The Glue That Holds It Together: Craig Granowitz on the Real Role of Medical Affairs

Craig Granowitz, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, has done something almost no one else in the industry has — he has held senior leadership roles on both the commercial and medical sides of the pharmaceutical enterprise. He started as a sales rep, rose through marketing and general management to lead a $2.5 billion business, and then made a deliberate move into Medical Affairs — where he built global organizations at Schering-Plough, Merck, Amarin, and Lexicon. That dual vantage point is what makes this conversation different.

In this episode, Scott Thompson sits down with Craig to explore what Medical Affairs looks like when you have sat in every seat. The result is one of the clearest frameworks we have heard for understanding where Medical Affairs sits in the organization — not the center, not the foundation, but the common glue that holds R&D, Commercial, and every major external stakeholder together.