Free Daily Podcast Summary
Let's Talk Quality: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Hemish Ilangaratne
“Let’s Talk Quality” is a podcast that seeks to shine a light on quality assurance, a profession that acts as the cornerstone for bringing safer medicine to patients. For life science companies to continue to develop life-saving medicines, a culture of good quality must be driven across the industry, whether that be an early phase gene therapy biotech or a global pharma organisation. This podcast aims to drive that mission forward through inviting industry leaders, experts, and visionaries to share their knowledge, experiences, and strategies for achieving quality excellence. Join us on a journey of discovery as we unravel the importance of quality and its profound impact on businesses and society. Get ready to engage in insightful discussions, gain valuable perspectives, and unlock the secrets to fostering a culture of quality in every aspect of life. Tune in and let’s embark on this exciting quality-driven adventure together.
Latest Episodes
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- 1 weeks ago36 min
Isha Patel on the Overnight Career Plan That Took Her from Associate Director to SVP
Naymisha (Isha) Patel has spent thirty years in Quality and regulatory compliance across pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices and combination products. She is now Senior Vice President of Quality at AirNexis Therapeutics, a seven-month-old startup developing a combination product for COPD, where she is the first Quality hire.In this episode Isha talks about the ten-year career plan she wrote overnight in 2005 after a hiring VP at Nektar asked what she wanted, and how it carried her from associate director to senior vice president. She explains why she moved to Boston in a blizzard to lead Quality at Ocular Therapeutix, a one-product company with two FDA complete response letters, and what she found in the inspection scribe notes. She walks through the reorganisation, letting go of people whose skill sets did not match the product classification, and the FDA inspection that ended in approval with no post-approval commitments. Isha also covers building Tenaya's Quality function, closing that same manufacturing facility four and a half years later, and choosing between consultants and permanent headcount.Topics covered:- Why a career plan written on paper beats a vague ambition- Reading the scribe notes, not just the CRL- Letting people go for skill fit, not performance- What FDA inspectors want to see when you are not finished- Green flags when a CEO hires their first head of Quality- Consultant or permanent hire: the two-year vision test- Why Quality is missing from early-stage boards- Quality as navigating grey zones, not yes or noTimestamps: Introduction and guest background Transitioning into Quality leadership Career moves and a pivotal opportunity A practical career plan Turning around a Quality system Building Quality in gene therapy Choosing the right startup role Building a lean Quality team C-suite and board aspirations Advice for aspiring Quality leaders
- 2 weeks ago39 min
Dawn Houlihan on Her Journey From Ireland Big Pharma to the Boston Start-Up World
Dawn Houlihan started out as the person manufacturing teams went quiet around, and spent the next twenty years proving that quality works better as a partner than a police force.Dawn Houlihan on Her Journey From Ireland Big Pharma to the Boston Start-Up World In today's episode I was joined by Dawn Houlihan. I wanted to speak to Dawn because she has built a quality function from nothing, twice over, and has done it across almost every stage and modality the industry has to offer. She spent half her career with Janssen in Ireland, moved to Scotland and then to Boston, and has since led quality through phase three, commercial approval and cell and gene therapy in two small companies where everything was outsourced.We talk about:What quality was actually like on the manufacturing floor in Ireland in the mid two thousandsThe mentor who told her to say yes to a project she did not have time forSwitching CDMO in the middle of phase three and still hitting commercial approvalWhy saying no to everything is the easy road, and what it costs a small companyBeing the first quality hire at Ensoma and building the culture from scratchTimestamps: Introduction and Dawn's background in pharma Quality's evolution: from policing to partnership Mentorship, Scotland, and the move to Boston Building quality teams in biotech startups Trust, risk, and leading through partnership Building quality from the ground up The future of quality leadership and career advice
- 3 weeks ago39 min
Luciana Mansolelli on Her First Year as CQO in the CDMO World
Luciana Mansolelli spent twenty years on the sponsor side. One question from a board chairman moved her to a CDMO.Luciana Mansolelli on her first year as CQO in the CDMO world.In today’s episode I was joined by Luciana Mansolelli, Chief Quality Officer at Minaris Advanced Therapies. I wanted to speak to Luciana because she has now led quality on both sides of the same relationship - Novartis and J&J on the sponsor side, and now a 200-person global quality organisation across the US, Germany and Japan.We talk about:• The moment she realised she had stopped learning, and why she left• Why framing speed against quality is the wrong model in advanced therapies• How she structured a global quality team around the science rather than the org chart• What she assesses for when she hires, beyond technical competence• Turnover in the CDMO world, and why she thinks capability is the fixThank you Luciana for sharing your journey.Timestamps: Introduction to Luciana Monsolelli Journey into Pharmaceutical Sciences The Evolution of Quality in Pharma Transitioning from Big Pharma to CDMO Challenges in the CDMO Landscape Building a Quality Culture at Minaris Talent Management and Capability Development Leadership Style and Team Dynamics Future Aspirations in Advanced Therapies
- Jul 30, 202616 min
My Thoughts on Quality Leadership, Halfway Through Season Four
Season Four is at its halfway point, so instead of a guest this week I’ve gone back over the conversations so far and pulled out the theme that came up most often.The quality leader whose main function is to say no is finished. This episode is four clips from Season Four guests on that theme, with my own thoughts in between. I also talk about why I think this matters for your career and not just for your working relationships, which comes from the other half of my week, placing quality leaders and hearing what hiring managers are actually asking for.Get in touchIf you’re going through that step up at the moment, I’d be interested to hear about it. Find me on LinkedIn, or book a conversation here: https://calendly.com/h-ilangaratne/meeting-with-hemish-rx-groupIf there’s a topic you’d like covered on a future solo episode, send it over.Timestamps: - Intro - Halfway Through Season Four - The Old Reputation - Tim Mitchell - Hemish's Take - Reputation vs. Reality - Saying No Is the Easy Option - Kim Garko - Hemish's Take - The Career Angle - Translating Risk for the Business - Jamey Lindholm - Hemish's Take - Practical Application - Partnership Over Policing - Rex Ready - Closing Thoughts - What This Means for Quality Leaders
- Jul 21, 202638 min
Speaking the Language of the Business, with Jamey Lindholm
Quality culture isn't built by SOPs. It's built in the small moments when a leader reinforces the right behaviour or lets the wrong one slide.Speaking the Language of the Business, with Jamey Lindholm.In today's episode I was joined by Jamey Lindholm, Vice President of Quality at R1 Therapeutics. I really wanted to speak to Jamey because she has led Quality through nearly every stage a career in this industry can throw at you: a first-in-class FDA approval at Seres Therapeutics, an acquisition by Merck KGaA at Springworks, and now building a Quality function completely from zero as R1's very first Quality hire. She has strong, hard-won views on how to get each of those right.Jamey's journey started almost by accident. She fell into a QC chemistry job at a small biotech straight out of university, got laid off a year later when the company ran out of funding, and then spent the next 20 years at Biogen, where she built the foundation of what she now calls "what good looks like" in Quality. From there she moved to Seres Therapeutics, where she led end to end Quality through the first FDA approval of a microbiome-derived oral therapy, then to Springworks through its acquisition by Merck KGaA, and now to R1 Therapeutics as its first Quality hire.What comes through across the whole conversation is a leader who has thought deeply about the difference between compliance and culture. Jamey is clear that Quality earns its seat at the leadership table not by enforcing SOPs, but by translating compliance into risk, into regulatory consequence, into business decisions that leadership teams actually understand. She is equally clear that the industry has a visibility problem. Almost nobody chooses Quality as a career at school, and she believes that is something the industry has an obligation to fix.We talk about the following:Why 20 years at a large pharma company can make the move into a startup harder, not easierThe difference between managing Quality operations and being responsible for end-to-end Quality at a small companyWhy "quality risks are business risks" changes how a leadership team makes decisionsWhat actually builds quality culture, and why it isn't SOPsThe moment Seres received FDA approval for Vowst, and why it felt different from anything Jamey experienced at BiogenWhy it's never too early to bring in a permanent Head of Quality, and what that decision signals about a company's cultureWhy Quality is invisible as a career choice to STEM students, and what the industry can do about itJamey is a thoughtful, pragmatic quality leader who understands how to balance compliance, collaboration and business reality in complex development environments. If you are a quality professional working in an early-stage biotech and trying to build the right systems with limited resources, then this episode is for you. Thank you Jamey for sharing your incredible journey. Hope everyone enjoys the show.WHO THIS EPISODE IS FORA Head of Quality or VP Quality building a function from scratch at a startupA big pharma quality professional considering a move into biotechA founder or CEO deciding when to bring in a permanent Head of QualityA quality manager trying to build genuine culture, not just documentationA STEM student or early-career scientist who has never considered Quality as a career pathTimestamps: Introduction to Jamey Lindholm and Her Career Journey Transitioning from Big Pharma to Startups Navigating Quality in Complex Environments The Role of Quality in Business Strategy Building a Quality Culture in Startups Hiring for Quality in Startups The Visibility of Quality Careers in STEM Demystifying Quality for Future Generations Inspiring the Next Generation in Quality Science The Emotional Impact of FDA Approvals The Importance of Quality Leadership in Startups Building a Quality Culture from the Ground Up Advice for Future Quality Professionals Making the Case for a Career in Quality
- Jul 14, 202629 min
The Big Pharma Habits You Have to Unlearn in a Startup, with Dawn Lundin
Twenty years at Merck, then a leap into academia and psychedelic medicine - here is how Dawn Lundin built a quality career on instinct.Dawn Lundin on the big pharma habits you have to unlearn in a startup.In today's episode I was joined by Dawn Lundin, founder of her own quality consultancy and a fractional Head of Quality across biotech and psychedelic-medicine companies. I really wanted to speak to Dawn because her path is nothing like the typical quality leader's. She didn't stay inside big pharma and climb one ladder. She spent twenty years at Merck, then walked into academia, then into one of the most stigmatised fields in medicine, and she made each move work.Dawn started as a bench chemist and grew through GLP, clinical packaging, GCP auditing and pharmacovigilance, eventually heading up issues management and co-authoring the first quality manual for Merck's research division. Then, on the morning of her twentieth anniversary, she resigned. She moved to the University of Pennsylvania to build fit for purpose quality systems for both sponsor and site research, a system still in use today. From there she stepped into psychedelic medicine for mental health, a move driven as much by personal loss as by professional curiosity.What runs through Dawn's whole story is a refusal to lead by importing an old playbook. In a smaller, faster environment she learned to do quality with far less, to put relationships before procedures, and to build trust before she changed a single thing. Her line for it has stuck with me: she did quality "one cup of coffee at a time."We talk about the following:Why she left twenty years at Merck on the exact morning of her anniversaryThe big pharma habits leaders have to unlearn in academia and startupsHow to build a fit for purpose quality system with a fraction of the resourcesWhy relationships, not procedures, carry a quality programme in a small organisationThe personal story that drew her into psychedelic medicine and mental healthDawn Lundin is a thoughtful, pragmatic quality leader who understands how to balance compliance, collaboration and business reality in complex development environments. If you are a quality professional working in an early-stage biotech and trying to build the right systems with limited resources, then this episode is for you. Thank you Dawn for sharing your incredible journey. Hope everyone enjoys the show.WHO THIS EPISODE IS FORQuality leaders moving from big pharma into a startup, scale-up or academiaHiring managers building a first quality team and weighing up big pharma candidatesEarly-stage biotech founders who need fit for purpose quality without the overheadQuality professionals weighing a bold or unconventional career moveAnyone drawn to how mental health and psychedelic medicine are being built responsiblyTimestamps: - Introduction to Dawn Lundin - Dawn's Journey into Science and Quality - Career Growth at Merck - Transitioning from Big Pharma to Academia - Navigating Startup Challenges - Current Consultancy and Future Aspirations
- Jul 7, 202633 min
How Quality Stopped Being Black and White, with Tim Mitchell
Forty seven years in quality, and Tim Mitchell says the job he started is nothing like the one he does today.Tim Mitchell on how quality stopped being black and whiteIn today's episode I was joined by Tim Mitchell, Vice President of Quality at Aktis Oncology, a radiopharmaceutical company in Boston developing treatments across several types of cancer. I really wanted to speak to Tim because very few people have watched quality evolve the way he has. He started in 1980, when the GMP regulations were barely a year and a half old and a quality assurance function did not really exist yet.Tim's story begins in a loud, industrial antibiotic fermentation plant, monitoring sixty to ninety thousand gallon fermenters that ran into the ground. His father worked in the neighbouring department at Eli Lilly, and an internship near his hometown turned into fourteen years at Lilly and a career that carried him from big pharma through to the start-up world he works in now. Along the way he moved from manufacturing into a validation team, without knowing what validation even was, and found that quality suited him.What comes through most is his view of the role itself. Tim does not see quality as a police force. He sees it as a collaborative partner to the rest of the business, a role that demands technical depth, patience and judgement. He talks openly about how the work has moved from black and white rule-following to something far more gray, especially in early-stage biotech where the science is moving faster than the rulebook.We talk about the following:How the quality function grew from a paperwork desk job into a value-adding partnershipWhy some of the best quality people come from manufacturing backgroundsThe case for learning proper GMP systems in big pharma before joining a start-upWhat good mentoring actually looks like, and why annual reviews are not enoughHow the relationship between the FDA and biotech is becoming genuinely collaborativeTim Mitchell is a thoughtful, pragmatic quality leader who understands how to balance compliance, collaboration and business reality in complex development environments. If you are a quality professional working in an early-stage biotech and trying to build the right systems with limited resources, then this episode is for you. Thank you Tim for sharing your incredible journey. Hope everyone enjoys the show.WHO THIS EPISODE IS FORQuality professionals moving from big pharma into a clinical-stage biotechManagers building or scaling a quality management system from scratchManufacturing and technical operations people considering a move into qualityVPs and Directors of Quality thinking about how they mentor their teamsAnyone early in their quality career trying to understand where the role is headingTimestamps: Introduction to Tim Mitchell and His Journey Evolution of Quality in the Pharmaceutical Industry The Changing Landscape of Quality Roles Skills for Modern Quality Professionals Mentorship and Team Development The Future of Quality Leadership Navigating the Transition from R&D to Commercialization The Role of Quality in Biotech Innovation Challenges and Opportunities in Quality Management The Importance of Collaboration in Quality Advice for Aspiring Quality Leaders
- May 26, 202641 min
Swetha Krishnan on her journey from Individual Contributor to Inspiring People Leader
She came to the US with her first year's tuition and figured the rest out from there. What followed is one of the most grounded quality leadership journeys I have heard - and one we felt was worth bringing back.Swetha Krishnan on Building a Quality Mindset from the Ground UpThis is a rerelease of one of our favourite episodes from two years ago. In today's episode I was joined by Swetha Krishnan. I really wanted to bring this conversation back because Swetha's route into quality was entirely unplanned - and the way she has turned that unplanned start into a clear leadership philosophy is something every quality professional should hear.Swetha came to the US from India to complete a master’s in bioengineering at the University of Toledo. She needed work, she needed a visa sponsor, and she found her way into a contractor role at Pfizer in Connecticut doing technical writing and validation. It was not the destination she had mapped out, but two years of being moved from role to role - quality management systems, regulatory content authoring, client-facing support - gave her a cross-functional view of how a pharma company actually operates. From there she moved through roles at Biogen, Sanofi Genzyme, and Alkermes before taking on her current position leading quality across all GXPs at Mural Oncology, a clinical-stage biotech focused on cytokine-based immunotherapies for cancer.Swetha leads with a combination of strategic clarity and genuine warmth. She is honest about the things she struggled with early on - particularly the belief that credibility required having all the answers - and equally clear about what changed that. She talks about the boss at Alkermes who told her she would one day be head of quality before she believed it herself, the nine-month Women Unlimited LEAD program that gave her two external mentors, and the MIT LeadershipSignature course that asked her to examine what in her personal history shapes how she shows up every day.We talk about the following:• How a bioengineering thesis on non-invasive glucose measurement for diabetics led to an unexpected start in quality• Starting as a contractor at Pfizer and what wearing so many hats in two years taught her about the whole product life cycle• Why validation gave her a quality mindset before she had ever formally joined a quality team• The shift from individual contributor to manager to leader of teams - and why it forced her to rethink everything she thought she knew about credibility• The nine-month Women Unlimited LEAD program at Alkermes and the boss who saw her potential before she saw it herself• Quality by design in practice - being involved in CRO selection from the start, not after the contract is signed• How she manages prioritisation, managing up, and keeping her team grounded in a lean, fast-moving clinical-stage biotech• Her 4C model for aspiring quality leaders: challenge, curiosity, collaboration, and compassionSwetha is a thoughtful, pragmatic quality leader who understands how to balance compliance, collaboration and business reality in complex development environments. If you are a quality professional working in an early-stage biotech and trying to build the right systems with limited resources, then this episode is for you. You can watch on LinkedIn Live at 12pm EST today or listen via Apple or Spotify. Thank you Swetha for sharing your incredible journey. Hope everyone enjoys the show.Who This Episode Is For• Quality managers and directors in clinical-stage biotech who are building systems and leading teams without large headcounts or unlimited budgets• Aspiring heads of quality who are in the transition from individual contributor to people leader and finding that shift harder than they expected• Quality professionals who came into the function from validation, technical writing, or another non-traditional route and are still making sense of how it all connects• Senior quality leaders who want a practical framework for developing the next generation on their team• Anyone in pharma or biotech who has ever felt like asking for help put their credibility at risk
About Let's Talk Quality
“Let’s Talk Quality” is a podcast that seeks to shine a light on quality assurance, a profession that acts as the cornerstone for bringing safer medicine to patients. For life science companies to continue to develop life-saving medicines, a culture of good quality must be driven across the industry, whether that be an early phase gene therapy biotech or a global pharma organisation. This podcast aims to drive that mission forward through inviting industry leaders, experts, and visionaries to share their knowledge, experiences, and strategies for achieving quality excellence. Join us on a journey of discovery as we unravel the importance of quality and its profound impact on businesses and society. Get ready to engage in insightful discussions, gain valuable perspectives, and unlock the secrets to fostering a culture of quality in every aspect of life. Tune in and let’s embark on this exciting quality-driven adventure together.
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