Hello and welcome to this special episode of Let’s Talk Rare: The Life Science Podcast as we celebrate 5 years of bringing you the podcast that is now the number one life science podcast across all platforms. We at Partners 4 Access want to thank every single one of our 35,000 subscribers and all the guests who have graced the podcast from the bottom of our hearts, we would not have gotten here without you. 

A special episode calls for special guests, and joining us today are our in-house expert and Managing Partner at P4A, Sophie Schmitz, our host from 2018-2021, Aparna Krishnan, and Prasan Subedi, Access Strategy Team Lead at Pfizer. Together, we walk down memory lane and relive the high points and challenges of the past five years, and share insights on rare diseases and cell and gene therapies.

Aparna Krishnan Bio:

Aparna has over 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. As part of the senior leadership team, her primary focus is on strategic corporate engagement, legal, financial operations, and human resources. She has previously worked as Manager of Life Sciences at IHS Markit and as Consultant at Parexel’s Commercialization unit, among others specializing in market access, pricing, and reimbursement.

Sophie Schmitz Bio:

Sophie is the managing partner at Partners 4 Access, a company that believes in a sustainable rare disease world, which means helping our clients unlock the true opportunity of orphan drugs and ATMPs. Her 20+ year career spans various disease areas and medical devices, successfully supporting the strategy development and operationalization for orphan drugs. She brings a wealth of commercial and access experience across orphan and cell and gene therapies to the benefit of clients. She plays an active role in advising clients on price and market access strategies, with the ultimate goal of optimizing fair access for all stakeholders in rare diseases.