IQVIA Holdings, Inc.

We wrote this one up last week.

This is IQVIA.

I guarantee none of you have ever heard of this.

I haven't heard of any of these names.

So I don't know for certain I can't point to a news item off the top of my head.

So if they haven't, it's probably be someone like that or IQVIA or, you know, that's because I agree with you.

I mean, that building that specialty capability, 100%.

I suspect it would be somebody

who's already a major player in healthcare insights.

If they haven't done it, they're about to.

And if you're listening from IQVIA or anybody else, you know, let us know.

Yeah, shoot us that email, theexchange.com. Talk about us next week or two weeks from now when I'm back.

My today's guest is Dr. Zahara Timsa, co-founder and CEO of iGenetic AI, and also the author of the book, AI CEO, and one of the most credentialed voices at the intersection of AI governance and leadership.

Zahra holds a PhD in biochemistry, an MBA in strategy, and an MSc, and has led AI transformation at IQVIA, MassMutual, and GSK.

She has advised the FDA and the U.S. Senate on AI policy, contributes to the World Economic Forum's AI governance work, and is an executive member of chief.

Her company, iGenetic AI, has built Genie, an enterprise governance platform that turns compliance from a brick into a gas pedal.

Malcolm thinks I made this up, like it's not even a real company.

IQVIA.

It's in my fantasy stock portfolio.

What's the ticker? I swear to God, this company's real.

I wasn't around back then.

Me either.

IQVIA is a company that the drug makers hire to help them run their clinical trials, but also, more importantly, to help them track how their drugs are selling.

They have one of the most important, if not the most important, private data sets for healthcare in the entire world.

So I think most people are familiar with the fact that specialty meds are now accounting for more than half of the U.S. pharmaceutical spend.

IQVIA reported that specialty meds now represent about $262 billion in net sales.

That was in 2024, which is more than 100 billion higher than in 2020.

So in addition to seeing more specialty drugs in this space, we're also seeing more complex therapies and more disease states that are falling into the specialty category.

An AI system could transform global rabies testing, and a new regulator of muscle regeneration has been discovered.

IQVIA is looking to help life science companies predict clinical trial outcomes, and you can read all of these and more at deeptechdigest.com. And so to the first interview.

Gain Therapeutics is developing next-generation allosteric therapies.

Its lead drug candidate, Rexaceract, is currently being evaluated for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and the company is treating the disease rather than the symptoms.

So pharma.org published an overview of a 2026 study that showed just how bad these claim denials can be and that this insurance versus like the doctors, just how fucked up the whole relationship is.

So this says IQVIA, a healthcare consulting firm, released a new study showing that 70% of commercially insured patients were initially denied coverage for at least one newly prescribed brand medicine in

2024.

I will tell you that I have UnitedHealthcare as my insurance.