Payer Perspective on the Reimbursement Landscape for Biotech CMOs and Other R&D Leaders

Richard Colvin, MD, PhD, has served as chief medical officer of bluebird since March 2021. Dr Colvin joined bluebird in 2018 and was medical lead of the thalassemia program and led clinical research and development prior to becoming CMO. Since Dr Colvin has been CMO, bluebird submitted and gained FDA approval for beti-cel and eli-cel. Prior to bluebird, Dr Colvin was an executive director in translational medicine at Novartis where he led early-stage anti-infective drug development programs. Dr Colvin clinically trained at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and remains on faculty at Harvard Medical School. He sees patients in the Infectious Diseases clinic at MGH. Dr Colvin received his MD and PhD from Duke University School of Medicine.

Gail Ryan is the Director of Pharmaceutical Transformation at Point32Health.  Point32Health, a health services company serving over 2.2 million lives in the New England area, is the parent company of two legacy organizations, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan. Dr Ryan earned her BS and her PharmD from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Scieånces, and she has almost 20 years of managed care experience with proficiency in clinical pharmacy, medical policy, trend analysis, cost management initiatives, new and emerging technologies, and innovative payment models.

Michael Sherman is a Venture Partner at RA Ventures. Prior to joining RAVen, Dr Sherman was the Executive Vice President and CMO at Point32Health, formed by the merger of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan. Prior to Point32Health, Dr Sherman served as CMO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the Corporate Medical Director at Humana and also served as Vice President of Network and Consumer Solutions for UnitedHealth Groups subsidiary Ingenix (now part of Optum). Dr Sherman has also previously held the position of Vice President and General Manager at Thomson Medstat (now part of IBM Watson Health), as well as held management roles at Immusol, a San Diego-based biotechnology company, HealthAllies, an organization created to provide discretionary medical benefits to the cash-pay market, and Da Vita, a national provider of dialysis services. Before pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School, Dr Sherman received his MD from Yale and practiced as a cardiac anesthesiologist. He also holds a BA in Anthropology and Natural Sciences and an MS in Biomedical Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Sherman is chair of the Board of Managers of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. He holds additional board appointments with several well-respected nonprofit organizations, including the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), the Personalized Medicine Coalition, the Harvard Business School Healthcare Initiative, NEHI (Network for Excellence in Health Innovation), and the Massachusetts Rare Disease Advisory Council.