Dr. Esteban Plata: Breaking Down the Pharmaceutical Development Pathway

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