October 9, 2025 • 21 mins
Blood is the currency of clinical trials—and getting it from patient to lab within 48 hours can make or break a study. In this episode, LabConnect CEO Wes Wheeler joins us to discuss how a lab-agnostic model, purpose-built software, and disciplined process design are transforming global clinical research.
Wes breaks down why LabConnect chooses not to own labs and how this decision enables speed, scale, and flexibility across seven key regions where trials are conducted and patients reside. He also unpacks the technology powering their connected ecosystem—unified LIMS, ERP, sample tracking, and data integrations that convert scattered specialty testing into submission-ready data. The result: a network that supports roughly 80% of the data used in new drug applications, while preserving audit trails and regulatory integrity for agencies like the FDA and EMA.
Looking ahead, Wes explores how AI, machine learning, and digital twins are reshaping clinical development—from modeling preclinical safety to identifying recruitable patient populations and flagging anomalies before they impact results. With cell and gene therapies, antibody-drug conjugates, and radiopharma driving the next wave of precision medicine, he shares how LabConnect’s innovation mindset keep trials moving forward.
Along the way, Wes reflects on the mentorship, engineering mindset, and leadership lessons that took him from mechanical engineer to global healthcare executive.
For more information about the innovations that are shaping tomorrow's world, head to https://tomorrowsworldtoday.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:22):
And today we have Wes Wheeler with us.
He is from a company called LabConnect.
Welcome to the Uh.
Good to be here.
Thanks very much.
So, Wes, I was hoping you'dshare with our audience today a
little bit about uh yourexperience with this
organization.
Can you walk us back and tell usabout LabConnect?
SPEAKER_01 (00:38):
Well, the company was founded about 20 years ago
by a couple of entrepreneursthat decided that there was a
niche in the market for smallpharmaceutical companies that
really didn't have expertise inlaboratory work.
And so they decided to startthis company pretty much like
this typical story out of a backof a garage.
SPEAKER_02 (00:58):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
Found a lab in Johnson City, Tennessee, that
was willing to do clinical trialwork out of their laboratory and
focus on small biotech startuppharmaceutical companies that
really needed expertise.
Over time, you know, they got tothe point where they could do
more than that.
So they started to reach out tolarger companies.
(01:19):
And and now, of course, we'rewe're we're seeking to really
globalize the company anddigitize the company, which I'm
sure we'll talk about.
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah, that actually that's a great entry point right
there.
So as we start to expand ourwings, so to speak, can can you
walk us through how you'replanning on doing some of that?
SPEAKER_01 (01:38):
Yeah, I think first to talk about what the company
actually does.
The currency of clinical trialsis blood.
You know, moving blood frompatients around the world that
are recruited for clinicaltrials, as well as other types
of substance like urine, ofcourse.
But blood is the main currencyof clinical trials.
So what we do is we collectblood samples from patients
(01:58):
around the world that areinvolved in clinical trials, and
we move those samples to alaboratory.
We collect the testing data, andthen we turn the testing data
into real data that can be usedto file for new drugs.
So that's what we do.
What we're doing now is movinginto more late phase clinical
trials, so we can do more thanjust phase one and phase two,
(02:19):
with phase one being healthyvolunteers of maybe 10 to 20
healthy volunteers, to phasetwo, which is more like 100 or
so patients, to phase threetrials that are thousands, so
that we can do more volume formore trials for more companies
in more countries around theworld.
SPEAKER_02 (02:36):
So if if you were to walk us through this, maybe the
audience needs to understand alittle more about, you know,
doing these trials.
Ultimately, what are we lookingfor, these trials to tell us for
the audience market out there?
I mean, you're doing all thiswork, blood work, testing work,
etc.
(02:56):
What are you looking for inorder to get clarity to the uh
pharmaceutical industry?
SPEAKER_01 (03:01):
We're a very highly regulated industry.
The FDA in the US, of course,and the EMA in Europe, and many,
many other regulatory bodiesaround the world, very heavily
regulated.
You cannot get a drug approvedanywhere in the world without
having gone through a veryrigorous series of tests.
We call them clinical trials,and clinical trials go through
(03:22):
phases from preclinical whenwe're testing in animals and
perhaps digital twins, to phaseone healthy volunteers to
patients in phase three.
And you have to prove that firstof all the drug is safe.
So the safety is done both inthe animal phase and in the
first phase when healthyvolunteers volunteer to have the
drug put into their body andthen we test, we test for
(03:45):
safety.
After safety is confirmed, webring real patients in that have
real disease, and they're testedwith the same drug, but at
different doses to make surethat we get the right
combination of dosage and whatwe call efficacy, which is how
the drug works in the disease.
And so until you have safety andefficacy, you don't have any
(04:06):
data to file.
We produce about 80% of the datarequired to make a filing.
So that's what we do.
We work for pharmaceuticalcompanies and clinical research
companies that need us toprotect the trial integrity, but
also to bring the testingresults in the data.
SPEAKER_02 (04:23):
I see.
So because it's third party andnot connected to the
pharmaceutical company itself,it's more uh bankable, so to
speak.
SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
We think so.
We we are a very unique centrallaboratory company.
We have some competition, ofcourse, we all do.
We think we're unique in that weare agnostic when it comes to
the laboratories we use.
We don't own the labs.
We actually broker and contractwith the labs anywhere in the
world to do the required testingfor these clinical trials.
(04:52):
Many, many companies have theirown labs, which means they have
the maintenance aspects, theyhave labor, they have capital
requirements to keep thoselaboratories operating.
We don't have to do that.
Yes.
We are agnostic when it comes tolabs.
SPEAKER_02 (05:05):
So that makes sense.
So as an entrepreneurial companytrying to grow, making labs all
over the uh entire world wouldbe quite a capital expense.
Right.
So you've so how are you gettingand collecting all this data?
From what I've been hearing,there's something that's
connecting all these labstogether.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthis?
SPEAKER_01 (05:26):
Yeah, let me talk about the uh digitizing in a
minute.
SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
I think it's important to know that the drugs
that are being developed todayare becoming more complicated.
More than 50% of all trialstoday are in oncology, so
cancer.
The cancerous trials that we'redoing now are requiring more and
more specialty testing.
We're looking for biomarkers inpatients that indicate the kind
of cancer they have, the kind ofreceptor we're trying to hit
(05:52):
with the drug.
And so, because of thatcomplexity, we're having to find
more and more specialty labsaround the world that can do
these specialized assays.
So testing certain biomarkers,certain types of cells in the in
the body to try to find theright balance of testing around
the world to get the data weneed for our patients, for our
(06:12):
clients.
Can you talk a little bit aboutbumps in the road you've hit
trying to do this?
Yeah, because we because wedon't own the labs, we have to
develop a relationship with thelabs.
So we have to develop, you know,first of all, find the right
ones.
And I'll back up and just sayone of the objectives we have to
globalize the company is to findpartner labs in seven regions of
(06:33):
the world.
And the seven regions aredecided by where we believe the
patients are coming from.
So the US is obvious, Europe isobvious.
Beyond Europe and the US, we'regoing to China, we're going to
Australia, we're going to SouthKorea, and we're going to Latin
America.
And so we pick a lab thatrepresents those regions, and
(06:54):
then we have to develop arelationship with them, develop
a contract with them, andactually build a facility of our
own next to them so that we canactually manage the movement of
samples and the data in and outwhile the testing is being done
by our third parties.
The bumps in the road are thedigitizing of the company to
make sure that all the data cancome into one platform.
(07:14):
All those labs are operating ina different system.
We have our own system, theyhave their own system.
So finding a way to connect allthese labs to our system is the
challenge.
We've hired recently a new uhchief commercial officer
commercial officer as well aschief technical officer to make
that happen.
So we're now in the process ofdigitizing all of our systems
(07:35):
and connecting our systems totheir systems so that we can
bring all the data back in aconsistent format.
SPEAKER_02 (07:41):
Sounds pretty efficient once you get through
these uh initial stages.
So as you're scaling, you'reprobably able to do this at a at
a better margin than that's thepoint.
SPEAKER_01 (07:50):
Scalability is the point.
That's the whole point.
We have been more or less afamily-run type of company until
now.
We've decided as a new CEOcoming in to invest in
technology.
So we have invested in a new uhwhat we call a laboratory
information system that's acrossthe globe.
We have a new uh enterpriseresource system, which is like
(08:12):
SAP, for example.
SPEAKER_02 (08:13):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (08:14):
We are developing a new sample tracking system, a
new uh proposal system, projectmanagement system, and others
that are all going to bedigitally connected so that we
can easily add a site to ournetwork and we can have them all
digitally connected.
SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
Wow.
What a great project.
And so there's some newtechnology that's being
developed around thisdigitization, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
Yeah, I think you can imagine that we're dealing
with Australia, China, LatinAmerica, all the European
countries, and even now we'reconsidering Middle East and
Africa.
Patients are more and morecoming from these remote
locations.
So finding the labs that arelocal, because the blood has to
get to the lab within 48 hoursmaximum.
(08:59):
If it goes beyond 40 to 48hours, it becomes unusable.
Yeah, we c we we we call it uhit it it tests out at that at
that point.
So we have to find labs that arelocal, that are compliant, they
have to be compliant, they haveto be operating under what we
call good clinical practice bythe FDA.
And then they have to havesystems that can integrate with
(09:22):
us.
Sometimes they don't.
Sometimes we have to take a flatfile, you know, from a remote
lab somewhere in the world, andconvert that flat file into our
file.
So the the challenges we havereally are finding the labs that
work that are regulated and thatare compliant, but also that
they have systems that can beintegrated into our system.
And without that, we don't havethe data that we need.
SPEAKER_02 (09:44):
I see.
So you've developed a new systemthat's connecting these labs
together.
You're getting better scale fromthat, I imagine.
SPEAKER_01 (09:53):
We're having fun with kaijan events.
So we're bringing this the teamstogether.
In fact, we have come one comingup next week where we can bring
25 people together and we don'tleave the room until we fix the
process.
So we're mapping the entireprocess from beginning to end,
and we're identifying along theway where each of the digital
systems have to integrate.
So we're finding ways where wehave to connect systems to
(10:15):
systems within our company, andalso systems from outside the
company into our so thechallenge is really process
design, integration of all thedigital inputs, and then getting
a final output that's usable forthe FDA for filing.
SPEAKER_02 (10:30):
And the invention of a better system like this,
what's that gonna do for the uhcustomers of the world out
there?
The the pharmaceuticalcustomers, but ultimately the
consumer.
SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
Well, we're we're inventing new medicine.
We're we're we're a big part ofthe creation of new medicines,
and we're very proud of that.
We uh we're very involved withcancer, very much so.
We are doing a lot ofcomplicated studies now that are
curing all the different formsof cancer that you see that you
see and hear about, and some youdon't know about yet.
And we're working on 380 trialsright now.
(11:04):
I would say probably more thanhalf of those are cancer
related.
Wow.
And so you know, being part of acompany that's helping to
develop new medicine is animportant thing to do.
SPEAKER_02 (11:13):
Very much so.
You know, there's a it's it'seasier to do the work when
there's a noble cause attachedto it.
So of course.
So ultimately, if I was to askyou to project into the future
for us, what do you see in thefuture in tomorrow's world with
the technology you're workingon?
SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
It's interesting that AI is taking a big place in
pharmaceuticals finally.
I think uh we've been talkingabout AI for a while in the
world.
It's not only it's just beenpretty recently that the
pharmaceutical industry hasstarted to adopt AI.
So one example would be insteadof using animals in preclinical
trials for testing safety ofdrugs.
(11:54):
There are companies that areexperimenting with using AI to
simulate using a digital twin,which is simulating what a
patient might how a patientmight react to a drug instead of
putting that drug into ananimal.
That's just one example.
We're using AI for mining ourdata to see if we can find
pockets of populations of c ofpatients that we can recruit,
(12:17):
finding better ways to align thedata together, finding different
ways to interpret a clinicalprotocol and turn that into a
testing regime.
And so we'll be doing a lot ofwork with AI going forward.
I think that's one of the futureissues.
I think the other is that wehaven't talked about cell and
gene therapies, you know, we'reactually modifying people's
cells, we're not talking aboutradiopharma, where you're
(12:38):
attaching an isotope that cankill a cell to a delivery
mechanism that gets it thatisotope to your cancer tumor.
There's a lot of that going onnow, and in terms of trying to
kill cells, cancer cells withoutharming the individual.
And you'll see more of that withwhat we call conjugate
antibodies, CDCs we call them,and also with radiopharma.
(13:01):
You'll hear more about that inthe future.
But more drugs targeted to veryspecific parts of your body.
SPEAKER_02 (13:07):
Well, we've come a long way from the early the
early days of alchemy and youknow, running these crazy little
experiments in dark rooms andtrying it out on people, haven't
we?
SPEAKER_01 (13:18):
We have.
We've come a long, long way.
And in a very short time, I'llsay.
SPEAKER_02 (13:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:23):
But medical technology is is remarkable.
And we're very proud to be partof it.
SPEAKER_02 (13:28):
Well, good work.
Thank you.
Let's talk a little bit abouthow you established yourself in
the industry.
I mean, you didn't start thecompany, but you're the CEO of
it today.
Can you walk us through a littlebit of your history?
I mean, of course, you know, theyoung people in the world they
look at us and say, I don'tunderstand how you get where you
(13:49):
are.
But at one time you were back inschool, and so was I.
So you know, it might be nice toshare with the audience a little
bit of that.
SPEAKER_01 (13:58):
Okay.
Where are you from?
I'm an engineer.
Uh I was born in New York.
I uh went to school inMassachusetts uh for
engineering, mechanicalengineering.
Uh my goal was to build powerplant power plants for a living.
That was my goal.
I thought that it would be uh ata designer's desk designing
power plants.
I thought that was my myobjective in life.
I got got recruited instead towork for Exxon when I was very
(14:20):
young, and I spent 12 years uhworking around the world for
Exxon building refineriesinstead of power plants.
And so after that I got a callfrom nowhere to join a company
called Glaxo, which is nowcalled Glaxo SmithKlein.
They're probably the number sixor seven pharmaceutical company
in the world.
Back then they were very small.
Yes.
I was recruited to come over tobuild the research campus uh in
(14:42):
North Carolina, and that's how Igot to North Carolina, where I
live now.
And after 13 years of mermerging Glaxo with Glaxo
Welcome, Glaxo Smith Klein, andmerging all the manufacturing
facilities around the world,that was my main job.
I was put into marketing for ashort time after I got my MBA.
And that I never looked backwhen I went to marketing.
(15:03):
I've been a marketing commercialguy since then.
And since then I've run fivecompanies for various in all in
pharmaceuticals, you know, fromBlackSo to Patheon to DSM
pharmaceuticals to a companycalled Marken, which is now
owned by UPS Healthcare.
I built the US UPS Healthcaredivision during COVID and uh got
involved in Operation WarpSpeed, was very much involved
(15:25):
with the U.S.
government during COVID, uhmoving vaccines around the
world.
And then I retired and uhthought I was retired, joined
five boards, and then I got acall from the board of Lab
Connect to be their CEO.
I hadn't planned on coming backfull-time, but I am here again
and in the chair.
Yes.
I'm very much enjoying it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:44):
That's a nice uh background on where you came
from.
If I was to ask you uh if youwere back in, let's say, high
school or middle school, did youhave any mentors that kind of
got you onto this path of life?
SPEAKER_01 (15:58):
Yeah, we all have we all have mentors.
I had a great one in college.
Okay.
Uh always what I learned fromhim most, my mechanical
engineering professor, is thatevery complicated part problem
can be boiled down to one simpleplace.
And it was the law ofthermodynamics.
And the the basic law ofthermodynamics, I never forgot
the fact that everything we didin mechanical engineering when I
(16:21):
was studying fluids and heattransfer is it can come back to
one simple equation, the firstlaw of thermodynamics.
I I never forgot that because asan engineer, and my team will
tell you this, when they give mea problem, my first reaction is
to solve it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:37):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (16:37):
And I usually try to solve it in simple terms.
So that's one.
Thank goodness.
I also had a uh mentor duringall my years at uh at Glaxo who
I very much respect.
He's a very good friend of mine.
He I've worked with him for 17years, and he was a military
guy.
So the combination ofengineering and military and the
precision that he demanded of memade me, I think, pretty much
(17:00):
who I am today.
SPEAKER_02 (17:02):
That's wonderful.
So there are mentors out therein the world.
It's nice when you bump intothem and they help you.
Sometimes they don't even knowhow they're moving us forward
with our careers, do they?
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
They just want to help things, things happen.
I never expected to be doingwhat I'm doing today.
Again, I could easily bedesigning power plants right
now.
Right, right.
SPEAKER_02 (17:25):
So connect the if you could connect the dots.
So you've because I don't ouraudience doesn't get to see
people on screen very often thathave been through the the
process of working their way upto a CEO and then seeing that
happen again and again.
It might be a little confusing.
(17:45):
You know, so how did you uh areyou uh did you put your name out
there that you were looking fora CEO position?
Did they seek you?
How does how do you getattracted into the CEO role?
SPEAKER_01 (17:59):
I think it has a lot to do with networks.
Uh it's not really you you it'sreally difficult to put your
name out there and say, okay,I'm available to be a CEO.
The first call I got was when Iwas still at at Glaxo Welcome,
or Glaxo Smith Klein, as itturns out, where it was a pl it
was a plant that was actuallystill was operated once upon a
time by Glaxo, was acquired bythree companies since then, and
(18:22):
they had a big problem with theFDA.
The FDA had shut them down andthey were looking for someone to
fix it.
And I had a reputation forfixing a lot of the
manufacturing operations at GSK,and so somehow my name g came up
uh to the board of directors ofthe company called DSM
Pharmaceuticals, a Dutchcompany.
SPEAKER_02 (18:40):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (18:41):
And I I took a chance, I left GSK and I I
became my first CEO of adivision.
It wasn't a a whole independentcompany, it was a subsidiary of
DSM, big, big Dutch company.
But that was my firstopportunity to really prove to
myself that I could do it.
And after that, your name justgets out, and it's just all
about networking.
It's all about the people youknow.
SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
So so so in order to get that first slot as a CEO,
you you actually turned yourselfinto a very helpful, productive
individual that made youattractive to bring to that
role, right?
SPEAKER_01 (19:14):
Yeah, but it's not just about me, it's about it's
about the people you know.
And and having had gone throughthe merger of Glaxo Welcome and
Smith Klein Beachum, we had40,000 SKUs, 40,000 products
around the world.
We moved half of those from siteto site, and we along the way I
developed a really great networkof people.
(19:36):
So when DSM hired me to be CEOof their division in North
Carolina, I brought with me myteam.
And my team, I I I put themaround the table and said, we're
not, you know, we're we're gonnado this together.
And we did within a year and ahalf, we got all the issues re
removed, the FDA was fine, anduh we put the company back on
track.
Today, that site is one of thelargest, most productive sites
(19:58):
within the thermofisher world asa contract manufacturing
company.
SPEAKER_02 (20:02):
Interesting.
It sounds to me like some of theskill sets that that you've
built over the years reallycould uh connected with Lab
Connect and where you're nowtaking it, right?
SPEAKER_01 (20:14):
Well, again, it's uh it's about the network.
So I I I never thought I'd be inthe logistics business, but when
I was was uh called in to run acompany called Marken, it's a
small logistics courier company.
Six years later we developed, webuilt that into actually ten
years later we built that into abillion-dollar, very, very big
company.
And along the way, Lab Connectwas one of my customers.
(20:35):
They were one of my customersfor six years.
They were a very small companywhen we started with them.
We did a lot of work for them,and we made them, we helped them
make some make them successful.
And of course, when LabConnectboard decided they wanted to
change, you know, my name cameup.
SPEAKER_02 (20:50):
Wow, that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
That's how it works.
It's the network.
It's the people you know.
SPEAKER_02 (20:54):
It is.
Well, we wish you lots of luckat Lab Connect.
Thank you.
Many more great days ahead ofyou.
We're looking forward to it.
Thank you very much for havingme.
You're welcome.
Well, everybody, that's anotheredition of Tomorrow's World
Today.
Thanks for tuning in.
And today we have Wes Wheeler with us.
He is from a company called LabConnect.
Welcome to the Uh.
Good to be here.
Thanks very much.
So, Wes, I was hoping you'dshare with our audience today a
little bit about uh yourexperience with this
organization.
Can you walk us back and tell usabout LabConnect?
SPEAKER_01 (00:38):
Well, the company was founded about 20 years ago
by a couple of entrepreneursthat decided that there was a
niche in the market for smallpharmaceutical companies that
really didn't have expertise inlaboratory work.
And so they decided to startthis company pretty much like
this typical story out of a backof a garage.
SPEAKER_02 (00:58):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
Found a lab in Johnson City, Tennessee, that
was willing to do clinical trialwork out of their laboratory and
focus on small biotech startuppharmaceutical companies that
really needed expertise.
Over time, you know, they got tothe point where they could do
more than that.
So they started to reach out tolarger companies.
(01:19):
And and now, of course, we'rewe're we're seeking to really
globalize the company anddigitize the company, which I'm
sure we'll talk about.
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah, that actually that's a great entry point right
there.
So as we start to expand ourwings, so to speak, can can you
walk us through how you'replanning on doing some of that?
SPEAKER_01 (01:38):
Yeah, I think first to talk about what the company
actually does.
The currency of clinical trialsis blood.
You know, moving blood frompatients around the world that
are recruited for clinicaltrials, as well as other types
of substance like urine, ofcourse.
But blood is the main currencyof clinical trials.
So what we do is we collectblood samples from patients
(01:58):
around the world that areinvolved in clinical trials, and
we move those samples to alaboratory.
We collect the testing data, andthen we turn the testing data
into real data that can be usedto file for new drugs.
So that's what we do.
What we're doing now is movinginto more late phase clinical
trials, so we can do more thanjust phase one and phase two,
(02:19):
with phase one being healthyvolunteers of maybe 10 to 20
healthy volunteers, to phasetwo, which is more like 100 or
so patients, to phase threetrials that are thousands, so
that we can do more volume formore trials for more companies
in more countries around theworld.
SPEAKER_02 (02:36):
So if if you were to walk us through this, maybe the
audience needs to understand alittle more about, you know,
doing these trials.
Ultimately, what are we lookingfor, these trials to tell us for
the audience market out there?
I mean, you're doing all thiswork, blood work, testing work,
etc.
(02:56):
What are you looking for inorder to get clarity to the uh
pharmaceutical industry?
SPEAKER_01 (03:01):
We're a very highly regulated industry.
The FDA in the US, of course,and the EMA in Europe, and many,
many other regulatory bodiesaround the world, very heavily
regulated.
You cannot get a drug approvedanywhere in the world without
having gone through a veryrigorous series of tests.
We call them clinical trials,and clinical trials go through
(03:22):
phases from preclinical whenwe're testing in animals and
perhaps digital twins, to phaseone healthy volunteers to
patients in phase three.
And you have to prove that firstof all the drug is safe.
So the safety is done both inthe animal phase and in the
first phase when healthyvolunteers volunteer to have the
drug put into their body andthen we test, we test for
(03:45):
safety.
After safety is confirmed, webring real patients in that have
real disease, and they're testedwith the same drug, but at
different doses to make surethat we get the right
combination of dosage and whatwe call efficacy, which is how
the drug works in the disease.
And so until you have safety andefficacy, you don't have any
(04:06):
data to file.
We produce about 80% of the datarequired to make a filing.
So that's what we do.
We work for pharmaceuticalcompanies and clinical research
companies that need us toprotect the trial integrity, but
also to bring the testingresults in the data.
SPEAKER_02 (04:23):
I see.
So because it's third party andnot connected to the
pharmaceutical company itself,it's more uh bankable, so to
speak.
SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
We think so.
We we are a very unique centrallaboratory company.
We have some competition, ofcourse, we all do.
We think we're unique in that weare agnostic when it comes to
the laboratories we use.
We don't own the labs.
We actually broker and contractwith the labs anywhere in the
world to do the required testingfor these clinical trials.
(04:52):
Many, many companies have theirown labs, which means they have
the maintenance aspects, theyhave labor, they have capital
requirements to keep thoselaboratories operating.
We don't have to do that.
Yes.
We are agnostic when it comes tolabs.
SPEAKER_02 (05:05):
So that makes sense.
So as an entrepreneurial companytrying to grow, making labs all
over the uh entire world wouldbe quite a capital expense.
Right.
So you've so how are you gettingand collecting all this data?
From what I've been hearing,there's something that's
connecting all these labstogether.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthis?
SPEAKER_01 (05:26):
Yeah, let me talk about the uh digitizing in a
minute.
SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
I think it's important to know that the drugs
that are being developed todayare becoming more complicated.
More than 50% of all trialstoday are in oncology, so
cancer.
The cancerous trials that we'redoing now are requiring more and
more specialty testing.
We're looking for biomarkers inpatients that indicate the kind
of cancer they have, the kind ofreceptor we're trying to hit
(05:52):
with the drug.
And so, because of thatcomplexity, we're having to find
more and more specialty labsaround the world that can do
these specialized assays.
So testing certain biomarkers,certain types of cells in the in
the body to try to find theright balance of testing around
the world to get the data weneed for our patients, for our
(06:12):
clients.
Can you talk a little bit aboutbumps in the road you've hit
trying to do this?
Yeah, because we because wedon't own the labs, we have to
develop a relationship with thelabs.
So we have to develop, you know,first of all, find the right
ones.
And I'll back up and just sayone of the objectives we have to
globalize the company is to findpartner labs in seven regions of
(06:33):
the world.
And the seven regions aredecided by where we believe the
patients are coming from.
So the US is obvious, Europe isobvious.
Beyond Europe and the US, we'regoing to China, we're going to
Australia, we're going to SouthKorea, and we're going to Latin
America.
And so we pick a lab thatrepresents those regions, and
(06:54):
then we have to develop arelationship with them, develop
a contract with them, andactually build a facility of our
own next to them so that we canactually manage the movement of
samples and the data in and outwhile the testing is being done
by our third parties.
The bumps in the road are thedigitizing of the company to
make sure that all the data cancome into one platform.
(07:14):
All those labs are operating ina different system.
We have our own system, theyhave their own system.
So finding a way to connect allthese labs to our system is the
challenge.
We've hired recently a new uhchief commercial officer
commercial officer as well aschief technical officer to make
that happen.
So we're now in the process ofdigitizing all of our systems
(07:35):
and connecting our systems totheir systems so that we can
bring all the data back in aconsistent format.
SPEAKER_02 (07:41):
Sounds pretty efficient once you get through
these uh initial stages.
So as you're scaling, you'reprobably able to do this at a at
a better margin than that's thepoint.
SPEAKER_01 (07:50):
Scalability is the point.
That's the whole point.
We have been more or less afamily-run type of company until
now.
We've decided as a new CEOcoming in to invest in
technology.
So we have invested in a new uhwhat we call a laboratory
information system that's acrossthe globe.
We have a new uh enterpriseresource system, which is like
(08:12):
SAP, for example.
SPEAKER_02 (08:13):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (08:14):
We are developing a new sample tracking system, a
new uh proposal system, projectmanagement system, and others
that are all going to bedigitally connected so that we
can easily add a site to ournetwork and we can have them all
digitally connected.
SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
Wow.
What a great project.
And so there's some newtechnology that's being
developed around thisdigitization, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
Yeah, I think you can imagine that we're dealing
with Australia, China, LatinAmerica, all the European
countries, and even now we'reconsidering Middle East and
Africa.
Patients are more and morecoming from these remote
locations.
So finding the labs that arelocal, because the blood has to
get to the lab within 48 hoursmaximum.
(08:59):
If it goes beyond 40 to 48hours, it becomes unusable.
Yeah, we c we we we call it uhit it it tests out at that at
that point.
So we have to find labs that arelocal, that are compliant, they
have to be compliant, they haveto be operating under what we
call good clinical practice bythe FDA.
And then they have to havesystems that can integrate with
(09:22):
us.
Sometimes they don't.
Sometimes we have to take a flatfile, you know, from a remote
lab somewhere in the world, andconvert that flat file into our
file.
So the the challenges we havereally are finding the labs that
work that are regulated and thatare compliant, but also that
they have systems that can beintegrated into our system.
And without that, we don't havethe data that we need.
SPEAKER_02 (09:44):
I see.
So you've developed a new systemthat's connecting these labs
together.
You're getting better scale fromthat, I imagine.
SPEAKER_01 (09:53):
We're having fun with kaijan events.
So we're bringing this the teamstogether.
In fact, we have come one comingup next week where we can bring
25 people together and we don'tleave the room until we fix the
process.
So we're mapping the entireprocess from beginning to end,
and we're identifying along theway where each of the digital
systems have to integrate.
So we're finding ways where wehave to connect systems to
(10:15):
systems within our company, andalso systems from outside the
company into our so thechallenge is really process
design, integration of all thedigital inputs, and then getting
a final output that's usable forthe FDA for filing.
SPEAKER_02 (10:30):
And the invention of a better system like this,
what's that gonna do for the uhcustomers of the world out
there?
The the pharmaceuticalcustomers, but ultimately the
consumer.
SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
Well, we're we're inventing new medicine.
We're we're we're a big part ofthe creation of new medicines,
and we're very proud of that.
We uh we're very involved withcancer, very much so.
We are doing a lot ofcomplicated studies now that are
curing all the different formsof cancer that you see that you
see and hear about, and some youdon't know about yet.
And we're working on 380 trialsright now.
(11:04):
I would say probably more thanhalf of those are cancer
related.
Wow.
And so you know, being part of acompany that's helping to
develop new medicine is animportant thing to do.
SPEAKER_02 (11:13):
Very much so.
You know, there's a it's it'seasier to do the work when
there's a noble cause attachedto it.
So of course.
So ultimately, if I was to askyou to project into the future
for us, what do you see in thefuture in tomorrow's world with
the technology you're workingon?
SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
It's interesting that AI is taking a big place in
pharmaceuticals finally.
I think uh we've been talkingabout AI for a while in the
world.
It's not only it's just beenpretty recently that the
pharmaceutical industry hasstarted to adopt AI.
So one example would be insteadof using animals in preclinical
trials for testing safety ofdrugs.
(11:54):
There are companies that areexperimenting with using AI to
simulate using a digital twin,which is simulating what a
patient might how a patientmight react to a drug instead of
putting that drug into ananimal.
That's just one example.
We're using AI for mining ourdata to see if we can find
pockets of populations of c ofpatients that we can recruit,
(12:17):
finding better ways to align thedata together, finding different
ways to interpret a clinicalprotocol and turn that into a
testing regime.
And so we'll be doing a lot ofwork with AI going forward.
I think that's one of the futureissues.
I think the other is that wehaven't talked about cell and
gene therapies, you know, we'reactually modifying people's
cells, we're not talking aboutradiopharma, where you're
(12:38):
attaching an isotope that cankill a cell to a delivery
mechanism that gets it thatisotope to your cancer tumor.
There's a lot of that going onnow, and in terms of trying to
kill cells, cancer cells withoutharming the individual.
And you'll see more of that withwhat we call conjugate
antibodies, CDCs we call them,and also with radiopharma.
(13:01):
You'll hear more about that inthe future.
But more drugs targeted to veryspecific parts of your body.
SPEAKER_02 (13:07):
Well, we've come a long way from the early the
early days of alchemy and youknow, running these crazy little
experiments in dark rooms andtrying it out on people, haven't
we?
SPEAKER_01 (13:18):
We have.
We've come a long, long way.
And in a very short time, I'llsay.
SPEAKER_02 (13:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:23):
But medical technology is is remarkable.
And we're very proud to be partof it.
SPEAKER_02 (13:28):
Well, good work.
Thank you.
Let's talk a little bit abouthow you established yourself in
the industry.
I mean, you didn't start thecompany, but you're the CEO of
it today.
Can you walk us through a littlebit of your history?
I mean, of course, you know, theyoung people in the world they
look at us and say, I don'tunderstand how you get where you
(13:49):
are.
But at one time you were back inschool, and so was I.
So you know, it might be nice toshare with the audience a little
bit of that.
SPEAKER_01 (13:58):
Okay.
Where are you from?
I'm an engineer.
Uh I was born in New York.
I uh went to school inMassachusetts uh for
engineering, mechanicalengineering.
Uh my goal was to build powerplant power plants for a living.
That was my goal.
I thought that it would be uh ata designer's desk designing
power plants.
I thought that was my myobjective in life.
I got got recruited instead towork for Exxon when I was very
(14:20):
young, and I spent 12 years uhworking around the world for
Exxon building refineriesinstead of power plants.
And so after that I got a callfrom nowhere to join a company
called Glaxo, which is nowcalled Glaxo SmithKlein.
They're probably the number sixor seven pharmaceutical company
in the world.
Back then they were very small.
Yes.
I was recruited to come over tobuild the research campus uh in
(14:42):
North Carolina, and that's how Igot to North Carolina, where I
live now.
And after 13 years of mermerging Glaxo with Glaxo
Welcome, Glaxo Smith Klein, andmerging all the manufacturing
facilities around the world,that was my main job.
I was put into marketing for ashort time after I got my MBA.
And that I never looked backwhen I went to marketing.
(15:03):
I've been a marketing commercialguy since then.
And since then I've run fivecompanies for various in all in
pharmaceuticals, you know, fromBlackSo to Patheon to DSM
pharmaceuticals to a companycalled Marken, which is now
owned by UPS Healthcare.
I built the US UPS Healthcaredivision during COVID and uh got
involved in Operation WarpSpeed, was very much involved
(15:25):
with the U.S.
government during COVID, uhmoving vaccines around the
world.
And then I retired and uhthought I was retired, joined
five boards, and then I got acall from the board of Lab
Connect to be their CEO.
I hadn't planned on coming backfull-time, but I am here again
and in the chair.
Yes.
I'm very much enjoying it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:44):
That's a nice uh background on where you came
from.
If I was to ask you uh if youwere back in, let's say, high
school or middle school, did youhave any mentors that kind of
got you onto this path of life?
SPEAKER_01 (15:58):
Yeah, we all have we all have mentors.
I had a great one in college.
Okay.
Uh always what I learned fromhim most, my mechanical
engineering professor, is thatevery complicated part problem
can be boiled down to one simpleplace.
And it was the law ofthermodynamics.
And the the basic law ofthermodynamics, I never forgot
the fact that everything we didin mechanical engineering when I
(16:21):
was studying fluids and heattransfer is it can come back to
one simple equation, the firstlaw of thermodynamics.
I I never forgot that because asan engineer, and my team will
tell you this, when they give mea problem, my first reaction is
to solve it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:37):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (16:37):
And I usually try to solve it in simple terms.
So that's one.
Thank goodness.
I also had a uh mentor duringall my years at uh at Glaxo who
I very much respect.
He's a very good friend of mine.
He I've worked with him for 17years, and he was a military
guy.
So the combination ofengineering and military and the
precision that he demanded of memade me, I think, pretty much
(17:00):
who I am today.
SPEAKER_02 (17:02):
That's wonderful.
So there are mentors out therein the world.
It's nice when you bump intothem and they help you.
Sometimes they don't even knowhow they're moving us forward
with our careers, do they?
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
They just want to help things, things happen.
I never expected to be doingwhat I'm doing today.
Again, I could easily bedesigning power plants right
now.
Right, right.
SPEAKER_02 (17:25):
So connect the if you could connect the dots.
So you've because I don't ouraudience doesn't get to see
people on screen very often thathave been through the the
process of working their way upto a CEO and then seeing that
happen again and again.
It might be a little confusing.
(17:45):
You know, so how did you uh areyou uh did you put your name out
there that you were looking fora CEO position?
Did they seek you?
How does how do you getattracted into the CEO role?
SPEAKER_01 (17:59):
I think it has a lot to do with networks.
Uh it's not really you you it'sreally difficult to put your
name out there and say, okay,I'm available to be a CEO.
The first call I got was when Iwas still at at Glaxo Welcome,
or Glaxo Smith Klein, as itturns out, where it was a pl it
was a plant that was actuallystill was operated once upon a
time by Glaxo, was acquired bythree companies since then, and
(18:22):
they had a big problem with theFDA.
The FDA had shut them down andthey were looking for someone to
fix it.
And I had a reputation forfixing a lot of the
manufacturing operations at GSK,and so somehow my name g came up
uh to the board of directors ofthe company called DSM
Pharmaceuticals, a Dutchcompany.
SPEAKER_02 (18:40):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (18:41):
And I I took a chance, I left GSK and I I
became my first CEO of adivision.
It wasn't a a whole independentcompany, it was a subsidiary of
DSM, big, big Dutch company.
But that was my firstopportunity to really prove to
myself that I could do it.
And after that, your name justgets out, and it's just all
about networking.
It's all about the people youknow.
SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
So so so in order to get that first slot as a CEO,
you you actually turned yourselfinto a very helpful, productive
individual that made youattractive to bring to that
role, right?
SPEAKER_01 (19:14):
Yeah, but it's not just about me, it's about it's
about the people you know.
And and having had gone throughthe merger of Glaxo Welcome and
Smith Klein Beachum, we had40,000 SKUs, 40,000 products
around the world.
We moved half of those from siteto site, and we along the way I
developed a really great networkof people.
(19:36):
So when DSM hired me to be CEOof their division in North
Carolina, I brought with me myteam.
And my team, I I I put themaround the table and said, we're
not, you know, we're we're gonnado this together.
And we did within a year and ahalf, we got all the issues re
removed, the FDA was fine, anduh we put the company back on
track.
Today, that site is one of thelargest, most productive sites
(19:58):
within the thermofisher world asa contract manufacturing
company.
SPEAKER_02 (20:02):
Interesting.
It sounds to me like some of theskill sets that that you've
built over the years reallycould uh connected with Lab
Connect and where you're nowtaking it, right?
SPEAKER_01 (20:14):
Well, again, it's uh it's about the network.
So I I I never thought I'd be inthe logistics business, but when
I was was uh called in to run acompany called Marken, it's a
small logistics courier company.
Six years later we developed, webuilt that into actually ten
years later we built that into abillion-dollar, very, very big
company.
And along the way, Lab Connectwas one of my customers.
(20:35):
They were one of my customersfor six years.
They were a very small companywhen we started with them.
We did a lot of work for them,and we made them, we helped them
make some make them successful.
And of course, when LabConnectboard decided they wanted to
change, you know, my name cameup.
SPEAKER_02 (20:50):
Wow, that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
That's how it works.
It's the network.
It's the people you know.
SPEAKER_02 (20:54):
It is.
Well, we wish you lots of luckat Lab Connect.
Thank you.
Many more great days ahead ofyou.
We're looking forward to it.
Thank you very much for havingme.
You're welcome.
Well, everybody, that's anotheredition of Tomorrow's World
Today.
Thanks for tuning in.
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