In this episode of the Life Science Success Podcast my guest is Dean Erhardt, President and CEO at D2 Solutions. He brings more than 20 years of experience across pharmaceuticals and consumer products, with expertise in support program development, distribution, and specialty product management, and has worked with over 100 pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device manufacturers as well as many small and midsized organizations on commercial operations, strategy, and national accounts.
00:00 Intro
00:34 Dean's career: HMO, Cardinal Health, Express Scripts
03:00 Founding D2 Solutions in 2008
04:00 Pricing strategy and middlemen taking 50–70% of revenue
08:00 What separates successful commercialization from failure
10:00 D2's three pillars: distribution, reimbursement, patient services
15:00 Pharmaceutical support programs for specialty medications
16:00 D2's digital patient engagement platform in action
21:00 Resource challenges for small and mid-sized pharma
22:00 Retail deserts and the rise of direct-to-consumer models
24:00 National accounts strategy and long-term payer relationships
26:00 When to engage D2 and cleaning up commercialization missteps
28:00 The prior authorization crisis
31:00 Leadership advice: one vision, said a million times
32:00 AI, remote surgery, and the future of care
34:00 Looming shortage of 3.9 million healthcare workers
36:00 Concerns: aging population, lost patients, NIH funding
37:00 Technology accelerating drug approvals
38:00 Outro
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