First in (Wo)Man: Jessica J. Federer

Jessica Federer built her career inside the rooms where science, money, and power collide. As the first female Chief Digital Officer at Bayer, she helped steer a 120,000 person global company through the rise of digital medicine while confronting a harder truth: women were excluded from U.S. clinical trials until 1993. In this conversation, she explains how decades of “first in man” research shaped drug development, why women experience side effects at nearly 2x the rate of men, and how guidance on sex based differences did not arrive from the FDA until December 2025. She shares what it means to sit on a Yale Institutional Review Board, why clinical trial stipends over $3,000 get taxed, and why she believes participants deserve tax credits instead. From GLP 1 profits to $40,000,000 women’s health funds that barely move the needle, this episode names the gaps and the opportunity hiding inside them. RELATED LINKSJessica Federer on LinkedInJessica Federer on InstagramYale School of Public HealthHealth of Women Investor SummitFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email [email protected] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.