August 2008

• Full Podcast: A Magic Formula (.MP3,25.75 Mb)
  
  On this edition we speak with Ernst & Young’s Global Biotechnology Leader Glen Giovannetti about Big Pharma’s efforts to reinvent itself through changing models of collaboration and acquisitions. We also speak with the Milken Institute’s Ross DeVol about the economic toll of chronic disease and why healthcare reform efforts must address this growing problem if they are to be successful.

• A Chronic Problem (.MP3,12.68 Mb)
  It’s not just diabetes, but heart disease, hypertension, cancer and other chronic conditions that are at the heart of America’s healthcare crisis. An estimated 133 million people, almost half of all Americans today, live with at least one chronic condition, and the number continues to grow. Consider that 75 percent of the $2.1 trillion spent on healthcare in the United States goes to treat people who suffer from chronic conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We spoke to the Milken Institutes’ Ross DeVol about the economic toll of chronic disease and why healthcare reform efforts must address this growing problem if they are to be successful.

• Reinventing Pharma (.MP3,14.4 Mb)
  When Roche acquired a majority stake in Genentech in 1990, it led to what would become one of the most productive and successful relationships between a pharmaceutical company and a biotech. Now, nearly two decades later, Big Pharma seems to finally be taking notice, and taking steps to leave some autonomy and independence with the biotechs they acquire in the hopes of preserving the culture of innovation that attracted them in the first place. We spoke to Ernst & Young’s Global Biotechnology Leader Glen Gionvannetti about this emerging trend and why now that it’s happening, Roche is trying to buy the rest of Genentech.