Molecule to Market: Inside the outsourcing space

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.

 

Molecule to Market is on the move...

In this special episode of Molecule to Market, instead of going inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with your host, Raman Sehgal, you'll hear a special announcement about the show moving to Toronto!

The announcement reveals why our show sponsor, ramarketing is opening a new office in Canada and what this means for your favorite podcast and host.

Listen to the short episode to hear:

 

• About the drivers behind ramarketing's decision to establish a second office in North America
• Why the agency selected Toronto, or T'rono as the locals say
• Discover what the move means for Raman and his family, in addition to the ramarketing team and future talent acquisition
• The benefits of locating to one of the most diverse cities in the world
• How ramarketing and Molecule to Market plan to tap into the thriving life science ecosystem and 'Pill Hill' located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

 

The announcement is a real milestone for ramarketing as a business and for Molecule to Market.

 

The show hopes the move will provide access to even more incredible guests! Giving our host access to more people to outreach and hopefully attracting new people - listeners, followers and guests.

 

So, from late August onwards, you'll be hearing from Molecule to Market in a new location. We'll keep our loyal listeners informed of how the move is going and what life is like for Raman, his family and our team in Toronto.

Until then....take care. Thank you for listening!

 

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 mark

 

Barbara’s journey into Biopharma

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Barbara Morgan, Global Vice-President of Pharma and Biotechnology at Kerry.

 

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

• Believing in herself and being brave enough to leave a company that felt like family in a job that she loved
• Why Pharma has proved itself to be indispensable, while the biopharma slowdown is just a blip
• The difference between mentors and sponsors, and why you need a blend of both
• Lessons for mastering M&A assessment and integration for prioritizing impact

 

Barbara Morgan is Global Vice-President, Pharma, and Biotechnology at Kerry. Prior to that she worked at LLS Health (part of Lubrizol) from 2014 until 2021 and was named General Manager in 2018.

 

With a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania (US), Dr Morgan has more than 15 years of experience in the Life Science industry, covering pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and medical devices.  She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and holds patents, including one on the treatment of cancer stem cells.

 

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 CDMO CEO that doesn’t sugarcoat

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Marcel Velterop, CEO and Member of the Board at Primopus.

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

• Tips for technical people looking to transition and navigate into a commercial career path
• Why the CDMO business is not for the faint-hearted given the brutal focus on execution and results
• Insights from a lifetime of doing business in India and the key components of a successful tech transfer across multi-national sites
• How oligonucleotides have gone from niche to mainstream, and why an oligos platform presents a major new tool in the healthcare toolbox

Marcel holds a masters degree in chemical engineering from Delft University of Technology and started his career at DSM where he spent 14 years in various roles of growing responsibility. He then joined Dr Reddy’s Laboratories CPS, a CDMO, and subsequently worked for large Indian providers like Sai Life Sciences and Jubilant Biosys. He gained extensive international experience during his 4 years in the US and now over 15 years in Switzerland and aims to work with cultural differences globally and build productive collaborations.

He found purpose in the pharma industry and helping drive innovation as a service provider in the CDMO and CRO industries. During the Covid times, an opportunity presented itself to work for a large India CDMO, who had acquired a GMP API plant just outside Basel, Switzerland. As CEO of Primopus he is building a hybrid business model with complex RSMs and intermediates supplied out of the Swiss site with full backward integration from the large capacity available in India at its parent company.

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.

Wheeler CDMO Avengers...assemble!

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Jesse McCool, Co-Founder and CEO at Wheeler Bio.

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

• His journey from the Lonza bench to the boardroom as CEO of Cytovance CEO before becoming a founder
• Building a CDMO from a blank canvas via a pit stop of C19 testing
• What makes Oklahoma City an attractive place to do business with its mixed blend of life science, tech and biomanufacturing expertise
• How Wheeler’s hub and spoke satellite business model and platform is changing the CDMO business model

Jesse McCool is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wheeler Bio, an agile, small-batch biologics drug substance manufacturer focused on addressing unmet needs in the translational space. He has over 20 years of biologics development and manufacturing experience in biotech and CDMO environments. He previously held executive and technical positions at Cytovance Biologics, Lonza, Lallemand/Mascoma, Dartmouth, and Clean Harbors.

He joined Cytovance Biologics in 2013 to build out and lead the process development organization. The company was acquired by Hepalink in 2015 after which he was named Director, Chief Technical Officer and eventually, Chief Executive Officer. Jesse left Hepalink following the successful HK IPO in 2020 ($500MM USD) to join OKC-based venture studio, Echo Investment Capital, as Entrepreneur-In-Residence. He co-founded and launched Wheeler Bio in 2021.

He also serves on the Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development (State Commerce) and works on numerous workforce development initiatives in the biomanufacturing sector. Jesse earned a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed his postdoctoral work at Dartmouth (Hanover, NH) and Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands). In addition to his industry experience, Jesse is an established public speaker, researcher, and peer-reviewed journal author and contributor.

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.