S6 - E6 - Remembering Stephen Harrison and His Many Contributions to MASH

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

00:00:00 Surf's Up, Season 6, Episode 6.

On April 23, 2024, our colleague and co-founder, Stephen Harrison, passed away suddenly. This week, Surfing the MASH Tsunami remembers Stephen with two of his closest associates and continues our annual MASH Drug Development roundtable held in his honor.

00:00:04:24 - A Deep Dive into Drug Development, Part 2

The second portion of the Drug Development roundtable primarily focuses on three key issues. The first, uptake of resmetirom, starts with Naim Alkhouri discussing his experience in the Arizona Liver Health Clinics with over 650 patients in the year since resmetirom was approved and shifts to the various European panelists (Jörn Schattenberg, Louise Campbell and Sven Francque) estimating when it might be approved in their countries and how widely it might be reimbursed. The second topic, incretin agonists, focuses on exciting prospects for other incretin agonists in development, as well as some semaglutide combination therapies. The third, NIT clinical trials, covers prospects that non-biopsy clinical trials might be approved sometime in the near future.

00:16:20 - Remembering Stephen Harrison I: An Interview with Summit Clinical Research CEO Gail Hinkson

Summit CEO Gail Hinkson joins Roger Green for the first time on SurfingMASH to discuss her business partner. Gail discusses how the two originally formed Pinnacle Clinical Research and how Pinnacle led to Summit. She proceeds to discuss the current size and reach of both Pinnacle and Summit. Focusing on Summit, Gail describes the company as an Integrated Research Organization (IRO), highlighting its distinct role within the MASH firmament. In the final section of the interview, Gail discusses how Stephen's personality, goals, and vision continue to live on at Summit today.

00:34:31 - Remembering Stephen Harrison II: An Interview with Naim Alkhouri Announcing That He Is Joining Summit

Newly announced Summit Chief Academic Officer Naim Alkhouri joins this episode for a second time, but in a very different role. Naim discusses his personal history with Stephen and what he loved and respected about his "dear friend." He then makes a major announcement: he is joining Summit as Chief Academic Officer. He shares the many elements of this role, particularly his excitement that Summit can become the entity that educates a wide range of healthcare and commercial professionals on what MASH is and how it is treated. The scope of this vision, combined with what Gail discussed, portrays a level of energy, ambition and vision worthy of Stephen Harrison.

00:55:55 - Conclusion

As part of this memorial week, Roger Green forgoes the usual business report, which will return next week.