pharmaphorum Podcast

As the European Society for Medical Oncology 2026 Congress commences in Madrid, pharmaphorum invited Syncromune Executive Chairman Dr Chuck Link onto the podcast for a conversation on the updated long-term overall survival data from its Phase 1 trial of SYNC-T Therapy SV-102 in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

Dr Link discusses SYNC-T, their investigational in situ personalised immunotherapy, as well as metastatic castration-resistant (or mCRPC) and metastatic hormone-sensitive (or mHSPC) disease, and the possible outcomes for patients going forward.

Listen to the conversation and keep up on ESMO26 updates here.

*This episode of the pharmaphorum podcast is brought to you in association with Klick Health*

By 2030, 1.2 billion women worldwide will be menopausal or post-menopausal - many at the peak of their working lives. Yet, menopause remains largely absent from health system planning, despite growing evidence linking unmanaged symptoms to reduced productivity, absenteeism, and women leaving the workforce altogether.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Cecilia Caetano, vice president, global medical affairs and evidence generation lead in women’s health at Bayer, for a conversation on this overlooked, but increasingly ur...

Even the most promising innovation still depends on strong governance, resilient operations, and confidence in sensitive data.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Robbie Tyrie, founder and managing director of Torridon Cyber, for a conversation on cybersecurity when it comes to pharma companies and health systems more widely.

Tyrie shares his insights and explains how to ensure cybersecurity acts as a business enabler, as opposed to a barrier to growth.

You can listen to episode 280 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your co...

Industry is using AI to surface hidden patterns and accelerate decision-making in high-pressure launch environments.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, host Nicole Raleigh speaks with Jason Smith, CTO of AI and analytics at Within3, for a conversation on data-fuelled agile launches and smarter decision-making.

Smith discusses alignment of cross-functional teams and fostering real collaboration and efficiency, how pharma teams can use real-time data to shape more precise and effective launch strategies, and the importance in all this of maintaining a deep focus on patient needs and healthcare provider challenges.

You can listen to...

Bioconvergence is a multidisciplinary research and development approach that merges technologies from biology, engineering, and computation, providing solutions in medicine, food, agriculture, manufacturing, climate, and more.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Shai Melcer, head of the national bioconvergence programme at Israel Innovation Authority, for a conversation exploring bioconvergence broadly.

Melcer discusses the foundations, goes into detail about companies currently working in the bioconvergence space, and what it could – all together – mean for the future of human health.

You can listen to episode 278 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the play...

Artificial intelligence is dramatically transforming the landscape for every part of pharma. One area where AI is both essential to implement and important to get right is pharmacovigilance, the group concerned with monitoring and maintaining patient safety.

In today's pharmaphorum podcast, sponsored by IQVIA Safety Solutions, host Jonah Comstock speaks with Updesh Dosanjh, IQVIA commercialisation lead for safety technology, about how and why the role of AI in pharmacovigilance is changing, as well as tips for implementing these new tools safely and reliably.

Dosanjh discusses why AI in pharmacovigilance is moving be...

Earlier this year, the FDA released draft guidance endorsing Bayesian methods and simulation-based evidence in clinical trials in a significant shift in how regulators think about predictive medicine. 

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, Dr Irina Babina, CEO of oncology R&D platform Concr, discusses how current regulatory frameworks were built for static, one-test-one-answer diagnostics, as well as the potential of digital twins, and how, if regulators keep approving AI medical tools the way they approve blood tests, the most promising predictive technologies will never reach patients.

You can listen to episode 276 of the pharmaphorum podcast in th...

*This episode of the pharmaphorum podcast is brought to you in association with Klick Health*

Europe continues to offer major life sciences advantages: deep scientific talent, strong clinical expertise, mature research infrastructure, and significant manufacturing capability. Indeed, biotech companies continue to invest in Europe as a long-term hub for scientific innovation, clinical research, and economic growth.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Giancarlo Benelli, SVP & Head of Europe at BeOne Medicines, for a conversation on what Europe must do, however, in order to remain globally competitive.

Benelli discusses...

*This episode of the pharmaphorum podcast is brought to you in association with Klick Health*

When it comes to digital innovation and AI, consideration of using and implementing such responsibly and ethically ever more becomes forefront. But how can pharma lead the way in ethical AI and trust-driven innovation?

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, Erik Janssen, head of digital care transformation at UCB, joins web editor Nicole Raleigh for a conversation on responsible digital innovation and ethical AI.

Janssen discusses how pharma can lead in responsible experimentation by focusing digital innovation on enhancing...

Public demand for prevention is surging, with 33.6 million people now using the NHS App, yet, NHS leaders say the digital infrastructure required to deliver prevention at scale isn’t in place.

In a new episode of the podcast, pharmaphorum spoke with James Davis, a healthcare expert at PA Consulting, for a conversation on the digital foundations needed to unlock a prevention first NHS.

Davis also discusses the initiatives with the biggest near term impact, what NHS leaders are worried about, and issues of trust and inequality.

You can listen to episode 273 of the pha...

For a variety of reasons, early stage clinical trials have been moving out of the United States more and more over the past few years, as companies pursue savings and lighter regulatory burden in places like China and Australia. The industry has long urged the US government to take some action to make it more attractive to bring these trials back to the States. That's the broad idea behind Operation TRIALBLAZER, a campaign launched this summer by HHS and the FDA.

On today's podcast, host Jonah Comstock is joined by Dr Harpreet Singh, currently chief medical officer...

Chronic liver disease affects around 1.5 billion people globally. As understanding of liver disease improves, outcomes are increasingly determined by how early patients are identified, not just what therapies are available.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Lee Lehman Becker, Roche’s global head of healthcare insights at Roche Information Solutions (RIS), for a discussion of the liver disease epidemic that is being diagnosed too late and driving a growing health system crisis globally.

The conversation also explores scalable diagnostic innovation and the role of this in addressing health system burden – metab...

The drug price negotiation provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act were designed to continue evolving with each passing year. As CMS prepares for 2028 and 2029, the agency has put out new draft guidance codifying and, in some cases, modifying the fine print of the controversial law. They’ve also recently issued additional draft guidance on how they’ll handle the imminent introduction of Part B drugs into the programme.

Hogan Lovells partner Alice Valder Curran returned to join pharmaphorum editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock to elucidate some of the finer points of this latest communication from CMS – and to urge the in...

SYNGAP1-related disorder negatively impacts synaptic signalling during critical periods of brain development, leading to a range of cognitive, epileptic, behavioural, and motor symptoms.

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Kelly Gold, CFO of CAMP4 Therapeutics, about antisense oligonucleotides (or ASOs) - medicines designed to selectively restore natural protein production in diseases caused by gene under expression.

Gold discusses the space and CAMP4’s CMP-002 study, targeting the regRNA associated SYNGAP1 gene. You can listen to episode 269 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the epis...

The M&A market has been rebounding in the US, driven by factors like patent cliffs and improved balance sheets – but the question is whether this will play out in Europe and how the wave could differ.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Andrea Carta Mantiglia, partner and lead of the Healthcare & Life Sciences Focus Team at Italian law firm BonelliErede, about whether the current US biotech M&A surge will indeed extend into Europe.

The conversation touches upon the appetite for cross-border dealmaking, the growing role of private equity in...

Purespring Therapeutics is a precision nephrology company pioneering first-in-class, targeted genetic therapies designed to preserve kidney function.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Haseeb Ahmad, CEO of Purespring, who discusses transforming the treatment of kidney disease, an area of enormous unmet need, with more than 840 million people worldwide living with chronic kidney disease.

Indeed, Purespring’s lead programme is the podocyte-targeted gene therapy PS-002, which is for IgA nephropathy (or IgAN). The conversation also touches upon the evolution of the gene therapy landscape more generally, and where next with this ty...

Europe's biotech sector is facing an innovation cliff, with fewer clinical starts, tighter capital, and increasing development complexity.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh caught up with Paul Bridges, president, consulting, at Parexel, and Charlotte Moser, Parexel’s chief medical officer, following BIO-Europe Spring in Lisbon, Portugal.

The conversation touches upon regulatory strategy and evolving policy shifts, trial design and execution – and the importance of patient centricity – as well as AI in drug development and medical leadership in drug development today.

You can listen to episode 266 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the pl...

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (or CTCL) is a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that begins in T lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cell that plays a crucial role in the immune system. And Citius Oncology is focused on developing and commercialising a targeted immune therapy for the initial indication of the treatment of persistent or recurrent CTCL.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Leonard Mazur, CEO and Chairman of Citius Pharmaceuticals about the launch of its first FDA-approved drug, Lymphir, for CTCL.

Mazur discusses the landscape of unmet need in...

The radiopharmaceutical sector is in the midst of a transformative year in 2026, with significant developments and challenges, including policy and reimbursement, increasing demand and growth within precision oncology and molecular imaging, and the need for specialised CDMOs when it comes to the intricate nature of radiopharmaceutical manufacturing.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Andrew Cavey, CEO of ITM, about current and future radiopharmaceutical trends.

Dr Cavey discusses the evolution of radiopharma, beyond the original “two pillars” of GEP-NETs and PSMA, including the move towards a multi-isotope model, as well as I...

2026 is the year of a major wave of pharmaceutical patent expirations, with numerous blockbuster drugs – spanning diabetes, immunology, cardiovascular, oncology, and other therapeutic areas – on the verge of losing market exclusivity.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Rebecca Guntern, chief commercial officer at Sandoz, for a conversation on the ‘golden decade’ for generics and biosimilars as so many blockbuster drugs come off patent.

Guntern discusses why the current wave of blockbuster biologics losing exclusivity is so significant for patient access and healthcare budgets, and the conversation also touches upon policy and regu...

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Lee-Ann Farrell, Head of National Programmes at Johnson & Johnson, about what delivery will look like in practice when it comes to the National Cancer Plan, the 10-Year Health Plan, and the Life Sciences Sector Plan.

The conversation ranges what comes next following the clear policy direction of the Plans, including how the system can move from ambition to implementation, particularly in ensuring innovation is adopted consistently and at pace across cancer care.

Farrell discusses the role of innovative medicines within evolving care pathways – as am...

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Kris Kaneta, chief product officer at Norstella, which is helping life sciences companies speed up development with instant strategy recommendations.

Kaneta discusses AI in drug trials and commercialisation and just what’s possible when clinical AI has access to a data set robust enough to allow it to make real strategic recommendations.

Kaneta also touches upon why patient-level data is pharma's most important asset in the AI race and the roadblocks that stand in the way of further expanding the efficacy of AI for cli...

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Ramy Younes, Corporate Vice President, Global Head of Clinical Development, CardioRenalMetabolism, at Boehringer Ingelheim.

The conversation explores the crisis beyond obesity that many clinicians and health systems are now grappling with: that obesity can’t be treated as a short-term, weight-loss lifestyle issue. Rather, it needs to be managed as a complex, chronic, multi-organ disease.

Younes discusses how liver disease is often missed in cardiometabolic risk and is referred to as the ‘liver blind spot’, as well as what integrated pathways can do to imp...

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh sat down with Dr Cedrik Britten, chief medical officer at Immatics, to discuss novel PRAME-directed T-cell immunotherapies.

Targeting PRAME unlocks new treatment options for a broad patient population with significant unmet medical need. And to do so safely and effectively requires deep expertise in immunology, drug development, and beyond.

Britten explains how finding the right cancer target is only half the equation – the other half is creating the key that fits the lock to that cancer. So it is that, in addition to discovery of tumour-specific ta...

Longevity and healthspan have emerged rapidly as an increasingly serious category of healthcare study and investment. But there are a lot of ideas inside the industry and out about exactly what the goal is. Is it about extending lifespans as much as possible? Are we trying to live forever? Or do we just want to experience less physical and cognitive decline as we age?

In today’s episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, host Jonah Comstock speaks with Boyang Wang, the founder of Immortal Dragons, a $40 million Singapore-based fund focusing exclusively on moonshot longevity innovations.

In a...

Today, the life sciences sector is prioritising recruitment of leaders who can scale efficiently in capital-constrained environments, as well as focusing on hybrid operator-strategists who can integrate AI into R&D, clinical, and commercial workflows.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with John Holodnak, co-founder of Occam, about how AI is beginning to reshape career paths across life sciences.

Holodnak discusses AI’s transformation of functional roles in life sciences, such as regulatory, market access, and business development, and explores the breakdown of linear career paths and way ahead for biotech an...

Pharma and tech companies are working more closely together than ever. As proven by the news of Merck and NVidia’s new partnership, for example. But while the idea of using AI for drug discovery has been around for a while now, patient access has an awfully long way to catch up to the promise of these new therapies.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dean Erhardt, founder of D2 Solutions, an end-to-end strategic partner delivering industry-leading consulting and purpose-built technologies to pharma manufacturers, hospitals, pharmacies, payers & PBMs.

The conversation fo...

Despite billions spent on new technology and improving data analytics, companies continue to struggle with commercial launch success, with around 35% of launches missing expectations since 2012.

Why is launch underperformance such a big problem, and why isn’t technology alone offering a sufficient solution? In a special episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, sponsored by Axtria, we spoke with Amanjeet Singh Saluja, a Principal at Axtria, about the current state of affairs in launch success.

In our conversation, Singh Saluja digs into the strategic and institutional causes of failed launches and what strategies can help redeem them. He...

Here at pharmaphorum we tend to focus on the latest developments in the pharmaceutical space. And to be fair, that’s quite a lot to keep us busy. But the history of pharma is full of incredible stories that might just be new to a lot of people, even those inside the industry.

On today’s episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, host Jonah Comstock speaks with Thomas Goetz, former executive editor of Wired; co-founder of Iodine, a drug data company that was acquired by GoodRx; and, most recently, creator and host of the Drug Story podcast.

Ea...

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Lance Baldo, CEO of Beacon Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company harnessing the transformative power of gene therapy to deliver meaningful outcomes for severe ocular diseases.

Baldo discusses the ocular disease landscape, as well as Beacon’s work targeting X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) and geographic atrophy (GA), and what the future could look like in terms of innovation in this field.

You can listen to episode 253 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it – an...

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, recorded at BIO-Europe Spring in Lisbon, Portugal, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Kashif Sadiq, founder and CEO of DenovAI Biotech, a company that believes humanity is on the cusp of a protein design revolution that stands to transform both human health and the world around us.

Sadiq discusses the company's springboard from AION Labs - with a first-of-its-kind alliance of AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Teva, the Israel Biotech Fund, Amiti Ventures, and Amazon Web Services, powered by BioMed X with the support of the Israeli Government.

He...

At BIO-Europe Spring 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Dr Olga Nissan, vice president of business development at Evogene, a computational chemistry company, specialising in the generative design of small molecules for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

Nissan discusses recent developments at Evogene, including its extended collaboration with Google Cloud to develop and integrate AI agents into Evogene’s ChemPass AI platform, as well as its collaboration with Queensland University of Technology in the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) space. She also speaks to where industry is at in its integration of cutting-edge AI in...

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh was joined by Rob DiCicco, vice president of portfolio management at Transcelerate Biopharma Inc, for a conversation on the barriers and the breakthroughs in making AI work in drug development and clinical trials.

DiCicco discusses why AI adoption in clinical trials is so different from preclinical research and development, as well as how synthetic control arms and in silico modelling reshape trial design, and he touches upon the need for making AI solutions meet not just regulatory and scientific standards, but ethical standards, also.

You can...

Genetic diseases are notoriously challenging to treat, especially when each condition requires a tailored approach. With over 10,000 known genetic disorders, developing individual therapies for each one has been an immense hurdle, particularly for rare diseases affecting small patient populations. But what if there was a way to address multiple conditions simultaneously, using a single, universal approach?

In today’s episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, Michelle Werner, CEO of Alltrna, discusses her company’s approach of leveraging transfer RNA (tRNA) to shift the paradigm in genetic medicine. This approach has the potential to offer hope to millions of pati...

In a new episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Andrew Mackinnon, senior vice president and executive general manager at Medable, about leveraging AI to transform clinical development and accelerate lifesaving therapies to patients.

Mackinnon discusses ‘white space’ in R&D, about integrating generative and agentic AI with human-in-the-loop oversight while prioritising patient safety and regulatory, and how all this advances health equity for underserved communities.

You can listen to episode 248 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the...

For 30 years, the AOP Health Group has been dedicated to developing innovative solutions to address unmet medical needs, particularly in the fields of rare diseases and intensive care medicine, and notably in cardiology and pulmonology, as well as haemato-oncology and advanced therapies.

As Rare Disease Day approaches, in a special episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, sponsored by AOP Health, we spoke with Melissa Fellner, VP of Global Therapeutic Areas, Commercial Operations, at AOP Health, to discuss AOP Health’s work in the rare disease space.

Fellner describes the unique challenges faced in R&D in th...

Slowly but surely – and just in time for the State of the Union – the full picture of the Trump Administration’s Most-Favoured Nations drug pricing policy is coming into focus. At the end of last year, CMS published the draft guidance for its GLOBE and GUARD pricing models, which establish MFN pricing in Medicare Part B and Part D, respectively. And earlier this month TrumpRx – the government’s promised patient-facing discount portal – finally went live.

On today’s podcast, Jonah Comstock is joined by Alice Valder Curran, a partner at Hogan Lovells and a healthcare policy expert, to break down...

Following his return from San Francisco and the JP Morgan Healthcare conference last month, editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock sat down with pharmaphorum web editor Nicole Raleigh to discuss what he heard and learned on the ground in California.

2026 marked the 44th year of the annual meeting: Comstock shares his top insights, goes into the details from the panel he moderated at the Informa Biotech Showcase, and suggests his key takeaway from this year’s conference.

You can listen to episode 245 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it...

The rising cost of drugs in 2025 was driven by several factors, including inflation, supply chain issues, and the demand for specialty drugs – straining already overburdened health systems.

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Jeff Harper, head of product at IntelliGuard, about these pressing issues and what hospitals can expect as we progress further into 2026.

The conversation also explores the role digital health technologies like RFID and predictive analytics could play in addressing drug waste and ensuring access, as well as why hospital CFOs and pharmacy leaders are reframing medication management as...

The term "omnichannel engagement" has become embedded in today’s healthcare conversations. Yet the biopharmaceutical industry often approaches it superficially – treating it as a trendy buzzword instead of a meaningful strategy for connecting with the sector's two most vital audiences: patients and healthcare providers (HCPs).

In this episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, developed in partnership with Reverba Global, editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock sits down with Cheryl Lubbert, co-founder and CEO of Reverba Global, and Carolyn Whiting, SVP of clinical and medical client services, to discuss how a thoughtfully executed omnichannel strategy can empower scientific experts to become effective comm...