INTERVIEWS

Dr. Harmony Garges, Chief Medical Officer at ViiV Healthcare, a company dedicated to HIV medicines, research, and the people affected by HIV and AIDS discusses the current treatment landscape, key data from the 24th International AIDS Conference, HIV care as patients grow older, and where treatment may be headed next.

Dr. Andrew Salzman, MD, Chief Science Officer at Innovation1 Biotech, a company that is modifying Schedule 1 molecules and creating drug innovation in the field of ocular disease discusses the company’s water-soluble cannabinoid type two (CB2R) agonist prodrug for ocular inflammation that has shown effectiveness in stimulating ocular repair and suppressing pro-inflammatory proteins in preclinical trials. He also talks about eye health for children. 

Stan Abel, CEO of ProJenX,  the company leading the way in the development of targeted therapies to address significant unmet medical needs in degenerative brain diseases, with a special focus in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), discusses the Phase 1 clinical study of Prosetin  in healthy volunteers and people with ALS (PRO-101) which is on track to initiate a Phase 2/3 study in 2023. 

Mark Varney, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of PsychoGenics, an AI-enabled phenotypic drug discovery and preclinical contract research organization (CRO) discusses how they are helping companies discover the next generation of treatments for severely disabling central nervous system (CNS) and orphan disorders and reduce the attrition rate in clinical development. He also talks about the challenges in CNS drug discovery, clinical trials, and the advantage of phenotypic drug discovery approaches in mental illness. 

Returning guest, Dr. Larry Edwards, Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Program Director and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and chairman of the Gout Education Society discusses the ongoing challenges that he has seen in making sure doctors and patients understand the latest guidelines in gout management. There have been some incremental improvements in the American and European guidelines over the past decade that are reflected in the 2020 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) guidelines. The greatest problem both nationally and internationally is that clinicians are not adhering to either the new or previous guidelines for the most up-to-date, research-based instructions for treatment.

Dr. Cindy Roark, DMD, MS, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Sage Dental, and Dr. Kyle Stanley, DDS, Chief Clinical Officer at Pearl, discuss the first patient-facing, comprehensive radiologic detection aid for dentistry called Second Opinion ®, created by Pearl and being deployed by Sage Dental. Patients can now get an x-ray at the dentist and have an AI algorithm analyze and annotate their x-ray to denote any dental condition they may have, from cavities to existing dental crowns. It’s one of (if not THE) first patient-facing application of diagnostic AI to be approved by the FDA. 

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.