Mark Hansan and Scott Howell, MD, are two industry leaders who have dedicated their careers to improving patient access and recently stepped away from day-to-day leadership roles. After bonding over beer and the Buckeyes, they agreed that there was a need to create a podcast that brings together key stakeholders to tackle the challenges of patient access and drive the industry forward with fresh ideas.
Mark continues to serve as Executive Chairman of CareMetx, LLC, which generously covers the costs to produce the podcast and retains all rights to the podcast. The views and opinions of the co-hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the views of CareMetx.
“Our podcast is committed to interviewing a diverse range of guests to explore the full array of issues that lead to the challenges patients face accessing their medicines. Our goal is to ignite a dialogue that will help all stakeholders do a better job for patients by eliminating barriers and complexity in access to medicines. We’re not here to push any one agenda or discredit ideas, but to work together to make a real impact in the lives of patients everywhere.”
Mark Hansan
Mark is a pioneering figure in the modern Hub industry, with a career spanning nearly 40 years as an entrepreneur and health technology innovator in patient advocacy, specialty pharmacy, and manufacturer-sponsored patient access programs. Mark began his career at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, helping to open the nation’s first disease-specific specialty pharmacy and managed it for almost three years. Mark was also the co-founder of TheraCom, Inc. and helped launch some of the most consequential biotechnology drugs of the 1990’s and 2000’s. Mark co-founded Bethesda Partners, LLC, an investment and consulting firm, and in 2011 he co-founded CareMetx, LLC, to speed patient access to therapies by modernizing the Hub industry with technology. Throughout his career, Mark has been a strong advocate for justice-based management–ensuring all of his companies offered a diverse workforce, pay-equity, health equity, and economic equity including all employees benefiting from the sale of a company.
Scott Howell, MD, MBA
Scott is a widely respected industry advocate and leader for patient access to medicines. He began his career as a general internist and, after a decade in clinical medicine, went to work on improving health services more generally. He worked in group practice administration, insurance plan administration, pharmaceutical distribution and services, and at 4 biotech and pharmaceutical companies: GSK, Genentech, Jazz, and Novartis. Scott is best known for leading innovations to improve coverage and reimbursement and affordability of medicines as well as services supporting patient access. Scott has been teaching and researching and writing on improving pricing and access of medicines for 15 years, primarily at the University of California – Berkeley, and is a thought leader on the topic of value-based pricing and access for medicines. Scott now advises a number of companies that continue to work on these and related challenges in healthcare.
