INTERVIEWS

Purvi Tailor, Vice President, Human Resources at Ferring Pharmaceuticals discusses the company’s new family-building benefits package for all of its employees and the hope that other companies will follow their lead. The package includes a wide variety of financial and leave benefits designed to support the practical, financial, and mental support employees need while building families and to support the many complex paths to parenthood. 

Dr. Jamie Weiner, a psychologist and co-founder of Inheriting Wisdom, a consultancy for high-net-worth families discusses his book “The Quest for Legitimacy: How Children of Prominent Families Discover Their Unique Place in the World” and what inspired him to write the book. He also talks about an ongoing qualitative research study called “The Land of the Giants” and his definition of “The Quest.”

Karen Rance, DNP, CPNP, Head of North America Medical Affairs, Senior Director at ALK-Abello, a global research-driven pharmaceutical company focused on the diagnosis and treatment of allergies, discusses the landscape of allergies, allergy testing, and treatment options available, specifically allergy immunotherapy (AIT). She also talks about her professional journey from seeing patients in the clinic to Head of ALK Medical Affairs and the importance of representing women in medical science.

Rajarshi Banerjee, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Perspectum, a digital medical technology  and diagnostics company, talks about why A.I. is playing a growing role in medical imaging’s fight against long COVID, and how multi-organ scanning is being used to help physicians see the impact of long COVID.   Perspectum’s  CoverScan technology has been approved by the UK’s NHS for use in diagnosing  long COVID and it recently received FDA clearance in the U.S. for multi-organ scanning. 

Dr. Joe Alvarnas, hematologist-oncologist and VP of Government Affairs at City of Hope, Cancer Treatment and Research Center, shares his expertise on  the drivers of cancer care inequity.    Research shows more than a third of cancer deaths among all U.S. adults  could be prevented  if socioeconomic disparities were eliminated.

Returning guest, Dr. Jan Wehkamp, MD, PhD, Vice President, Gastroenterology Disease Area Leader for the Immunology Therapeutic Area at Janssen Research & Development, LLC discusses new phase 2 TREMFYA ® (guselkumab) data in Crohn’s disease (CD) and new long term pooled analysis of patients with ulcerative colitis and CD treated with STELARA ® (ustekinumab) that was presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2022.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd, MD, Director of the Skin of Color Division for the University of Miami Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery discusses the expansion of the Incyte Ingenuity Award. The expanded 2022 program will seek to positively impact people living with vitiligo by providing funding for innovative ideas from organizations and medical institutions that address unmet needs in the vitiligo community. Vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune condition and is characterized by white patches of skin, also known as depigmentation. Two initiatives will be selected by an independent judging panel to win up to $35,000 and $100,000. Applications are due October 31, 2022 and can be submitted online at www.IncyteIngenuityAwards.com/vitiligo

Ari Toumpas shares her transitioning journey and how she worked with a speech-language pathologist to train her voice to follow more stereotypically feminine voice patterns.

Cancer treatments are advancing and increasing survivorship, but they can also cause unique and serious damage to the heart. These issues can occur within the first few months of treatment or 20 years later. Chris Fine, MD, a cardiologist at National Jewish Health discusses the growing field of cardio-oncology and how it could change the future of cancer care. He talks about how they work directly with the patient and their other cancer care experts to monitor their heart health both during and after treatment.

Chris Hoyt, CEO, and Charbel Moussa, MBBA, PhD, Director of Scientific Advisory Board and co-founder of KeifeRx, an emerging clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discuss the development of novel and optimized, low-dose, orally delivered tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) to treat neurodegenerative and immune diseases. The indications of focus are Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, MCAS, and Lyme Disease. The Company’s lead and most advanced clinical candidate (Phase III ready) is KFRX01 (Nilotinib BE), an optimized reformulation with improved bioavailability and solubility under development for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease.