Adam Walker’s Pharma Prescribed Podcast

Adam Walker
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  • Life Sciences
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Get ready for open and honest long-form conversations with fascinating and passionate individuals in clinical research. These are people you may or may not be aware of, with one thing in common - they are all doing extraordinary things. I’m thrilled to introduce the Pharma Prescribed Podcast! My goal is to delve deeply into current trends, innovations, and leadership philosophies across life sciences. By creating a platform for meaningful, less structured discussions, this podcast seeks to inform, inspire, and connect you with leaders who are making significant contributions to the field. The central ”why” lies in our commitment to impactful dialogues that highlight collaboration, innovation, and ethical practices, which are shaping the future of drug development. These are the conversations you wish life science leaders were having.

  1. Sep 1

    The HOPE Framework: How Behaviour, Not Strategy, Actually Changes Organisations

    Gerrie Hawes on the HOPE Framework: How Behaviour, Not Strategy, Actually Changes Organisations | Pharma Prescribed Gerrie Hawes is a corporate behavioural psychologist who works in boardrooms and on stages, helping leaders turn strategy into behaviour people actually adopt. She's worked behind the scenes with most of the pharmaceutical companies you could name — a self-described "hidden person," which makes her a fitting guest for a podcast about hidden voices. She opens with a story that reframes the whole conversation. Coaching a global IT leader on her opening speech, Gerrie asked her a question no one asks an IT director: "Why do you work here — you could work anywhere?" The leader paused, reached into her handbag, and produced a family photograph. Lung cancer. "They're dead, and they're dead." She'd chosen that company because it was at the leading edge of the treatment. That, Gerrie told her, is what you tell your team — not the strategy, the why beneath it. From there Gerrie unpacks her HOPE framework — Happiness, Optimism, Playfulness, Empathy — a practitioner's model for the human dynamics that strategy decks miss. She explains why she hunts for a specific kind of laughter in the room (the edge between the learning zone and the panic zone), why happiness starts with the self but can't end there, and why empathetic leadership means understanding what drives other people, not assuming they're driven by what drives you. She's also clear-eyed on AI: the more it can do, the more the durable human advantage becomes the things it can't — playfulness, genuine empathy, reading the space between people. Plus boundaries, burnout, toxic cultures, upward empathy, and the quiet power of listening and introversion. A thoughtful, practical conversation about the behaviours that actually move organisations — long after the away-day is over. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970  Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast  Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com  Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes 🔗 RELATED EPISODE If Gerrie's take on empathy and safe spaces resonated, hear productivity author Graham Allcott (Think Productive) on KIND, psychological safety and the quiet power of kindness at work: ▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/1i1_TIZRBmI  🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/04glB17p7bBWVmLjlwIO7z  🍎 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/graham-allcott-on-kind-psychological-safety-the-quiet/id1829715970?i=1000778402287  ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:35 Meet Gerrie Hawes 4:00 Purpose and anti-purpose 6:00 Inside boardroom culture 18:00 Extreme role modelling 20:00 The HOPE framework explained 24:00 HOPE vs the AI advantage 28:00 Happiness as a value 30:00 Boundaries build respect 33:00 When work turns toxic 34:00 Objectives and upward empathy 37:00 Playfulness vs burnout 40:00 Safe spaces for honesty 45:00 Listening and introversion 47:00 Quickfire round 👤 ABOUT GERRIE HAWES Corporate behavioural psychologist specialising in change leadership and culture across pharma, consulting and global organisations. She helps senior teams turn strategy into adopted behaviour, and coaches speakers one-to-one on confidence, clarity and reading a room. Creator of the HOPE framework (Happiness, Optimism, Playfulness, Empathy). UK-based, working across global time zones. 💼 Search "Gerrie Hawes" on LinkedIn 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com  ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast  💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics  🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast  #GerrieHawes #HOPEFramework #BehaviouralScience #Leadership #OrganisationalCulture #PharmaPrescribed #ChangeLeadership #EmpatheticLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #AIandWork #Burnout

    The HOPE Framework: How Behaviour, Not Strategy, Actually Changes Organisations

  2. Aug 24

    Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Thinners & the "Sudden Death Syndrome" Nobody Checks For

    Clive Bonny on Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Thinners & the "Sudden Death Syndrome" Nobody Checks For | Pharma Prescribed ⚠️ This episode discusses suicide and bereavement. If you're affected, please reach out to a professional or a crisis line — in the UK, Samaritans are available free on 116 123, day or night. Clive Bonny is a management consultant and business advisor of 36 years, specialising in responsible business standards, intellectual property protection and ethical, outcome-driven leadership. He's also a health advocate who lives with atrial fibrillation and is a prostate cancer survivor — and in this episode, business and biology meet. Clive and host Adam Walker discover how much they share: both live with AF, both lost a sibling to suicide, both were endurance athletes. That common ground makes for an unusually open conversation about what AF actually feels like, how it's diagnosed — often by accident — and why Clive calls it "sudden death syndrome": nearly a million people in the UK have it, and many don't know until it's too late. His practical message is simple: check your pulse, and if it's consistently low, ask for a test. Clive shares his own dramatic diagnosis — a resting pulse of 30 discovered on an operating table, two weeks in intensive care, heparin, cardioversion, a pacemaker and an ablation — the same ablation procedure Adam was himself about to undergo. Both discuss life on long-term anticoagulation (DOACs) and the different level of cardiac care that followed. The conversation ranges wider too: Clive's career innovating for Bayer and Hoechst, taking inventions through IP protection and clinical trials, robotic prostate surgery, and building social value through local volunteering. Honest, warm and genuinely useful — two patients comparing notes in public so others don't get caught out. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Content warning 0:35 Intro 1:00 Meet Clive Bonny 1:30 Mission and values 3:00 Early influences 7:00 The open-minded connector 11:00 A career in pharma innovation 14:00 How the microcurrent device works 17:00 Living with atrial fibrillation 24:00 Adam's AF experience 26:00 Clive's prostate cancer story 32:00 Da Vinci robotic surgery 34:00 ESG and social value 37:00 Local volunteering wins 44:00 Life outside work 45:00 Golden rule 47:00 Closing and contact 👤 ABOUT CLIVE BONNY Management consultant and business advisor since 1990, specialising in responsible business standards, intellectual property protection, dispute resolution and cost-efficient operational strategy. Former innovation lead for Bayer and Hoechst. Board-level governance advisor and mediator. Health advocate living with atrial fibrillation and a prostate cancer survivor. 💼 Search "Clive Bonny" on LinkedIn https://consult-smp.com 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ Youtube https://youtu.be/6ssayU4ouNc 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics/ 🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast ℹ️ Nothing in this episode is medical advice. Views on treatments and devices are personal experience only — always consult a qualified clinician about your own care. #CliveBonny #AtrialFibrillation #AFib #DOAC #Anticoagulants #ProstateCancer #PharmaPrescribed #PatientVoice #HeartHealth #MedicalDevices #ResponsibleBusiness

    Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Thinners & the "Sudden Death Syndrome" Nobody Checks For

  3. Aug 15

    The Patients Clinical Trials Leave Out - and the Evidence That Counts Them In

    Ashish Rishi on The Patients Clinical Trials Leave Out — and the Evidence That Counts Them In | Pharma Prescribed  Ashish Rishi is Founder and CEO of Unwritten Health, the Manchester-based patient experience data platform working to make life science's evidence reflect the people it's meant to serve. His mission is unsentimental — and it starts with his father. At 17, Ash watched his dad spend three years fighting for a GP referral for worsening back and bone pain. The eventual diagnosis was terminal prostate cancer, delivered to an 18-year-old and his mother — for whom English is a fourth language — in a two-minute conversation and a flyer, with no family network to turn to. His father lived six more years and passed away three months before Ash's graduation. That experience became a company. In this episode Ash explains "inclusion debt" — his term for how bias compounds at every stage of drug development: unmet need defined without the real patient voice, multi-billion-pound programmes built on focus groups of eight to ten patient experts, recruitment budgets thrown at social ads that reach the already-reachable, and value dossiers that carry only the majority narrative. By market access, it's too late to fix. The Patients Clinical Trials Leave Out — and the Evidence That Counts Them In His answer is Equity Engine: a 6,000-strong UK participant panel profiled across the social determinants of health, built through gurdwaras, mosques, temples, churches and community groups, generating longitudinal lived-experience data at a scale focus groups never could — and turning it into submission-ready evidence. Honest about being a "failed scientist," about burnout and anger, and about the trust he has to earn in every room. A powerful conversation about fixing inequity as an evidence and design problem, not just a moral one. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:35 Meet Ashish Rishi 1:00 A father's diagnosis 3:00 From neuroscience to comms 4:00 The clinical trial wake-up call 7:00 The Demand Diversity movement 9:00 Building Equity Engine 12:00 Inclusion debt explained 15:00 UK data fragmentation 17:00 Barriers and misinformation 19:00 AI-powered patient insights 26:00 Neurodivergent-friendly trials 28:00 Quickfire round 30:00 Golden rule and wrap up 👤 ABOUT ASHISH RISHI Founder and CEO of Unwritten Health and creator of the Equity Engine platform. Neuroscience MSc and former health communications specialist. Sits on the scientific advisory board of IHI READ-Y (an EU Innovative Health Initiative / Horizon Europe programme advancing inclusive clinical research) and the equity committee of the US Prader-Willi Syndrome Association. Advocate for re-engineering health inequity as an evidence and design problem. 💼 Search "Ashish Rishi" on LinkedIn 🌐 https://www.unwrittenhealth.com 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics 🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast #AshishRishi #UnwrittenHealth #InclusionDebt #HealthEquity #ClinicalTrials #ClinicalTrialDiversity #PharmaPrescribed #PatientExperience #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #RWE #HealthInequality

    The Patients Clinical Trials Leave Out - and the Evidence That Counts Them In

  4. Aug 10

    A Single Photo Can Reach Someone With Dementia When Words Cannot

    Louise Callin on dementia, photos sparking conversation & making care more human | Pharma Prescribed Louise Callin — founder and CEO of ReelLife Conversations — joins Adam Walker for a warm and moving conversation about dementia, human connection and building technology that makes care more human, not less. After nearly 30 years leading technology and transformation for global corporations including American Express, Louise left to build something with more direct impact. Her mother's dementia journey inspired the idea: photos aren't a memory test, they're a conversation waiting to happen. ReelLife Conversations uses AI to turn family photographs into dementia-friendly conversation prompts — analysing each picture for colours, objects and places, then linking one photo naturally to the next. She's since secured venture capital investment and is building partnerships across the UK and internationally. Adam and Louise met at a conference — and her energy is unmistakable. 🎧 LISTEN ON YOUR PREFERRED APP Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/search/Louise+Callin+pharma+prescribed/episodes ⚠️ SWAP Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/search?term=Louise+Callin+pharma+prescribed ⚠️ SWAP Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean → https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com/ Youtube → https://youtu.be/wq1GShCpCYE  📖 WHAT WE COVER - The superpower Louise didn't know she had — linking one photo to the next in real time - Why photos should never be a memory test: "Do you remember when?" versus "I remember when" - The green top story — how colour, not context, unlocks connection - Turning physical albums into digital assets that work for dementia - Accessible design with no standard to follow: fear-free buttons, no menus, opens straight to use - How the app works: facial recognition, family admin naming, AI conversation prompts - Why each photo links to the next to support natural conversation flow - The carer as the third leg of the stool — and why social care struggles with retention - Louise's mum's journey — and how love led her to quietly cover up early symptoms - Why dementia statistically affects women more — as patients and as primary carers - Dr.Tommy Wood on sleep, supply and stimulation — the non-pharmacological approach - Securing VC investment for a values-driven, volume-based, low-subscription model - Sailing, mind maps and "common sense is not very common" ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction & podcast mission 1:00 Meet Louise Callin — founder of ReelLife Conversations 1:30 Mission: technology that makes care more human 2:00 Her mother's dementia journey and the inspiration 2:30 Photos spark conversation — the coffee table superpower 4:00 Why the carer couldn't use the photos alone 5:00 Colours, objects and places — not just faces 6:00 Photos are a conversation waiting to happen 8:00 No memory tests: "Do you remember" versus "I remember" 9:00 The green top and turning language around 11:00 From analogue albums to digital assets 12:00 Accessible design for dementia — no written standard 13:00 Fear-free buttons and opening straight into use 14:00 Designed for two people, side by side 15:00 The family admin portal and uploading photos 16:00 Facial recognition, naming and location data 17:00 AI conversation prompts — the game changer 18:00 Linking each photo to the next 19:00 The carer as stimulus — the third leg of the stool 20:00 Every journey is unique — Uncle Geoff's story 22:00 Louise's mum: covering up early symptoms out of love 24:00 Social connection as critical — not surfacing memories 26:00 From corporate life to founder — securing funding 28:00 The volume model: small subscription, huge need 30:00 A values-driven business 31:00 Women and caregiving — menopause, sleep and stress 34:00 Women outliving men and the caregiving needle 35:00 Dementia at the forefront, like mental health before it 36:00 From pharmacological to non-pharmacological care 37:30 Quick-fire: I matter too 38:30 The water, sailing and a fish in a previous life 40:00 Golden rule: common sense is not very common 41:00 reellifeconversations.com and closing thanks 👤 ABOUT LOUISE CALLIN Founder and CEO of ReelLife Conversations, a social care technology company helping families, carers and providers create meaningful conversations for people living with dementia. Nearly 30 years in technology and transformation. 🌐 https://www.reellifeconversations.com 💼 Search "Louise Callin" on LinkedIn 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Long-form conversations with leaders in clinical research, digital health and mental wellbeing, hosted by Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics #LouiseCallin #ReelLifeConversations #Dementia #DementiaCare #PharmaPrescribed #AdamWalker #SocialCare #NonPharmacological #CaregiverSupport #WomenAndDementia #DigitalHealth #HumanConnection #Alzheimers #DementiaFriendly #Wellbeing

    A Single Photo Can Reach Someone With Dementia When Words Cannot

  5. Aug 1

    The CEO Who Refuses to Grow His Company — and Still Runs Trials in 10 Countries

    Andreas Beust on how a small CRO covers the globe without growing | Pharma Prescribed Andreas Beust is CEO and Managing Director of GCP Service International, a Bremen-based CRO working across medicinal products, medical devices and in vitro diagnostics. He's also President of ACROS — the Association of International CROs — and a guest lecturer at the University of Bremen. He started on the biostatistics desk. He's now running the company, elected by a leader who — not yet 50 — went looking for a successor because clinical research moves too fast to leave succession to chance. In this episode Andreas makes complex things accessible, which is his stated mission. He explains the ACROS model: ten similarly-sized, like-minded CROs from the US to Europe, the Middle East, India, China and Australia, who agree that once a partner joins, their country is off-limits to the others. It lets a small CRO run trials globally — 20 concurrent studies across Spain, Italy and Portugal through one trusted partner — without ballooning into the kind of large, rigid, expensive organisation that can't serve smaller sponsors. Grow together, not bigger. He's refreshingly frank on AI: a lot of overpromise and underdeliver, quarter-of-a-million-per-seat licence fees that no small or mid-size company can pay, and real but modest gains in medical writing, programming and knowledge capture — always human in the loop. And he's honest about the thing that actually drives growth: discomfort. Curiosity, listening first, and putting yourself in the shop window of the unknown. An optimistic, grounded conversation about how the human end of this industry actually works — and how to break into it. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:35 Meet Andreas Beust 3:00 From the biostats desk to CEO 7:00 Podcasting, curiosity and listening first 11:00 Breaking into clinical research 16:00 Advice for young talent 21:00 Hiring for attitude 23:00 Leading without ego 26:00 A flexibility mindset 27:00 Building the ACROS alliance 30:00 The presidency and the mission 35:00 A communal growth model 37:00 AI in clinical trials — a reality check 42:00 Compliance, costs and human in the loop 44:00 Hope amid uncertainty 46:00 Quickfire round 50:00 Final takeaways 👤 ABOUT ANDREAS BEUST CEO and Managing Director of GCP Service International (Bremen). President of ACROS, the Association of International CROs. Guest lecturer at the University of Bremen. Biologist by training who joined GCP Service in the biostatistics department and rose to lead the company through its international expansion. Advocate for accessible clinical research and for training new talent from the ground up. 💼 Search "Andreas Beust" on LinkedIn 🌐 https://www.gcp-service.com 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ https://youtu.be/GxVq88C6ChA 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics 🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast #AndreasBeust #GCPService #ACROS #CRO #ClinicalResearch #ClinicalTrials #PharmaPrescribed #AIinPharma #ClinicalTrialCareers #GCP #ContractResearch

    The CEO Who Refuses to Grow His Company — and Still Runs Trials in 10 Countries

  6. Jul 26

    The Ruthless Boss Is Scientifically Wrong: Why Kind Teams Win

    Graham Allcott on Kind, Psychological Safety & the Quiet Power of Kindness | Pharma Prescribe Graham Allcott — bestselling author of How to Be a Productivity Ninja and Kind: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work — joins Adam Walker for a conversation about why the ruthless-boss archetype is scientifically wrong. Graham founded Think Productive, now operating across the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. His latest book won the 2025 Leadership Book of the Year from the Institute of Leadership and a Business Book Award. His argument is simple and evidence-backed: kindness builds trust, trust builds psychological safety, and psychologically safe teams outperform everyone else. Adam and Graham first met at the Sussex University Kindness Conference. This is the conversation that followed. 🎧 LISTEN ON YOUR PREFERRED APP Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/episode/04glB17p7bBWVmLjlwIO7z?si=WfiLpCsPQuatGlGcV2_NQQ Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/graham-allcott-on-kind-psychological-safety-the-quiet/id1829715970?i=1000778402287 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/episodes/dd83fbdb-4053-468f-8486-9e346073b5f6/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast-graham-allcott-on-kind-psychological-safety-the-quiet-power-of-kindness-pharma-prescribed  Podbean → https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com/ Youtube → https://youtu.be/1i1_TIZRBmI  📖 WHAT WE COVER - Why we got the success archetype wrong — Mr Burns, Dragon's Den and the myth of the ruthless leader - "Trust and kindness are our rocket fuel" — the company value that became a book - How trust eliminates due diligence — and the Apple purchase analogy - Why organisations without shareholders find kindness easier: Timpson, Richer Sounds, Reed - James Timpson: "The easiest way to make the numbers go up is to flog everybody" - Why charities are often the least kind places to work - The biggest source of accidental unkindness is busyness - The kindness window: why the opportunity closes the moment you notice it - Slowness isn't about speed, it's about savouring - Erling Kagge, the South Pole and the apple that connected him to the tree - How Seth Godin blurbed the book — and the watermark that nearly stopped it - Kindness starts with you: abundance versus scarcity - DJing jazz, funk and soul at Brighton Sundae ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction & podcast mission 1:00 Meet Graham Allcott 1:30 The mission: thinking differently about work 2:00 Why the success archetype is scientifically wrong 3:00 Meeting at the Sussex Kindness Conference 4:00 The bridge between productivity and kindness 4:30 "Trust and kindness are our rocket fuel" 5:00 Culture without a water cooler 6:00 Psychological safety and what the research shows 8:00 Trust eliminates due diligence — the Apple analogy 9:00 What happens when trust is lost 10:00 Scandinavian workplaces, hygge and Copenhagen 12:00 The shareholder problem — family businesses do it better 13:00 James Timpson on flogging everybody 15:00 Common threads across kinder organisations 17:00 Kindness to customers, not just employees 18:30 The charity sector reality check 21:00 Attention, meetings and How to Fix Meetings 22:00 Nancy Kline's Time to Think 23:00 Podcasting and the attention economy 25:00 Busyness and kindness — do they mix? 27:00 The kindness window and the London Tube seat 28:00 Item four — the praise you never gave 29:00 Busyness as a badge of honour 30:00 Adam's back surgery and rebuilding slowly 32:00 Carl Honoré and the slow movement 33:00 Slowness is savouring, not speed 34:00 Erling Kagge, the South Pole and the apple 36:00 Seth Godin and Beyond Busy 38:00 The advice that named the book 39:00 The watermark that nearly stopped the blurb 40:00 "Blurbs help the author walk taller" 42:00 Kindness starts with you 44:00 Abundance versus scarcity 45:00 "There is enough. I am enough." 46:00 Rev Up for the Week 47:00 Quick-fire: book the ticket 47:45 DJing at Brighton Sundae 48:30 Golden rule: stay curious 👤 ABOUT GRAHAM ALLCOTT Author, speaker and entrepreneur. Founder of Think Productive. Author of How to Be a Productivity Ninja and Kind: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work — 2025 Leadership Book of the Year. Resident DJ at Brighton Sundae. 🌐 https://www.grahamallcott.com 📧 Rev Up for the Week — free Sunday newsletter 🎧 brightonsundae.com 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Long-form conversations with leaders in clinical research, digital health and mental wellbeing, hosted by Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics #GrahamAllcott #Kind #KindnessAtWork #ThinkProductive #ProductivityNinja #PharmaPrescribed #AdamWalker #PsychologicalSafety #Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #SethGodin #Busyness #SlowMovement #Trust #Wellbeing

    The Ruthless Boss Is Scientifically Wrong: Why Kind Teams Win

  7. Jul 18

    Inside the NHS Plan to Make 900,000 Life-Saving Doses a Year

    Adam Walker interviews namesake Adam Walker; GMP, Sepsis & 900k NHS Doses a Year | Pharma Prescribed Two Adam Walkers, one conversation. This week the host is joined by his namesake — Adam Walker, Qualified Person, Head of Development and Innovation at the North East and North Cumbria Medicines Manufacturing Centre, and co-founder of the Help Me GMP educational platform. Adam qualified as an NHS pharmacist in 2003 and quickly realised the clean room, not the ward, was where he could do the most good. In this episode he explains the quiet revolution underway in NHS pharmaceutical manufacturing: a new hub-and-spoke model, one of four national aseptic pathfinder hubs, and a brand-new facility in Northumberland going live in 2027 — built to produce around 150,000 chemotherapy doses and up to 750,000 ready-to-administer antibiotic doses a year. The patient impact is immediate. A ready-made antibiotic bag pulled from a fridge means the one-hour door-to-needle target for suspected sepsis is met, and nurses get 12–15 minutes per dose back for patient care. Then the conversation turns personal. Adam shares his "why" — his mother's Grade 4 metastatic bowel cancer diagnosis in 2003, her remarkable response to the FOLFOX regimen, and the nine extra years it bought: his wedding, meeting his first son. It's why he gets up in the morning. He also opens up on mentorship, Annex 1, and building Help Me GMP for the "TikTok generation" of pharma professionals. Two disciplines — GMP and GCP — one shared mission: getting the right medicine to the patient at the right time. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes Youtube: https://youtu.be/2MoNyxxkDiE    ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:35 Meet Adam Walker (QP) 1:00 Finding pharma manufacturing 9:00 Development & innovation: the NENC hub 15:00 Patient impact and the sepsis window 18:00 A personal why: his mother's cancer and FOLFOX 21:00 Mentors and career shapers 27:00 The Help Me GMP mission 31:00 Creating content with AI — the GMP way 33:00 Quick fire round 36:00 Golden rule and wrap up 👤 ABOUT ADAM WALKER (GUEST) Qualified Person and pharmaceutical quality leader. Head of Development and Innovation at the North East and North Cumbria Medicines Manufacturing Centre, leading the build of next-generation NHS manufacturing facilities. Co-founder of Help Me GMP, delivering free, practical GMP training worldwide. NHS pharmacist since 2003, specialising in GMP manufacturing, aseptic processing and medicine supply. 💼 Search "Adam Walker Help Me GMP" on LinkedIn 🌐 https://www.whatisgmp.com ▶️ Help Me GMP on YouTube 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-walker-2327951/ 🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast #AdamWalker #HelpMeGMP #GMP #NHS #AsepticProcessing #MedicinesManufacturing #PharmaPrescribed #PatientSafety #Chemotherapy #Sepsis #QualifiedPerson #Pharma

    Inside the NHS Plan to Make 900,000 Life-Saving Doses a Year

  8. Jul 13

    95% of Eligible Patients Never Join a Trial — and AI Just Killed the Excuse

    Lisa Kerr on why 95% of eligible patients never join a clinical trial | Pharma Prescribed Lisa Kerr is Head of Patient Engagement at Evinova, AstraZeneca's health tech business — a PhD chemist who climbed to global project director, hit a cliff edge, and came back with a mission. In this episode Lisa talks openly about the divorce, the clinical depression, and the three months as an outpatient at the Priory that reshaped her career. She founded AstraZeneca's Safe Space employee resource group after one Workplace post she thought would end her career — and built mental health navigation tools that scaled globally. She then turns that lived experience on the industry itself: only 5–7% of eligible patients ever join a clinical trial, and that number has barely moved in a decade despite digitisation and healthcare transformation. Lisa explains the EACH framework, why patients are the real investors in a trial (time, health, trust — given for free), and why AI has just destroyed pharma's last excuse for not designing trials with patients. Honest, funny, and unusually direct. No soundbites, no spin. 🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adam-walkers-pharma-prescribed-podcast/id1829715970 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast Podbean: https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:35 Meet Lisa Kerr 1:30 A mission built on lived experience 2:50 From PhD chemist to global project director 4:20 The cliff edge: divorce, depression, the Priory 5:50 "Ask people how they are twice" — the colleague who saved her 8:50 The mental health access crisis 11:40 Building Safe Space at AstraZeneca 16:10 The navigation tools that scaled globally 20:10 Purpose, energy and humour 22:45 Lessons from the Priory 26:40 Patient engagement: being the voice in the room 29:10 The EACH framework and patients as consumers 30:50 Why only 5–7% of eligible patients ever join a trial 32:35 When the system fails even the well-informed 35:30 AI kills the industry's last excuse 38:10 Misinformation, hallucination and pharma's silence on social 41:50 Quick fire round 44:20 Where to find Lisa 👤 ABOUT LISA KERR Head of Patient Engagement at Evinova (AstraZeneca). PhD chemist, 20+ years across global pharma and health tech. Founder of AstraZeneca's Safe Space ERG and the Evinova I&D network. Advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, neurodivergent communities and trauma survivors. Charity trustee. Singer in rock and pop covers band The Torrists. 💼 Search "Lisa Kerr" on LinkedIn 🎸 The Torrists — on Instagram and Facebook 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast

    95% of Eligible Patients Never Join a Trial — and AI Just Killed the Excuse
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Get ready for open and honest long-form conversations with fascinating and passionate individuals in clinical research. These are people you may or may not be aware of, with one thing in common - they are all doing extraordinary things. I’m thrilled to introduce the Pharma Prescribed Podcast! My goal is to delve deeply into current trends, innovations, and leadership philosophies across life sciences. By creating a platform for meaningful, less structured discussions, this podcast seeks to inform, inspire, and connect you with leaders who are making significant contributions to the field. The central ”why” lies in our commitment to impactful dialogues that highlight collaboration, innovation, and ethical practices, which are shaping the future of drug development. These are the conversations you wish life science leaders were having.

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