Pharma Sessions

Dr. Paul Peter Tak, President and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, sits down with Jonathan to discuss the company's sprint from positive Phase III results to commercial launch. They explore how Candel is redefining the biotech playbook — using an externalized, dynamic model to build commercial capabilities with speed and agility, without the burden of premature fixed costs. Topics include Candel's viral immunotherapy CAN-2409 for localized prostate cancer, the overnight financing triggered b...

In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Annel Duckels, who leads worldwide commercialization learning at Bristol Myers Squibb, to talk about modernizing pharma training through data and AI. Annel's unconventional path into pharma L&D after a career in mining and heavy engineering — and what that industry taught her about listening to frontline workersWhy pharma lagged decades behind other industries in training technology, and what that reveals about corporate prioritiesMoving past "chec...

Pharma Sessions — ACTO Client Summit: Hallway Interviews At ACTO's 2026 client summit in Boston, we pulled some incredible minds out of the hallway for quick, candid conversations about where field excellence, AI, and learning & development are headed. No scripts, no slides — just honest takes from the people doing the work. In this episode, you'll hear from six pharma L&D leaders on how AI is changing their roles, what they're doing differently at national sales meetings, the adoptio...

What happens when you put blockchain underneath AI in healthcare? According to Archita Samant, Head of Data Strategy & Analytics for Global Vaccines at Merck — you finally solve the interoperability problem that's been holding the industry back for decades. In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Archita to unpack the real-world challenges of fragmented health data, why agentic AI demands a better data foundation than we currently have, and how blockchain could be the base layer that mak...

What separates a good pharma sales rep from a great one? According to Jennifer Muszik, it's the ability to understand the question behind the question — the real need behind what a customer is asking. In this episode, Jonathan Kaskey sits down with Jennifer Muszik, Head of Learning & Development at Alkermes and board member of LTEN, to unpack what it takes to build world-class training programs in the pharmaceutical industry. Jennifer shares her journey from 17 years at Pfizer to leading ...