Mentoring Young Scientists: Jay Bradner and Andy Plump on The Long Run

This episode of The Long Run is a little different.

I invited a couple previous guests on The Long Run to discuss a specific issue: How the industry can do a better job of mentoring young scientists, and creating on-ramps to careers in the biopharma industry for people from underrepresented groups.

Jay Bradner, president, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research

Jay Bradner, the president of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, and Andy Plump, the president of R&D at Takeda Pharmaceuticals are a couple of powerful R&D leaders. They are in positions of influence, and can make meaningful changes in their organizations in certain situations.

For background, listen to this Long Run podcast with Jay in May 2019, and this with Andy in June 2020.

In this more recent conversation, these two pharma R&D leaders shared a few revealing anecdotes that said a lot to me about how their thinking has evolved on inequities over the year, and what things they can do to make positive changes in their workplaces.

Andy Plump, president of R&D, Takeda Pharmaceutical

I’m thankful they accepted my invitation to discuss this issue, which they didn’t have to do.

This conversation was recorded April 15 on Clubhouse. If you’re not familiar, it’s the relatively new audio-only social network. This recording was specifically hosted on Biotech Clubhouse, a specific part of Clubhouse on the app for biotech conversations. Thanks to Chris Garabedian and Brad Loncar for inviting me to guest host this session in their particular ‘clubhouse’.

I asked these guys a lot of questions in the first part of the episode, and then opened it up to audience Q&A in the second half. It’s a little like old-school call-in radio shows, which provides a sense of spontaneity.

Please enjoy this conversation on mentoring young scientists with Andy Plump and Jay Bradner on The Long Run.