PharmaSource Podcast

• Quality Excellence at UCB: Liesbeth Foesters on Leadership in External Manufacturing

  “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 FoestersLiesbeth 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 various functions including CMC, supply chain, external manufacturing, and more. With a background in biochemical engineering and extensive experience across multiple quality roles, she brings a unique perspective to quality leadership.In a recent PharmaSource podcast, Liesbeth shared invaluable insights on embedding quality excellence across external manufacturing operations, building effective partnerships with over 100 contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs), and developing leadership approaches that drive engagement and performance.

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• Digital Marketing in Pharma: Sciential's Maurice van Rotterdam Shares His Playbook

  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 of leads, but customers then land on a page that is not working."In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Maurice shares his playbook for how pharma suppliers can level up their digital marketing game in 2025. He explains key strategies for developing a strong brand identity, distributing highly relevant content, and building personal connections instead of just pushing for leads. It is part of the Niche Demand Preference Model that Sciential have developed for life science companies.Read the full article

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• Europe Can't Compete on Price Alone - Why The Drug Supply Chain Needs a New Model

  "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, brings over two decades of pharmaceutical industry expertise. She has transformed Medichem from a pure API player into a vertically integrated B2B company and now champions sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing across Europe.In the latest PharmaSource podcast episode, Elisabeth explains why Europe's focus on lowest-cost procurement threatens both supply chain resilience and environmental goals, calling for a fundamental shift in how we value medicine manufacturing.Read the full article

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• How NVIDIA's AI Platforms are Reshaping the Future of BioPharma R&D

  "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 NVIDIADr. Eva-Maria Hempe leads healthcare and life sciences for NVIDIA across Europe, combining a background in physics with a PhD in healthcare services design to drive AI innovation across the pharmaceutical industry.In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Eva-Maria explains how NVIDIA's accelerated computing platforms are enabling breakthroughs in drug discovery, clinical trials, and personalised medicine through parallel processing power that's revolutionising pharmaceutical R&D.NVIDIA's Toolbox: Accelerating Every Stage of Pharmaceutical DevelopmentNVIDIA has developed a comprehensive suite of specialised tools for pharmaceutical companies, with the Clara platform encompassing multiple technologies targeting different areas of drug development:Parabricks: Software for sequencing of DNA and RNA data which accelerates genomic analysis from 30 hours to just 60 minutesMONAI Toolkit: Processes medical images for both human diagnostics and cellular analysisBioNeMo Framework: Handles biological language models for protein folding and molecule generationHoloscan: Enables real-time sensing and edge intelligence for laboratory applicationsNVIDIA has recently released EVO 2, an AI foundation model for biomolecular sciences released in February 2025, in collaboration with Arc Institute with contributions from Stanford University and UC Berkeley "It was trained on 9 trillion nucleotides from 100,000 species across the tree of life," Eva-Maria says. "It can predict with 90% accuracy whether a previously unrecognized mutation would affect gene function or not."Read the full article

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• Run Faster to Survive: Polpharma's Olaf Birkenmeier Warns Against Western Pharma Complacency

  “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 bear on the challenges facing by pharma companies in an increasingly competitive global market.In a recent PharmaSource podcast interview, Olaf draws parallels between the pharmaceutical industry’s competitive landscape and the Red Queen hypothesis – an evolutionary biology theory proposed in 1973 that suggests species must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing species. This principle, he argues, perfectly captures the continuous innovation and improvement required for Western biopharmaceutical companies to maintain their market position.Join Olaf Birkenmeier at ⁠CDMO Live 2025⁠Read the full article on PharmaSource

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