Fulfilling an unmet need for rare disease patients

This episode covers how the pharmaceutical industry can work towards better meeting the needs of an underserved population. Rare diseases are often overlooked by pharmaceutical companies when developing drugs as the process is time consuming, expensive, and only serves a niche market. But the patients suffering from rare diseases still deserve to have the best opportunity for life changing medicine. Dea Belazi from AscellaHealth discusses the challenges in this field, and the exciting paths into the future.

In this podcast Christine Furst, Senior Director Key Account Management Europe from Vetter joins host Lucy Chard to discuss the relationship between pharma companies and CDMOs and the impacts this relationship has on a business’s vision for the future.Taking into consideration that although the practical and technical aspects have to line up, more and more partnerships are placing value in the corporations seeing ‘eye to eye’ because they want the relationship to grow and flourish. We touch on the importance of people, sustainability and values aligning for building successful partnerships.

This month's podcast episode sounds a little different, covering the latest event in Paris - Pharmapack 2025. Digital Editor Lucy Chard speaks to several experts direct from the floor of the show, bringing you right in on the action. In this special episode we hear from experts Tom Etheridge from Team Consulting, Lizzie Smith from Anthesis Group, Asmita Khanolkar from SMC Ltd, and our very own Sherma Ellis Daal from Informa Markets to give a few different perspectives on some aspects of the event and the industry as a whole.

In this episode, Evonne Brennan joined host Lucy Chard for a chat about the complex world of excipients. Excipients is an ever changing field that involves a lot of moving parts and in the following episode Evonne gave an insight into some of these aspects. The podcast covers the security of the excipient supply chain and how this can influence issues such as drug pricing and drug shortages. Brennan highlights how important communication and collaboration is in this field for education and for pushing to find the next target for progress, that ultimately will make the lives of patients better.

In this episode Lucy Chard is joined by Rajiv Khatau to discuss the importance of looking into new therapeutic areas and some of the more niche areas of pharmaceuticals, discussing innovations and the potential for shaping the future of pharma on a global scale. In particular, and in light of the lead up to the inaugural CPHI Middle East in December 2024, Rajiv shares his expertise on the Middles East market and comments on why this region is so well suited to pushing the boundaries and becoming a leader in areas of biotech, genomics, and other public health fields.

In the latest episode Lucy Chard is joined by Thomas Cornell from Abzena to discuss protein engineering for drug design and development. Tom gives an insight into the world of protein engineering, how it’s an invaluable tool for improving the stability, functionality, and applicability for drug products. He comments on some aspects of the field that are particularly exciting at the minute, discussing some of the key aspects of antibody drugs, the potential for bispecifics in improving functionality, but also considering the parts such as genomics for creating a wider knowledge base, and in the future using computational design and AI to develop drugs more safely.

Lucy Chard, Digital Editor for CPHI Online discusses womens’ health, and more specifically about women’s representation in clinical trials and the associated ripple effects with Emma Banks, CEO of Ramarketing. The podcast highlights the social and medical implications and bias’ that lead to disparity and the complexities around this.Also covered is the need for solutions in combatting bias, such as by using tools including education and technology, and cross-sector collaboration. Banks highlighted how important it is to acknowledge the differences and work with them to change the lived mindset and make safer, more effective medicines.

In this episode we’re focusing on some of the work from one of our valued partners at CPHI, the PSCI. The PSCI have recently published the results from their audits and to talk us through these Digital Editor Lucy Chard is joined by Birgit Skuballa. Skuballa represents Bayer in the PSCI as Chair of the PSCI Audit Committee, and gives us a information on how these audits work, the different pillars across the pharmaceutical industry that the audits address, how this changes regionally, and importantly, how the PSCI work with their members afterwards to improve their practices.

On this episode of the podcast I’m joined my marketing specialist and entrepreneur, Raman Sehgal. Sehgal is the founder of several companies, including life science marketing company Ramarketing. In this podcast Raman and I discuss the different ways marketing can help companies in achieving their goals, whether it’s in how to go about finding the right partner, creating the right messaging around a companies’ ESG values, or how to attract talent. We also go on to talk about the future of digital marketing, especially the increased use of AI in today’s world, how much this has changed everyday practices already, and the scope of what is to come.

Daniel Mora-Brito joins Lucy Chard to discuss the health landscape in the African continent, covering some of the greatest threats seen there over the years and that are still impacting people’s lives on a daily basis, helping to drive home the importance of improved, localised healthcare in the continent. Lucy and Daniel talk about the economic factors that underpin a lot of the transformations across the region, from the perspective of those on home turf and the companies from different regions looking to invest and expand into this space. Daniel mentions the different actors in the region and what expanding capacities in Africa will mean for patient access in a rapidly expanding population.