The Life Science Effect

Steven A. Vinson, PMP
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Have you ever thought about who the people are behind life-saving breakthroughs? How did they get started in their careers? Why did they choose the Life Sciences? What effect do they hope to cause? These are the questions we explore on The Life Science Effect. Gain insights straight from thought leaders, entrepreneurial game-changers, and business executives leading the Life Sciences. Host Steve Vinson explores what it really takes to be effective in this industry as a leader and innovator with a special focus on what's happening here, in the Heartland. We aim to inspire, equip, and empower the next generation of Life Science experts through purpose-driven conversations. Join us weekly as we talk about what happens behind the science and get to know the people who make it happen

  1. JAN 30

    How Modular Biotech is Changing Everything - Even in Orbit

    In this episode, host Steve Vinson dives into one of the most futuristic — yet rapidly emerging — trends in life sciences: transportable and point‑of‑care pharmaceutical manufacturing. After discovering a compelling ISPE article, Steve explores how modular clean rooms, distributed manufacturing models, and space‑ready production units are reshaping the future of medicine. From personalized tablet production to on‑demand therapies in extreme environments, these technologies could redefine how and where healthcare happens. Drawing on his 30+ years in manufacturing, Steve connects these innovations to what he's seeing in real project work, including the rise of standardized, copy‑and‑paste biotech facilities. He discusses the biggest challenges ahead — regulatory harmonization, operator training, and safety — and why solving them could open the door to a new era of accessible, hyper‑localized medicine. Whether you're an entrepreneur, biotech professional, investor, or simply curious about the future of therapeutics, this episode offers a fast, engaging look at where the industry is headed — including potential applications as far‑flung as Antarctica… or outer space.            LINK TO iSPEAK BLOG POST Update on Transportable and Point of Care Manufacturing | Pharmaceutical Engineering   MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   Detailed Show Notes Main Discussion Points Overview of ISPE article on transportable and point‑of‑care manufacturing Why point‑of‑care production is a potential game‑changer Medicine in space and other extreme‑environment applications Distributed manufacturing and standardized multi‑facility models Regulatory challenges and the push for global harmonization Real‑world examples: CAR‑T modular clean rooms, PrivMed tablets, BioNTainers How this relates to Steve's experience in biotech projects What questions remain — and why this could be transformative by 2030   Key Quotes "Imagine being on the moon and still getting antibiotics without waiting for Earth to deliver them." "Distributed manufacturing could allow pharma to scale faster and more consistently than ever before." "These challenges are big — but they're solvable, and that's what excites me." "Point‑of‑care production moves medicine to wherever the patient is — even Antarctica or space." "By 2030, this could be a full‑blown wave reshaping the entire industry."   Call to Action Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a colleague who follows biotech innovation. For links, resources, and all platforms, visit thelifescienceeffect.com. Want to continue the conversation? Email Steve at steven.vinson@bpm-associates.com.   TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 You're about to experience The Life Science Effect, Season 2, brought to you by our presenting sponsor, BPM Associates. Extraordinary people. Relationships that matter. Important change for a better world. The joy of belonging. Life. Science. Leadership. 00:00:32 Hello and welcome to another episode of The Life Science Effect. I'm Steve Vinson. Let's get into it. 00:00:37 I was browsing the ISPE website looking for an article or blog post to read — that's at ispe.org, and I'll add the link in the show notes. I knew I'd find something good. There were pieces like "Paper to Pixels: Why Pharma Needs to Digitize," "Discover the Future of Sterile Manufacturing," and "Top Five Future Trends in the Pharmaceutical Industry." 00:01:08 Then I saw Update on Transportable and Point‑of‑Care Manufacturing and stopped in my tracks. I had to read it and react to it here. 00:01:20 If that title doesn't jump out at you, I get it. But after 30 years in manufacturing, anything about transportable or point‑of‑care manufacturing is fascinating. This is true science‑fiction‑meets‑reality territory. 00:01:47 The article, authored by Celeste Frankenfield Lam, PhD, and Wendy McGee, summarizes a presentation Dr. Lam gave at the 2025 ISPE Annual Meeting in October. And it is genuinely fascinating. 00:02:21 Here's what hooked me: point‑of‑care manufacturing — medicine produced where the patient is. That could be your doctor's office. Antarctica. Or space. Yes, medicine in space. 00:02:45 Imagine being on the moon and still getting antibiotics without waiting for a resupply from Earth. Manufactured on site. That grabbed me immediately. 00:02:56 But it's more than medicine in space. The article covers distributed manufacturing — standardized processes across multiple identical sites — and point‑of‑care systems that enable personalized dosing. Imagine a doctor saying, "You need 5 mg, while most people need 4," then pressing a button and producing it on the spot. 00:03:32 Transportable manufacturing means modular, movable manufacturing units — shipped by truck, plane, or even into remote or extreme environments… like space. 00:03:48 The challenges? The technology is incredibly advanced. Operators must run these systems consistently to ensure accurate, safe medicine with no contamination. 00:04:21 These environments are highly regulated. The FDA governs the U.S., the EMA oversees Europe, and every country has its own agency. If something is compliant in the U.S. but you ship it to Brazil, their regulations differ. Harmonizing regulatory frameworks across countries is a major challenge — but smart people are working on it. 00:04:40 The goal: one harmonized regulatory standard so manufacturing units can operate safely anywhere — even in orbit. All aimed at producing safe, effective medicine so Steve can get healthcare in space. 00:05:42 My reaction? I'm hooked. I'll be following every new development. The article gives examples of companies working on these technologies, and you can click through — it's free; you don't need to be an ISPE member. 00:06:02 I've been part of ISPE before, and I'm getting involved again. It's a fantastic organization. 00:06:18 Is this a big deal? Yes. Potentially huge. 00:06:24 At BPM Associates, we work with clients using distributed models — multiple facilities built exactly the same to maximize consistency and flexibility. If you were blindfolded and moved from one to another, you wouldn't know where you were. 00:07:11 I've seen this approach for years, especially in microchip manufacturing in the '90s — duplicate the factory exactly, innovate later. This is becoming true in pharma. 00:07:51 Now, seeing point‑of‑care machines and modular systems emerging is incredibly exciting. 00:08:03 I want to read more about the biggest challenges. Training, competency, and regulatory compliance seem solvable. But are there challenges that aren't solvable? That's what I want to learn. 00:08:30 By 2030, this could be the next big wave. 00:08:34 If you work in this space — the companies mentioned include a CAR‑T modular clean‑room company, PrivMed's point‑of‑care tablet production technology, and BioNTech's BioNTainers for modular mRNA vaccine production — email me. 00:09:41 steven.vinson@bpm-associates.com 00:09:47 No script today — just vibes. Links in the show notes. If you liked this episode, share it with a friend. Subscribe on your favorite platform. Visit thelifescienceeffect.com for all podcast links. And send me an email — I'd love to talk more. 00:10:08 Thanks for listening. Stay strong out there.

    10 min

  2. 12/08/2025

    Global Biotech - Is America Falling Behind?

    In this episode, Steve Vinson dives into a provocative article by US Senator Todd Young, exploring the shifting landscape of global biotech innovation. With China's rapid advances—highlighted by a breakthrough lung cancer drug—Steve analyzes the factors behind America's waning leadership, from fragmented policy and regulatory uncertainty to funding challenges and talent migration. Drawing on his own industry experience, Steve discusses the impact of immigration crackdowns, supply chain vulnerabilities, and the long-term effects of reshoring manufacturing. Listeners will gain insight into the political and economic forces shaping biotech's future, the importance of global collaboration, and the risks of falling behind. Whether you're a new entrepreneur or a technical professional in life sciences, this episode offers actionable perspectives and invites you to join the conversation on how the US can reclaim its edge in biotech innovation.   Link to Senator Youg's article:  https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/how-america-can-win-biotech-race#   MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   Detailed Show Notes Main Discussion Points China's biotech innovation and breakthrough lung cancer drug US policy fragmentation and regulatory uncertainty Biotech funding challenges and investor risk Impact of immigration crackdowns on talent Supply chain vulnerabilities and tariffs Reshoring US manufacturing and its costs Lessons from the semiconductor industry Call for audience insights on political and trade issues Key Quotes "China's catching up doesn't bother me—it's not a zero-sum game." "What concerns me more is the US falling behind." "Investors want to predict risk, but uncertainty is driving capital elsewhere." "We don't want a brain drain; we need that talent." "Significant investments are being made, but it will take years for new facilities to come online." Call-to-Action (CTA) Subscribe to The Life Science Effect, leave a review, and share your thoughts at steven.vinson@bpm-associates.com. Visit thelifescienceeffect.com for more episodes and resources.   TRANSCRIPT: You are about to experience the Life Science Effect. Season 2. Brought to you by our presenting sponsor, BPM Associates. Extraordinary people. Relationships that matter. Important change for a better world. The joy of belonging. Life. Science. Leadership. Welcome to the next episode. I just read this piece in Foreign Affairs, and it's called "How America Can Win the Biotech Race." It's by Todd Young, who happens to be a senator from Indiana, United States senator, a Republican from Indiana. It was published on October 15th, so it's relatively recent. Key points that I found and what caught my eye was they're talking about a Chinese biotech company that developed a lung cancer drug that outperformed Merck's best-in-class treatment. And it sort of is a signal of China's rapid innovation. The US seems to be—now remember, this is a United States Senator, a Republican—so a lot of this is, you would have to take it from a political point of view. And so I'm not going to say I agree with everything in this article. I would have to do a little more assessment and research. So when you hear me saying the US is losing ground in biotech because of fragmented policy and regulatory hurdles and stagnant funding, I don't know 100% how much of that is accurate. However, I would say there is fragmented policy. I would agree with that. You've heard me say it on this podcast where there's uncertainty in what the regulatory landscape is going to look like given the new administration. And since I first published those episodes earlier this year, things have not gotten better in those terms. And the funding has dried up for biotech. Some of it's starting to make a comeback, but a lot of the funding dried up because investors expect a return and they expect to be able to predict the return, or at least predict the risk. So there's always risk and they want to be able to predict what that risk is going to look like. With the new administration, a lot of things remain unclear with tariffs, how the FDA is going to approach regulation, how they're going to view certain scientific data. There's uncertainty there. So the investors are looking for somewhere else to put their capital. So China, in the meanwhile, hasn't had a big change like we have. And they've been investing billions of dollars. And they're able to, with their system, they're able to pick winners and like who's likely to be a winner and redirect capital to those things that look most promising. And so how did they hit me? Well, I was a little bit surprised how quickly China's catching up, but only a little because I've known China was making these big investments. And I've known that they've been attracting a lot of talent into the industry. And it is a little bit annoying because the US has historically led in biotech innovation. And it's one of the things we brought to the world, right, in terms of the US having this—it would attract global talent. It would attract global capital. And we had these hubs of innovation. And the capital got really good at predicting risk. And they knew not everything would win, but they knew how to invest in a way that over the long haul they could win. And that really sparked a lot of innovation. Todd Young didn't mention it in this article, but I think one of the problems we have right now is with this immigration crackdown. They've cast this wide net that's—a lot of people are getting wrapped up in it who aren't criminals. They just have had their visas canceled. They've had different things happen. And a lot of students are seeing this and a lot of scientists are seeing this. So if you're from another country, and I was curious why—well, I think I know why, but it would be interesting for him to at least address that and say, you know, talent may start to slow down because of the immigration crackdown. And I'd love it if he would talk with the administration. He could probably get their ear way easier than a Democrat senator could, right? So Democratic editor and wanted to talk to you. Administration, they probably couldn't even get in the door, but Todd Young could, and say, hey, and maybe he is behind the scenes. I don't know, maybe politically he couldn't put it out there in an article that he's saying, hey, maybe we need to back off the academic immigrants, you know, because we need that talent. We don't want a brain drain. So who knows what goes on behind closed doors. Does it feel like a big deal or is it just noise? Well, I think of that a couple of ways. One is China's catching up doesn't bother me that much, because I don't see it as a zero-sum game. I see it as, hey, China's China, and they're doing things to develop their biotech industry, which will result in medicines and devices and products that will benefit patients. And China's not going to just keep it in China. Well, first of all, over a billion people in China get—a lot of people get to benefit. That's a lot of human beings whose lives are being improved, even if it was just China. But they're going to export these products and the knowledge, and more and more products are going to be available globally. I think that's good. I would like for the US to continue doing the same thing. And what could be better than China and the US and other countries getting better and better at biotech? So just because China's getting, you know, catching up, it doesn't bother me. What bothers me more is that the US has fallen behind. So it really connects with a lot of the things I've seen because it makes me think about how US companies are increasingly dependent on Chinese firms for research, manufacturing, and things like that. And supply chain vulnerabilities. You know, we've experienced a lot of supply chain vulnerabilities over the past five years or so. And then with the tariffs, if you are getting your active ingredients or intermediates from China for your products made in the US, there's going to be a tariff on those products being sent from China, which increases your costs, which increases the cost to the patient. And we talk a lot about cost to the patient, right? It's a problem. And so you say, well, then won't the tariffs cause companies to build in the US? Billions, tens of billions of dollars are being invested in the US right now to build out factories to provide these things that maybe they used to get from China. So one view is, okay, won't that help the US stop falling behind because we'll have these facilities here. Well, there was a reason that they were exported and that these facilities were—they could do it for less money in some other countries, China, for example. So all of these investments in the US, first of all, it's going to take three to five years to start, you know, two to four years, three to five years for these factories to come online with any sort of capacity. And it's going to be more expensive. It just is. It's more expensive to manufacture in the US, so it's going to drive up costs. All of that wasn't in this article, but it was what makes me think of it. He does mention a trend with semiconductors, like how things are being reshored with semiconductors. For a while there, the US was the leader in semiconductors, and then a similar thing happened, and other countries became—the US fell behind, other countries. And now we had this supply chain vulnerability for semiconductors. During the Biden administration, they did some things that caused that to start to improve. And they are continuing to improve. More semiconductors are being reshored, and that's improving. So I'd like somebody smarter than me to kind of look at this and sort of parse through how much of it is political versus how much of it is, no, this is

    9 min

  3. 10/27/2025

    Pharma 4.0: AI, Validation, and the Future of Life Sciences

    Step into the future of pharmaceutical and medical device innovation with Steve on The Life Science Effect. In this episode, Steve explores the transformative power of Pharma 4.0 and Validation 4.0, drawing insights from two thought-provoking blog posts by Robert Perks of Performance Validation. Discover how digital-first strategies, artificial intelligence, and continuous monitoring are reshaping compliance, quality assurance, and operational efficiency in life sciences. Steve breaks down the shift from paper-based systems to predictive analytics, highlighting the importance of aligning people, processes, and technology in a highly regulated industry. Whether you're a new entrepreneur, engineer, or project manager, you'll gain actionable takeaways on embracing digital transformation, collaborating with regulators, and staying ahead of industry trends. Tune in for key lessons, expert perspectives, and a call to action for leaders ready to drive change in pharma and medical devices. Keywords: Pharma 4.0, Validation 4.0, AI in life sciences, regulatory compliance, digital transformation.   BLOG POSTS MENTIONED: Embracing Pharma 4.0 — A Strategic Imperative for a Digital-First Future  - Performance Validation   The Transformative Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Validation in Life Sciences  - Performance Validation   MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   TRANSCRIPT: 00:00:00 HOST: You are about to experience the Life Science Effect, Season 2, brought to you by our presenting sponsor, BPM Associates. 00:00:15 HOST: Extraordinary people. HOST: Relationships that matter. HOST: Important change for a better world. HOST: The joy of belonging. HOST: Life. Science. Leadership. 00:00:29 HOST (Steve): This is Steve, and it's time for another active ingredient. 00:00:33 HOST: I thought for a minute about not calling this segment "active ingredient" today because it's not just one article—it's two blog posts. But it's still off the cuff. I've read these two blog posts and I'm going to interview myself about them. Both are from the website of a great company called Performance Validation. 00:00:54 HOST: Performance Validation is a compliance company. They do validation services, commissioning qualification, building commissioning, temperature mapping, computer system validation—really involved in the nuts and bolts of our industry to ensure processes and equipment run in compliance. 00:01:24 HOST: They're a great company. Check them out at PERFVAL.com. 00:01:32 HOST: The two blog posts are by Robert Perks, Director of Digital Solutions for Performance Validation. I don't know Robert personally, but I really enjoyed these posts. Maybe I'll get to know him someday. 00:01:52 HOST: The first is "Embracing Pharma 4.0: A Strategic Imperative for a Digital First Future." The second is "The Transformative Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Validation in Life Sciences." 00:02:16 HOST: What caught my eye about these articles? If you heard a recent episode where I talked about Industry 4.0, you know I admitted I don't really know what I'm talking about there. So these posts caught my eye—maybe I can learn more about Industry 4.0 if Robert is talking about Pharma 4.0 validation. He even uses the term "Validation 4.0" in the AI article. 00:02:51 HOST: My first reaction was excitement. Pharma 4.0 aligns with Industry 4.0 by connecting resources, information, people, equipment, and software through digital systems. It aligns organizations, processes, and culture with emerging technology. 00:03:24 HOST: Pharma 4.0 is actually a trademarked term by ISPE—the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering. They've broadened their scope to include computer systems and medical devices, not just pharmaceuticals. 00:04:13 HOST: ISPE coined Pharma 4.0 to show how Industry 4.0 applies to pharmaceutical manufacturing, development, and distribution. At a high level, it's about aligning resources, systems, organizations, processes, and culture to fit our regulated environment, ensuring quality and compliance while breaking down silos and moving away from paper-based systems. 00:05:13 HOST: Now, we live in a paperless world. How do we align digitally enabled processes to take full advantage? 00:05:31 HOST: Is this a big deal or just noise? It's a big deal. Mr. Perks points out this isn't a future vision—it's happening now. It reminds me of the late 90s when computer systems started replacing paper, and the FDA was asked how they'd regulate digital records. 00:06:32 HOST: Now, there's more collaboration between regulators and industry, leading to optimal solutions. This is the right now, not just the future. 00:06:55 HOST: The second post is "The Transformative Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Validation in Life Sciences." So, what is validation? 00:07:09 HOST: Validation means proof that a medicine, device, or system is fit for its intended use. Proof is evidence—often test results or measurements. 00:08:17 HOST: In pharma and medical devices, validation means proving the system, process, device, or medicine is fit for its intended use—safe, effective, and reliable. 00:08:54 HOST: Historically, validation was retroactive: something happens, a report is written, signed, and filed until an auditor reviews it. If bad product was made, it might already be on the market, leading to recalls and potential harm. 00:09:54 HOST: With Validation 4.0, we're using AI and digital technologies for continuous monitoring and testing. AI can analyze data streams and alert us to issues before bad medicine is made—predictive, not just reactive. 00:10:44 HOST: My company just brought on a new consultant with high-speed manufacturing experience. Life sciences often lag in adopting advanced manufacturing technologies, but Industry 4.0, Pharma 4.0, and now Validation 4.0 are being embraced. 00:11:23 HOST: This is the future—and in some cases, it's today. The next four or five years will be transformative for our industry. I want my company at the forefront, so I'm asking folks to read, listen, try things out, and embrace technology. 00:12:18 HOST: I'd love to hear from others actually working in this space. Someone smarter than me might say it's easier than it looks, or that we could go faster if we removed obstacles. 00:12:39 HOST: Check out these blog posts—I'll link them in the show notes. Let me know what you think. Is Robert Perks onto something? If you have questions or want to see something addressed, let me know. 00:13:00 HOST: As always, you can reach me at stephen.vincent@bpm-associates.com. Visit thelifescienceeffect.com. Find us on all podcast platforms. Like, subscribe, do all the internet things. Most importantly, take care of each other, stay strong, and thanks for listening.

    14 min

  4. 09/15/2025

    The End of Solo Leadership: How Industry 4.0 is Changing the Game

    In this thought-provoking Active Ingredient episode, host Steve Vinson tackles a leadership paradigm that's challenging everything he thought he knew about accountability. Inspired by Sheila Rohra's Forbes article on breaking people silos, Steve dives deep into the tension between traditional "one person accountable" thinking and the emerging concept of shared accountability across teams. Drawing from his real-world experience designing process lane diagrams that keep spanning across departments, Steve explores why Industry 4.0 might be demanding a complete rethink of how we structure organizations. He examines the critical role of trust in making collective accountability work, the importance of baking collaboration into organizational structure rather than just talking about it, and how transparency can prevent destructive turf wars. This episode is particularly relevant for life science leaders navigating the inflection point of the 2020s, where new generations bring fresh approaches to work and innovation. Steve challenges listeners to consider whether traditional accountability models are holding back the collaborative future that patients, healthcare providers, and the industry desperately need. It's a must-listen for anyone ready to question conventional leadership wisdom. Why Breaking People Silos Is The Next Frontier In Leadership MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   TRANSCRIPT: HOST (Steve Vinson): [00:00] Testing, testing, one, two. All right, that seems good. This is Steve, and once again, we're going to do an active ingredient where I read an article and interview myself about it. I just read "Why Breaking People Silos is the Next Frontier in Leadership" by Sheila Rohra of the Forbes Councils. This is at Forbes.com - I'll put a link in the show notes. Sheila Arora also happens to be the CEO of Hitachi Vantara. This is not specific to life science today, by the way. I thought I would shake it up a little bit. And if you're leading a life science company or working at a life science company, it'll probably still apply. So I'll let you be the judge of that. [01:30] Why This Article Caught My Eye As a leader at a life science company, I'm always thinking about how we can better design the company, better enhance our culture, just be better. Because I believe that we always want to be improving. And one of the areas I've been thinking a lot about lately is organizational design. This really caught my eye because I want to know what the latest ways of thinking are. And it talked about breaking the silos, which really caught my eye because I'm a big believer in collaboration and working together, and not having people just operate in their own little swim lane. [02:45] My First Reaction - Challenging Traditional Thinking My first reaction is I think I need to do more study because this article is really talking about shared accountability. And one of the things we were taught coming up as young engineers, young professionals, young managers was you cannot have shared accountability. One person needs to be accountable. Now you can have shared responsibility - obviously teams can share responsibility - but one person needs to be accountable. One of the sayings that somebody used to say was "the best way to ensure a dog is going to be hungry is to tell two different people to feed it." Because of course, both of those two people are going to think the other one's going to take care of it. [04:00] Current Challenges with Lane Diagrams The other thing is lanes. When I'm designing a process right now - well, I'm not designing it, I'm on a team that's working on our processes for lead generation and lead conversion and then executing the work that we close - it's a lane diagram because I was trying to go through and say, "Who's accountable for what throughout this?" And it was getting to shared responsibility, shared tasks. So I came up with a lane diagram and now the discussions are, "Well, that's not really one person that does that - it's a conversation that has to happen across lanes." And so I'm making these boxes on my PowerPoint span across lanes and I'm thinking that's defeating the purpose of having the lanes in the first place. This article hits at a particularly appropriate time for me. [05:30] Industry 4.0 and the Bigger Picture The article itself mentions something called Industry 4.0, which I haven't heard of. So I think Industry 4.0 is something I'm going to need to look into because I didn't know there was a 1.0 through 3.0. This is Forbes, so there's probably some latest thinking coming out of business schools about how best to optimize and approach these things. Not that things didn't work well before, but a lot of the things I've learned over the course of my career, maybe it's time for a rethink. In that sense, it's probably a big deal. [06:45] Connection to Current Times We've been talking a lot on this program about risk and uncertainty and how this feels like a moment of change, like an inflection point. We'll look back and say 2020 was a huge inflection point, the years that followed, but then 2024, 2025 - I think we're going to look back and say the 2020s were really a big inflection point. We have newer generations coming along with new ways of living and new ways of approaching work. So it really connects to how are we in the life science industry going to embrace new ways of working, new ways of thinking, new ways of innovating and developing products for patients, new ways of patients interacting with their healthcare providers and new ways of getting those medications prescribed to them, administered to them. We need to be thinking with a forward-looking focus. [08:15] Key Strategies from the Article Now, this article gave a few examples. For one thing, they said trust is absolutely critical because without trust, then it's just going to look like window dressing. So you embrace this collective accountability, this collective responsibility, but you have to have trust that says, "I know everybody's going to be contributing." And I know that the rewards or the recognition is going to be shared and not just given to one person when this was really a shared accountability. There's also the concept of using structure to communicate the message. So this author is recommending that you don't just talk about shared accountability and shared things, but you actually bake it into the structure. And it sends the message that it really is real. [09:30] Our Company's Approach Our goals - I think our company does a good job of this where we're setting goals that reflect shared goals. And we actually use the word "shared" a lot, like shared goals, shared success. So the results of our goals, if we achieve them, we probably have financial success, we have opportunity success. By opportunity success, I mean if you're a project manager or a materials coordinator or some other project support person and you want to get more responsibility or do more cool projects, that is a success that can be shared as our company grows and gets more cool projects. [10:30] Transparency and the Human Factor Using transparency to prevent turf wars is another recommendation this author gives. So I'd like to hear more about that. Like what is it that should be shared, needs to be shared? Do we need to rethink how and what we share in terms of company performance, company profit margins, salary data, things like that? And then finally, the future of work is human. I fully believe the future of work is human with AI and data systems and all the tools that are rapidly coming onto the scene. In order to be successful, as my COO said, it's called copilot, not autopilot. So there's a human factor here and we need to stay on top of that. [11:45] Call to Action If you want to get a hold of me, I'm at Steven.Vinson@BPM-associates.com. Visit our presenting sponsor, BPM Associates at BPM-associates.com. Check out thelifescienceeffect.com. Subscribe, like, comment, shoot me an email. Let's make this a conversation. And above all, stay strong out there.

    10 min

  5. 08/29/2025

    Raul Zavaleta's Journey from UCLA to Life Science Legend

    Meet Raul Zavaleta, the visionary engineer whose innovations fundamentally transformed how clinical trials collect and process data. In this captivating conversation, Raul shares the incredible journey from UCLA graduate to co-founder of what became Covance - one of the world's largest clinical research organizations. Discover how a simple frustration with keypunch cards led to revolutionary solutions that reduced clinical trial data error rates from 39% to under 2% and compressed data cleaning timelines from six months to 48 hours. Raul reveals the story behind the Zavacor system, the invention of pre-labeled clinical trial kits, and how a cardboard box pitch to FedEx helped build a global empire. Beyond the technical innovations, this episode explores Raul's remarkable commitment to community building in Indianapolis - from transforming Marian College into a university to mentoring the next generation of life science entrepreneurs. His philosophy is simple yet powerful: understand the real problem, create significant value, and never let anyone convince you that your dream is impossible. Whether you're an entrepreneur, scientist, or simply curious about how industries evolve, this episode delivers actionable insights wrapped in unforgettable stories.   MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   Main Discussion Points: [02:15] From LA to Indianapolis: The five-year promise that became a lifetime commitment [10:20] Community transformation: Marian College to University and Hispanic Chamber consolidation [16:30] The keypunch card challenge that sparked a career in clinical data innovation [21:15] Birth of Covance: Solving the 39% clinical trial data error problem [32:20] Innovation breakthrough: Pre-labeled kits and foolproof design principles [40:30] Global expansion: From Indianapolis to Geneva and beyond [45:10] The ePRO revolution and eventual acquisition by Oracle [50:25] Entrepreneurial wisdom: Understanding problems vs. building solutions Key Shareable Quotes: "You dream it, you can achieve it. Don't let anybody talk you out of that." - Raul Zavaleta "I promise you I can reduce the error rate to less than 2%. At the end of clinical trials, instead of taking six months to clean up data, we will deliver a clean dataset in 48 hours." - Raul Zavaleta "The most important thing is to understand the problem - what is really the root problem? You also have to understand the value proposition." - Raul Zavaleta "We have a lot of good things in Indianapolis and Central Indiana, but we're very shy about speaking about it." - Raul Zavaleta "Don't be afraid to look for somebody to help you. I've been mentored and gotten a lot of good advice, and I do the same for those I mentor." - Raul Zavaleta Call-to-Action: Ready to transform your industry like Raul? Subscribe to The Life Science Effect for more inspiring conversations with life science innovators who turned impossible dreams into billion-dollar realities. Connect with Raul Zavaleta on LinkedIn to learn more about his mentorship opportunities for entrepreneurs.   Transcript: [00:00] Podcast Introduction You are about to experience The Life Science Effect Season 2, brought to you by our presenting sponsor, BPM Associates. Extraordinary people, relationships that matter, important change for a better world, the joy of belonging - Life Science Leadership. What if I told you that a single engineer's frustration with keypunch cards in 1985 would eventually revolutionize how every major pharmaceutical company in the world conducts clinical trials? That one conversation about data errors would spawn a multibillion-dollar industry transformation? Today you'll hear the incredible story of Raul Zavaleta, co-founder of what became Covance and architect of the Zavacor system that still powers clinical research today. Raul reveals how he reduced clinical trial data error rates from 39% to under 2%, compressed six-month data cleaning cycles into 48 hours, and built a global empire starting with cardboard boxes as conference tables and a bold promise to FedEx. Raul Zavaleta isn't just a successful entrepreneur - he's a community transformer who helped evolve Marian College into a university, brought major sporting events to Indianapolis, and continues mentoring the next generation of life science innovators. His philosophy is beautifully simple: understand the real problem, create undeniable value, and never let anyone convince you that your dream is impossible. Whether you're building your next venture or leading innovation within an established organization, this conversation will change how you think about problems, solutions, and what's truly possible. Let's dive in. [02:30] Host Introduction & Opening STEVE: Hey, this is Steve. Thanks for joining. Very honored and thrilled today to have Raul Zavaleta on the show. Raul is a partner at Cogent Scientific and is an advisor, board member and all sorts of things out in the community in the life sciences community. So Raul, thank you for joining. Appreciate you being on. RAUL ZAVALETA: Oh, glad to be here. STEVE: Wonderful. What did I miss? You do so much in the community - tell us about how you're involved in things. [02:15] Community Involvement Origins RAUL ZAVALETA: Well, when we moved here in 1985, I had promised my wife that we were coming here for five years. She was born and raised in Los Angeles. We both graduated from UCLA, and Indianapolis and the Midwest was foreign to her. I said in five years we will go back. And when the time came, we had sold that first company. And she said, "You know, I really would like to stay here. I think it would be best for our kids to grow up here." And then I said, "Well, if we're going to do that, I better get involved in the community." So I started looking at what community boards I could join and help. The first one was the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which at the time was very small, really not producing anything. There were two other Hispanic boards and I said to my friend Charlie Garcia, "To make an impact, you're gonna have to make something happen. These are too small. Let's put them together and make a bigger idea." And that became what is now called La Plaza. [05:30] Expanded Community Leadership It's much bigger, more impactful. The community supported it. Instead of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, we went to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and said, "How about you have a chapter called the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce?" And it's been there for more than 25 years. From that work and talking to people, I was asked to join the United Way of Central Indiana. I was on the executive committee there. I was also on the board of the Indianapolis Arts Council and Indiana Sports Corporation. I was involved in bringing the Super Bowl to Indianapolis and also the Swimming FINA World Championship at what was Conseco Fieldhouse at the time. [08:45] Engineering Innovation in Community Projects My role there was to bring the community into it. We came up with this idea of putting cameras where they were building the pool inside Conseco Fieldhouse, and it was fascinating. It was an engineering feat, and we brought high school students from all the various high schools to see what they were doing. [10:20] Marian University Transformation I was also involved with what was called Marian College at the time. I was attracted to that based on some of the things that I had done in the past, and Dan Elsener, whom I had met when he was with University of Indianapolis, had become President. He was struggling with this little college at the time. He brought some people on the board, including Jerry Semler, who just recently passed away. After about two years, it was booming. We decided to make it a university. Now look at it - it's got a medical school, an engineering school, a business school, a school of education that is outstanding and nationally recognized. And it has an endowment, which before was in debt. [12:50] Career Origins: From Chemical Engineering to Innovation STEVE: So how do you go from chemical engineer to founding a company and handling the informatics piece, the computer systems? How did you find yourself solving these huge problems with your chemical engineering degree? RAUL ZAVALETA: When I graduated from UCLA, I went to the career fair and got offers from several companies. Dow Chemical came and told me they really wanted me to work for them, but they would put me first in a clinical laboratory, which at the time was called Bioscience Laboratories - the largest laboratory in the country at that time. The first project they wanted me to do - they said, "Well, you're an engineer. We're a clinical lab and we're still using keypunch cards. Help us figure out how to get rid of that and digitize this place." I went to database classes and took several courses while coming up with the idea, interviewing all the people about what their processes were. [16:30] The Keypunch Card Challenge I remember talking to the lab director who had worked with the founder previously. He told me, "I don't think that's possible to do. We use those keypunch cards for a lot of things." I said to him, "We promise you we can do it, and when we finish, the last keypunch card that gets produced, we're going to frame it and put it in your office." And we did. [18:45] Identifying the Clinical Trial Data Problem I became the liaison to pharmaceutical companies. At the time, most of them were simply using whatever clinical lab the doctor or investigator used, and that produced a lot of problems because not all labs use the same methods. Then they started using central labs, but part of the problem was it doesn't meet the data requirements that pharmaceutical companies wanted. After a couple of years, I went to the president of the company and said

    53 min

  6. 08/18/2025 · BONUS

    Active Ingredient - Alzheimer's Advancements

    In this episode, Steve reads and discusses an article by Jason Bork titled "Alzheimer's, a Disease to be Forgotten?," featured in the Indianapolis Business Journal's special supplement, Biofutures. Steve shares his off-the-cuff impressions and insights on Bork's article, which discusses the current state of Alzheimer's research, the challenges of clinical trials, and the progress made with recent FDA-approved drugs. He also reflects on the personal impact of Alzheimer's and the importance of ongoing research in Indiana. Tune in to hear Steve's thoughts and learn more about the advancements and hurdles in the fight against Alzheimer's. By the way, Biofutures happens to be the official magazine of the Indiana LIfe Sciences Association - Indiana Life Sciences Association – Connecting Indiana's bioscience industry. The article is on page 7 of the magazine: Indianapolis Business Journal BioFutures Magazine   Let me know what you think of the article and of my take. MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   TRANSCRIPT: You are about to experience the life science effect season 2 brought to you by our presenting sponsor, BPM associate. Extraordinary people's relationships that matter, important change for a better world. The joy of belonging. Life, science, leadership. Hey, everybody, it's Steve. Thanks for listening to the live science effect. And today we have another installment of active ingredient. In which I read an article and give you my off the cuff off the top of my head impressions and I interview myself. So today's article is by Jason C Bork and it's called Alzheimer's, a disease to be forgotten and it's in the special supplement in the Indianapolis Business Journal. Called BioFutures. It's the official magazine of the Indiana Life Sciences Association. I'll try to find an online version of it to link for you guys, but this came with my my hard copy issue of. The IBJ, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get you guys an online version, but I'll try to find something. So what caught my eye? Well, first of all, it's by Jason Bork, who is actually a colleague who has been on the show before. I interviewed Jason 5 or 6 years ago. He's been very active in Alzheimer's Research as a project. Manager helping move clinical trials forward, helping to move those studies forward for W. Is. A very elusive disease to treat. It's also a mysterious disease, so from the article. So the thing that caught my eye obviously is Jason Bourque. A friend of mine, and we talked about Alzheimer's before this article is about the. Current state of affairs with Alzheimer's. So how did it hit me? So my first reaction was I was a little surprised by some of the fact. I know that Alzheimer's is a terrible, terrible disease. Anyone who has personally experienced it knows that it's it's not great. I have not personally experienced it that I know of, and I hope I don't. But if I ever do, I know it's when you're a loved one of someone or you are someone with Alzheimer's. Terrible, terrible disease and it affects over 7 million Americans, it turned out. And I I just didn't realize it was that many. And it's growing as the population gets older and. You know more and more people through modern medicine and modern healthcare, people are living longer. And if you live longer, the incidence of Alzheimer's is growing up. Does this one feel like a big deal or just noise? Well, it feels like a big deal to me because what Jason is pointing out here is it's still elusive and it has been for the last 20 or so year, but years or more, they've been trying to find any sort of treatment for the either to slow it down. Or to prevent it in the first place to reverse it to reverse the disease. All of these things have been elusive, but there have been some recent FDA approved drugs. It's showing some progress. The drugs are slowing the disease progression by targeting amyloid buildup in the brain, which is a type of plaque that tends to build up and. That that's sort of the treatment then targets that directly, right? The other thing I did not know that surprised me and and and makes this a big deal is clinical trials have major hurdles the it's high costs, a lot of costs going into drugs that don't eventually get approved or that fail the screening so screening. Sale rates are up to 95% in some of these studies, which? Means you you spend all the money to recruit and get the folks in and then they fail the screening. It makes it really tough. If it's 95%, that makes it really hard to get a good population. And Jason points out representative population folks who may be disadvantaged or don't have healthcare. They end up with Alzheimer's too, and so they are not as well represented in some of these clinical trials. How does it connect to what I'm seeing or doing well? I live in Indiana, as you all know, and Indiana really is playing a major role. Jason points out the through our universities in Indiana, Indiana University, especially hospitals. IU Health is a major. It's a teaching hospital and it's a research hospital. As well as Eli Lilly and Company and other biotech startups in town have partnerships. So it really connects to my backyard and I'm in the industry. So I'd really like to see see us be able to help get some of these treatment. What would I like to hear someone else say about this? Well, I always pay attention when Jason talks about Alzheimer's. He's way smarter than me on this stuff. We're both project managers and we both our skill set is to manage projects, but he knows so much. I talked about manufacturing capacity a lot on this show. Because that's, I know manufacturing. I've done some. Research projects, but it's very few and it's been a long time. Jason is really smart on that stuff. But what I'd like to hear is there's this ongoing debate of are these recent drugs? They have risks that come with them. Side effects are the side effects worth the slowing down of the disease? I did ask Jason that once and he said his personal view is if you get more time with the person being who The Who, you know, you know, with Alzheimer's, people end up. Forgetting people, they forget their loved ones. They become a different person in some ways. If you could get more time with that person and that person gets more time to be who they are and who they've always been, he said. That's worth it to him. But he understands the debate. It's like, but there are these side effects, you know. That and I'm. I'm not sure what the side effects are. He it was a passing conversation. I can get a chance to ask him, but maybe we'll have him back on the show and we'll talk more about Alzheimer's and progress being made and what is expected over over the next few generations. Jason ends the article by saying, hey, maybe we're only a generation or two away from Alzheimer's being a thing of the past. What a wonderful world that would be. That's my take. Let me know what you think. Send me an e-mail at steven.vincent@bpm-associates.com. Or go to thelifescienceeffect.com. Thank you to our presenting sponsor BPM Associates. Without them this wouldn't be possible. You can check them out at bpm-associates.com. As always, thanks for listening. Stay strong out there.

    8 min

  7. 08/01/2025 · BONUS

    Active Ingredient - Animal Health Attracting Capital

    This is the second installment of Active Ingredient. I read an article and answer a few questions about it. It's shorter than the regular episodes. I try to get to the key points of the article - the active ingredient. This episode is my off the cuff reaction to an article in the Indianapolis Business Journal by Daniel Lee, Animal-health startup BiomEdit advances poultry antibody, lands $20M in funding, grants. Here is a link to the article: https://www.ibj.com/articles/animal-health-startup-biomedit-advances-poultry-antibody-lands-20m-in-funding-grants Let me know what you think of the article and of my take in Active Ingredient. MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License   TRANSCRIPT: You are about to experience the life science effect season 2 brought to you by our presenting sponsor, BPM associate. Extraordinary people's relationships that matter, important change for a better world. The joy of belonging. Life, science, leadership. Hi, it's Steve. Welcome to the life science effect. Today we're going to do another active ingredient, the shorter form off the cuff, less formal. Less prepared feature. Regular feature that we're going to do and I'm going to do a few of these in a row. Just so you guys can get used to them and then we'll go back to some of the regular ones and then we'll mix some of these in. It's going to be fun, but hopefully this gives you more content, more frequently and helps you think just like it helps me. Think. And what we're doing here in case this is your first one of these in active ingredient, I read an article to you know I I've read the article and then I'm going to interview myself about it. So I'm not going to read the article to you. You can go look it up. The link will be in the show notes. Today's article is from the Indianapolis Business Journal and it's by. Daniel Lee. And today, by the way, July 16th, 2025, when I'm recording this and the article is animal health startup Biome edit. Advances poultry antibody lands $20 million in funding and grants. First question is what caught my eye? Well, I just read this and the thing that made me stop scrolling on this one was $20 million is a lot of money and I had been hearing from some people in that world in the startup world that some of the. Investments were kind of drying up, but you look at this one and it's like $20 million boy, that's that's pretty good. It's animal health, which means this is a drug. Well, I'm not sure if they call it a drug, you're going to learn here. One of the things that I that I wanted to get into here was I'm not as familiar with animal health things as I am with the. Human health. So you're going to find that out as I as I read through this. So what caught my eye was $20 million in in funding. That's pretty good and it's a local company. To me it's in Greenfield IN if if you're in the business, you know why Greenfield is important. Elanco Animal Health was headquartered there for a long time. They're moving their headquarters to downtown Indianapolis, but Greenfield IN is where. Eli Lilly and Company put their animal health division when they spun it off and called it Elanco BioMed. It is actually a sort of a joint venture or a a new company that was actually founded by Elenco and a Boston based company called Ginkgo Bioworks. Biome Edit I love how they they come up with these and I want to be in the room when somebody comes up with a name like Biome edit. Anyway, if you're if you work at Biome edit my apologies, but please comment below where you came up with that name. I think I get it by him at it. OK, So what does this drug do this drug which they're calling BE 101. And if it's approved, it's not approved yet. It's still in studies. Their drug will be called Opdivo Ant. And I believe the reason they got their $20 million is they got some preliminary approvals from the United States Department of Agriculture. And they're planning on launching this thing in 2026. It treats something called Clostridium perfringens toxins, which is. It it gets rid of those toxins which cause deadly, necrotic enteritis. In broiler chickens, if those are actually all words, I just read them on my phone screen and I believe what that means is and later in the article they say some flocks that are go untreated. Some as as high as 30% of the flock could die. It results in something like $6 billion in losses every year. So you could see why somebody would want to invest $20 million to help the this company get their product to market when they're addressing a $6 billion total addressable market. So how did that hit me? Well, my first reaction after I read the article was, wow, there's a lot I don't know about the animal. Health. Side of things, it surprised me because they talk about USDA approval and I was sitting here thinking, well, I thought FDA approved animal. Bugs and I'm right about that, except there's a distinction. And if your drug, if your if your treatment is more of a biological product, the USDA regulates it. If it's a sort of synthetic drug like traditional drug, then the FDA regulates it. I didn't know that until I read this. Vertical. I had to go ask my. AI friend, what's the difference? What this? This one happens to be regulated by the USDA. OK. The other thing the the next question, does this feel like a big deal or just noise? I think it's a big deal and part of the reason it's a big deal is it's again $20 million is a lot to get from investors and you know one of the investors, it's a. It was a round that included multiple investors, including Nutreco Agri 0. Z Elevate Ventures, which is an Indiana venture capital company which I've had on the show before. So they're very interesting to talk to, but but tagro bet, Agro Ventures and others. So $20 million, I think that's a big deal. I also think this is kind of a big deal because this particular treatment is different. They're actually saying it's not really an antibiotic, it's more of a probiotic and people more and more want their chicken to not have antibiotics in it. So this one could sort of shift that industry a little bit. How does it connect to what I'm seeing or doing? It might be a stretch however maybe this is one of those remedies for if the you know capital is always looking for somewhere to go, so venture capital is no different. It's looking for somewhere to put its money to increase. You know, to get a return for investors, maybe it'll go to agriculture and and I don't know. Again, I think I've said several times. This isn't my expertise. Would love to, you know, know more about the animal health side of things. But perhaps with some of the uncertainty that we're seeing. And by the way, I guess it was. It was interesting that again, how it connects to what I've been saying lately, they have engaged Diamond Animal Health, which is based in Iowa, to be their contract development manufacturing organization, which means it will be manufactured. It will be developed and manufactured in the US and you know the US is a. Huge producer of chickens so it avoids tariffs. It it's more, you know, politically it's good because it and you know it's an investment in the United States et cetera. So. What would I love to hear someone else say about this? This is huge. I would love someone who's an expert in the animal health side of things to tell me more, so I'd like somebody from either elenco or or cortiva. Maybe not cortiva. They're more on the the seeds and and that side of agriculture and things. But you know, perhaps somebody from that world, I'd love to know what they think about this new they're saying it's not really an antibiotic. Is that accurate or is it really? The A marketing ploy to say oh ours is a probiotic, not an antibiotic. I don't know. And so I would love an expert to weigh in on that. Somebody smarter than me might say $20 million is nothing in the Agri business when you have a product that's been has had these preliminary safety approvals by USDA. Maybe they would say no. It's just natural to put your. There. So if you read the article links in the show notes, tell me what you think. Tell me where I got it wrong. Fill in the gaps of my knowledge. I sure would appreciate it if you like these like and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Go to thelivescienceeffect.com. You can e-mail me at Steven dot. Benson@bpm-associates.com as always, thanks to BPM associates for sponsoring the show bpm-associates.com and let me know if you like. These. Active ingredient featured episodes. As always, thanks for listening. Stay strong out there.

    9 min

  8. 07/18/2025 · BONUS

    Active Ingredient - European Bid to Attract Biotech

    Welcome to a new feature I am calling Active Ingredient. I read an article and answer a few questions about it. It's shorter than the regular episodes. I try to get to the key points of the article - the active ingredient. This episode is my off the cuff reaction to an article in Cure by Ryan Flinn called Europe Makes Bold Bid to Attract Biotech Amid FDA Uncertainty. Here is a link to the article: https://wewillcure.com/insights/entrepreneurship/europe-makes-bold-bid-to-attract-biotech-amid-fda-uncertainty Let me know what you think of the article and of my take in Active Ingredient. MUSIC: Acid Jazz-Kevin MacLeod used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License TRANSCRIPT: You are about to experience the life science effect season 2 brought to you by our presenting sponsor BPM association. Extraordinary people, relationships that matter, important change for a better. The joy of belonging. Life, science, leadership. Hello. This is Steve. Welcome to the life science effect. Starting a new feature segment today is a little more laid back. I'm calling it active ingredient and. I'm just, you know, I read about the industry and when an article catch. With my eye, I'm just going to hit record and cover some of the same things from it. This one's a little more off the cuff, a little less structured than what you may have come used to, but I will warn you ahead of time. So I hope you enjoy it. It's called active ingredient and it starts now. So I just read this piece in here. It's that we will cure.com it's a community ecosystem for life sciences, biotech in the New York City area. And it ran across my feet and it's called Europe makes bold bid to attract biotech amid FDA uncertainty. It's by Ryan Flynn. Of course there'll be. A link in the show notes. And it caught my eye. It got me to stop scrolling because if you've listened to this podcast, you know that I've been trying to follow the uncertainty at FDA and the shake ups and the differences that are happening. And this one caught my eye because my first reaction was, ah, this is what can happen. You know, FDA has led the world and led regulations in the US has LED an innovation for a long time since at least the 70s and 80's. the US has LED an innovation. And if there's uncertainty at FDA. I thought, hmm, who else in the world may you know? We've talked about China being the next big innovator in medicines and medical devices, while Europe seems like maybe they'll want to make a play as we. Well. It didn't. It sort of surprised me because Europe is known as sort of conservative on these things. Ever since, you know, kind of the thalidomide days, if you don't know about Thalidomide, Europe approved a drug before the US did, and it caused a lot of birth defects. It it was, it was to treat nausea during pregnancy. And horrifically and tragically, caused birth defects. Then that and then the US didn't approve it and they said, see, our conservative approach is better. So then Europe actually became more conservative. Part of this article is this is could be, could be a big deal or it could be just noise. I kind of think it's kind of it's kind of just noise because the FDA's talking about streamlining as well. And the thing that has led to uncertainty is just the type of people who seem to be putting politics over science sometimes right now, at HHS and at the FDA. But they are talking about streamlining and supporting innovation. So they're saying a lot of the same things that this. Medical says. But if I were in. R R&D early stage R&D if I if I were at a medical start up, I would be paying attention to this because some companies come to the US because the US is seen as more friendly to innovation. Some startups, you know, some early stage medical companies, but maybe Europe's wanting to make a play and maybe if they make a stream. If they streamline the regulatory side of it, if governments are willing to provide a more start up friendly environment, let's say. You know, it may be a more or or more science backed environment, a lot of our universities are being pressured for DI practices. For example, a lot of universities in the US are being pressured about that. And so some researchers who may have an idea for a product may want to take a look at Europe. So if I were in that kind of position. I'd I'd really be caring about that right now. And again, it's this really connects to what I'm seeing and doing because it made me think about what we've been saying about the uncertainty at FDA and how's that going to impact things moving forward. This is one of the ways, whether it's Europe or China or bricks, you know, Brazil and India and China. In in those areas. So what I'd love to. Hear. Is maybe somebody smarter than me? I would love to hear from a startup that or maybe even a VC, a venture capital firm that follows these things closely. Are they seeing more an uptick in investment in Europe or is this something that would cause them to want to? Maybe invest in Europe or European companies. In fact, I've met folks from Scotland who. I have startup companies. It makes me want to ask them now. Like what are you thinking? Are you thinking, you know, cause they told me they come to the US because it's more supportive of innovation. I wonder if this. If they're starting to think maybe that's changing, I don't know. How about you? If you read this article again, I'll put a link in the show notes. If you read it, what jumps out at you? What do you think? That's it. If you like this. Let me. Know. Shoot me an e-mail at steven.vincent@bpm-associates.com much shorter form. Not as big of a commitment for you as of maybe you like that better go ahead and like and subscribe wherever you get the podcast, because I will be doing the longer form ones, the more structured ones as well. Just I want to do one of these once in. A while the. Active ingredient. Thanks for listening. Go to thelifescienceeffect.com and never miss a single episode. Thank you. Stay strong out there.

    6 min
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Have you ever thought about who the people are behind life-saving breakthroughs? How did they get started in their careers? Why did they choose the Life Sciences? What effect do they hope to cause? These are the questions we explore on The Life Science Effect. Gain insights straight from thought leaders, entrepreneurial game-changers, and business executives leading the Life Sciences. Host Steve Vinson explores what it really takes to be effective in this industry as a leader and innovator with a special focus on what's happening here, in the Heartland. We aim to inspire, equip, and empower the next generation of Life Science experts through purpose-driven conversations. Join us weekly as we talk about what happens behind the science and get to know the people who make it happen

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