Published Jun 17, 2026

‘If Our Innovation Doesn’t Reach the Patient, Then What Are We Doing?’ Drugmaker Bayer’s Tara Frenkl On The Company’s Patient-First Oncology Mission

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Bayer's Oncology Vision: What Patients Should Know

Precision medicine is changing prostate cancer care: Dr. Tara Frenkl told SurvivorNet that Bayer’s approach is increasingly focused on matching the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. NUBEQA (darolutamide), a hormone-blocking therapy for certain men with prostate cancer, reflects a broader shift toward bringing effective treatments into earlier stages of disease.
Quality of life matters, too: Data from the ARACOG study presented at ASCO found that men taking the Bayer prostate cancer drug NUBEQA experienced about 20% less cognitive decline than those on another therapy, highlighting the growing importance of considering side effects like memory, focus, and concentration when choosing a treatment.
Innovation only matters if patients can access it: Because most cancer care happens in community practices, Bayer says it is focused not only on developing new therapies, but also on educating physicians and providing patients with understandable information so they can make informed decisions together. As Frenkl put it: “If our innovation doesn’t reach the patient, then what are we doing?”

Patients and caregivers in the SurvivorNet community often tell us they’re interested in what happens behind the scenes of cancer drug development: How are new treatments chosen? Why do some advances move forward while others don’t? And perhaps most importantly, how can promising therapies reach patients sooner?

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, the world’s largest gathering of cancer specialists and researchers, SurvivorNet sat down with Dr. Tara Frenkl, Head of Global Medical Strategy and Evidence Generation at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, to discuss the company’s approach to developing new treatments—including Nubeqa—and why access and education have become just as important as innovation itself.

In a conversation with SurvivorNet, Dr. Frenkl described a future in oncology shaped not only by scientific breakthroughs, but by precision, access, and a greater emphasis on patients’ quality of life.

“I think that the biggest opportunities that we have are really around precision,” Frenkl said. “That’s both precision medicine in terms of the science and what we’re learning about cancer genomics and how to best treat that, but also precision with treatment and how we select what treatments we give to patients.”

That philosophy has helped shape Bayer’s work on NUBEQA (darolutamide), a treatment for certain men with prostate cancer. NUBEQA works by blocking male hormones, called androgens, that can fuel the growth of prostate cancer cells. The drug was first approved for men whose prostate cancer had stopped responding to standard hormone therapy but had not yet spread to other parts of the body. Since then, its use has expanded to earlier stages of the disease—a reflection of a growing shift in cancer care toward using effective treatments sooner, when they may have the greatest chance to help patients live longer and delay the progression of their cancer.

NUBEQA & the ARACOG Study: What Patients Should Know

Among the data Bayer highlighted at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting was research focused not just on how well prostate cancer treatments work, but also on how they affect patients’ day-to-day lives.

“One of the main studies that we are presenting is the ARACOG study,” Dr. Tara Frenkl told SurvivorNet.

The study examined the potential impact that prostate cancer treatments can have on cognitive function—a term that refers to abilities such as memory, attention, concentration, and clear thinking.

Researchers compared NUBEQA (darolutamide) head-to-head with enzalutamide, another commonly used hormone-blocking treatment for prostate cancer. According to Frenkl, patients taking NUBEQA experienced less cognitive decline, with about a 20% difference between the two treatments.

“And so that’s really important when deciding what therapies patients should get,” Frenkl said. “Cognitive issues are so important for patients in their jobs, at their home. And so taking that into consideration, I think, will really help physicians decide which treatments are best for their patients.”

For many men living with prostate cancer, preserving quality of life is just as important as controlling the disease itself. Side effects that affect memory, focus, or the ability to complete everyday tasks can have a significant impact on work, relationships, and independence.

The findings from the ARACOG study underscore a broader shift in cancer care: doctors are increasingly looking beyond traditional measures like tumor response and survival to consider how treatments affect a person’s overall well-being. For patients and their families, those conversations about maintaining cognitive health may become an increasingly important part of choosing the treatment that’s right for them.

Reaching Patients In Community

For Frenkl, scientific innovation alone is not enough.

“For me, if our innovation doesn’t reach the patient, then what are we doing?” she said.

Because most cancer care takes place outside major academic centers, Bayer has increasingly emphasized education and evidence generation to support physicians practicing in community settings.

“The way Bayer is thinking about sophisticated therapies reaching all patients… is to really ensure that the education is there for physicians,” Frenkl explained. “That the evidence is available for patients as well in layman’s terms so that they can understand… and the physician and the patient can have that quality interaction to decide what treatment is best.”

What gives Frenkl the greatest optimism about oncology’s future is that success is being defined more broadly than ever before.

“It is no longer just about treatment efficacy, but also about patients’ wellbeing during that treatment and afterwards,” she said. “We’re not just advancing science, but we’re advancing progress towards patients living their best lives as they survive cancer.”

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