C-Suite Speaks

Catherine Owen joined Bristol Myers Squibb in September 2019, tasked with overseeing the integration of Celgene and BMS’s international businesses. She talks to In Vivo about managing the merger of teams from two very distinct companies during a global pandemic. Owen, who is passionate about career growth and mentoring, also highlights the importance of talent development and sponsorship – even in times of uncertainty, when business as usual goes out the window. 

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forces health care to go digital, opportunities for fraud have proliferated. In Vivo explores the risks, the steps regulators are taking and how companies are looking to provide innovative solutions to help secure manufacturing supply chains.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for society to address health care challenges at speed – we ignore them at our peril. Equally, it has highlighted the power that can be deployed to develop new pharmaceuticals when the life sciences sector collaborates internationally to tackle a common cause.  

Astellas’ chief medical officer, Bernie Zeiher, shares perspectives on how COVID-19 has forced the health care industry to think differently about patients’ diverse needs and how the best of these changes must become the norm in delivering patient-focused innovations.

With $250m in series A funding, Cambridge, MA-based Centessa is looking to upend traditional biopharma R&D models. The new company was created through the merger of 10 private biotechs, which will sit under the Centessa umbrella as subsidiaries.

Avacta CEO Alastair Smith talks to In Vivo about the company’s precision chemistry, immunotherapy and diagnostic programs.

After manufacturing issues disrupted a Phase III study for its lead pipeline candidate, Pharnext believes it is back on track with new management, a fresh clinical trial and strong guidance from regulators. New CEO David Horn Solomon has blockbuster expectations for the company’s rare disease drug. 

The annual J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference has come to a close. In Vivo has summarized some of the key themes to appear from 2021’s virtual meeting of industry leaders, investors and technology creators.

New drug development is an increasingly communal enterprise. In Vivo examines how one major US academic institution – the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) – is expanding its range of research contacts to open new areas of therapy and shorten the transition from bench to the bedside.  Its commercial impact is considerable: over the past two decades, private-sector VC’s have invested more than $2bn in UCLA-backed innovations, with 26 start-ups launched through the university in 2019 alone. Amir Naiberg, UCLA’s point man on technology transfer, explains the factors that have made the university a successful advocate for partnerships that produce results for patients.

Becoming a first-time CEO of a biotech company in 2020 meant dealing with unexpected challenges without any instruction book to follow. Santhera Pharmaceuticals’ Dario Eklund not only had COVID-19 upheaval to manage, but also a late-stage trial failure, a virtual financing and a new plan for the company to sell to stakeholders.

Money in the bank, biotech legacies onboard, a fresh partnership, an emerging internal cell therapy pipeline and a grand vision for the broad-scale application of its technology – has Mogrify got it all? The biotech’s chief business officer, Karin Schmitt, talks to In Vivo about the group’s near- and long-term goals.

A singular focus on defeating COVID-19 will likely dominate the biopharma agenda at the beginning of 2021 and will determine how quickly the industry, and world, can bounce back to something like normalcy. New digital capabilities and learnings will continue to emerge as the pandemic ebbs, and strong industry balance sheets will keep the deal volume moving, according to experts and executives.

A change in direction for the French firm means a new approach to R&D. Sanofi’s global head of development and chief medical officer Dietmar Berger talked to In Vivo about what was needed to get the company’s R&D machine back on track. 

In Vivo discusses dimensions around pharma CEO pay in India and whether it should be part of cost management efforts amid the pandemic.

Five years on from the first US biosimilar approval, the country’s biosimilars market is starting to fulfil its potential, in part driven by a recent oncology “revolution” according to Sandoz’ Sheila Frame.

Diversity in all forms is critical to innovation in health care, says AstraZeneca’s chief medical officer, Ann Taylor. In an exclusive interview, she talks about the company’s work in mentoring and education, and why tackling issues around diversity and inclusion must be driven by the C-suite alongside community initiatives.