Dr. Esteban Plata: Breaking Down the Pharmaceutical Development Pathway

PODCAST – 54 min 02 sg. (EN)

In this episode, Alex chats with Dr. Esteban Plata, an expert in pharmaceutical development.

Esteban is the former vice president of Western Europe and Canada for AbbVie, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. He’s spent nearly two decades working on the company’s commercial development side where he’s held VP and general manager roles across a wide range of geographies such as Turkey, Japan, Spain, and the Asia-Pacific region. He holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the National research council in Spain and is an expert in everything pharma and drug commercial development.

We discuss:

Esteban’s background and AbbVie’s history
Introduction to drug development and the clinical approval pathway
Clinical trials and the role of pharmaceutical companies in providing new medicines for society
Honing in on a company’s indication of choice
The evolution of surrogate markers for an early-stage understanding of a therapy’s potential
Pharmaceutical geographic span and local fit
Learning to live anywhere in the world and how to learn to fit in with a new culture as a business professional
Pharmaceutical patent cliffs and internal vs external innovation
Big pharma-small biotech M&A rates
Adaptive regulatory pathways, clinical trial efficiency, and dealing with different global regulatory bodies