Interviews
Experts from pharma industry share their opinions and viewpoints on important issues relating to new trends, technologies, management insights and strategies in this section.
From Listening to Leading: Reimagining HEOR Through the Lens of Patient-Centred Evidence
Dimple Dang
Co-Founder & Director, MarksMan Healthcare
Dimple Dang, Co-Founder of MarksMan Healthcare, is a strategic growth architect shaping the firm’s global footprint. She forges high-impact collaborations, leads business expansion, and builds a talent ecosystem aligned with excellence. Her leadership elevates credibility, strengthens brand equity, and positions MarksMan as a trusted strategic partner delivering value across global healthcare markets.
The Human Side of Pharma BD: Patience, Persistence, and Truly Understanding Client Needs
Pragathi Yadhati
Client Relations Officer, PozeScaf Inc
Pragathi Yadhati is a Client Relations Officer at PozeScaf Inc and Chief Business Officer for healthtech startups, ScribeJoy, and NuMd. Since 2019, she has advised pharma organisations on relationship-focused business development and strategic partnerships, fundraising and connecting companies with investors. She served on the advisory board of IIT Jodhpur and brought a people-centered, empathetic approach to partnerships.
Rise of Enabling Technologies in Pharmaceutical Formulation Development and Manufacturing
Kasturi Pawar
Director, Formulation Development, Exelixis, Inc
Kasturi Pawar is a leading pharmaceutical scientist with a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences. She has significantly contributed to the field of pharmaceutics. Her research and experience have been focused on formulation development, drug delivery, and clinical supply chain. Currently working as a Director in Formulation Development at Exelixis, Inc., she holds several publications and patents on drug delivery using conventional solid oral as well as enabled formulations such as nanoemulsions, microneedles, and iontophoresis. Her work has been widely cited and recognised across the pharmaceutical industry and scientific community.
Engineering the Future of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCV)
Walmik Karbhari Gaikwad
PhD, Chemical and Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University. Manager-Manufacturing, Inventprise Inc
Walmik Karbhari Gaikwad, Ph.D., is a seasoned biopharmaceutical expert with 18+ years in vaccine R&D and manufacturing. His Ph.D. research pioneered cost-effective processes for pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, holds scholarly publications, international patents, and serves on editorial boards. Based in Seattle, currently works on cGMP-compliant process development and production at Inventprise Inc.
Peering into the Future
Rimjhim Agrawal
Co-founder and CTO, BrainSightAI
Dr. Rimjhim Agrawal, Co-founder and CTO of BrainSightAI, has expertise in neuroscience and machine learning to solve complex challenges in this field. Her Ph.D. in psychiatry, coupled with a strong focus on AI in neuroscience, drove early research into utilising AI to gain deeper insights into complex psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and OCD. Her research has resulted in significant contributions, including 9 patents and over 10 publications in prestigious journals like Nature. Her expertise translates into innovative solutions like brain mapping, which is currently assisting clinicians in surgical procedures and treatment planning. Driven by a vision to enhance healthcare through improved brain health awareness, Dr. Agrawal excels at translating knowledge of the brain into cutting-edge AI solutions. The company has lots of awards and accolades while Dr. Agrawal has been featured in Forbes India twice.
Breaking Bottlenecks in Continuous Biomanufacturing
Shireen Goh
Associate Professor, Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology & Research (SUTD)
Shireen Goh, Scientific Co-Founder of Celltomix and Associate Professor at SUTD, is pioneering dense-suspension microfluidics to enable clog-free continuous biomanufacturing. Her earlier work co-developed the Erbi micro-bioreactor, acquired by Merck, underscoring her track record in academic translation.
MAb Aggregation: A Problem Within the Biopharmaceutical Industry
K. H. Mok
Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Educated at Seoul National University, UC Berkeley, and Purdue University with postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, K.H. Mok specializes in utilising biomolecular NMR spectroscopy to protein folding-misfolding-aggregation research. Co-author of publications in Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Immunology, PNAS and others, he currently serves as a Eureka Independent Evaluation Panel member, technical consultant to start-up companies LMNTIC Biotech and Meta-Flux, and editorial board member for three peer-reviewed journals.
Exploring New Molecular Targets for Anti-cancer Therapy
Amil Shah
Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Amil Shah is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. His practice focusses on gastrointestinal and lung cancers. Among his administrative/academic roles, he chaired the Gastrointestinal Tumour Group at BC Cancer, and served as Associate Dean of the Vancouver-Fraser Medical Program at UBC. His research interest is the molecular pathogenesis of cancer.
Mitochondrial “swap” in the Tumor Microenvironment
Yosuke Togashi
Professor, Okayama University
Yosuke Togashi, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor at Okayama University, specializing in tumor microenvironment research. He trained in respiratory medicine, earned his Ph.D. in genome biology, and began cancer immunology research in 2016.
Ensuring Ethics in AI-Driven Drug Safety
Ashish Jain
Senior Director of Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management at Curis Inc.
Ashish Jain is Senior Director of Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management at Curis Inc., with over 12 years of experience in drug safety. He is also leading the Innovation Working Group at the North American Society of Pharmacovigilance (NASoP), his expertise in combining technological innovation with patient safety makes him uniquely qualified to address the ethical challenges of AI implementation in pharmacovigilance. His article focuses on developing frameworks for ethical AI implementation in healthcare.
