PharmaSource Podcast

“Over 90% of people you meet in life sciences are going to be dealing with failure every day. You have to normalize failure in this industry to get the success you want,” says Beth Benatti Kennedy, discussing the unique pressures facing pharmaceutical professionals. Beth Benatti Kennedy brings more than two decades of experience as a leadership and resilience executive coach, working with major ph...

“The pharmaceutical industry is very good at being reactive. If something happens, they have very clear processes, but they’re not so good anticipating change.” David Schneider, Founder & CEO of Qualifyze, brings more than a decade of experience working in investment banking (JP Morgan), Fortune 500 companies (BASF), and management consulting (McKinsey). He now leads Qualifyze, a company trans...

“In Big Pharma, innovation is often stifled because the bureaucracy and mindset completely kills creativity and intuition needed for discovery. That’s why they now prefer to allocate their early-phase resources to smaller biotechs,” explains  Julien Laizé , sharing candid insights about the delicate balance between innovation and compliance in vaccine manufacturing Julien Laizé serves as Director...

“We are privately owned by a Trust, which means all our profits are reinvested in the company. This translates to steady growth – maybe slower compared to other service providers, but we’re quite proud of that steady growth,” explains  Franciane Chevot , Senior Business Development Manager at Almac. With 55 years of industry experience, approximately 7,500 employees, and 18 facilities worldwide ac...

“AI doesn’t have to be the first port of call. Many organisations still need to focus on the paper-to-glass journey before they can think about more advanced technologies”   Vishnu Dwadasi, Director of Life Sciences at West Monroe, brings extensive experience across pharmaceutical operations, consulting and business development from both the sponsor and CDMO sides. His career path through companie...

“Our goal is to be more than a service provider. We aim to be a strategic partner that grows with our clients from bench to bedside.” –  Dr. Jim Li Dr. Jim Li, President of CMC Solutions at BioDuro, brings extensive experience as a chemist and pharmaceutical industry veteran, having held leadership positions at global companies including Pfizer and Henkel before joining BioDuro to build up and man...

“Managing hundreds of products across multiple species requires a different approach to network strategy than human pharma,” explains Bernhard Boehm, Head of External Manufacturing for Animal Health at Boehringer Ingelheim. Bernhard Boehm leads external manufacturing for animal health as VP of 3PM at Boehringer Ingelheim, bringing nearly 20 years of pharmaceutical experience across regulatory, qua...

Exclusive interview for PharmaSource ahead of CDMO Live “We’ve combined these two solid legacies into a new, agile CDMO with a unique focus on high-value small and medium-scale production,” says  Bruce Vielle , CEO of the newly formed Meribel Pharma Solutions. Bruce Vielle, an experienced industrial business leader with extensive expertise in lean manufacturing and managing multi-site operations a...

“Trust is what your customers need most. They take a great risk when they sign up with you to make their product. They need access within your organization to feel confident you’ll get things done the way they want.” Thomas Thorpe , CEO of Afton Scientific, brings 45 years of pharmaceutical operations experience to his founder-led Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), which h...

“What we’re witnessing is the rapid dismantling of the US research infrastructure… It’s also an opportunity for us here in Europe to step up”  Dr. Oliver Schacht , Managing Director of Life Science Nord Dr. Oliver Schacht, Managing Director of Life Science Nord and Chairman of the Board for BIO Deutschland, spoke at  German Biotechnology Days 2025  (DBT) in Heidelberg about the challenges and oppo...

In the latest episode, we speak to   Payal Gandhi , Management Executive – Business Growth at Blue Jet Healthcare explains how the company transformation from a family-owned business to a publicly listed global CDMO since its IPO in 2023. Today, Blue Jet Healthcare has positioned itself as a strategic partner in the pharmaceutical and healthcare arena, emphasizing their customer-first approach and...

“Europe has roughly double the population of the United States but lower pricing, so it’s a balancing act between how much volume can you get and how little price discount you give.” –  Joshi Venugopal Joshi Venugopal, Head of Region Europe for Novartis Gene Therapy & Rare Diseases and Senior Vice President, brings extensive experience spanning R&D, early pipeline development, and in-marke...

“Being unique or special in something is crucial, a key factor in order to gain success in this field.” –  Angela Molaschi Angela Molaschi , Chief Commercial Officer at  Fisiopharma , and  Nicola Cadei , General Manager, bring decades of pharmaceutical industry experience to their leadership roles at this Italian injectable product specialist. Together, they’re expanding the company’s global prese...

"Digital transformation is not about technology deployment. It's about a new way of doing business that allows you to make jumps which were not possible before, like reducing launch time from 70 weeks to 7 weeks." - Dr. Franziskus Kath Dr. Franziskus Kath, former J&J executive and now independent consultant, brings over 26 years of healthcare industry experience spanning API manu...

“What we’re witnessing is a fundamental shift from globalized to decentralized pharma supply chains, yet many companies are hesitant to make the bold capacity investments needed despite recognizing the risks.” –  Stephan Fath , Director at Roland Berger Stephan Fath is a Director at Roland Berger where he specialises in advising global pharmaceutical, MedTech, and chemical industries. With a dual...

“Every CDMO is going to give you the Disney effect. I want to see what’s below the street. How is that organisation humming below the surface?” says  John Philips , highlighting why superficial evaluations are undermining pharmaceutical outsourcing success. John Philips, President at Innopath Consulting, brings over three decades of experience in CDMO partnerships, including leadership roles at Pi...

“Every minute, over 1000 patients are using a product manufactured in one of our sites,” reveals  Kerstin Vieluf , Head of Sales at Recipharm. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden,  Recipharm  has over 5,900 employees across 17 sites in Europe, US, India, and Israel and serves more than 400 customers globally. In this exclusive interview ahead of  CDMO Live , the leadership team outlines how Recipha...

“I believe that if a quality culture is really embedded, the quality organisation starts reducing, because the more quality is embedded in the organisation, the less you need quality to help you think.” – Liesbeth Foesters Liesbeth Foesters, Vice President and Head of External and Clinical Supply Quality at UCB , leads a multinational team of over 130 quality professionals who collaborate across v...

Maurice van Rotterdam , Co-Founder of Netherlands-based digital marketing agency Sciential, believes many pharma suppliers and CDMOs are still missing the mark when it comes to effective digital marketing. "If I look at pharma supplier or CDMO websites, they typically have a broad service portfolio and multiple target audiences that need to land on a specific webpage. You might attract a lot...

"Seven out of ten medicines dispensed in Europe are generic products. When we only look at price, we don't take into consideration all the efforts European companies make on sustainability. This is an industry we must protect," says Elisabeth Stampa, Vice President of Medicines for Europe. Elisabeth Stampa, Vice President of Medicines for Europe and Chair of the Board at Medichem, br...

"We can cut preclinical development from five years to 18 months. Molecules which are AI-enabled in some way seem to be doing better in Phase 1 than standard molecules." - Dr. Eva-Maria Hempe, Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences EMEA at NVIDIA Dr. Eva-Maria Hempe leads healthcare and life sciences for NVIDIA across Europe, combining a background in physics with a PhD in healthcare ser...

“You don’t just need to be good; you need to be  better  than others to drive your business,” warns  Olaf Birkenmeier ,  Head of External Manufacturing at Polpharma Biologics , describing the evolutionary pressure facing Western biopharmaceutical manufacturers. Olaf Birkenmeier leads external manufacturing at Polpharma Biologics, bringing senior leadership experience from Sandoz and Novartis to be...

“Other CDMOs couldn’t handle these products, but we figured it out through technical grit and deep expertise,” explains Jackie Klecker, Executive Vice President of Quality and Development Services at Lifecore Biomedical. In a CDMO Live Preview episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Jackie and Ryan shared insights into how  Lifecore Biomedical  has built its reputation as a contract manufacturer capa...

“Most founders dominate organisations, spending 70-hour weeks trying to control everything. But it’s not about the hours you work – it’s about the impact. That shift in mindset transformed how I built multiple successful businesses in pharma services,” explains Raman Sehgal, reflecting on his journey from startup founder to strategic leader. Raman Segal is the founder of ramarketing, a PE-backed l...

Francisco Blanco , founder of Conducta consulting, believes the human element in CDMO-sponsor relationships has been lost in the race for efficiency. “I feel like the human component of these relationships has been lost. When I see five-star client services from CDMOs, it’s typically not because of the strength of their processes – it’s the individual.” Francisco Blanco brings over 15 years of exp...