PharmaSource Podcast

FDA hemorrhaging staff while promising to fast-track advanced modalities. BIOSECURE Act signed into law with five-year phase-out timelines. Tariffs creating 50% cost increases on manufacturing equipment. Most Favored Nation deals cutting prices. Cell and gene therapy facilities closing despite scientific promise. Welcome to 2026 pharma manufacturing.

In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Gil Roth, President of the Pharma and Biopharma Outsourcing Association (PBOA), explains how pharma companies are impacted by policy changes, and how CDMOs are building flexibility into capital planning, manufacturing infrastructure, and customer contracts to survive chaos that makes forecasting impossible.Gil Roth is speaking at CDMO Live Europe and CDMO Live Americas

Fresh from External Manufacturing Leaders in snowy Boston, in this episode we are sharing insights from senior biopharma executives confronting an impossible challenge: how do you reshore when there's nowhere to reshore to?
Highlights of the event include why biotechs built on Chinese manufacturing economics are scrambling, why US capacity for ADCs and sterile fill-finish is completely tied up, and how manual operations are threatening American competitiveness.
Plus: the 2026 strategies leaders are actually implementing, from AI-powered Digital Twins to creative redundancy plays.
Thanks to Aenova Group for co-hosting ExM Leader Boston with us.
Download the full report here:
https://pharmasource.global/content/resources/exm-leaders-boston-26/

“There are 437 active clinical trials in radiopharmaceuticals, and 100 companies developing them. If your logistics are not better, there is no other differentiator. You need to compete by experience.”
When Kostja Paschalidis and his co-founders left their roles developing one of the leading radiopharmaceutical products, they recognised a fundamental shift in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Unlike traditional drugs where marketing drives commercial success, radiopharmaceuticals demand something entirely different: flawless service delivery.
As co-founder and head of systems and logistics at Firm, a design consultancy specialising in radiopharmaceutical services, Kostja has identified why operational excellence—not clinical superiority—will determine market winners.
In the latest PharmaSource podcast episode, he explains why radiopharmaceutical companies must become service-centric organisations to succeed and how a lack of standardisation and suitable technology creates barriers to scale.

“We’re not trying to be everything for everyone. Our specialized focus has been very exciting for me.”
Franco Negron, CEO of Simtra BioPharma Solutions, has transformed a 65-year sterile manufacturing legacy into an independent CDMO since the company’s carve-out from Baxter International (Baxter) in October 2023. Franco has led over $500 million in capital investments to double capacity and create mirrored capabilities across sites in Indiana, US, and Halle/Westfalen, Germany.
Franco brings industry experience from Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Patheon, which became part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he helped shape integrated CDMO strategies.
In this PharmaSource podcast, recorded at CPHI 2025, Franco explains how Simtra is navigating supply chain challenges, tariff uncertainties, and injectable manufacturing complexity, from GLP-1s to antibody drug conjugates.
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“Process chemistry alone is no longer the whole story—it needs to be connected with engineering solutions, digital tools, and data utilization.”
Stefan Randl, Chief Scientific Officer at Siegfried, joined the Swiss-based CDMO in January 2025 after 16 years at Evonik, where he led innovation management for healthcare, ran drug substance operations in the US, and headed sales across Asia.
Read more.