Open Door Salon

This episode is made possible by MedTech World: https://med-tech.world/ Medtech launches don't fail for one reason. They fail at the FDA, at the payer, or at the firewall. Host Lori Ellis continues a conversation started at MedTech World with Christian Espinosa, Founder and CEO of Blue Goat Cyber, and Edwin Lindsay, Principal Consultant and Managing Director at CS Lifesciences, on all three fo...

Two wars, a pandemic threat, and a regulatory system under strain are hitting global health at the same time. Anna Titkova, who led clinical operations in Ukraine through the invasion, and Prashant Yadav of the Council on Foreign Relations, one of the world's leading voices on healthcare supply chains, join host Lori Ellis on Open Door Salon. They cover what happened to clinical trials and patient...

New US rules are reshaping how pharma and biotech can do deals with China, and BIOSECURE was only the start. Theresa Campobasso, Senior Vice President at Aardwolf Global and a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, returns to Open Door Salon to read the regulatory signals with host Lori Ellis. They cover what the BIOSECURE Act actually restricts, why it's an early signal rather than the fini...

China is on everyone's mind in life sciences, and the pharma supply-chain risk runs deeper than the BIOSECURE Act reaches. Theresa Campobasso, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, explains where the real exposure hides. Most companies vet a new partner, clear the third-party check, and call it done. Theresa Campobasso, Senior Vice President at Aardwolf Global Solutions and a former Mar...

We have to apologize for the video quality. Ali's recording corrupted. GLP-1s hit $13 billion in sales last quarter — the highest-selling drug class globally. But a surgeon who still practices emergency medicine is seeing side effects the clinical trials didn't predict. Ali Pashazadeh (Treehill Partners) is a surgeon-turned-banker who still works the ER. Jon Rees (MitoRx Therapeutics) is b...

"There's probably about a 15 minute window on a certain Tuesday where you fit into the right window for an investor. You're too early. You're too late." Edwin Stone is the CEO of Cellular Origins, building robotic manufacturing for cell therapy. Erik Digman Wiklund is the CEO of Circio Holding, developing next-gen gene therapies. Both actually got funded in a market where alm...

"AI is going to augment — it's going to allow things to work quicker, more efficiently. But it's not going to cut corners. It's not going to allow us to not do what's required to deliver the care people deserve." Steve McWilliams is the VP and CIO at the Georgia Hospital Association. Richard Hicks is the CEO of Inspiredu, a nonprofit providing equitable access to technolo...

"When you start to peel back the onion of what Iran provides to us, healthcare is at the very top." A former CIA Chief and a former Microsoft VP on what the Iran war reveals about healthcare's hidden vulnerabilities. Clinton West is the Former CIA Chief, Office of Supply Chain Risk Management — 20+ years at the agency including deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Europe. Mike Walke...

"Some of the best companies were founded during some of the worst times. It's almost Darwinian." That's Mike Goguen — founder of Two Bear Capital, 20 years as a general partner at Sequoia Capital. With him is Rob Williamson — serial entrepreneur and 35+ years in drug development. A 30-year venture capitalisst and a serial drug developer on surviving biotech's worst times, the AI bubble, and why fo...

"Our transplant doctor at Hershey wrote us off and never spoke to us again. We signed her out against medical advice. And it saved her life." Tom Whitehead is the co-founder of the Emily Whitehead Foundation and father of Emily Whitehead — the first pediatric patient in the world to receive CAR-T cell therapy. In 2012, when Emily was 6 years old and facing end-stage leukemia after two re...

Jim Kremidas spent 24 years at Eli Lilly and started the industry's first Patient Recruitment Department. Then he got bladder cancer — and couldn't find a clinical trial using the tools he helped build. Elisa Cascade has 30+ years in clinical research technology. Former CPO at Science 37 and Advarra. Past Chair of ACRP. Built a 2.7 million patient community for direct-to-patient recruitmen...

Sunitha Malepati is the Founder and CEO of the Buffalo Initiative. When her daughter was diagnosed with a rare neurogenetic condition, the doctor told them: "Go home and love your kid. There's nothing we can do." She refused to accept that answer. Craig Lipset is a clinical innovation leader, former Head of Clinical Innovation at Pfizer, and co-chairs the Decentralized Trials & R...

Jesús Zurdo is a scientist — molecular biology, drug discovery, manufacturing, company creation. Three and a half years ago, he was diagnosed with Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 92% of his bone marrow was cancer cells. His donor was a stranger in Florida. In Today's Episode: Diagnosed in one day — the UK system Nobody told me about brain fog — it stays for years Finding a...

Dr. Karla Loken is an OB-GYN who spent 20+ years in clinical practice before moving into industry. Three months ago, she was diagnosed with appendix cancer — 1 in 200,000. One month ago, she had major surgery. Now she's back to share what the system looks like from the other side. In Today's Episode: Why she went public with her cancer The physician network that got her answers in hours Su...

Konstantina Katcheves is Chief Business & Strategy Officer at Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Former SVP at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Led BMS through the Karuna Bio and RayzeBio acquisitions in a single month. Now at Acadia building rare disease capabilities. Daphne Karydas is President & CFO of Flare Therapeutics. Former CFO at Syndax, Head of Corporate Strategy at Allergan, and 15+ years on Wall Str...

Jeff Fischer is Co-Founder and President of Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics — developing monoclonal antibodies that target chronic inflammation upstream, before it starts. Steve Butts is Co-Founder and CEO of Arrivo BioVentures. His lead drug for depression works in women but not men. Then investors asked: "Is there really a market for that?" In Today's Episode: Longevity isn't...

Tina Valbh, BS Pharm, RPh is a pharmacist with 28 years in life sciences — Managing Partner at Pharma Connect and founder of Tina's Warriors. She builds patient access programs. Then she got cancer — and discovered none of it worked the way the slide decks said. Karla Loken, DO, OBGYN, FACOOG practiced OB-GYN for 20+ years before leading clinical development and medical affairs roles at Hologic, R...

Matt Hewitt is CTO of the Manufacturing Business Division at Charles River Laboratories. Jeff Holder is Partner and Managing Director at LEK Consulting, advising biopharma and investors on cell and gene therapy strategy since the first CAR-T approvals in 2017. In Today's Episode: JPM 2026: Is cell & gene therapy interest real or cooling? Why manufacturing cost isn't the real barrier to...

Katie Schubert is President & CEO of the Society for Women's Health Research — 35+ years advocating for sex differences research. Former Capitol Hill staffer. Her goal: make women's health so mainstream that her organization goes out of business. Joanna Stickler is VP of Health Policy & External Affairs at Roche Diagnostics. Former public health professional. Her mantra: we haven&#...

Frank Watanabe is the President and CEO of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, a dermatology biotechnology company based in Los Angeles. He's also the Vice Chairman of BIO. Frank spent 30 years in biopharma after a prior career in national security — he stumbled into the industry at Eli Lilly and stayed for the mission. Josh Fessel is a physician-scientist who most recently served as Chief Medical Office...

Andy Holt is the Chief Commercial Officer at Viralgen Vector Core, a company specializing in the contract manufacture of AAV gene therapies. A self-described "really bad molecular biologist" who moved to the commercial side, Andy has spent 18 years in cell and gene therapy, including a stint as VP at AskBio before its acquisition by Bayer. Phil Vanek is the Chief Commercialization Office...

Colin Zick is a Partner at Foley Hoag, where he co-chairs both the Health Care Compliance practice and the Privacy & Data Security practice. With over 30 years of experience navigating healthcare regulation and cybersecurity, Colin has seen administrations come and go—and knows that the fundamentals of compliance never change, even when everything else does. Anne Herold Li is a Shareholder at...

Chris Bardon is the Managing Partner at MPM BioImpact, a dedicated biotech investment firm working across private and public markets. A Harvard-trained physician who completed her residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Chris has spent over 20 years in biotech investing, including time at Fidelity before launching her own fund. She also serves on the board of the American Association for Cancer...