Molecule to Market: Inside the outsourcing space

From Powdersize to Microsize

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with TJ Higley, CEO at Microsize.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with TJ, covering:

• The fast, easy, scalable, precise, and non-patent-protected benefits of micronization
• How a synergistic capability alliance led to the eventual sale of his business to Lonza Capsugel
• The risks and realities of being an entrepreneur acquiring an organization, and then the collective rewards by incentivizing a team
• How a ‘getting the band back together’ call led to TJ taking back the site he once sold to create Microsize
• The importance of strategic partnerships and recognizing that you can’t do everything yourself

TJ joined Microsize in 2022 as CEO to lead the company into the next growth phase. TJ brings 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical market, most uniquely as a former owner and executive leader of Powdersize, Inc., the original and first CMO focused on pharmaceutical micronization in the US. TJ led both the business development efforts and oversaw the site quality team during his tenure, culminating in the acquisition of the company by Capsugel in 2015 and the integration into Lonza in 2017.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues, and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital, and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed, and grow in life sciences.

 

The mission-driven biotech CEO

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Howard Berman, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Coya Therapeutics

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Howard, covering:

• How a neurology appointment with his father led to the creation of a biotech company focused on neurodegenerative, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases
• Having the DNA of an entrepreneur but taking the time to gain a big pharma foundation
• The harsh realities and characteristics required to start, fund, and grow a clinical-stage biotechnology company
• The need as a biotech CEO to be bullish, have confidence in your partners and be passionate about your disease... while celebrating the little successes
• Howard co-founded Nicoya Health in 2020 to realize the vision and research of Dr. Stanley Appel. He merged the company with Coya Therapeutics in 2021, where he currently serves as Chairman and CEO

He has over 18 years of entrepreneurial and industry experience working at the interplay of science and business. His experience offers him a unique combination of business acumen and scientific credibility with the ability to assess, quantify, and bridge both disciplines.

Howard gained corporate experience with increasing responsibilities and positions as a Medical Science Liaison at AbbVie. He spent 7.5 years launching Venetoclax in CLL and later, supporting numerous solid tumor assets. He also served in leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals and later Eli Lilly where he was the scientific point of contact between the company and key opinion leaders for the development and initiation of collaborations, clinical trials and investigator-initiated trials.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

Foot on the pedal for Predictive Oncology

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Pamela Bush, Chief Business Officer at Predictive Oncology.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Pam, covering:

• The key aspects to successful deal-making learned over a decade with Eli Lily
• How a passion for curing cancer led Pamela to an opportunity to impact thousands of promising candidates directly
• How active machine learning is being used to screen molecules, help companies fail fast, and increase the success of a molecule in clinical trials
• The challenge of selling a disruptive, game-changing platform that could become a vital decision tool in the future

Pamela Bush, Ph.D. has over twenty years of experience in venture creation, finance, and business development in the life sciences industry. Pamela is the Chief Business Officer for Predictive Oncology where she leads the strategy and business development activities across the portfolio. Prior to joining Predictive Oncology, Pamela worked at Eli Lilly & Company in various roles including Corporate Business Development, Finance and Patient Services. In addition to her Lilly work experience, Pamela has worked in economic development, academia, and business consulting supporting the creation and growth of 100+ life sciences start-ups. Pamela holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

One-hour special: The biopharma outsourcer

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Tushar Misra, Chief Manufacturing Officer at Mersana Therapeutics.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Tushar covering:

• How his opportunistic nature led him to several roles, companies and locations across the processing and biopharmaceutical sector
• Being given the task of building a worldwide manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure for the commercial launch of a biologic oncology product globally for Takeda
• Key components of a strong CDMO partnership ‘beyond checking boxes’ and how the type of product impacts the selection process
• The harsh realities of a recent clinical failure for a biopharmaceutical company that impacts employees and patients
• How the explosion of modalities have driven growth across all segments the outsourcing space

Tushar Misra is the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Mersana Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development a pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) targeting cancers in areas of high unmet medical need. He has over 30 years of experience in developing drugs that involve small and large molecules and ADCs, as well as the development and management of worldwide commercial supply chains.

Prior to Mersana, Tushar was EVP, Head of Technical Development & Manufacturing at Laronde, where he led the process development and manufacturing team for end-to-end manufacturing for RNA products. In addition, Tushar worked at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in several positions of increasing seniority, most recently as VP & Head, Global Oncology and Biologics Operations.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

From rural roots to global pharma leader

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Mike Martin, Chief Executive Officer at CAI.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Mike, covering:

• How a passion for engineering led to a lifetime in life sciences - including 32 years with Eli Lilly
• Why working in China, Puerto Rico, and Ireland and the exposure to new cultures changed this ‘mid-west farm boy’s view of the world
• A very short attempt at retirement... and what tempted Mike back into the working world
• Lessons learned from years of being the client, but also knowing when to dial down the client voice as a service provider

As the CEO of CAI, Mike Martin guides a team of 800+ across the US, Europe, and APAC for the global professional services firm focused on engineering and quality consulting.

With over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, including decades at Eli Lilly, Mike has experience in engineering, operational leadership, engineering leadership, and large-scale project management in diverse global settings, specifically major capital projects in the US, Puerto Rico, China, and Ireland.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

Igniting biotech innovation

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Kathy Fernando, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Pfizer Ignite and Pfizer CentreOne.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Kathy, covering:

• How the forgotten step-child that is mRNA rose to the top of the technology vaccine tree
• Some of the key ingredients of the secret sauce that has dramatically improved the success of Pfizer’s R&D engine
• How Pfizer Ignite is positioned to assist capital-constrained biotech innovators, side-by-side, in several ways
• The intentional, sacrifice and discipline required to have a good balance of career success and healthy home life
• And what it’s like working with Albert Bourla, Chief Executive Officer at Pfizer

Kathy is a Senior Vice President and Global Head of the Pfizer Ignite Organization, and the Global Head of Pfizer CentreOne, within the Business Innovation Office at Pfizer. Her prior roles at Pfizer include Head of Worldwide Research, Development & Medical Operations and Head of mRNA scientific strategy. She also led efforts to develop an ambitious and holistic scientific strategy for mRNA across therapeutic areas as well as a well-orchestrated plan for execution.

Prior to joining Pfizer, she worked at Deloitte, helping address diverse business needs for pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the US and EU. Kathy has a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her Ph.D. thesis focused on mRNA vaccine and HIV vaccine development. She has a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T) in Kharagpur, India.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

From CDMO exit to CDMO+

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Tim Scott, President and CEO, AustinPx.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Tim, covering: 

• The founding story of Pharmatek, and how client centricity and ‘training the hell out of the team’ contributed to the growth
• How the niche of being a spray drying expert led to a sale of Pharmatek to Catalent... and why he didn’t last very long post-acquisition
• The disruptive technology and team that got Tim so excited... he came back to the ‘CDMO+’ world in Austin
• Building traction for a game-changing technology for poorly soluble compounds to get it into 100 molecules and commercial products

Tim brings more than twenty years of pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) leadership experience. Previously, Mr. Scott was co-founder and president of Pharmatek Laboratories, a CDMO where he led the growth and ultimate sale of the company to Catalent. He currently serves on the boards of multiple organizations, including Avelas Biosciences, DTx Pharma, CONNECT, BIOCOM, and the University of California, San Diego’s Dean’s Advisory Council for the Division of Biological Sciences. He previously served on the board of Zacharon Pharmaceuticals (sold to BioMarin in 2014). At UC San Diego, Tim has founded or supported multiple biotech spinouts including Zacharon, TEGA therapeutics, LipoNexus, Knoubis Bio, Nerio and Augment Biosciences. Mr Scott earned his BA in Biochemistry from UC San Diego and his JD from the University of San Diego. He is a member of the California Bar.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

From MBO to global, family-run CRO

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Graham Wylie, Executive Chairman at the Medical Research Network (MRN).

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Graham, covering:

• Transitioning from Pfizer’s in-house R&D team to a senior commercial BD role at Parexel
• The brutal experience of leading an MBO deal and why you should go into any deal with ‘your eyes open'
• How the fast-paced CRO world has evolved over the last 20 years, and what the future may hold for the clinical trials space
• How Graham built an entrepreneurial, family business with a view on the long term plan that includes his wife and kids
• How being used to fast growth as a specialist CRO better prepared MRN for the impact of C19 and 90% growth

Dr Graham Wylie graduated in pharmacology in 1982 and then in medicine in 1987. He moved into the Pharma industry in 1989, spending 10 years at Pfizer and 5 years at Parexel in many different forms of clinical trial management before joining Healthcare at Home to create a trials division. He led an MBO to make this a separate company in 2006 and was CEO and majority owner for 16 years, until September 2022, when he passed over the CEO role to one of his (younger) co-founders, and became Executive Chairman. Through that period MRN enjoyed an average growth rate of 35% through feast and famine and continues to be one of the fastest-growing founder-led businesses in the UK.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

Attracting and retaining the best talent; a roundtable special

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with:

 

• James Edgar, Chief People Officer at Sygnature Discovery
• Andrew Mears, CEO and Co-founder at Lead Candidate
• Laura Child, Head of Research and Strategy at ramarketing

 

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses pharmaceutical and biotechnology talent challenges and solutions with his guests, covering:

• Where the industry-wide talent challenge originates, and practical solutions of how companies can take steps to overcome it
• The role of a talent attraction team, a recruitment expert, and your employer brand in getting ahead of the curve when it comes to building a people pipeline
• Mapping and flawlessly executing your employee experience value proposition when attracting, onboarding and engaging your stars
• Staff retention challenges across the board and when things go wrong with your people

James Edgar has been in post for 12 months and has joined to support the growth of the company into its next phase with the development of Sygnature’s Employee Value Proposition. He has over 20 years in the People and Human Resources field. He comes with multi-sector experience from Financial Services, Manufacturing, Facilities Management and more recently from Advertising and Media sector with WPP.

Andrew Mears is CEO and Co-founder of Lead Candidate, a specialist talent acquisition consultancy exclusively supporting the global pharma and bio-outsourcing sector. He has more than two decades of experience working in human resources and talent, developing and delivering talent initiatives to help fast-growing companies achieve ambitious change and growth agendas.

Having built an impressive career as Program Director in some of the largest multinational CROs, delivering high-value and high-complexity global trials, from Ph 1 through Ph 3, Laura joined ramarketing as Head of Research and Strategy. In this role, Laura works closely with a team of senior marketers and Sector Specialists to conduct in-depth research projects to deliver data-driven brand and growth strategies for clients.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues, and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

Breathing life into high potential medicines

 

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Alok Tayi, Founder and CEO at Vibe Bio.

 

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Alok, covering:

 

• The personal story that motivated and inspired Alok to create a rare disease platform focused entirely on creating an ecosystem focused on high potential medicines.
• Lessons from ‘the grind’ of raising over $100m in capital, and why you need a ‘Minimal Viable Investor’ (MVI)
• The macro impact of Covid-19 in highlighting the importance of medicines - and why this is a time for optimism, innovation and technology in biotech.
• The catch-22 of inflection points for biotechs and how that impacts access to capital. And whether AI could play a pivotal role.
• How CDMOs and CROs need to evolve away from just the fee-for-service model to explore longer-term, partnership-led alternatives.

 

Alok has 15 years of experience as a scientist and 12 as a serial entrepreneur. After completing postdoctoral work at Harvard University with George Whitesides, Alok started two pharma SaaS companies, PreScouter and TetraScience, which employ several hundred people combined and have more than four hundred customers. He also launched and led the life sciences division of Egnyte, a cloud content governance company based in California, and grew the business to a 60-person team and eight-figure run rate.

 

Alok founded Vibe Bio after his daughter was hospitalized at birth and he learned first-hand that the biggest obstacle to developing treatments isn’t finding potential therapies — it’s funding them. Vibe Bio is helping patients in similar situations overcome that obstacle by scaling the development of treatments for rare disorders sustainably for the first time. He holds a B.S. from Cornell and a Ph.D. from Northwestern, both in Materials Science & Engineering.

 

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

 

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.