Episode 22 - Nikhil Bhojwani and Using Generative AI in Pharmaceutical Industry without Irrational Fear

The Future of Pharma

My guest in this episode of The Future of Pharma is Nikhil Bhojwani.

Nikhil is an entrepreneur, investor, strategist, and TedTalk speaker. He is a Managing Partner at Recon Strategy, a boutique consulting firm that he founded in 2010. At Recon Strategy, Nikhil works with executives and boards on strategy at the portfolio and business-unit levels for payers, hospitals, life science, and digital health companies.

Nikhil stays close to the startup community as an investor, board member, and advisor to several companies. These have included CIC Health, a national leader in COVID testing and vaccinations, which was founded based on a blueprint set out in an HBR article Nikhil co-authored with Dr. Atul Gawande.

Nikhil was the 2023 Dorothy R. Eisenberg Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School/ Brigham and Women's Hospital, where for the 50th anniversary lecture of this series, he presented a lecture on the future of AI in healthcare.

He has also lectured at Harvard Business School and the Harvard School of Public Health and is a member of the Massachusetts Governor's AI task force healthcare working group.

In this wide ranging talk, we discuss about - What AI can do that humans can't - How Moderna is using AI to respond to regulatory queries (among other things) - AI in pharma competitive landscape (and it's not just technology) - Where multiple big companies need to collaborate due to the scale - His tedtalk ("Unlock potential of Generative AI by Conquering the Spooky Mountain") - Responsible use of AI - Rational and irrational fears about AI - Why AI's growth seems scarier than other historical technological advances - Real impact in the pharmaceutical industry (and on the regulatory agencies) - And instead of writing a book, what he would do with the existing knowledge.

Hope you enjoy this informative talk with Nikhil Bhojwani.