pharmaphorum Podcast

Prior authorisations (or PAs) have long put a burden on pharmacy and medical practices, ultimately causing delays for patients. 

In a new podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Andrew Burns, chief revenue officer at DrFirst, about the ramifications of delayed patient care when it comes to specialty medications.

Exploring the current PA landscape, the conversation touches upon specialty pharmacy services and medications, helping to treat rare and complex medical conditions like cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Mentioned also are the place of advanced AI and automation technologies, and patient-supportive education, in such services.

It is, after all, about better health outcomes for patients.

You can listen to episode 167a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

Around 75% of rare diseases are diagnosed in childhood, with most before the age of two. With 30% of rare disease patients dying before the age of five, the need for different treatment methods for children is clear.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Helen Thackray, chief R&D officer at biotech company BioCryst, as well as an alumnus of the Children’s National Medical Center.

The conversation touches upon incentivisation for manufacturers to develop drugs to treat rare diseases, addressing age-appropriate formulations and recognising the metabolic differences between children and adults, and looks also at clinical trial design.

It’s clear that the time for action is now, and serving the paediatric patient population through every stage of the drug delivery process will lead to better adherence and more effective disease management.

You can listen to episode 166a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with two PharmaLex experts about navigating complex R&D processes to unleash the next wave of biopharma breakthroughs.

PharmaLex’s Dr Christian Schneider, VP & Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Development Services, together with Dr Christelle Boileau, Director of Regulatory Development Strategy and IPD solution lead at PharmaLex, which is part of Cencora, explore the many challenges faced across the clinical trial landscape when it comes to new therapies, including ATMP development.

From preclinical to market access and regulatory considerations, Dr Boileau warns that development is not a linear process, and for both an early-as-possible strategy is paramount. Comparing classical paradigms with the new, traditional endpoints need to be reassessed – for example, when defining dosage – says Dr Schneider.

You can listen to episode 165a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

The JP Morgan Healthcare Conference remains one of the most influential events for the life sciences sector, setting the stage for major deal-making, investment trends, and strategic shifts that will define the year ahead.

Keen to capture all the key trends and talking points from this year’s event, pharmaphorum editor-in-chief, Jonah Comstock, hit the ground running in Philadelphia, live blogging key sessions and interviewing experts to find out what industry insiders foresee for 2025.

In this special extended episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, Jonah sits down with Deep Dive editor, Eloise McLennan, to break down the key themes and takeaways from this year’s event.

From the impact of the new Trump Administration on research and development to advancements in brain health, PBM reform, and the evolving role of GenAI in clinical trials, they explore the discussions and developments set to shape pharma’s trajectory in 2025 and beyond.

Plus, hear exclusive interviews from experts, including:

You can listen to this episode, as well as previous episodes of the pharmaphorum podcast, in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

Therapeutic antibodies are a vital weapon in combating diseases such as cancer, but developing these treatments through conventional methods is slow and unreliable.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Dr James Field, founder and CEO of LabGenius, a drug discovery company pioneering the discovery of next-generation therapeutic antibodies in order to solve this predicament.

Dr Field speaks to how can industry cut through the hype that surrounds AI and optimally assess the technical underpinnings of an AI proposition in medicine. He describes how LabGenius overcomes the so-called “cognition barrier” by using mathematical models to understand how molecules will respond to disease, and then designs novel therapeutics with the right collection of properties.

You can listen to episode 164a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

AI might still be in the modish buzzword stage, but discussions exploring the potential for its scaling within life sciences are critical.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast with ZS Associates’ Sharon Karlsberg, principal and leader of oncology solutions, and Brandi Davis-Dusenbery, principal and partner, web editor Nicole Raleigh explores the potential for scaling advanced technologies in the biopharmaceutical industry.

From digital twins and insilico modelling and the potential to reduce experimentation in human populations with simulated populations and differently designed trials, to document authoring and automation for time-saving purposes – the conversation on leveraging AI turns also to the global regulatory landscape.

 You can listen to episode 163a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

For women with rare diseases, they often face a double jeopardy, where many of the symptoms they experience can be confused with and misdiagnosed as menopause.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Jennifer Schranz, head of rare diseases at Ipsen, for a conversation focused on rare liver disease primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), which affects nine women for every one man, and the women’s health gap more generally.

Schranz explains the importance of developing a more individualised approach to management and treatment of PBC for each patient and discusses Ipsen’s PBC therapy Iqirvo (elafibranor).

You can listen to episode 162a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

With about 92% of new drugs failing in human clinical trials, pharma companies face tremendous financial losses and, more importantly, development and delivery of potentially life-saving treatments are woefully delayed.

In today’s pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Isaac Bentwich, CEO and founder of Quris.AI, about how AI could revolutionise preclinical research and accelerate the development of potentially life-saving drugs, safely.

Exploring the notion of 3D organ modelling, combining AI and ‘advanced’ biology such as organ-on-chip, and delving into his research passion of the rare diseases space, including FragileX, Bentwich explains that there might be a long road left to travel, but with the acceleration that has taken place with such technology over the past few years, the horizon of success might not be too far off in the distance. No longer science fiction, we are living in the realm of tangible results and possibilities with AI.

You can listen to episode 161a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podbean, and pretty much wherever you get your other podcasts!

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Luca Quagliata, Vice President and Global Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs at Thermo Fisher Scientific, a company committed to advancing precision medicine, for a conversation on this space and a new frontier of biomarkers.

Quagliata discusses Thermo Fisher’s ongoing collaboration with EVERSANA, pharmaphorum’s parent company, and that collaboration’s investigation of the impact of utilising electronic health record (EHR) data in haematological cancers to support the company’s value proposition for ultra-fast next generation sequencing (NGS) with oncomine myeloid solutions.

That included a presentation at Frontiers Health 2024, in Berlin, in the deep dive, ‘Overcoming data linkage barriers with tokenization technology: RWE on the use of targeted therapy and its impact on survival in blood malignancies’ – presented alongside Dr Pierantonio Russo, Corporate Chief Medical Officer at EVERSANA.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock speaks with Dr Victoria Richon, CEO of Entact Bio, a company focused on the small molecule space, with its team of scientists, entrepreneurs, drug creators, and problem solvers working together to bring new medicines to patients who currently have few options.

Creating new medicines by enhancing protein function, Richon is driven by the desire to bring drugs to these patients. She and Comstock discuss protein inhibition in comparison to protein enhancement, based on the idea that many diseases are caused by too little of a certain protein – for instance, a new wave in small molecule drug discovery is those that bind to the protein of interest, but also to another protein that modifies the protein of interest, also known as induced proximity.

They explore the possibilities of PROTAC targeted protein degrader technology, Richon talking through the example of cystic fibrosis and the role of proteins in longevity there – as well as the future possibilities.