Informing Public Health Decisions with Data and Science: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

·55 min·3 clips

Sue draws the Kaplan-Meier curve for Herceptin on Art Levinson’s whiteboard after hearing, “the study's positive.”

Aaron Strout welcomes listeners back after a brief summer break and introduces a special edition of the podcast. Jim Weiss and Mike Huckman join him to interview Sue Desmond-Hellmann. The conversation starts with the long arc of healthcare innovation and the gap between how fast medicine moves and how dated the healthcare experience can still feel. It stays focused on how scientific progress becomes something patients can actually feel. That leads into Herceptin and what it taught the field about HER2. It also opens up the story of Rituxan, including how it changed thinking about lymphoma, how patients tolerate it well enough for repeated use, and how anti-CD20 therapies later found use in rheumatoid arthritis and MS. The discussion keeps coming back to the idea that antibodies can be precise tools for learning biology and improving treatment at the same time. From there, the conversation shifts to a current policy issue: the first 10 medicines subject to Medicare price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act. Sue Desmond-Hellmann frames the question through her role on President Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, with the central challenge being how to make sure the fruits of innovation reach as many Americans as possible, and perhaps the world. The episode closes as a grounded discussion about innovation, access, and the choices that shape public health.

As heard by us

A grounded look at scientific breakthrough and the policy choices that shape access.

Sue Desmond-Hellmann brings a steady mix of scientific memory and policy realism to a discussion about how modern medicine reaches patients. The conversation moves from Genentech-era innovation and the lessons of Herceptin and rituxan to the harder problem of access, including…

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear, senior-level take on how healthcare innovation meets policy and access.

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