In this episode of The Pharmcast, we join YourEncore Expert, Darryl Glover, to discuss one of the hottest technologies on the market today: blockchain.

We've heard some people say that if the internet was invented today, it would be built using blockchain. So, what exactly is blockchain, and how exactly can it revolutionize the world and change the healthcare industry as we know it? 

Darryl Glover is just the person to ask. Darryl is a YourEncore Expert, and the Chief Clinical Officer and co-founder of iSolve, focused on applying blockchain-based solutions to pharma-industry problems.

In this episode of The Pharmcast, we share a recording from our May 5th webinar, State of the Industry: U.S. Regulatory Policy Overview. Parthenon-EY and YourEncore recently conducted a nationwide survey of life sciences experts to query them on recent market trends, uncover their points of view on potential regulations, refine their current business models and gain insights into what discovery efforts might yield better results. With all the rhetoric surrounding the drug industry from political, news and personal channels, we wanted to know what “those who know” think of various ways to improve the system.

We asked 10 simple questions, soliciting input from more than 50 past and present industry executives and Experts from pharmaceutical, consulting and pharmacy backgrounds. What we heard was informative, provocative and in some cases unsurprising — but important to consider. 

If you're interested in hearing the full webinar, including a Q&A to conclude the session, visit www.info.yourencore.com/insights.

This week in the Pharmcast, we caught up with Dr. Tim Franson to discuss the leading edge of rare disease drug development. 

Dr. Franson has been actively helping Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Patient Advocacy group, which is doing pioneering work collaborating with FDA to inform benefit-risk and establish FDA guidance.

Duchenne has been a great test case, so we sat down with Dr. Franson to share his lessons learned and understand what’s happening on the frontiers of rare disease drug development.

This week on The Pharmcast, we tackle one of the hottest topics in the life sciences and healthcare industry: digital health. The promise of digital health is enticing, and a logical evolution of the digital economy. However, some of the early euphoria is waning as the demands of implementation, application and ROI are becoming more important, and in some cases - more elusive. 

So what is the current state of digital health for life sciences? What're some of the obstacles life sciences companies have to overcome to drive adoption? And what're some of the most promising applications of digital health for the life science companies? These are all questions we discuss with this week's guest, Dr. Ron Razmi. 

On this episode of The Pharmcast, Heidi Youngkin shares her formula to successful launch communications for biologics.

Heidi Youngkin is a 13-year veteran from Johnson & Johnson, where she served as the Executive Global Director of Global Pharmaceutical Communications and the Global Marketing Group.

After leaving Johnson & Johnson, she became the SVP of Marketing for Inventiv Health's Patient Marketing Group, so she brings a wealth of knowledge about marketing and communication strategy.

When it costs over $2.5B dollars to develop a drug, according to the most recent Tufts study, the pressure to have a successful launch is great.

Throw in that the industry is facing tighter scrutiny on pricing and value, that the science of biologics is getting more nuanced, and that there is more competition for the patients' or prescribers' time, and the world of launch communications is getting much more complex.

To help make sense of it all, join us this week as Heidi shares her formula for successful biologic launch communication.

On this week's episode of The Pharmcast, we talk with YourEncore Expert, Philippe Barzin, on the future of big data and artificial intelligence in oncology. Based off Philippe's article, Artificial Intelligence Fighting Cancer and Transforming Public Health, we talk with Philippe on five ways artificial intelligence will transform oncology treatment, and how biopharma companies can start adopting these tools to improve performance.

Philippe spent over 15 years at Johnson & Johnson, where among other things, he helped implement machine-learning and big data solutions for product safety and resource planning applications.  I am also proud to share that he is one of YourEncore's newest Experts.  

On this week's episode of The Pharmcast, we explore the key elements of an effective regulatory strategy and how to drive value to patient and shareholders by working with the FDA. We also cover common ways agency decisions can destroy value if not done properly.

Dr. Tim Franson and Dr. Joe Lamendola recently gave a presentation to a group of private equity and venture capital funds to outline the importance of regulatory strategy for small biopharma companies.

We are at a time of great change and transition in the FDA. The sitting FDA chief stepped down, just when the 21st Century Cures Act passed into law; PDUFA 6 is up for renewal this year; and the new administration has signaled hiring freezes for government agencies, including the FDA.

While many of the policy and leadership changes in 2017 may not appear to make a day-to-day impact on drug developers at first, these changes can in fact have a profound impact. 

To help us understand how 21st Century Cures, PDUFA 6, and leadership changes can affect your development plans, we sit down with Dr. Tim Franson, who is not only YourEncore's Chief Medical Officer, but also Chairman of the Board  for The Critical Path Institute, the Immediate Past-President for the USP, and a key contributor to the last few PDUFAs.

This week on the Pharmcast, we talk with Dr. Joseph Lamendola on four New Drug Application (NDA) mistakes to avoid.

Dr. Lamendola is the former VP of U.S. Regulatory Affairs for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Schering-Plough, and now serves as the SVP and leader of YourEncore's Biopharma practice.

Joe has over 20 drug approvals to his name, so we ask Joe to share his life lessons on how to work with the FDA to receive NDA approval and ultimately get life-changing therapies to patients.

In this week's episode of The Pharmcast, we talk with Dr. Janet Vargo and Minnie Baylor-Henry, J.D. to share 10 mistakes medical device start-ups frequently make during development that ultimately reduce their valuation to potential acquirers.

After evaluating dozens of innovative new medical device products as an executive at Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Vargo has seen firsthand the common mistakes that small companies make. In this session, she will outline regulatory and commercialization pitfalls to avoid that will improve your speed to market, valuation, and interest from large medical devices companies.