Vital Health Podcast

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Michael Penn , US Head of Reimbursement and Public Policy at Sanofi , to discuss how pricing policy, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), small-molecule incentives, orphan drug provisions, and Most Favored Nation (MFN) proposals could shape oncology innovation, patient access, and U.S. biopharmaceutical competitiveness. K...

Across Europe and around the world, demographic change is reshaping our societies. Longer life expectancy, aging populations, and evolving workforce dynamics are creating both new opportunities and growing pressure on healthcare systems, economies, and public policy. Against this backdrop, health and innovation play an increasingly important role in building resilient societies and supporting heal...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Bill Smith (Senior Fellow and Director, Life Sciences Initiative at The Pioneer Institute ) to discuss how the 340B program has evolved from a safety net drug discount program into a major source of hospital revenue, what new research suggests about charity care and Medicaid access, and why transparency, hospital c...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Steve Potts , CEO of Breakthru Medicine , to discuss how biotech financing, drug pricing policy, scientific infrastructure, and public trust are reshaping oncology innovation and U.S. biopharma leadership. Key Topics: Biotech Financing : Series A funding, early-stage platform headwinds, clinical asset momentum, academic...

In this best-of edition of the Vital Health Podcast, we revisit two conversations Duane Schulthess has with experts on the future of generic medicines, drug shortages, and supply chain risk in the United States. Patrick Kelly : Chief Advocacy Officer, Healthcare Distribution Alliance John Murphy : President and CEO, Association for Accessible Medicines Across these conversations, they discuss how...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Christopher Locher , Chief Executive Officer at Versatope Therapeutics , about the current landscape for vaccine manufacturers and innovators. Their conversation covers vaccine platform development, financing challenges for infectious disease companies, policy and regulatory uncertainty, the public health implications o...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Melanie Whittington , Managing Director and Head of the Leerink Center for Pharmacoeconomics and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts Medical Center . They examine how health economic modeling can more accurately reflect real-world market dynamics, the rising pressure behin...

Read our MFN preprint: https://vitaltransformation.com/2026/02/preprint-new-research-the-impact-of-mfn-on-oncology-and-hematology-treatments/ In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with two Vital Transformation colleagues on biopharma pricing policy, market access, and innovation risk: Gwen O'Loughlin : Research Partner at Vital Transformation Harry Bowen : Consu...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Tim Scott , President & CEO of  Biocom California , a biopharma executive with more than two decades of experience, including spinning out companies from UC San Diego and leading firms acquired by BioMarin and Novartis, to discuss how California’s life sciences ecosystem became a global innovation engine,...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess examines how NIH-funded research fits into the U.S. innovation and IP ecosystem, and why today’s political rhetoric about “government-developed drugs” often misses how commercialization actually happens. Featuring expert perspectives on NIH technology transfer and drug IP from: Mark Rohrbaugh : Former Director of...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with two experts on evidence standards for early oncology access at ISPOR Europe 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland: Oriana Ciani: Associate Professor of Practice at SDA Bocconi School of Management Denis Lacombe: Director General at EORTC They discuss why accelerated pathways are used in oncology, what becomes feasible and risky whe...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with two experts on reimbursement-facing evidence questions for accelerated oncology approvals at ISPOR Europe 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland: Anja Schiel: Senior Advisor, Norwegian Medical Products Agency Niklas Hedberg: Chief Pharmacist at The Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) They unpack why results that are stro...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with three experts on accelerated patient access to cancer medicines at ISPOR Europe 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland: Martina Garau: Director at Office of Health Economics Bettina Ryll: Founder at MPNEurope Kathleen Grieve: Director - European Public Policy, Access, Pricing and Affordability Lead at MSD Europe They explore why acc...

In this special 2025 U.S. Policy Highlights edition of the Vital Health Podcast, we look back at our most important discussions on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its ripple effects across drug development, Medicare, and patient access. Over the past year, the biopharma industry and the broader healthcare system have undergone a period of rapid change as new rules surrounding drug pricing re...

In this special 2025 U.S. Policy Highlights edition of the Vital Health Podcast, we look back at our most important discussions on Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing and its knock-on effects for jobs, state budgets, and the generic supply chain. Over the past year, proposals to link U.S. prices to those in other countries have collided with inflation pressures, tariff debates, and reshoring ef...

In this special 2025 U.S. Policy Highlights edition of the Vital Health Podcast, we look back at our most important discussions on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its ripple effects across drug development, Medicare, and patient access. Over the past year, the biopharma industry and the broader healthcare system have undergone a period of rapid change as new rules surrounding drug pricing re...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with two experts in European regulation and evidence of new medicines: Steffen Thirstrup : Chief Medical Officer at European Medicines Agency . Richard Bergstrom : Head of Policy at IQVIA . They compare regulatory benefit-risk decisions with HTA’s comparative effectiveness and economics, unpack the role of conditional...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Dr. Malina Müller , Head of Health Economics at WifOR Institute , to explore the heated debate around accelerated and conditional approvals in Europe, how demographic and budget pressures shape HTA decisions, the tradeoffs between surrogate endpoints and overall survival, the challenges of using real world evidence...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess sits down with two Vital Transformation colleagues to explore key trends in drug pricing and macroeconomic policy: Joe Hammang : US Business Director at Vital Transformation . Harry Bowen : Consulting Economist at Vital Transformation . They unpack the Trump administration’s “Most Favored Nation” approach as appli...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with three leaders advancing precision cancer medicine implementation in Europe: Bettina Ryll : Stockholm School of Economics , Institute for Research; Founder, Melanoma Patient Network Europe . Kjetil Taskén : Head of the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital ; Professor, University of Oslo ; Coordi...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with John Murphy , President and CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) , to discuss how U.S. purchasing dynamics and thin margins drive shortages, the evolving biosimilar landscape amid insurer vertical integration, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)’s ripple effects on plan risk and rebates, Most Favore...

In this episode of the Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with Patrick Kelly , Chief Advocacy Officer at the Healthcare Distribution Alliance , to discuss why generic markets face razor-thin margins and concentration risk, what is driving recent drug shortages, how tariffs and reshoring could affect costs, potential ripple effects from Most Favored Nation pricing, and the rise of d...

In this Vital Health Podcast, host Duane Schulthess speaks with two leading European voices on oncology and health economics: Andreas Charalambous : Chair of Nursing at Cyprus University and Executive Board Member at MASCC , former President of the European Cancer Organization , Director of the Research Center for Oncology and Palliative Care at eOncoRise Lieven Annemans : Professor of Health Econ...

Kirsten Axelsen is an economist specializing in Medicare reimbursement, payer negotiations, and innovative reimbursement contracts. She’s a fellow of the Aspen Institute and a visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute . She joins host Duane Schulthess to unpack bipartisan pressure on drug prices, the Part D redesign’s rapid shift of catastrophic costs to plans, and the re...

In this "Best-of" edition of the Vital Health Podcast,  Duane Schulthess revisits two listener favorites on the future of medicines in Europe. First, former MEP Pernille Weiss explains how the European Parliament reshaped the EU’s General Pharmaceutical Legislation (GPL) to better support innovation while respecting member state control over pricing and reimbursement. Then, Niklas Blomb...