Joan, an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, is the former Managing Director of Novartis Spain. Over the years, he has also worked for the likes of Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sandoz Pharma as Medical Director and Head of R&D and is currently working as the Director of Innovation at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health.

An MD in medicine, a lawyer, and a management major, Joan has many feathers in his cap. He has also served as an advisor to many prominent government and private organizations including serving as a member of the Research and Development Advisory Board to the Department of Health of the Government of Catalonia, Spain.

Q1. What according to you is the biggest challenge facing the pharmaceutical industry today?

Meet the needs for preventive and therapeutic solutions of the population at global scale though efficient and high-quality products and services, with a focus on medical needs but also with a strong focus on equity to achieve health for all.

Q2. What excites you the most about Raspa?

Raspa is an important step in the right direction to improve the global equity in the provision of high-quality treatments to patients with serious medical needs.

Q3. How do you think Raspa’s vision aligns with your own personal vision in bringing about a change within the pharmaceutical industry?

Traditionally many pharma companies have had such a huge margin that the efficiency has not been addressed to the extent of other industries. Raspa intends to produce generic and generic plus top-quality drugs at much adjusted prices due to cutting edge innovation in production and development and also through innovative solutions by combining pharma technologies with others such as digital and medical devices technologies.

Q4. How do you envision healthcare evolving over the coming 10 years especially within the field of oncology?

Oncology is the main interest of Raspa and it is really one of the areas with the highest medical need and also an area where the drug prices (amazingly enough including many generics and biosimilars) are more outrageous, to the point that some oncologists speak about the “ finantial toxicity” of cancer drugs that are accessible only to a tiny proportion of patients and in many cases imply the bankrupcy of the whole family.

I believe that this situation is simply unacceptable and that the pressure from the patients and also from an increasing proportion of oncologists will introduce significant changes by moving towards a predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory medicine and that therapies will be made accessible to an ever increasing proportion of patients. Companies like Raspa will definetively become key to drive this much needed progress.