem that has to be preserved at all costs — or else we lose the wetlands, the shore, everything.
In this episode, we interview Jean-Francois Formela, Partner at Atlas Venture, about what brought him to Washington and his views on the government’s role in drug development.
Join us as we discuss:
Where are we going in drug development
The role of new modalities
Investor goals: great science, great company, good return
A future in which governments enable the biopharmaceutical community to cure disease



To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

Today’s guest describes drug development in the American healthcare market with the analogy of mortgages and rents.

People would rather pay higher mortgages because they are finite than pay rent indefinitely. Market-based pricing means that drugs will cost more until they become generic, whereas price control means paying rent forever.
In this episode, we interview Peter Kolchinsky, Managing Partner at RA Capital Management , LP and author of The Great American Drug Deal, about the state of drug development in the light of current events in policymaking.

In this episode, we discuss:
The investor’s paradox and expecting drugs to fail
Why the market, not the government, should steer drug development
The mortgage vs. rent analogy
Why insurance is essential to drug development
How a trust in healthcare allows global society to function



As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

How does an MIT senior year capstone project evolve into an early-stage biotech that creates wearable solutions for Parkinson’s tremors?
Listen to Daniel Carballo speak about the story of Encora Therapeutics in our MIT takeover episode, hosted by guest Lindsay Androski Founder, President, and CEO at Roivant Social Ventures and President, Board Member at Incubate Coalition. 
In this episode, we discuss:
The innovation behind the first wearable prototype
Daniel’s decision to become an entrepreneur
His company’s North Star: improving patients’ lives
The role of venture capital in the commercialization process


As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

As we follow innovation along the R&D value chain, we come across some compelling contributions to the healthcare ecosystem.

Venture capital investors. Causal inference. Real world evidence.

In this episode, we interview three guests about a collaboration story that represents the best of a healthy healthcare ecosystem:

Janis Naeve, Managing Director, Amgen Ventures at Amgen and Incubate Board Treasurer
Brian Bradbury , Vice President of Center for Observational Research at Amgen and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at UCLA
Alan Brookhart, Founder and Chief Scientist at NoviSci and Professor of Population Health Sciences at Duke University
In this episode we discuss:

How Amgen fosters relationships among scientists
The difference between machine learning and causal inference
The origin story of NoviSci
How COVID has affected a fruitful partnership


As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.

The price control policies that are being discussed in Congress have the potential to harm innovation in the life science industry. But how, exactly?
In this episode, we interview Kirsten Axelsen, Senior Advisor at Charles Rivers Associates , about what would change in biopharma if price controls were implemented.
In this episode, we discuss:

The close relationship between economy and drug development
The U.S.’s role in developing over 40% of the world’s new medicines
The potential reduction of biopharma global revenues by 19%
What it means globally when 8-15 fewer medicines are made per decade
Some flaws in the health technology assessment (HTI) regarding clinical trials

Incubate Policy Lab is the research arm of Incubate Coalition, where we will be releasing reports, whitepapers, and hosting events in partnership with Charles Richards Associates. You can visit our website for more information.
We will be releasing an analysis on the CBO report and how HR 3 will impact life sciences R&D, and another report where we analyze price controls from the venture capital perspective. We also hosted a roundtable, and will be releasing an analysis our findings from experts who attended the event.
As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

What goes into a bottle of new medicine is more than the proverbial 15 years and $2 billion. It takes great science, certainly, but it also takes 15 years of relationships.
No one can make medicine alone, not even Big Pharma. Collaboration, innovation, and industry relationships are key to bringing life-saving medicine to market.
In this episode, I interview Imran Nasrullah, Vice President & Head, Open Innovation Center North America - East at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, about strengthening relationships within the biotech ecosystem.
In this episode we discuss:

The importance of industry relationships in making medicine
How relationships mitigate the challenge of drug development
Mentoring options for small, innovative companies
Relying on partners to actualize different paths to commercialization

As we continue this journey together, we want to hear from you, the listener. Email [email protected] or [email protected] what’s top of mind, what story you want to hear, or what you find interesting!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Making Medicine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Making Medicine in your favorite podcast player.