Healthy Returns: A Safer Future | March 10, 2021 | 12:00pm ET
On the one year anniversary of the WHO declaring a pandemic, CNBC takes a look at how far we’ve come, and what needs to be done to make for a safer future for all.
Meg Tirrell speaks to Dr. Luciana Borio, In-Q-Tel VP and Former FDA Acting Chief Scientist, and Dr.Scott Gottlieb, Former FDA Commissioner about the year that was and building a safer future. They explore where we are as an immunized nation with the roll out of the third FDA-authorized vaccine, how the threat of Covid is evolving and the road to reopening.
Hosted by CNBC’s Senior Health & Science Reporter, Meg Tirrell, and featuring interviews with healthcare CEOs, investors & technologists addressing the lasting effects of COVID-19, Healthy Returns livestreams are broadcast on CNBC.com and CNBC social handles.
Scott Gottlieb, MD is a physician and served as the 23rd Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Gottlieb’s work focuses on advancing public health through developing and implementing innovative approaches to improving medical outcomes, reshaping healthcare delivery, and expanding consumer choice and safety.
Dr. Gottlieb is an aggressive advocate for advancing the health of patients, promoting healthcare access, and driving innovation. The agency’s historic and prolific advances in new policy distinguished his tenure as the FDA’s commissioner, in addition to a record-setting number of approvals of novel drugs, medical devices, and generic medicines.
Under his leadership, the FDA advanced new frameworks for the modern and safe and effective oversight of gene therapies, cell based regenerative medicines, targeted drugs, and digital health devices. The agency implemented new reforms to standardize drug reviews and make historic improvements of post market data collection and the use of real world evidence. He promoted policies to reduce death and disease from tobacco, improve food innovation and safety, and aggressively confront addiction crises.
Previously, Dr. Gottlieb served as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs and before that, as a Senior Adviser to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he helped advance policies to improve healthcare quality and promote the effective use of new medical technologies. A healthcare futurist, he works as a venture capitalist and has been a founder and board member to companies that have developed new medicines and advance the delivery of healthcare.
Dr. Gottlieb is widely published in leading medical journals and periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He has held editorial positions on the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Fortune Magazine recognized him as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” in 2018 and again in 2019. Modern Healthcare named Dr. Gottlieb as one of the “Most Influential Physician Executive and Leaders” in its annual survey of 50 physician executives, and Time magazine named Gottlieb one of its “50 People Transforming Healthcare in 2018.”
Dr. Gottlieb was a practicing hospitalist and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Medicine. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.
Meg Tirrell joined CNBC in April 2014 as a general assignment reporter focusing on biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. She appears on CNBC's Business Day programming, contributes to CNBC.com and is based at the network's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Tirrell has covered development of new drugs for Alzheimer's, cancer and rare diseases, and tracked public health emergencies from Ebola to Zika. Her work has explored why fewer drugs are developed for children, chronicled the sequencing of her own genome, and followed the manufacturing of a flu shot from egg to pharmacy. In 2014, she revealed the agonizing decision-making behind Compassionate Use of unapproved drugs, and in 2016, she reported extensively on drug pricing controversies and the impact of politics on development of new medicines.
Prior to joining CNBC, Tirrell covered the biotechnology industry for Bloomberg News, where she also contributed to Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Businessweek.
She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in English and music from Wellesley College.
PROGRAM DETAILS
Healthy Returns: A Safer Future March 10, 2021 | 12:00pm ET
On the one year anniversary of the WHO declaring a pandemic, CNBC takes a look at how far we’ve come, and what needs to be done to make for a safer future for all. Meg Tirrell speaks to Dr. Luciana Borio, In-Q-Tel VP and Former FDA Acting Chief Scientist, and Dr.Scott Gottlieb, Former FDA Commissioner about the year that was and building a safer future. They explore where we are as an immunized nation with the roll out of the third FDA-authorized vaccine, how the threat of Covid is evolving and the road to reopening.
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Change Healthcare is a leading independent healthcare technology company, focused on insights, innovation and accelerating the transformation of the healthcare system through the power of the Change Healthcare platform. We provide data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial, administrative, and patient engagement outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system.
Our platform and comprehensive suite of software, analytics, technology enabled services and network solutions drive improved results in the complex workflows of healthcare system payers and providers by enhancing clinical decision making, simplifying billing, collection and payment processes, and enabling a better patient experience.
Our Intelligent Healthcare Network is one of the largest clinical and financial healthcare networks in the U.S., facilitating over 15 billion transactions and approximately $1.5 trillion in adjudicated claims, or more than one-third of all U.S. healthcare expenditures. Our customer base includes approximately 2,400 government and commercial payer connections, 1,000,000 physicians, 125,000 dentists, 39,000 pharmacies, 6,000 hospitals and 700 laboratories.
Martine Rothblatt is Chairman & CEO of United Therapeutics, a biotechnology company she started to save the life of one of her daughters. The company offers FDA approved medicines for pulmonary hypertension and neuroblastoma and is working on manufacturing an unlimited supply of transplantable organs.
Dr. Rothblatt previously created and led Sirius XM as its Chairman & CEO, and launched other satellite systems for navigation and international television broadcasting. In the field of aviation her Sirius XM satellite system enhances safety with real-time digital weather information to pilots in flight nationwide. She also designed the world’s first electric helicopter, which in 2018 set Guinness world records for distance and flight duration.
In the legal arena, Dr. Rothblatt led efforts to create transgender health law standards, and to protect privacy and autonomy rights in genetic information via an international treaty. She has Bachelor’s (Communications Studies, Summa Cum Laude), JD and MBA degrees from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Medical Ethics from the Royal London School of Medicine & Dentistry. Her patented inventions cover aspects of satellite radio, prostacyclin biochemistry and cognitive software. Dr. Rothblatt’s recent books are on xenotransplantation (Your Life or Mine), non-binary gender identity (Transgender to Transhuman) and cyberethics (Virtually Human).
Alex Gorsky is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson and Chairman of the Executive Committee, the Company’s senior leadership team. Alex is the seventh person to serve as Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson since it became a publicly traded company in 1944.
Alex began his Johnson & Johnson career as a sales representative with Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1988. Over the next 15 years, he advanced through positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing and management including assignments in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He progressed through many management posts at J&J, culminating in being named Chief Executive Officer on April 26, 2012 and Chairman of the Board on December 28, 2012.
Under Alex Gorsky’s leadership, Johnson & Johnson continues in its 132nd year to be one of the world’s exceptional corporations. The company was given the #1 ranking on Barron’s Magazine’s 2016 list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies,” and is currently the number one Pharmaceutical company on Fortune Magazine’s list of the “World’s Most Respected Companies.
A longtime advocate of Diversity Inclusion and Veteran’s issues, Alex has been named one of the “100 Most Inspiring Leaders” by Pharma Voice. Most recently, in December of 2017, Alex received the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation. And for the past three years, Alex has been on the list of the Highest Rated CEOs on The Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards. He has also received the Jackie Robinson Award, Appeal of Conscience Award, the Joseph Wharton Leadership Award and the CADCA Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Alex is a member of the Board of Directors of IBM, the Wharton School of Business Board of Overseers and the Board of Directors of the Business Roundtable.
Alex holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and spent six years in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with the rank of Captain. Alex earned a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.
Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, M.D., has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Novartis since February 1, 2018.
Dr. Narasimhan previously was Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer for Novartis. He has also served as Global Head of Development for Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Global Head of the Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals and Oncology Injectables business unit, Global Head of Development for Novartis Vaccines, North America Region Head for Novartis Vaccines, and United States Country President for Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. Before joining Novartis in 2005, he worked at McKinsey & Company.
Dr. Narasimhan received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in the US, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago in the US. During and after his medical studies, he worked extensively on a range of public health issues in developing countries. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and serves on the board of fellows of Harvard Medical School.
Daphne Koller brings to insitro her many years of experience in the areas of machine learning, statistical modeling, computational biology, and computational medicine. She was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she was hired as the first machine learning professor in 1995 and served on the faculty for 18 years. Her work in machine learning spans a broad range of topics, including probabilistic graphical models, structured prediction, active learning, time series modeling, reinforcement learning, and many more. She was also one of the pioneers in applying machine learning to biomedical data sets, and has worked on topics such as reconstruction of regulatory networks, phenotypic effects of genetic variation, and interpretation of microscopy images in cancer. She is the author of over 200 refereed publications appearing in diverse venues such as NIPS, ICML, Science, Cell, and Nature Genetics, and has an h-index of over 120. She is also the author of the leading textbook on Probabilistic Graphical Models.
Daphne co-founded Coursera in 2012, where she served as the company’s Co-CEO until 2014, and then as President until 2016. Coursera is the world’s largest online education platform with over 30 million learners worldwide, and over 150 university partners in six continents. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Coursera Board. Most recently, Daphne served as the Chief Computing Officer at Calico Labs, an Alphabet (Google) company that is using advanced technology to understand aging and design interventions that help people lead longer, healthier lives.
Daphne was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2012 and Newsweek’s 10 most important people in 2010. She has been honored with multiple awards and fellowships during her career including the Sloan Foundation Faculty Fellowship in 1996, the ONR Young Investigator Award in 1998, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 1999, the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award in 2001, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004, and the ACM Prize in Computing in 2008. Daphne was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 and elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014 and of the International Society of Computational Biology in 2017.
Scarlet is the head of product and platform lead for Project Baseline, Verily's bold initiative to map human health and democratize research. Prior to joining Verily, Scarlet held roles in product, strategy, and business development at a variety of life science and technology companies. Scarlet received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and was a faculty scholar at the NYU Stern School of Business.
Dr. Samarth Kulkarni has served as Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics since December 2017.
He has significant expertise in strategy and operations in biotech and a wide range of related cutting-edge therapeutic technologies. He joined CRISPR in August 2015 in the early stages of the company as Chief Business Officer, and then served as President and Chief Business Officer starting May 2017. Prior to joining CRISPR, Sam was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he had a leading role in the Pharmaceutical and Medical products practice. While at McKinsey, he co-led the biotech practice, served a number of biotechnology companies on topics ranging from strategy to operations and led initiatives in areas such as personalized medicine and immunotherapy. Sam also serves as a member of the Casebia Board of Directors.
He received a Ph.D. in Bioengineering and Nanotechnology from the University of Washington and a B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology. While at the University of Washington, he conducted research in the delivery of biological drugs and in the field of molecular diagnostics. He has authored several publications in leading scientific and business journals.
Dr. Jennifer Schneider is the President of Livongo. In this role, she is responsible for product, data science, engineering, marketing, and clinical operations. Dr. Schneider previously served as the company’s Chief Medical Officer where she led the company’s strategic clinical product vision, data science, clinical trials, and the organization’s certified diabetes educators and coaches.
Prior to Livongo, Dr. Schneider held several key leadership roles at Castlight Health, most recently as Chief Medical Officer. She also has held leadership roles in the provider setting as a health outcomes researcher and Chief Resident at Stanford University, and has practiced medicine as an attending physician at Stanford University, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Schneider has an undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross, a Doctor of Medicine degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and a Master of Science degree in Health Services Research from Stanford University. She completed her internal medicine residency at Stanford University Hospital.
Dr. Schneider is a frequent speaker about innovation in healthcare, where she shares her unique perspective as a practicing physician, health services researcher, senior executive and individual who has lived with Type 1 diabetes for more than 30 years. She has three children and is an avid runner and athlete, having completed her first IronMan in 2016.
David Cordani became president and CEO of Cigna in 2009 and has spearheaded its transformation into a leading global health service company, doubling the size of the company in six years. He is a prominent voice addressing key health challenges, such as the empowering of individuals to manage their own health, innovating new health delivery models focused on patients’ health improvements and partnering with physicians to focus on wellness, and improving clinical quality. With operations and capabilities in more than thirty countries, Cordani leads Cigna’s approximately 43,000 employees in improving the health, well-being and sense of security of more than 95 million customer relationships.
Cordani joined Cigna in 1991; his leadership experiences cross critical disciplines of health care services including distribution, marketing, clinical management, underwriting, finance and operations.
Prior to joining Cigna, Cordani was with Coopers & Lybrand. He actively works with the Achilles International Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans and ChildObesity180, where he is a charter board member. He also supports organizations including March of Dimes and The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In addition, he is founder of The David and Sherry Cordani Family Foundation, reflecting the Cordani family’s deep commitment to supporting community health and well-being. Cordani was named to the General Mills Board of Directors in 2014 and to the U.S.-India Business Council Board of Directors in 2015.
David Cordani is an accomplished triathlete, having competed in more than 125 triathlons. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M, and an MBA from the University of Hartford.
Jorge Conde is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he leads investments at the cross section of biology, computer science and health.
Prior to joining a16z, Jorge served as Chief Strategy Officer for Syros (NASDAQ: SYRS), which is advancing a new wave of medicines that control expression of disease-driving genes to treat cancer and other diseases. He previously served as the company's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Product Officer, leading the platform strategy for Syros' novel gene regulation technology. Jorge also cofounded Knome, a human genome interpretation company acquired by Tute Genomics in 2015. Earlier in his career, Jorge worked in marketing and operations at MedImmune and as a biotechnology investment banker at Morgan Stanley.
Jorge holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a BA in Biology from Johns Hopkins University.
Jorge was named one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by the MIT Technology Review and is a 2015 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He serves on the board of the Museum of Science, Boston.
Dr. Peter Lee is Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Healthcare. He leads an organization that works on technologies for better and more efficient healthcare, with a special focus on artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Dr. Lee has extensive experience in managing the process of going from basic research to commercial impact. Past illustrative examples include the deep neural networks for simultaneous language translation in Skype, next-generation IoT technologies, and innovative silicon and post-silicon computer architectures for Microsoft’s cloud. He also has a history of advancing more “out of the box” technical efforts, such as experimental under-sea datacenters, augmented-reality experiences for HoloLens and VR devices, digital storage in DNA, and social chatbots such as XiaoIce and Tay. Previously, as an Office Director at DARPA, he led efforts that created operational capabilities in advanced machine learning, crowdsourcing, and big-data analytics, such as the DARPA Network Challenge and Nexus 7. He was formerly the Head of Carnegie Mellon University’s computer science department. As a thought leader, he has spoken and written widely on technology trends and policies, spanning the fields of computing technology, healthcare, and innovation ecosystem. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine. He served on President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. He has led studies for the National Academies on the impact of federal research investments on economic growth and testified before the US House Science and Technology Committee and the US Senate Commerce Committee.
Dr. Harrison is a pediatric critical care physician with a proven track record as a top operations executive on a global scale. He is leading Intermountain to embrace bold new approaches focused on improving health while continuing to make healthcare more effective, accessible, and affordable. As a result, Intermountain’s 37,000 employees—who are all called caregivers—continue to re-define value-based care and serve people in new ways.
Dr. Harrison is a national and international thought leader on healthcare transformation and innovation. In 2018, he ranked second among Modern Healthcare’s Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders. He also tied for second on Modern Healthcare’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.
Two examples of innovations Intermountain is leading:
• Intermountain launched Civica Rx, a not-for-profit generic drug manufacturer and distributor, to make generic medications more available and affordable in hospitals across the nation.
• Intermountain is a founding member of the Utah Alliance for the Determinants of Health, which is a collaboration between numerous community partners designed to proactively address forces that affect people’s health well before they come to a clinic or a hospital, such as chronic hunger, affordable housing, joblessness, personal safety, etc.
Dr. Harrison’s previous healthcare leadership experience has included service as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, chief of international business development at Cleveland Clinic, and chief medical operations officer at Cleveland Clinic.
He received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College, his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School, completed a residency at Intermountain’s Primary Children’s Hospital, and a Master of Medical Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Harrison is an all-American triathlete and represented the U.S. at the 2014 World Championships.
Susan DeVore is CEO of Premier with approximately 30 years of experience. DeVore’s tenure with Premier has centered on driving innovation in healthcare and leading the industry through profound change by engaging stakeholders to co-develop solutions that support high-quality, efficient and sustainable care delivery models.
DeVore is an industry-leading thinker who has consistently been named multiple times to Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People and Top 25 Women in Healthcare lists. She recently received the Charlotte Business Journal’s 2018 Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award, was named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s 2017 100 Great Healthcare Leaders to Know and was recognized as a 2016 UNC Charlotte Distinguished Alumnus.
DeVore currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Healthcare Leadership Council; is Board Member of the Coalition to Protect America’s Healthcare; is a Board Member, Finance Committee Member and Audit Committee Chair of the Medicare Rights Center; is a Member of the Charlotte Chamber Executive Committee; is a Member of the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council; and a Member of the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees. She also serves as a Member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Aspen Health Strategy Group, and most recently joined the Board of Unum Group, a NYSE-listed company, as a Director and Audit Committee Member.
Under DeVore's leadership, Premier has been named as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for past 11 years, received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and earned the Best in KLAS title for Overall Healthcare Management Consulting.
DeVore obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Master of Management degree from McGill University.
Tim Wentworth leads Express Scripts and Cigna Services. In this role, Wentworth oversees the Express Scripts business as well as independent services, including eviCore.
Wentworth formerly served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Express Scripts, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s strategic direction and core business. He joined Express Scripts when the company merged with Medco in April 2012. At Medco, he led the employer and key accounts organizations for nearly 14 years. He also served as President and CEO of Accredo, the company's specialty pharmacy.
Wentworth earned a bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and an associate's degree in business from Monroe Community College.
As Collective Health’s Co-Founder and Chief Health Officer, Dr. Rajaie Batniji oversees partnerships with healthcare networks and providers, analytics and research, and Collective Health’s employee health management programs. Collective Health brings together Dr. Batniji’s academic and professional careers as both a physician and as a political economist, and his aspiration to create a better and more efficient health insurance experience.
Dr. Batniji is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he previously trained in Internal Medicine. He received a DPhil in International Relations (Political Economy) from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, an MD from UCSF, and BA and MA degrees from Stanford University.
Paul Dabrowski is CEO of Synthego. He founded the company with his brother, Michael Dabrowski, and together they developed the company’s world-class commercial offering for genome engineering. Before Synthego, Paul was the lead digital designer for the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX. He also founded a mobile software company and designed a portable electron microscope for DNA sequencing. Paul was born in Illinois to Polish immigrants and earned his MS/BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Ed Ellison, MD, serves as Executive Medical Director/Chairman of the Board, Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG); Chairman of the Board and CEO, The Southeast Permanente Medical Group. He also is Co-CEO of The Permanente Federation, LLC, a consortium of all the Permanente Medical Groups in the nation, supporting the work of more than 22,000 Kaiser Permanente physicians in the eight Kaiser Permanente regions across the country.Dr. Ellison joined SCPMG in 1984 as a family medicine physician and has served in multiple roles with the organization. In 2002, Dr. Ellison was appointed area medical director for Orange County and joined SCPMG’s Board of Directors. He is a past recipient of Orange County’s Family Medicine Physician of the Year. After completing his undergraduate degree at Duke University, Dr. Ellison received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He completed his residency training in Family Medicine at Halifax Hospital Medical Center, University of South Florida, where he served as chief resident. Dr. Ellison is board certified in Family Medicine and is a diplomate of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has attended the Advanced Leadership Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard’s Advanced Management Program.
