Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech (Labiotech)
Explore every episode of Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech
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| 10 Jun 2022 | Beyond Biotech: Preview | 00:06:09 | |
A quick preview of the new, weekly podcast on what's new in the world of biotech, from Labiotech.eu Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 17 Jun 2022 | Beyond Biotech 01: June 17, 2022 | 00:48:53 | |
Three interviews on the show this week, with Ros Deegan, CEO of OMass; David Solomon, CEO of PharNext; and two guests from Forbion - Sander Slootweg, managing partner, and Dirk Kersten, general partner. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 24 Jun 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 2: Asabys, Asebio, MOA Foodtech | 00:39:13 | |
This week’s podcast is dedicated to Spain. We have conversations with bioindustry association AseBio’s CEO, Ion Arocena; Clara Campàs, managing partner and co-founder of venture capital company Asabys, and Susana Sánchez Gómez, co-founder and chief scientific officer at MOA Foodtech. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 01 Jul 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 3: Ariceum Therapeutics, TWB, Unilever | 00:41:30 | |
On this week’s Labiotech.eu podcast, we have three guests. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 14 Jul 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 4: CorePath, Rensselaer, Versameb | 00:46:51 | |
This week’s guests are Erik Buntinx, CEO and founder of ANeuroTech; Stephen J. Matlin, CEO of Life Length; and Kees Melief, chief scientific officer at ISA Pharmaceuticals. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 14 Jul 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 5: ANeuroTech, ISA Pharmaceuticals, Life Length | 00:58:17 | |
This week’s guests are Erik Buntinx, CEO and founder of ANeuroTech; Stephen J. Matlin, CEO of Life Length; and Kees Melief, chief scientific officer at ISA Pharmaceuticals. Sponsor Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 22 Jul 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 6: Mogrify, +ND Capital, Poolbeg Pharma | 00:46:05 | |
On this week’s podcast, our guests are Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma; Dani Bach, and Eric Moessinger, both partners at +ND Capital; and Louise Modis, chief scientific officer at Mogrify. The deal saw the Lausanne-based team of US venture capital firm, +ND Capital, mark its second successful exit in the European biotech market. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 29 Jul 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 7: World Hepatitis Day | 00:45:18 | |
This week's podcast features three interviews related to hepatitis. Our guests are Ahmed Elsharkawy, consultant transplant hepatologist and honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham in the UK; Ziv Ben-Ari, director of the Liver Diseases Center at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and James McIlroy, chief executive officer at EnteroBiotix. Taking place on July 28 every year, World Hepatitis Day unites the world under a single theme to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis with the intention of influencing real change. This year’s theme is ‘I Can’t Wait’. Professor Ziv Ben-Ari is director of the Center for Liver Diseases and Liver Research Laboratory at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel and Professor of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University. She has more than 25 years of experience in evaluating candidates for liver transplantation and monitoring liver transplants including five years as a fellow in Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She has chaired the Israeli Liver Research Society, chairs the Liver Committee of the National Council of Gastroenterology and is an active member of the American and European Association for the Study of the Liver. She has published more than 175 studies in leading medical journals. Dr James McIlroy is a qualified medical doctor and biopharmaceutical entrepreneur widely recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in the application of the microbiome to treat disease. He founded EnteroBiotix with the vision of building one of the world’s leading microbiome drug development companies. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 05 Aug 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 8: Biotech Growth Trust, Deep Science Ventures, Endogena Therapeutics, eureKARE | 01:00:51 | |
This week’s podcast guests are Laura Fletcher, head of business development and strategic partnerships at Deep Science Ventures; Matthias Steger, CEO of Endogena Therapeutics; Rodolphe Besserve, CEO, and Georges Rawadi, chief of biotech studio development, at eureKARE; and Biotech Growth Trust portfolio manager, Geoff Hsu. Endogena Therapeutics Inc. has announced the first patient has been treated in a phase 1/2a clinical study of its lead product, EA-2353, a photoreceptor regeneration treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP). RP is a group of inherited diseases causing slow and progressive retinal degeneration and loss of vision, for which there is currently no treatment for most patients. It is a leading cause of inherited blindness, with an estimated 1.5 million people worldwide presently affected. eureKARE, an investment company focused on financing and building next generation biotech companies in the fields of synthetic biology, has launched its first synthetic biology studio in Belgium. eureKARE is developing a pan-European biotech studio network covering several areas where synthetic biology can create solutions and high market value products. The synthetic biology studios will focus on biomedical and other thematic applications in different European innovation hotspots. The strategy is based on identifying, selecting, and nurturing high-quality European science. The venture builder Deep Science Ventures (DSV) has expanded an existing alliance with Cancer Research UK’s innovation-focused arm Cancer Research Horizons, with the mission to establish new oncology startups in the U.K. Just months after Cancer Research UK (CRUK) established its industry-orientated division Cancer Research Horizons, the research charity has doubled down on a collaboration with DSV, a U.K. venture builder operating in a range of sectors including biotech, agriculture and computation. According to the latest agreement, the partners will co-found startups working in up to 10 areas of oncology, such as improving the number of patients that can benefit from immuno-oncology treatments. The Biotech Growth Trust PLC, based in the UK, seeks capital appreciation through investment in the worldwide biotech industry. It invests in a diversified portfolio of shares and related securities in companies on a worldwide basis. Its portfolio is operated by U.S.-headquartered OrbiMed Capital LLC. Following the strong results of the previous year, the company’s NAV (net asset value) per share total return dropped by 33.8%, compared to a 55.1% increase in 2021, and the share price total return was down 37.0%. However, overall, since OrbiMed’s appointment in 2005, and to the year end, The Biotech Growth Trust’s NAV has increased by 861.6% or 14.3% per annum. In its annual report, the portfolio manager stated the company remains confident that there are a number of potential catalysts that could lead to a recovery in the biotechnology sector this year and into the future, and their overall investment strategy remains unchanged. Leave a review on Apple podcasts | |||
| 12 Aug 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 9: ARCH Venture Partners, Micropep, PTC Therapeutics, Valneva | 00:55:01 | |
This week's guests are ARCH Venture Partners’ managing director Kristina Burow; founder and CEO of Micropep Thomas Laurent; Kylie O’Keefe, SVP, commercial & corporate strategy at PTC Therapeutics, and Juan Carlos Jaramillo, chief medical officer of Valneva. ARCH Venture Partners closes $2.97B biotech fund ARCH Venture Partners has announced the closing of ARCH Venture Fund XII, with $2.975 billion to invest in the creation, development and funding of early stage biotechnology companies. ARCH Venture Partners is one of the largest early-stage technology venture firms in the U.S. It invests primarily in companies it co-founds with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, bringing innovations in life sciences and physical sciences to market. Upstaza gets EC green light PTC Therapeutics, Inc. says Upstaza (eladocagene exuparvovec) has been given marketing authorization by the European Commission. Upstaza is the first approved disease-modifying treatment for aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency, and the first marketed gene therapy directly infused into the brain. It is approved for patients 18 months and older. Upstaza also reduced symptoms that cause potentially life-threatening and morbid complications. The marketing authorization is applicable to all 27 European Union member states, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Micropep raises €8.75M to develop alternative crop-protection products French ag-biotech company Micropep, which develops biological micropeptide-based solutions for agriculture, has completed an €8.75 million ($9.3 million) series A1 financing round. Based in Toulouse, Micropep has developed a technological platform that makes it possible to precisely regulate a plant’s gene expression, without altering its DNA, by the exogenous application of micropeptides, a family of proteins naturally produced by plants to respond to stress and regulate their development. The new investment also marks the first step towards the commercialization of Micropep’s products. Micropep is using this funding to accelerate the development phase of its first micropeptide candidates in the U.S. and will build a locally-recruited team to deploy its solutions. Pfizer and Valneva to start phase 3 Lyme disease vaccine study Pfizer Inc. and Valneva SE have initiated a phase 3 clinical study, Vaccine Against Lyme for Outdoor Recreationists (VALOR), to investigate the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of their investigational Lyme disease vaccine candidate, VLA15. “With increasing global rates of Lyme disease, providing a new option for people to help protect themselves from the disease is more important than ever,” said Annaliesa Anderson, senior vice president and head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer. Juan Carlos Jaramillo, chief medical officer of Valneva, said, “We are extremely pleased to reach this important milestone in the development of VLA15. Lyme disease continues to spread, representing a high unmet medical need that impacts the lives of many in the northern hemisphere. We look forward to further investigating the VLA15 candidate in phase 3, which will take us a step closer to potentially bringing this vaccine to both adults and children who would benefit from it.” Leave a review on App | |||
| 19 Aug 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 10: Endpoint Health, Nevrargenics, Triastek | 00:52:42 | |
This week our guests on the podcast are Xianghao Zuo, deputy director of R&D at Triastek; Endpoint Health CEO Jason Springs; and Andy Whiting, CEO of Nevrargenics. Triastek and Lilly working together on 3D printing for drugs A new research collaboration between Chinese company Triastek, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company will leverage 3D printing technology to achieve precise targeting and programmed drug release in the intestine. Triastek has developed 3D printing technology to provide solutions for drug development. According to the agreement, Triastek and Lilly will focus on improving the bioavailability of drugs in the intestine. Triastek will first conduct in-depth studies of the excipient – inert ingredients added to a drug product for specific functional roles -- to ensure drug stability is maintained during development and 3D printing. Then, Triastek will identify the optimum 3D structure design for achieving targeted and programmed drug release. Triastek has already received two investigational drug clearances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its 3D printed drugs, T19 and T20. Endpoint Health receives funding for precision immunology pipeline Endpoint Health, Inc., a therapeutics company dedicated to addressing unmet needs in immune-mediated acute and chronic diseases, recently recveived $52 million in equity and debt financing. Proceeds from the financing round are being used to extend the company’s Precision-First platform and expand its therapeutic pipeline to include programs for chronic immune-mediated diseases. In addition, proceeds will be used to advance Antithrombin III, the company’s first precision therapy, to a phase II clinical trial for the treatment of sepsis. The company expects to submit its Investigational New Drug application and Investigational Device Exemption to the US Food and Drug Administration for its Antithrombin III program later this year. Completion of the Series A financing follows Endpoint Health’s announcement of a global collaboration and licensing agreement with Grifols to develop and commercialize Antithrombin III in sepsis. Nevrargenics Nevrargenics Ltd is a UK drug discovery and development company focused on innovative and novel medicines for neurodegenerative disease. Developed through a commercial team, the research aims to bring a series of drug solutions to market and to service disease areas of major unmet need. The focus area of the company is the development of drugs to target neurodegenerative conditions. Two research groups, based at Aberdeen and Durham universities, have been collaborating for several years, and through this collaboration, have designed, synthesized and identified a lead drug candidate with the potential for establishing new treatment approaches. The strategy is to employ new dual-acting retinoic acid receptor modulators (RAR-M) as the basis for developing a series of new rationally designed, effective treatments, meeting that most severe of unmet needs: neurodegeneration. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 26 Aug 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 11: Ilya Pharma, IRB Barcelona, Krystal Biotech, Phase Genomics | 00:58:34 | |
2:15 Labiotech.eu news Our guests are Ilya Pharma CEO and co-founder Evelina Vågesjö and chief financial officer Oskar Lund; Miguel Martín-Álvarez, postdoctoral fellow in the cancer science unit at IRB Barcelona; Hubert Chen, head of clinical development at Krystal Biotech; and Ivan Liachko, CEO of Phase Genomics. We also have a new weekly addition, as JLL will be joining us with a look at financial news. This week, we’re joined by Robert Coughlin, JLL managing director and New England Life Science Practice Group lead. Study says gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9 can lead to cell toxicity and genome instability
Scientists at IRB Barcelona, led by ICREA researcher Fran Supek, have now reported that, depending on the targeted spot of the human genome, CRISPR gene editing can give rise to cell toxicity and genomic instability. Ilya Pharma finalizes global patent coverage for modified lactic acid bacteria to treat wounds Ilya Pharma, a Swedish clinical stage biopharma company focused on delivering local immunotherapies to patients, has announced the issue of four new patents. These are: one in India, and continuation patents in China, Australia and the U.S. This means the company’s method for using modified bacteria for treatment of both mucosal and cutaneous wounds in humans and animals has patent protection in all major markets. Ilya is currently developing a portfolio of three first-in-class immunotherapies for skin and mucosal diseases, including ILP100-Topical for treatment surgical wounds in diabetic, prediabetic and obese patients especially at risk, ILP100-Topical for diabetic ulcers and ILP100-Oral for patients with immune mediated enterocolitis resulting from cancer treatment with checkpoint inhibitors. Krystal Biotech gets green light for cystic fibrosis trial U.S. company Krystal Biotech is set to start a clinical trial for cystic fibrosis after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted its investigational new drug (IND) application. The gene therapy company will be evaluating KB407, a modified HSV-1 vector carrying two copies of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene to the respiratory cells in the lungs. By inducing expression of full length, normal CFTR protein in the lung, treatment with KB407 has the potential to restore ion and water flow into and out of lung cells to correct the lung manifestations of the disease in patients regardless of their underlying genetic mutation. Phase Genomics using ProxiMeta for phage-bacteria interactions Phase Genomics, Inc., a developer of proximity ligation-based genomic solutions, recently received $5.5M in combined non-dilutive funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. With the new funding, Phase Genomics will leverage its phage-bacteria interactome repository to power the development of an AI-driven predictive engine for therapeutic phage discovery. The new financing will allow the company to harness its proximity-guided metagenomics platform, ProxiMeta, to develop the world’s largest atlas of phage-bacteria interactions and use machine learning tools to identify phages that can be used in therapeutic settings such as C. difficile infections, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. | |||
| 02 Sep 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 12: Gate Neurosciences, Oncolyze, 3Brain | 00:56:29 | |
2:48 Labiotech.eu news We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, and this week it’s a chat with Amber Schiada, head of life sciences research in the Americas for the company. Gate launches to develop CNS treatments Gate Neurosciences has officially launched to develop its next-generation therapeutics addressing synaptic dysfunction in patients suffering from central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Gate, a U.S. biotech company, was founded in 2019 by a team of neuroscience industry veterans to address the need for more effective treatments for CNS disorders, and to overcome long-standing challenges in CNS drug development. Since its founding, the company has acquired a portfolio of next-generation compounds from large pharma, along with corresponding data from thousands of patients dosed across numerous clinical trials that will inform and de-risk future development. Oncolyze set for AML clinical trials After successfully completing in vitro and in vivo experiments, which support the notion that its lead drug candidate OM-301 breaks down cancer cells and increases survival rates, Oncolyze now has its sights set on advancing OM-301 into clinical trials. Oncolyze has designed a novel anti-cancer drug (OM-301) that targets a particular cell surface protein. This protein, HDM2, is known to exist at high levels inside cancer cells and is thought to be an important driver of cancer growth and metastasis. More recently, though, it was discovered that HDM2 is also found on the cell surface of many types of cancer cells, but not normal cells. A microchip that allows scientists to study the complexity of 3D cellular networks at unrivaled scale and precision has been added to 3Brain AG’s brain-on-chip portfolio. In collaboration with Swiss precision manufacturing experts, CSEM, 3Brain AG made the announcement last month. The cell-electronic interface technology will also allow scientists to gain novel mechanistic insights into the inner workings of the most complex structure in the universe, the human brain. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 09 Sep 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 13: BioInnovation Institute, IASP | 00:43:19 | |
2:32 Labiotech.eu news This week’s guests on the podcast are Bobby Soni, chief business officer at the BioInnovation Institute, and Harriet Edwards, International Association of Science Parks (IASP) media and community manager. We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, and this week it is with Travis McCready. IASP to host World Conference on Science Parks The 39th IASP World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation is set to take place in Seville, Spain, from September 27 to 30. This year’s theme is Green and digital change powered by innovation: The role of innovation ecosystems. The IASP is active in 77 countries, and has more than 350 members. Its mission is to be the global network for science parks and areas of innovation, and to drive growth, internationalization and effectiveness for members. It coordinates an active network of managers of science/technology/research parks, innovation districts and other areas of innovation, as well as enhancing new business opportunities for members and their companies. More companies enter BioInnovation Institute Venture Lab program Nine ventures and two projects have become the latest addition to The BioInnovation Institute’s (BII) Venture Lab acceleration program for early-stage companies. BII is an international commercial non-profit foundation based in Denmark, which incubates and accelerates life science research. The cohort consists of nine ventures plus two corporate-sponsored innovation projects from Novo Nordisk – all strategically aligned with BII’s focus on developing scientific initiatives for the benefit of human and planetary health. Designed to help build research-based ideas with high-growth commercial potential into viable start-ups, BII’s 12-month Venture Lab program supports business acceleration, scientific and team development, and provides a risk-free convertible loan of €500,000 ($496,700) plus access to labs and offices at BII’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in the center of Copenhagen. In becoming a part of the Venture Lab program, the early-stage companies also get an opportunity to apply for an add-on opportunity of up to €1.3 million ($1.3 million) through BII’s new Venture House program. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 16 Sep 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 14: NLS Days | 00:48:26 | |
2:56 News Beyond Biotech Podcast 14: Nordic Life Science Days 2022 This week’s podcast is dedicated to Nordic Life Science Days, otherwise known as NLS Days. This year’s version is an in-person event from September 28-29, at the Malmömässan in Malmö, Sweden. In our preview of NLS Days, which features sessions and fireside chats, company presentations, an exhibition, and one-on-one partnering meetings, we have interviews with managing director of NLSDays, Olivier Duchamp-Giudicelli; Chelsea Ranger, senior advisor, SwedenBIO and chair of NLSInvest; and Magnus Björsne, CEO of AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub. We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. NLS Days back in person After pandemic disruption, NLS Days is returning to an in-person event in Malmö. It is the largest Nordic partnering conference of its kind, and welcomes participants from not only the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, but also from around the world. NLSDays attracts leading decision makers from biotech, pharma and medtech as well as finance, research, policy and regulatory authorities. Startups and early-phase clinical projects can find new investors, established businesses can find commercial partners for expansion, and global pharmaceutical and biotech companies can evaluate new and promising investment opportunities across the region. The event also features NLSInvest, a pitching contest where 40 regional companies will compete over the two-days. While the event traditionally rotates between Stockholm and Malmö, for its 10th anniversary in 2023 it will be held in Copenhagen at the Bella Centre. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us
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| 23 Sep 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 15: Cullinan Oncology, Pleco Therapeutics, TikoMed | 00:50:50 | |
02:17 Labiotech.eu news We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Single Use Support, the end-to-end process solution provider for fluid management. World Cancer Research Day: Support research to prevent cancer and catch it early For seven consecutive years, the international research community is marking World Cancer Research Day (WCRD) on September 24, a global movement that seeks to raise awareness of the importance of cancer research to increase survival, facilitate access to scientific advances worldwide and reduce the global burden of cancer. This year, experts in the field of oncology and cancer researchers will focus on cancer health disparities, particularly in the areas of prevention and early detection research and care. The motto this year is Support research to prevent cancer and catch it early. Cullinan Oncology To talk about the current state of cancer research, we spoke with Nadim Ahmed, CEO of Cullinan Oncology. Cullinan Oncology is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating new standards of care for patients with cancer. It finds the most promising clinic-ready cancer therapies through its own discovery efforts and engagement with academic and industry partners. Pleco Therapeutics raises €17.3M to develop AML product Pleco Therapeutics BV, a specialty biopharma company in the Netherlands developing novel treatments designed to detoxify the cancer micro-environment has raised total funds of $17.2 million in series A financing. The funds will be used to complete development of, and to commercialize, the company’s novel lead Plecoid product, PTX-061, to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Pleco’s technology provides a platform for the development of a pipeline of therapies. In addition to PTX-061 for AML, the current pipeline includes additional candidates in preclinical testing for the treatment of other rare diseases such as SCLC. Research shows TikoMed’s ILB can treat neurodegenerative diseases including ALS Peer-review research published in Frontiers in Pharmacology supports the broad spectrum mechanism of action of Swedish biopharma company TikoMed’s ILB neuroprotective drug platform. In multiple preclinical and clinical studies across a variety of neuroinflammation-driven diseases, the low molecular weight dextran sulfate compound both mobilized and modulated naturally occurring tissue repair mechanisms and restored cellular homeostasis and function by releasing heparin-binding growth factors. Sponsor Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 30 Sep 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 16: Adocia, Omnio, Phenomix Sciences, Tridek-One | 00:53:37 | |
3:00 News This week, we have four guests: Olivier Soula, deputy-CEO and director of R&D at Adocia; Ulrika Norin, CEO of Omnio; Mark Bagnall, CEO of Phenomix Sciences; and Laurence de Schoulepnikoff, CEO of Tridek-One. We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Labforward. Adocia takes steps with implants to treat type 1 diabetes French biopharma company Adocia has established a first proof of concept for its AdoShell Islets implant by achieving glycemic control without insulin injections in immunocompetent diabetic rats during the 132-day study. AdoShell Islets is an immuno-protective synthetic biomaterial containing islets of Langerhans. After implantation in diabetic animals, the islets encapsulated in AdoShell secrete insulin in response to blood glucose levels. The physical barrier formed by the AdoShell biomaterial allows the implanted cells to be invisible to the host’s immune system while allowing the necessary physiological exchanges to occur for the survival and function of the islets. Phenomix Sciences’ precision obesity biobanking registry and outcomes study Outcomes data from biobanks across the registry will supplement Phenomix’s database of biological and clinical data matched to the four obesity phenotypes. Insights from the database are being used to develop the company’s first therapy selection test, the first of its kind in the obesity space. Tridek-One closes €16M funding round Tridek-One SAS, a French biotech startup specialized in the research and development of CD31 agonists to restore immune balance, recently closed a €16 million ($16.1 million) new financing round. The funds will primarily be used to identify development candidates against auto-immunediseases, to conduct IND-enabling studies and to further build the organization. The company previously raised €3 million in a first round in 2019. Omnio receives funding for plasminogen to treat chronic wounds Swedish company Omnio AB has shown plasminogen is a pro-inflammatory regulator of inflammation that can be used to treat chronic wounds with dysfunctional inflammation. The Umeå-based company, a spin off from Umeå University, said the drug could mean a global treatment revolution for wounds that never heal. The most problematic are diabetic ulcers, venous ulcers, and pressure ulcers. Omnio recently received a capital injection of €1.5 million from its shareholders. | |||
| 07 Oct 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 17: BIO-Europe, National Hemophilia Foundation | 00:50:07 | |
2:09 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have three interviews. Our guests are: Pam Putz, managing director of EBD Group EU; André Hofmann, CEO of biosaxony; and Kevin Mills, chief scientific officer at the National Hemophilia Foundation and Teri Willey, managing director of the National Hemophilia Foundation’s Pathway to Cures. We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. BIO-Europe set to start in Leipzig BIO-Europe is returning with a three day in-person event, followed by a three-day virtual option. Taking place at the Leipzig Messe in Leipzig, Germany, from October 24 to 26, there is also an option for those who can’t make it to attend virtually from November 2 to 4. BIO-Europe includes exhibitors, face-to-face partnering meetings, presentations, and a start-up spotlight. More than 4,000 attendees are expected in Germany, with more than 2,200 companies from 60 countries represented. More than 27,000 partnering meetings are anticipated over the three days. For more details on attending BIO-Europe, click here. There is still an option to attend and save €200 by booking before October 14. National Hemophilia Foundation launches research fund The National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) in the U.S. has announced the launch of Pathway to Cures (P2C), a new venture philanthropy investment fund focused on creating transformational impact across all inheritable blood disorders. Investing alongside and partnering with traditional private capital funds and other industry organizations, P2C hopes to spur the development of inheritable blood disorder therapies, treatments, and technologies, changing the lives of the inheritable blood disorders community. P2C is being launched as an open-ended fund with an initial $3.5 million commitment from the NHF as it begins fundraising and partnership outreach to raise $20 million over the next several years as it invests in companies that demonstrate significant potential for transformational impact for the inheritable blood disorders community. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 14 Oct 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 18: BiotechX, Cultivated Biosciences, EPFL, Faron Pharmaceuticals | 00:46:12 | |
2:08 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have four interviews. Our guests are: Juho Jalkanen, COO of Faron Pharmaceuticals; Ardemis Boghossian and Melania Reggente from the EPFL School of Basic Sciences in Switzerland; Tomas Turner, CEO and co-founder of Cultivated Biosciences; and Joanna Magaji, conference manager for the BiotechX event. BiotechX event taking place in Basel in November BiotechX, an event staged by Terrapinn, is set to open its doors next month. From November 8 to 10, more than 2,000 attendees will head to the Basel Congress Center in Basel, Switzerland, to network, see more than 150 exhibitors, and have a choice of presentations from upwards of 400 speakers. BioTechX is Europe’s largest event covering diagnostics, precision medicine and digital transformation in pharmaceutical development and healthcare. A group of researchers in Switzerland is using photosynthetic bacteria to generate energy. After implanting nanotubes into them, the bacteria can create energy. And when the cells divide, those nanotubes stay with subsequent generations. While there’s a long way to go, and many questions to be answered, Ardemis Boghossian at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences in Switzerland is looking to a potential future where bacteria generate electricity. Faron Pharmaceuticals’ Traumakine data shows promise for military Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd says data from its preclinical salvage, preservation, and advanced resuscitation through endothelial stabilization (SPARES) study was presented at the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) in Orlando, Florida. The SPARES study was a preclinical study, conducted on non-human primates (a representative model for humans), to understand the potential effects of Traumakine, Faron’s investigational intravenous interferon beta-1a therapy, on limb salvage and preventing multiple organ dysfunction in prolonged field care scenarios where blood flow to a significantly wounded limb is closed for rescue and transportation. Cultivated Biosciences, an ingredient startup biotech company founded by Swiss entrepreneurs Tomas Turner and Dimitri Zogg, has just raised a $1.5M pre-seed round. The funding will enable the growing team to further optimize its production processes, research food applications and start product development of its creamy ingredient for dairy alternatives from non-GMO yeast with their first clients.
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| 21 Oct 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 19: Bone Health Technologies, Immutep, TAU Systems | 00:51:04 | |
2:22 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have conversations with Marc Voigt, CEO of Immutep; Manuel Hegelich, CEO of TAU Systems; and Laura Yecies, CEO of Bone Health Technologies. We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. FDA fast tracks Immutep non-small cell lung cancer candidate Efti is the company’s first-in-class soluble LAG-3 clinical stage candidate, which activates antigen presenting cells (APC) to engage both the innate and adaptive immune system to target solid tumors. The designation has been granted for the development of efti in combination with pembrolizumab in first line treatment of stage IIIB/IV NSCLC patients expressing PD-L1 tumor proportion score greater than or equal to 1%, not amenable to EGFR/ALK based therapy. The designation is based on the TACTI-002/KEYNOTE-798 phase II clinical data in first line NSCLC for PD-L1 all-comers. This represents the second fast track designation for efti, following the same designation in April 2021 for efti in combination with pembrolizumab in first line treatment of recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. TAU Systems to build new generation of compact particle accelerators after $15M investment TAU Systems has raised $15 million in seed investment to bring particle accelerators to a multitude of users by harnessing the latest laser technology to make electrons surf on three-dimensional plasma waves and accelerate them to ultra-high energies. The news is significant as, until now, high-energy particle accelerators have been limited to countries and governmental organizations. Due to their huge size and high cost, access for engineers and biotech professionals is severely limited. The laser-driven particle accelerators and X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) developed by TAU Systems will give access to a world of ultra-small objects evolving ultra-fast under ultra-powerful conditions – TAU's team calls it the Ultraverse. TAU Systems said it will offer beamtime, data acquisition and analysis as a full-service supplier as well as complete laser-driven accelerators and XFEL systems for sale, to, for example, pharma and biotech, battery and solar technology, and other material-science driven markets. Bone Health Technologies at ASBMR 2022 The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) annual meeting was held recently in Texas. The ASBMR is a professional, scientific and medical society established to bring together clinical and experimental scientists who are involved in the study of bone and mineral metabolism. One of the companies attending was Bone Health Technologies, a San Francisco-based company that applies science and medical expertise to create better health outcomes for women and men at risk of developing osteoporosis and the associated bone fractures. The company has created OsteoBoost, the first vibration belt specifically designed to treat osteopenia and prevent osteoporosis. Initially created in the med-tech incubator TheraNova, Bone Health Technologies is poised to become the new standard of care in treating both osteoporosis and osteopenia (the precursor to osteoporosis). | |||
| 28 Oct 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 20: BioWin, eTherapeutics, CMT Research Foundation | 01:02:21 | |
5:33 e-therapeutics This week, we have three interviews, and four guests. We chatted with Keith Fargo, chief scientific officer at the CMT Research Foundation; François Colery, head of the Talent Now initiative and Sylvie Ponchaut, managing director, from BioWin; and e-therapeutics’ CEO, Ali Mortazavi. We also have our weekly contribution from global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Robert Coughlin, managing director and New England Life Science Practice Group lead. CMT Research Foundation supports Samsara The CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF), a non-profit focused solely on delivering treatments and cures for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, has invested in Samsara Therapeutics Inc. Samsara Therapeutics is a biotech company developing several novel, orally active autophagy enhancers and demonstrated they can rescue CMT1A neuropathy in mice in a dose-dependent manner. The partnership with Samsara Therapeutics is CMTRF’s largest investment to date and is dedicated toward a project to further optimize pipeline autophagy compounds that may eventually become a treatment option for CMT patients. About Charcot-Marie-Tooth Charcot-Marie-Tooth is a group of inherited, chronic peripheral neuropathies that result in nerve degradation. CMT patients suffer from progressive muscle atrophy of legs and arms causing walking, running and balance problems and abnormal hand and foot functioning. CMT affects one in 2,500 people (about the same prevalence as multiple sclerosis). At the moment, there is no treatment or cure for CMT. BioWin helping ease job issues BioWin, the health cluster of Wallonia in Belgium, has a Talent Now program which aims to tackle the recruitment challenges in the biotech and medtech industry in Belgium. With the support of Walloon government and private companies (GSK, Janssen, Takeda, etc.), Talent Now is based on a study performed by BioWin that showed potential of close to 1,000 recruitments per year in biomanufacturing and R&D activities in Wallonia. The Talent Now public-private consortium will pave the way for a EU Biotech Campus, set to open in Gosselies in 2025. e-therapeutics completes £13.5M fundraise e-therapeutics plc, a company integrating computational power and biological data to discover life-transforming RNAi medicines, recently announced a fundraise of £13.5 million before expenses by way of a subscription for new ordinary shares. The fundraise allows the company to generate value and accelerate the next stage of its growth, advancing its position in creating an entirely new template for drug discovery using computation to capture and model disease complexity, identify novel targets and design RNAi drugs against those targets that can be rapidly progressed to the clinic. The net proceeds of the Subscription will be used to facilitate initiatives to accelerate growth, with a focus on expanding the Company’s in-house pipeline of first-in-class RNAi candidates derived from ETX’s computational platform; further developing cell type-specific computational tools and datasets; and general working capital including additional headcount. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 04 Nov 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 21: CanSinoBIO, HTID, Longevity Science Foundation | 01:01:03 | |
1:41 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have three interviews, and four guests. We chat with Pierre Corneille VP of the HTFC, which is responsible for HealthTech Innovation Days; Sergey Jakimov, co-founder and managing partner of LongeVC and the Longevity Science Foundation's CEO Lisa Ireland; and Pierre Morgon, executive vice president of CanSinoBIO. We also have our weekly contribution from global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. HealthTech Innovation Days brings European healthtech ecosystem together
The two-day event had the objective of finding financing and encouraging new industrial partnerships to accelerate the development and market access of new products and treatments for all patients. Around 1,600 formal and informal face-to-face and virtual meetings were organized this year, alongside 19 round table discussions. The event brought together more than 165 European health technology companies, 15 pharmaceutical and industrial companies and more than 300 international investors. 86 international experts gathered and animated 19 round tables. CanSinoBIO presents data on inhaled COVID vaccine
Jean-Denis Shu, vice president for medical affairs of CanSino Biologics showed Convidecia Air induces a strong and lasting immune response, with greater immunogenicity against the Omicron variant than recombinant protein or inactivated vaccines. International nonprofit Longevity Science Foundation expands to U.S. with new CEO
A group of physicians, investors, and other stakeholders founded the Longevity Science Foundation in 2021 to convene biotech founders, physicians, and research institutions in pursuit of lengthening the healthy human lifespan. The Foundation uses a blockchain-based voting platform to distribute grant funding to projects advancing longevity science, focusing on therapeutics, artificial intelligence, personalized medicine and predictive diagnostics. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 11 Nov 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 22: PacBio, Sierra Space | 01:04:19 | |
1:32 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have two longer interviews. We have conversations with Neil Ward, VP of PacBio EMEA, and Marc Giulianotti, senior manager in space biomanufacturing at Sierra Space. We also have our weekly contribution from global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. Sierra Space and UC San Diego to develop first stem cell research institute in space
In a new memorandum of understanding between the two organizations, Sierra Space and UC San Diego will collaborate on Orbital Reef, the first commercial space station in low Earth orbit (LEO), to expand the university’s Integrated Space Stem Cell Orbital Research (ISSCOR) program, which is currently operational on the International Space Station (ISS). Together they will help define and shape the future of biotech and biopharma research and development in microgravity. PacBio launches Onso and Revio sequencing systems PacBio recently announced beta testing of its Onso Sequencing System. The benchtop short-read DNA sequencing platform is expected to provide a new level of accuracy by utilizing PacBio’s sequencing by binding (SBB) technology. The Onso Sequencing System has been designed for compatibility with the rich ecosystem of products currently available for short-read sequencers and supports a diverse set of library preparation types, single cell analysis solutions, whole-genome sequencing and other targeted methods, such as amplicon and hybridization capture panels. It is anticipated to deliver 500 million reads per run and offer 200 and 300 cycle kits enabling paired and single end reads, at a list price of US $259,000 per system. The Revio long-read sequencing system will enable customers to scale their use of PacBio’s HiFi sequencing technology. Revio is designed to provide customers with the ability to sequence up to 1,300 human whole genomes per year at 30-fold coverage for less than $1,000 per genome. PacBio believes Revio will enable the use of HiFi sequencing for large studies in human genetics, cancer research, agricultural genomics, and more. Scientists have achieved many ‘firsts’ with HiFi sequencing on PacBio’s Sequel IIe sequencing system – the first complete telomere-to-telomere assembly of a human genome (Nurk 2022), the first haplotype-resolved methylomes in a rare disease cohort (Cheung 2022), the first population surveys of structural variation with long reads (All of Us Research Program), the first single-cell full isoform catalogs (Al'Khafaji 2021), and the first complete assembly of the highly complex oat genome (European Seed 2020). Revio uses the same HiFi chemistry – producing accurate native long reads with uniform coverage, extraordinary application performance for variant calling and assembly, and accurate DNA methylation detection – but at a much larger scale. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 18 Nov 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 23: World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, PsychoGenics | 01:17:08 | |
1:45 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have three interviews on the theme of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), to mark World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. We spoke with Holger Zimmermann, CEO of anti-infectives company AiCuris; Neil Clark, CEO of Destiny Pharma, and Fredrik Almqvist, co-founder of QureTech Bio. We also have an interview with the chief scientific officer at PsychoGenics, Mark Varney. We also have our weekly contribution from global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. Next week, we will be moderating a webinar on the microbiome, hosted by our sister company IN-PART. You can register here. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines may become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat. A global action plan to tackle the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines was endorsed at the 68th World Health Assembly in 2015. A key objective of the plan is to improve awareness and understanding of AMR through effective communication, education and training. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week is a global campaign to improve awareness and understanding of AMR. Emyria commences US preclinical program with PsychoGenics Emyria Limited, a clinical stage biotech, is working with PsychoGenics, a specialist neuroscience preclinical drug discovery and contract research organization (CRO). Emyria and partner, the University of Western Australia, will start by screening five novel MDMA analogs from their proprietary library using PsychoGenics’ advanced drug discovery platform, SmartCube. SmartCube employs computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to extract and analyze behavioral and physiological data from mice. These data can help predict the clinical effects of new drug compounds by comparing the novel drug’s effects to reference drug libraries. The automated testing platform offers an effective approach to the discovery and development of the next generation of breakthrough treatments for neurological disorders and can significantly reduce the time and cost to reaching approved Investigational New Drug status. PsychoGenics and Emyria have agreed to work collaboratively (at their own costs) in the initial phase, before exploring drug discovery and commercialization partnership models. PsychoGenics’s specialist drug screening platforms have been used in shared-risk partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Sunovion and Roche, resulting in the discovery of several novel compounds now in clinical trials or advanced preclinical development. A successful partnership with Emyria could accelerate the development of Emyria’s novel MDMA-inspired drug candidate library, built with the University of Western Australia, into new treatments for severe neuropsychiatric disorders. PsychoGenics has successfully identified novel treatment candidates for serious and complex neuropsychiatric disorders via its proprietary SmartCube platform as well as formed innovative partnerships with major Pharmaceutical companies. Sponsor Connect with us | |||
| 25 Nov 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 24: Concarlo Therapeutics, Eversana, Carl Borrebaeck, SOTIO Biotech | 00:57:39 | |
2:40 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have four interviews: Franjo Hanzl, vice president commercial development Europe at Eversana; Stacy Blain, founder and CEO of Concarlo Therapeutics; Jens Hennecke, chief business officer at SOTIO Biotech; and Carl Borrebaeck, chairman of the board of directors of Immunovia and professor at the Department of Immunotechnology at the University of Lund in Sweden. Concarlo Therapeutics Concarlo Therapeutics is a U.S.-based preclinical-stage precision-medicine oncology company. It is developing a novel therapy for drug-resistant metastatic breast cancer as a first indication. Concarlo’s patented IpY, a novel therapeutic peptide, will be the first to hit two targets, both CDK4/6- driven cell proliferation and CDK2-driven drug resistance at the same time, and the first to target p27. It is a specific cellular pathway to kill cancer cells rather than just slowing their proliferation. The novel approach relies on the role of p27Kpi, a natural inhibitor, an "on-off" switch that regulates the activities of the major cancer-related proteins, CDK6, CDK4, and CDK2. Eversana Eversana is a provider of global services to the life sciences industry. Its integrated solutions are rooted in the patient experience and span all stages of the product life cycle to deliver long-term, sustainable value for patients, prescribers, channel partners and payers. The company serves more than 500 organizations, including start-ups and established pharmaceutical companies, to advance life sciences solutions. Labiotech spoke with Franjo Hanzl, vice president commercial development Europe, at the Medicon Valley Alliance annual summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. Medicon Village During NLS Days, Labiotech visited Medicon Village, in Lund, Sweden. While there, we had the opportunity to chat with Carl Borrebaeck. To say he’s involved in biotech would be an understatement. He is chairman of the board of directors of Immunovia and professor at the Department of Immunotechnology at the University of Lund in Sweden, as well as being director of Create Health. Borrebaeck, former vice president of the University of Lund, has been involved in many companies throughout his career, including Alligator Bio, SenzaGen and PainDrainer. He received the AKZONobel Science Award 2009, for contributions to cancer proteomics and antibody-based therapy, a Research! Sweden Award 2012 for his medical research of value for patients and health organizations, and the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences Gold Medal 2012 for outstanding contributions to biomedical science. He was honored as the Biotech Builder of the Year in 2017. SOTIO Biotech SOTIO Biotech is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company owned by PPF Group based in Prague, Czechia. The company is building a pipeline of oncology programs by pursuing promising early-stage candidates through strategic licensing, M&A and in-house discovery efforts. SOTIO has been active in the clinic in 2022. The company initiated two clinical trials, the first was a phase 2 study for its lead IL-15 superagonist, SOT101. The initiation of the AURELIO-04 trial comes on the heels of positive phase 1/1b data, which showed 15 of 19 patients with advanced/metastatic solid tumors demonstrated clinical benefit with SOT101 in combination with pembrolizumab. The company also plans to enter the CAR-T space with the initiation of its BOXR trial in Q4 2022. SOTIO is well funded into 2023 and plans to use those funds for posting more data across its already promising programs. We spoke with SOTIO Biotech at BIO-Europe.
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| 09 Dec 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 25: Center for Global Development, Humacyte, Transgene | 01:02:11 | |
2:33 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have three interviews. One is from Bio-Europe, a chat with Transgene chief business officer, Steven Bloom, and we also have conversations with Humacyte CEO Laura Niklason, and with Anthony McDonnell, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Global Development, on the subject of antimicrobial resistance. We also have our weekly commentary from Travis McCready at JLL. Humacyte The ongoing war in Ukraine continues to present significant challenges for frontline hospitals in treating the injured. As part of the humanitarian aid effort, U.S. biotech, Humacyte, has worked with the FDA and the Ukrainian Ministry of Health to send 30 investigational bioengineered blood vessels to help repair tissue injuries from bomb and gunshot wounds. Humacyte’s human acellular vessels, or HAVs, are off-the-shelf replacement vessels that help the body heal itself. They are currently being evaluated in multiple advanced-stage clinical trials in vascular trauma repair, arteriovenous access for hemodialysis and peripheral arterial disease and so far, have been implanted in more than 500 patients to date. The HAV is made by seeding vascular cells from a qualified cell bank onto a biocompatible, biodegradable polymer mesh in a bioreactor bag. Over weeks, the cells grow and create new tissue, forming a tube-shaped vessel structure while the polymer mesh degrades. The resulting bioengineered vessel is then decellularized to create the HAV: an extracellular matrix that retains the biomechanical properties of the vessel but is cleansed of cellular components that could induce an immune response. The HAV in the bioreactor bag can then be shipped, stored, and is immediately available when needed. Reaction to European Union action on antimicrobial resistance Fourteen Member States wrote to the European Commission recently outlining why they think the EU’s proposed policies around antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are costly, inefficient, and will disrupt the market for generic drugs. Anthony McDonnell, senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development, looked in detail at the EU’s proposals, why member states are revolting against it, and which policies the EU should actually implement to successfully combat AMR. He said that, for months it has been speculated that the EU may move toward transferable exclusivity vouchers (TEVs). The14 countries have made three counter proposals for how new antimicrobials can be encouraged. Transgene Transgene is a biotechnology company focused on designing and developing targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Its programs utilize viral vector technology with the goal of indirectly or directly killing cancer cells. The company’s clinical-stage programs consist of two therapeutic vaccines (TG4001 for the treatment of HPV-positive cancers, and TG4050, the first individualized therapeutic vaccine based on the myvac platform) as well as two oncolytic viruses (TG6002 for the treatment of solid tumors, and BT-001, the first oncolytic virus based on the Invir.IO platform). With Transgene’s myvac platform, therapeutic vaccination enters the field of precision medicine with a novel immunotherapy that is fully tailored to each individual. myvac allows the generation of a virus-based immunotherapy that encodes patient-specific mutations identified and selected by AI capabilities provided by its partner NEC. With its proprietary platform Invir.IO, Transgene is designing a new generation of multifunctional oncolytic viruses. It has an ongoing collaboration with AstraZeneca. | |||
| 16 Dec 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 26: CellCentric, MicrofluidX, Potter Clarkson | 00:47:18 | |
2:19 Labiotech.eu news This week, we have three guests. We have conversations with Antoine Espinet, CEO of MicrofluidX; Will West, CEO of CellCentric; and Sara Holland, patent attorney at Potter Clarkson. MicrofluidX raises £3.3M to develop advanced therapy manufacturing platform MicrofluidX (MFX), a U.K. based provider of next-generation bioreactors for cell research and manufacturing, today announces £3.3 million ($4 million) of secured investments, bringing the company’s total funding to date to £7 million ($8.5 million). MFX’s next generation platform, the Cyto Engine, addresses the need for an affordable, scalable cell culture platform to revolutionize research, facilitate large-scale manufacture, and enable widespread access to advanced therapies. “Advanced therapy manufacturing is hindered by out of date, inadequate manufacturing technologies,” said Antoine Espinet, CEO of MFX. “Our aim to commoditize manufacturing for cell and gene therapies through automation, digitalization, and the adoption of machine learning is supported by our investors, who appreciate the incredible impact this could have on the cell and gene therapy sector, and ultimately patients around the world.” MFX said it is addressing the two large pain points faced by the advanced therapies industry, commercialization and clinical translation. By providing a scalable bioprocessing platform with complete integration of online process analytical tools and data analytics powered by machine learning, the company hopes the Cyto Engine will reduce the cost and time of advanced therapy development and help bring these life-saving treatments to patients. Potter Clarkson patent attorney, Sara Holland Sara Holland is a former research scientist turned patent attorney in the U.K. After finishing her PhD in engineering artificial yeast chromosomes, Holland carried out seven years of postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham. This gave her a good understanding of the challenges that scientists face when she moved over to Potter Clarkson, an IP law firm. In her work as a patent attorney she helps universities, technology transfer departments and SMEs protect their inventions, with a focus on synthetic biology. Holland also co-founded the Women in Synthetic Biology Network, a group that aims to support gender diversity and support women working in the field of synthetic biology. CellCentric presents early clinical data at ASH CellCentric, a clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering small molecule inhibition of p300/CBP to treat cancer, announced clinical data for the first time at the 64th American Society of Haematology (ASH) annual meeting in New Orleans. To date, 26 patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) have been treated with inobrodib as monotherapy, including seven most recently at the recommended phase 2 dose and dose schedule (RP2D). Treatment has been generally well-tolerated with the majority of on-target toxicities being mild or moderate in severity. Among the patients treated at the RP2D, six out of seven patients had reduction or stabilization of serum free light chains. One patient saw an unconfirmed complete response (CR), which went on to become a durable confirmed very good partial response (VGPR); a second patient demonstrated a confirmed partial response (PR); and a third currently has an unconfirmed PR (by IMWG response criteria). These three patients remain on treatment after more than eight months. | |||
| 23 Dec 2022 | Beyond Biotech podcast 27: Cradle, Rani Therapeutics | 00:38:42 | |
1:37 Labiotech.eu news Rani Therapeutics - aiming to remove the pain of needles Rani Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company focused on the oral delivery of biologics and drugs, has announced topline results from part 2 (the repeat-dose portion) of the phase 1 study of RT-102, the RaniPill GO capsule containing a proprietary formulation of human parathyroid hormone (1-34) analog (PTH) being developed for the treatment of osteoporosis. The study achieved all of its endpoints, with repeat doses of RT-102 being generally well tolerated and delivering the drug with high reliability to participants via the RaniPill GO. With these data, in total, 185 RaniPill GO capsules have now been administered to more than 90 participants in clinical studies, in addition to over 1,700 RaniPill capsules administered to animals in preclinical studies. In the clinical studies, the RaniPill capsule has been well tolerated and delivered its drug payload with high reliability and with bioavailability comparable to or better than subcutaneous injection. “The repeat-dose data contribute to our growing body of preclinical and clinical data that we believe support the viability of the RaniPill platform to orally deliver biologics and drugs to treat chronic diseases,” said Talat Imran, CEO of Rani. “These data give us confidence to move forward with multiple programs in parallel, including our ustekinumab biosimilar and adalimumab biosimilar programs, and to expand manufacturing scale-up. We can see a future where millions of patients no longer carry the burden of regular injections.” Startup Cradle raises $5.4M to design protein machines and cell factories with AI Cradle, a Dutch startup, has received €5.5 million ($5.4 million) in seed funding to further help scientists design and program proteins to produce a wide variety of everyday products including milk and meat. Cradle uses synthetic biology, adapting the genes of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, to create ‘cell factories’ that use programmable proteins to make a number of products without farming animals, to plastics created without petrochemicals, materials for clothing or electronic components, or even personalized medicines. | |||
| 06 Jan 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 28: Mainz Biomed, Newron Pharmaceuticals | 00:35:52 | |
2:18 Labiotech.eu news Mainz Biomed Provides Year-End 2022 Corporate Review Mainz Biomed N.V., a molecular genetics diagnostic company specializing in the early detection of cancer, announced its corporate summary for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. The company launched its U.S.-based eAArly DETECT study by enrolling the first patient; study focused on the performance of Mainz Biomed’s mRNA biomarkers in identifying advance adenomas (AA), a type of pre-cancerous polyp often attributed to colorectal cancer (CRC); on track to report results in 1H 2023. It also Initiated ReconAAsense, a U.S. pivotal clinical study with company’s CRC screening test, anticipating commencing patient enrollment in mid-2023. Mainz Biomed also ramped up international commercial activities for ColoAlert, the company’s highly efficacious and easy-to-use detection test for CRC, including five new lab partners in Germany and Italy. It also Initiated and commenced patient enrollment in ColoFuture, a European study evaluating the integration of a portfolio of novel gene expression (mRNA) biomarkers into ColoAlert; potential to identify advanced adenomas, a type of pre-cancerous polyp often attributed to CRC; with results expected in 2023. “The past year has proven to be an extraordinary period of growth as we strengthened every aspect of the Company while expanding our international commercial footprint and executing our product development programs,” said Guido Baechler, CEO of Mainz Biomed. Newron announces interim results from treatment-resistant schizophrenia trial Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. has announced what it says are “very compelling new results” from the first 100 enrolled patients to have reached the six-month timepoint in its international study of evenamide as an add-on to an antipsychotic (excluding clozapine) in patients with moderate to severe treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), who were not responding to their current antipsychotic medication. Eighty-five of the 100 patients completed the 30-week treatment period with evenamide. The results follow on from the company’s announcement on June 7, 2022, summarizing the data from an interim analysis of the first 100 patients to have finished six weeks of treatment in this study. Newron is an Italian-headquartered biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system (CNS).
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| 12 Jan 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 29: Janssen, Knowledge Gate | 00:29:40 | |
1:03 Labiotech.eu news This week, our guests are Viktoriya Vasilenko, Knowledge Gate co-founder and CEO; and Avery Ince, vice president, medical affairs, cardiovascular & metabolism at Janssen Scientific Affairs. Study confirms benefit of XARELTO (rivaroxaban) for secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism in cancer patients The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson has revealed observational data from eight years of clinical practice showing that the oral Factor Xa inhibitor XARELTO (rivaroxaban) is associated with comparable effectiveness and safety to the Factor Xa inhibitor apixaban for the treatment of cancer-associated thromboembolism (CAT) in a broad cohort of patients with various cancer types. Patients with CAT are at a higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which is the second-leading cause of death in people with cancer. Data from the observational study in cancer-associated thrombosis for rivaroxaban (OSCAR) found XARELTO showed non-inferiority for the composite outcome of recurrent VTE or any bleeding resulting in hospitalization for treatment of patients with CAT. Janssen said the study adds to the evidence for XARELTO, with more than 300,000 patients having been evaluated since its initial approval in the U.S. in 2011. VTE occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein, affecting between 300,000 to 600,000 Americans each year, commonly triggered by surgery, cancer, immobilization and hospitalization. VTE is a common cause of morbidity and mortality, and people with cancer are at a higher risk for developing VTE than people without cancer. Cancer is known to increase the risk of VTE, with cancer patients having a four to seven times increased risk of developing VTE. These patients also have a higher risk of recurrent VTE and of bleeding. Previous studies such as SELECT-D and CONKO-11 demonstrated that changing from a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) to XARELTO was associated with a reduction in risk of recurrent thrombosis and improved patient satisfaction. Knowledge Gate Knowledge Gate Group provides a key opinion leader online platform. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, the company bridges the gap between businesses and life science experts. The artificial intelligence platform connects those looking to innovate with the key opinion leaders who can provide valuable insights. It covers a broad range of therapy area experts in the life sciences, and features automated management of all contractual, compliance and confidentiality requirements. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 20 Jan 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 30: Advanced Therapies Congress, BioAlps, Bionter, C2i Genomics | 01:00:57 | |
02:29 Labiotech.eu news The guests on our podcast this week are: Jessica Robinson, project director, Advanced Therapies Congress, Terrapinn: Tobias Werk, CEO, Bionter; Asaf Zviran, CEO and co-founder of C2i Genomics; and Magali Bischof, secretary general of BioAlps. We also have our weekly commentary from Travis McCready at global commercial real estate services company JLL. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Bionter, a Swiss-based premier supplier of analytical testing solutions to support Pharma companies to bring drugs faster and safer onto the market. Their first product is a fully automated particle testing device for parenteral drug applications that is cost-efficient and compliant with current regulations. If you want to know more, go to www.Bionter.com. C2i Genomics Announce Successful Evaluation of Whole Genome-Based Residual Disease Test Across Multiple Solid Cancer models C2i Genomics, a cancer intelligence company, recently announced an extension of a collaboration with AstraZeneca. The two companies have collaborated to evaluate the potential of whole-genome minimal residual disease (MRD) testing across solid cancers, with the goal of enhancing oncology treatment, supporting clinical trial recruitment, and monitoring. C2i genomics has completed AstraZeneca’s BeyondBio Innovation Hub’s program for Israeli start-ups. Using artificially generated samples to reproduce varying levels of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) expected to be found in tumors, this collaboration provided early evidence that the C2i assay can sensitively detect ctDNA (down to 0.002% allelic frequency). Building on this work, AstraZeneca will further evaluate and validate the C2i Genomics platform across a panel of patient-derived samples using their in-house sequencing capabilities and expertise. The non-invasive detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from plasma has been shown to have clinical value for the detection of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD), the emergence of resistance, and the prediction of treatment response. New MRD technologies aim to provide greater cancer detection sensitivity by expanding methods beyond small, personalized panels. C2i Genomics’ MRD technology applies whole-genome sequencing and artificial intelligence to a small blood sample to provide ultra-sensitive cancer detection. This technology aims to eliminate the need to develop a patient-specific assay, enabling high-performance, personalized monitoring and rapid turnaround across multiple solid cancers with reduced operational complexity. Advanced Therapies Congress The Advanced Therapies Congress is Europe’s largest cell and gene therapy conference and exhibition. Presented by Terrapinn, the event is for the leaders of the world’s ATMP developers and their most senior executives in charge of the latest tech and strategies driving the industry forward. The event takes place on March 14 and 15 at the ExCeL in London. | |||
| 27 Jan 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 31: Orgenesis, Phacilitate, Terumo, University of Birmingham, VIVEBiotech | 00:48:49 | |
01:22 Labiotech.eu news Phacilitate’s Advanced Therapies Week took place last week in Miami Beach, Florida. This week, we speak with the organizers, as well as some of the companies in attendance. Our guests are Kim Barnes, EVP, Phacilitate; Kathie Schneider, director and global commercial lead at Terumo; Vered Caplan, CEO, Orgenesis; Ivan Wall, head of the Centre for Advanced Therapies Manufacturing Training, University of Birmingham; and Natalia Elizalde, business development director, VIVEBiotech. Phacilitate Phacilitate stages two major events each year, Advanced Therapies Week, which took place from January 17 to 20 in Miami Beach, Florida, and Advanced Therapies Europe 2023, which takes place in Estoril, Portugal on September 6 and 7. The company also provides market intelligence and hosts a variety of webinars. Orgenesis Orgenesis is a global biotech company working to unlock the full potential of cell and gene therapies in an affordable and accessible format at the point of care. Orgenesis identifies promising new therapies and leverages its POCare Platform to provide a rapid, globally harmonized pathway for the therapies to reach and treat large numbers of patients at lowered costs through efficient, scalable, and decentralized production. Its POCare Network unites patients, doctors, industry partners, research institutes, and hospitals worldwide to achieve harmonized, regulated clinical development and production of therapies. Terumo Terumo is a global provider of medical technology. Based in Tokyo, it provides medical solutions in more than 160 countries and regions. The company started as a Japanese thermometer manufacturer, and has been supporting healthcare ever since. Now, its portfolio ranges from vascular intervention and cardio-surgical solutions, blood transfusion and cell therapy technology, to medical products essential for daily clinical practice such as transfusion systems, diabetes care, and peritoneal dialysis treatments. University of Birmingham The Centre for Advanced Therapies Manufacturing Training is a newly established National Training Centre based in Birmingham, U.K. It is one of several centers that form the Advanced Therapies Skills and Training Network, which is coordinated by the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Its aim is to provide training to U.K. advanced therapy and vaccine manufacturers, to enable rapid and sustainable workforce growth. VIVEBiotech VIVEBiotech is a Spanish developer and manufacturer of lentiviral vectors working under both EMA and FDA standards. The lentiviral vectors produced by VIVEbiotech are used to treat a range of disorders, including hematological and solid cancers, and rare diseases. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 03 Feb 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 32: Cancer Research Horizons, Enterome, OncoHost, TrakCel, Turbine | 01:11:10 | |
01:38 Labiotech.eu news Our guests are Ofer Sharon, CEO of OncoHost; Matthew Lakelin, co-founder, TrakCel; Pierre Belichard, CEO of Enterome; and Tony Hickson, chief business officer for Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Horizons and Daniel Veres, chief science officer and co-founder, Turbine. World Cancer Day February 4 is World Cancer Day. This year, the theme is Close the Gap. For the podcast this week, we feature four interviews related to cancer. TrakCel TrakCel is a developer of integrated technologies to manage the international autologous and allogeneic cell, gene and immunotherapy supply chain. TrakCel's software platform has been developed in collaboration with, and increasingly adopted by leading companies in the cell, gene and immunotherapy industries. Its solutions deliver real-time control over the entire therapeutic supply chain, from sample collection through manufacturing to treatment delivery. Cancer Research Horizons and Turbine partnering Cancer Research Horizons, the innovation engine at the core of the world’s largest private funder of cancer research, Cancer Research UK, is partnering with Turbine AI, a tech-enabled biotech leveraging its proprietary Simulated Cell platform to solve complex diseases. The partnership will utilize Turbine AI’s platform to identify target patient populations who could benefit from CDC7 inhibitor therapy with Cancer Research Horizons’ lead compound CRT’2199. CRT’2199 originates from Cancer Research Horizons’ Therapeutic Innovation. CDC7 is a protein that plays a vital role in the regulation of cell division in normal cells. However, dysregulation of CDC7 can lead to the formation of cancer cells, and overexpression of this protein is correlated with poor clinical prognosis in diverse cancers of significant unmet patient need. Enterome Enterome is a French clinical stage company developing off-the-shelf, transformational cancer treatments targeting all tumor types. Phase 2 trials for its most advanced program EO2401 have shown promising efficacy in recurrent glioblastoma and adrenal malignancies and good safety in more than 130 patients. Enterome’s OncoMimics approach generates a long-lasting immune response from the patient’s own effector memory T-cells, overcoming the immune tolerance to self-antigens. OncoMimics is a pipeline of immunotherapies made of a specific combination of bacterial peptides, derived from bacteria present in the gut microbiome, that closely mimic either overexpressed tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) or lineage-specific markers in solid and liquid tumors, respectively. These provide faster, stronger and durable immune responses, have excellent immunogenicity and can counteract tumor heterogeneity. OncoHost launches PROphet NSCLC test in the US OncoHost, a precision diagnostics company centered on predictive biomarker development for improved patient care, has launched its PROphet non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) test in the U.S. PROphet NSCLC, guides first line treatment decisions for advanced unresectable non-small lung cancer patients. It provides clinicians with actionable clinical insights into optimal first line therapeutic choices, and a better understanding of their patients’ personalized cancer dynamics. Requiring just one pre-treatment blood test, PROphet scans approximately 7,000 proteins in a patient's blood plasma and delivers a report that predicts their clinical benefit from anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy-based treatment plans. | |||
| 09 Feb 2023 | Talking about Alzheimer's disease: current drugs, clinical trials, and the pipeline | 00:46:54 | |
Sometimes, there’s an interview that’s just a bit long for the regular podcast. So we’re going to start an occasional series of podcasts where we look a bit more in depth at a condition, and what’s the current state of affairs in treatment. In this podcast, the first, we take a closer look at Alzheimer’s disease with a conversation about current drugs, clinical trials, and the pipeline. Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 10 Feb 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 33: Astellas Pharma, Innovation Agency Lithuania, 4BaseBio | 00:45:18 | |
1:10 Labiotech.eu news This week, our guests are Romualda Stragienė, director at Innovation Agency Lithuania and Andrius Sliuzas, export key account manager of high tech industries at Innovation Agency Lithuania; 4basebio CEO Heikki Lanckriet; and Yoshitsugu Shitaka, chief scientific officer at Astellas. 4basebio 4basebio, a spinout of 2Invest AG in 2020, is a life sciences company engaged in the design, manufacture and supply of application-specific synthetic DNA or mRNA, as well as targeted non-viral vectors for the delivery of nucleic acid payloads, for use in cell and gene therapies and vaccines. As cell and gene therapies expand, there is an increasing demand for DNA as a therapeutic agent and in the manufacture of mRNA. Existing plasmid DNA supply is produced by way of biofermentation. Synthetic DNA, in contrast, is produced in a matter of weeks using an enzymatically-driven bench top process. 4basebio currently produces four types of DNA constructs, which also offer unique application-specific flexibility and benefits. 4basebio is also developing non-viral delivery technology to overcome some of the challenges associated with commonly used viral vector and LNP (lipid nanoparticle) solutions. Lithuania Despite its small population of fewer than 3 million people, the Baltic country Lithuania punches above its weight in the life sciences. A major outlet of the Thermo Fisher Scientific is based in its capital city, Vilnius, for example. And the Life Sciences Center at Vilnius University was added to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory network in 2020, opening the door to major EU investments into biotech research in the center. More than 400 companies are working in Lithuania’s growing life sciences sector, and the space is growing every year. Astellas Pharma Astellas Pharma Inc. is a Japanese-headquartered pharmaceutical company conducting business in more than 70 countries around the world. It utilizes its ‘Focus Area Approach,’ which is designed to identify opportunities for the continuous creation of new drugs to address diseases with high unmet medical needs. The company recently committed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Sponsor Leave a review on Apple podcasts Connect with us | |||
| 17 Feb 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 34: eClinical Solutions, GPCR Therapeutics, Orbsen Therapeutics | 00:58:35 | |
1:25 Labiotech.eu news This week, our guests are Katrina Rice, chief delivery officer, biometrics services at eClinical Solutions; Pina Cardarelli, president and CSO of GPCR Therapeutics; and Larry A Couture, CEO of Orbsen Therapeutics. GPCR Therapeutics launches multiple myeloma trial GPCR Therapeutics, Inc., a drug discovery company targeting G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCR) pairs, recently started its phase 2 trial in the U.S. for its lead small molecule asset, GPC-100. GPC-100 targets CXCR4, one of the most prevalent chemokine GPCRs overexpressed in more than 23 cancers. This randomized, open-label phase 2 study assesses the efficacy of GPC-100 and propranolol, with and without granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) for the mobilization of stem cells in patients with multiple myeloma undergoing autologous stem cell transplant. Survey looks at biotech challenges eClinical Solutions, a provider of digital clinical software and biometrics services, has published a survey detailing insights from 60 biopharmaceutical clinical operations and biometrics professionals on the most pressing trends, challenges, and opportunities that are shaping the clinical data landscape. Some key takeaways include: 64% of respondents are leveraging 6 or more external data sources; harnessing automation is the top overarching industry priority for more than one-third (36%) of respondents; and speed (30%) and quality (30%) are reported as the largest pain points for electronic data capture (EDC) database build. Orbsen Therapeutics Orbsen Therapeutics is an Irish-headquartered company working in stromal cell immunotherapy. The company has leveraged its proprietary technology platform, which is based on highly purified stromal stem cells, to establish a specific portfolio of early-stage product candidates. Orbsen's allogeneic or 'off-the-shelf' cell product candidates target significantly advanced stages of diseases where there are high unmet medical needs, including moderate-severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), autoimmune disease and Stage 3 DKD. | |||
| 24 Feb 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 35: Rare Disease Day | 01:01:06 | |
0:58 Labiotech.eu news As February 28 is Rare Disease Day, we have three guests on the podcast today all relevant to rare diseases. And they are Dan Mandell, CEO and co-founder of GRO Biosciences; Stefano Portolano, chief executive officer, Azafaros; and from Replay, Adrian Woolfson, executive chairman, president, and co-founder, and Lachlan MacKinnon, CEO and co-founder. Rare Disease Day Taking place on February 28 each year, the event raises awareness and looks to generate change for the 300 million people worldwide living with a rare disease, as well as their families and carers. This year, the day will be marked by more than 600 events in 106 countries. Replay and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center create Syena Replay, a genome writing company reprogramming biology by writing and delivering big DNA, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, have launched Syena, a new oncology-focused product company pioneering T-cell receptor (TCR) natural killer (NK) cell therapies (TCR-NKs). Building on the intellectual property and technology from MD Anderson and Replay, Syena has the potential to create the next generation of cell therapy. Azafaros Azafaros is a clinical stage company founded in 2018 with a deep understanding of rare genetic disease mechanisms, and a compound library from Leiden University. Its aim is to build a pipeline of disease-modifying therapeutics to offer patients and their families new treatment options. The company’s lead clinical-staged program is AZ-3102, a small molecule, orally available, brain penetrant azasugar, with the potential to treat GM1 gangliosidosis and GM2 gangliosidosis (Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases) and Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C). This week, the company announced it has been granted two Rare Pediatric Disease Designations (RPDD) by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of GM1 and GM2 gangliosidoses, Orphan Medicinal Product Designation (OMPD) by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of GM2 gangliosidosis, and an Innovation Passport by the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the treatment of GM1 and GM2 gangliosidoses. GRO Biosciences GRO Biosciences is leveraging groundbreaking science to expand the amino acid alphabet and deliver on protein therapeutics. The U.S. company is transforming treatments for increasingly prevalent chronic medical conditions including autoimmune and metabolic diseases to improve the lives of patients. GRObio is applying its platform to advance partnered and collaborative programs, as well as its own pipeline of protein therapeutics bearing unique NSAA (non-standard amino acid) chemistries. The company’s NSAA therapeutics feature previously unattainable capabilities including unprecedented duration of action and precise regulation of the immune system. | |||
| 03 Mar 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 36: Bio-Europe Spring and Cellular Origins | 00:44:52 | |
1:41 Labiotech.eu news Cellular Origins Cellular Origins is a TTP spin-out, created to enable scalable, cost-effective and efficient manufacture of cell and gene therapies. Cellular Origins’ proprietary technology addresses the current barriers associated with the manufacture of advanced therapies that are in late-stage development, enabling commercial manufacturing without process change. By providing a solution for automated sterile fluidic interconnection that has the flexibility to adapt and link current and future bioprocess equipment, Cellular Origins hopes to enable full automation of current cell therapy manufacturing and future innovation of new processes. Bio-Europe Spring Bio-Europe Spring takes place March 20-22 in Basel, Switzerland. There is a virtual component for those unable to make the event, or who still have leftover meetings to schedule, and the online portion takes place from March 28 to 30. The event, at the Messe Basel, is an opportunity to engage in face-to-face meetings with representatives of hundreds of companies from around the world. The partneringONE tool allows meetings to be set up, and to find information on companies and attendees. As well as networking, there are exhibitors, receptions, and a variety of presentations. There is also a startup spotlight section. This year, the keynote presentations are being given by Roche and Novartis. Currently, there are more than 3,200 attendees expected to be in Basel and 18,000 meetings are being requested weekly. More than 1,600 companies will be represented, from more than 50 countries. Bio-Europe Spring sees companies from a variety of sectors, including products, services, and technologies. | |||
| 09 Mar 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 37: Natural killer cells, biopharma revenue, toxic shock syndrome vaccine | 00:35:28 | |
1:19 Labiotech.eu news This week our guests are Marit Inngjerdingen from the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Norway; Kyle Forcier, senior director of life sciences product marketing at Model N; and Dr. Andreas Roetzer, head of R&D for vaccines at Biomedical Research & Bio-Products. The next breakthrough in cancer treatment?
This is a type of immune cell that specializes in killing cancer cells. These cells may be of great importance for cancer treatment in the future. NK cells kill cancer cells with the help of small “killer torpedoes,” or vesicles, that the NK cells secrete. Vesicles are small bubbles with a fatty wall of lipids and a space filled with toxic proteins. Researchers at the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Norway have recently discovered new things about these killer vesicles. “We have discovered that we can separate the killer torpedoes from other types of vesicles so that they form a kind of arsenal of weapons. Our research also shows that this type of vesicle is probably stored in a separate room inside the NK cell,” Miriam Aarsund Larsen said. Model N publishes revenue report Model N, Inc. recently announced the results of its fifth annual State of Revenue Report. The report captures detailed data intended to help life sciences and high-tech industry executives grappling with how to grow company revenue and market share. Most executives named inflation as a significant headwind, with 84% calling it the single biggest impact on innovation. “Our findings show three main themes: Innovation collides with current market realities, innovation directly impacts revenue management, and the use of technology for revenue management is expanding,” said Suresh Kannan, chief product officer, Model N. “As organizations continue to navigate the current economic climate, the quality and reliability of technology solutions are more important than ever. These insights help us understand how to empower our customers to create and bring life-changing products to market.” The first vaccine to potentially prevent Staphylococcal-induced toxic shock syndrome (TSS) has successfully completed a phase 2 study. TSS is a life-threatening condition caused by toxins that can lead to multiple organ failure and death. Nosocomial pathogen Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are resistant to widely used antibiotics. Infections with MRSA are harder to treat and therapies are more expensive as the length of hospital stays is significantly prolonged. If the treatment does not lead to rapid clearance of the bacterial pathogen, dangerous symptoms such as septic or toxic shock can occur – a potentially life-threatening condition. Researchers at Biomedical Research & Bio-Products AG, under the direction of Martha Eibl, in cooperation with MedUni Vienna’s Department of Clinical Pharmacology, conducted the study. The promising results showed the TSST-1 vaccine is safe and effective, with immunization lasting for at least two years. | |||
| 17 Mar 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 38: Hello Tomorrow Global Summit | 00:35:24 | |
1:27 Labiotech.eu news Our guests this week are: FreezeM CEO and co-founder, Dr. Yuval Gilad; Allogenica CEO and co-founder Inna Menkova; George Frodsham, founder and CEO of MediSieve; and Poulami Chaudhuri, co-founder, and CEO of Helex Bio. Hello Tomorrow The 8th edition of the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2023 welcomed more than 3,000 people to the forefront of deep tech. There were hundreds of meetings, presentations and exhibitors in attendance, showcasing science in action - including many biotech and biopharma companies. The Grand Winner of the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge 2023 was Sweetch Energy, but a biotech company came in third, Allogenica. Allogenica also won the Medical Biotech & Pharmaceuticals category. Allogenica Created in January 2022, Allogenica is a French-headquartered startup developing universal cell therapies to treat certain forms of blood cancer (leukemia, lymphoma). It recently completed its first fundraising of €500,000 ($530,000) in order to continue its development towards an approach to industrializing the process. The startup, led by Inna Menkova, and assisted by PULSALYS, aims to offer a ready-to-use, less expensive and safer treatment, in order to treat more patients with blood cancers. Helex Helex, based in India, is a biotech with a platform built on proprietary bioinformatics and AI powered systems to identify unique sequences on the gene. The pre-clinical stage biotech company unlocks epigenetics and 3D genome structures through data and machine learning to design high precision gene-editing systems. The company’s platform enables the design of appropriate gene editing apparatus. It prevents editing in unwanted tissues in cases of vector biodistribution through a Double Lock Safety system - tissue-specific vector modifications (first lock) combined with Hele-GUIDE tissue specific guide RNA (second lock) for greater safety. MediSieve MediSieve is a U.K.-based start-up that has developed magnetic blood filtration, a platform therapy that enables the physical removal of specific substances from the bloodstream of patients. It can be used as a direct treatment, to increase the safety and efficacy of other therapies, or to enable personalized medicine. The company is a spin-off from University College London. FreezeM FreezeM is an Israel-based company founded in 2018 that provides insect breeding and post-breeding solutions. FreezeM has developed cutting-edge biotechnology centered on black soldier fly (BSF) breeding, helping to increase alternative protein production capacity for livestock, while at the same time salvaging scarce global farmland, decreasing ocean exhaustion, and repurposing organic waste. The company is reducing costs by an estimated 30% and increasing protein production capacity and efficiency by 25%. Most recently, FreezeM has been selected to join the Google Startups for Sustainable Development Program, has been ranked by Dealflow as a company to watch in the industry and raised €6.3 million in European Innovation Council (EIC) funding. | |||
| 24 Mar 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 39: World Tuberculosis Day | 00:54:35 | |
2:57 Labiotech.eu news This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Samplix. World Tuberculosis Day Tuberculosis is a leading infectious disease. According to the WHO, 10.6 million people became ill with the disease in 2021, and there were 1.6 million deaths from tuberculosis. The theme for World TB Day 2023 is Yes! We can end TB! It aims to inspire hope and encourage high-level leadership, increased investments, faster uptake of new WHO recommendations, adoption of innovations, accelerated action, and multisectoral collaboration to combat TB. TB Alliance TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding faster-acting and affordable drug regimens to fight TB. Through innovative science and with partners around the globe, the organization aims to ensure equitable access to faster, better TB cures that will advance global health and prosperity. TB Alliance operates with support from various global governments as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, and the United States Agency for International Development. Access to Advanced Health Institute A potential new vaccine for tuberculosis has been developed by the Access to Advanced Health Institute in Seattle, a nonprofit biotech research institute. The results of a phase 1 clinical trial were published earlier this month in the journal Nature Communications. PBD Biotech PBD Biotech has developed a rapid screening blood test for identifying people with the disease as well as a subgroup with pre-clinical infection at higher risk of developing the disease. The company said this has the potential to revolutionize the management of TB. Biotech’s Actiphage blood test is sensitive and specific, and clinical studies at the Leicester Respiratory NIHR Biomedical Centre have shown it is able to diagnose patients with pulmonary TB and identify contacts with recent exposure that have very early stage infection and may be at higher risk of developing TB in the future. By enabling rapid screening of a population for TB, Actiphage offers a breakthrough in disease prevention and treatment. Further trials of Actiphage are currently running in the U.K., South Africa and Zambia. | |||
| 31 Mar 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 40: Antibody drug conjugates | 00:43:09 | |
3:13 Nectin Therapeutics This episode of the podcast is sponsored by PHTA. Immunome Immunome’s Discovery Engine leverages the information stored in memory B cells to guide the discovery of first-in-class antibody therapeutics directed at potentially novel targets in oncology and other areas. Immunome’s research has revealed - and continues to unveil - novel target classes, such as proteins ectopically expressed on the surface of cancer cells, which are uniquely tumor selective and potentially suitable for development as ADCs. The company talked about those applications recently at World ADC London and has also established an ADC and T Cell Redirection Advisory Board to prioritize selection of novel targets for ADC and TCR modalities. Immunome’s focus is on discovering and developing therapeutics in oncology internally and in collaboration with partners, including through a recently established strategic collaboration with AbbVie. Nectin Therapeutics Nectin Therapeutics is a clinical-trial biotechnology company developing new immuno-oncology therapies to address resistance towards existing cancer treatments. In addition to its collaboration with Merck (MSD) to trial KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) with Nectin’s novel anti-PVR antibody, NTX1088, Nectin is also working on developing three ADCs in its drug discovery pipeline. | |||
| 14 Apr 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 41: Sarcoidosis | 00:25:35 | |
1:44 Labiotech news World Sarcoidosis Day As part of Sarcoidosis Month, which is marked each April, World Sarcoidosis Day is on April 13. But what is sarcoidosis? The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research explains that it is an inflammatory disease characterized by the formation of granulomas—or small clumps of inflammatory cells—in one or more organs of the body. When the immune system goes into overdrive and too many of these clumps form, they can interfere with an organ’s structure and function. When left unchecked, chronic inflammation can lead to fibrosis, or permanent scarring of organ tissue. Sarcoidosis affects the lungs in around 90% of cases, but it can affect almost any organ in the body. Despite advances in research, sarcoidosis is difficult to diagnose, and has limited treatment options. There is no known cure. In the U.S. alone, there are between 150,000 and 200,000 people with the condition, with around 1.2 million individuals with sarcoidosis worldwide. Molecure Molecure is a clinical stage biotechnology company that uses its medicinal chemistry and biology capabilities to discover and develop first-in-class small molecule drug candidates that directly modulate the function of underexplored protein and RNA targets to treat multiple incurable diseases. Molecure has generated a diverse pipeline of seven programs with the support of academic life science institutions globally, including Yale University, Rutgers University, the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) in Ghent, the University of Michigan and the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (IIMCB). Molecure’s most advanced in-house drug candidate is OATD-01, a first-in-class inhibitor of CHIT1 for the treatment of interstitial lung diseases, such as sarcoidosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which is phase II ready. A phase II trial in patients with sarcoidosis is expected to start in the second half of 2023. Its second proprietary candidate is OATD-02, an oral, potent and selective first-in-class, dual arginase inhibitor (ARG1 and ARG2) for the treatment of cancer, which advanced to phase I clinical development in March 2023. Molecure’s headquarters and laboratories are located in Warsaw, Poland, with an additional laboratory facility in Łódź. | |||
| 21 Apr 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 42 | 00:32:35 | |
2:05 Labiotech news This week, we’re talking about the upcoming Lund Spring Symposium with Claes Wahlestedt, Leonard M. Miller professor and director of the Center for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) and associate dean for therapeutic innovation at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; about Meet2Win with Lucia Robert, CEO of MATWIN which stages the event; and then an interview with two people, Andrew Clutterbuck, associate director MSAT EMEA and Mark Peacock, director, technical applications, from Merck. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Merck. Merck is a science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. The company provides products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enable the intelligence of devices. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the U.S. and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as MilliporeSigma in life science. Lund Spring Symposium A new event, which will include presentations by Nobel laureates, is set to showcase the best of pharmacology. The Lund Spring Symposium, which takes place from May 24 to 26 at the Palaestra et Odeum in Lund, Sweden, aims to raise the profile of pharmacology as a cross-functional discipline in the 21st Century and to provide a forum to facilitate collaborations across academia and industry. MEET2WIN The 8th annual MEET2WIN event takes place in Bordeaux, France, from May 11 to 12. The MEET2WIN convention, staged by MATWIN (Maturation & Accelerating Translation With Industry) brings together nearly 300 European players specifically involved in translational research and innovation in oncology (researchers, clinicians, entrepreneurs, biotechs, pharmaceutical groups, investors, support structures, etc.) looking to expand their network of contacts and optimize their collaboration around the fight against cancer. More than 1,000 companies and organizations attend the event, with more than 5,000 meetings scheduled. | |||
| 28 Apr 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 43 | 00:31:46 | |
2:13 Labiotech news The mainstream news in the past couple of months has picked up on artificial intelligence (AI). Not so much its uses, more the potential for conflict and fears over AI developing too quickly, or ‘taking over humanity.’ Debates have sprung up around deepfakes, ChatGPT, and other AI technologies, and there are concerns over how new technology will impact our everyday lives. The debate covers ethics, regulations, law, education; in fact AI and the future seem intertwined. AI has been around for some time, it’s just increased sophistication has brought it more into the spotlight. There are many positives to AI, not least in the life sciences. We now have the potential to analyze far more data, and there is real potential for identification of new drugs and drug targets being found through new technology. Of course, AI has other applications in science, such as climate change and sustainability, and in food technology. AI and machine learning were just some of the topics Labiotech discussed with Mark Kotter, CEO of U.K. biotech bit.bio. bit.bio is a synthetic biology company providing human cells for research, drug discovery and cell therapy. The company applies a patented safe harbor gene-targeting approach to inducibly express transcription factor combinations that reprogram human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into highly defined and mature human cell types. The company is currently building a clinical pipeline and marketing a range of cells and disease models for research and drug discovery under its ioCells brand. This includes nerve cells, immune cells and muscle cells. The company was spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2016, and has since raised $150 million capital from Arch Ventures, Foresite Capital, Milky Way, Charles River Laboratories, National Resilience, Tencent, and Puhua Capital among others. | |||
| 05 May 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 44 | 00:35:22 | |
3:32 Labiotech news May is Lupus Awareness Month, and to talk about lupus with us this week on the podcast are Katherine Tran, senior global market development & marketing manager of the proteomics division at SCIEX, and Allan Stensballe, associate professor, Department of Health Science and Technology and associate professor, The Faculty of Medicine, at Aalborg Universitet in Denmark. Each May, The Lupus Foundation of America gathers the lupus community to make lupus visible. | |||
| 12 May 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 45: International MPS Awareness Day | 00:26:33 | |
This week’s podcast is sponsored by Quantoom. International MPS Awareness Day May is the big month when it comes to awareness - there are almost 100 awareness months, weeks, and days being marked. Some of these are well known conditions. Others, however, are less prominent. International MPS (mucopolysaccharidosis) Awareness Day takes place on May 15. According to the National MPS Society in the U.S., mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) and mucolipidosis (ML) are genetic lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) caused by the body’s inability to produce specific enzymes. The missing or insufficient enzyme prevents cells from recycling waste, resulting in the storage of materials in cells throughout the body. As the disease progresses, there is widespread damage throughout the body, including the heart, bones, joints, respiratory system and central nervous system, leading to a shortened lifespan. There are 12 different forms of MPS. For example, MPS I includes Hurler Syndrome, Scheie Syndrome and Hurler-Scheie Syndrome, while MPS II covers Hunter Syndrome. Mucopolysaccharides are chains of sugar molecules used to build connective tissues in the body. MPS I patients are missing the enzyme alpha-L-iduronidase, which is essential in breaking down the mucopolysaccharides dermatan sulfate and heparan sulfate. These materials remain stored in the body’s cells, causing progressive damage. Babies may show little sign of the disease, but as cells sustain damage, symptoms start to appear. To talk about the disease, treatments, research, and the future prognosis for those with MPS, is Dr Matthew Ellinwood, chief scientific officer at the National MPS Society. | |||
| 19 May 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 46: International Clinical Trials Day | 00:46:42 | |
4:26 Labiotech news May 20 is International Clinical Trials Day. ECRIN, the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, is a not-for-profit organization that supports the conduct of multinational clinical trials in Europe. Based in Paris, France, the organization launched International Clinical Trials Day (ICTD) in 2005 to commemorate the day when James Lind started his clinical trial on scurvy in 1747, on May 20. ECRIN is hosting an event, both in-person and online, on Monday, May 23, called Decentralised Clinical Trials: challenges and opportunities. While the physical event in Warsaw, Poland, is full, online registration can be found here. International Clinical Trials Day is also supported and promoted by a range of charities, companies and organizations, such as the 13,000-member Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP), which is the only non-profit organization solely dedicated to representing, supporting, and advocating for clinical research professionals. To celebrate the day, we have two interviews about the importance of the event and clinical trials in general. We have conversations with Dr. Michael Dunne, head of development and chief medical officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, and Kelly McKee, vice president, decentralized clinical trials (DCT) and patient registries at Medidata. | |||
| 26 May 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 47 | 00:25:42 | |
1:33 Labiotech news On this week’s podcast, we have a conversation with Markus Kosch, the head of Oncology Europe and Canada for Daiichi Sankyo, and Greg Rossi, Senior Vice President, Oncology, Europe and Canada, from AstraZeneca, who are joining forces to bring new oncology medicines into clinical practice. In March 2019, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo entered into a global collaboration to jointly develop and commercialize health technologies worldwide. Their collaboration is designed to leverage strengths and combine efforts to improve patient care. | |||
| 02 Jun 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 48 | 00:26:04 | |
1:18 Labiotech news BioInvent currently has four drug candidates in five ongoing clinical programs in Phase 1/2 trials for the treatment of hematological cancer and solid tumors, respectively. The company's validated, proprietary F.I.R.S.T technology platform identifies both targets and the antibodies that bind to them, generating many promising new drug candidates to fuel the company's own clinical development pipeline and providing licensing and partnering opportunities. BioInvent generates revenues from research collaborations and license agreements with multiple top-tier pharmaceutical companies, as well as from producing antibodies for third parties in the company's fully integrated manufacturing unit. We spoke with CEO Martin Welschof and Cecilia Hofvander, senior director investor relations. | |||
| 09 Jun 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 49 | 00:25:17 | |
1:24 Labiotech news The acquisition expands BCP’s global service offering for accelerating the translation of innovations into clinical practice. In addition, 4Pharma customers will benefit from additional services in the field of RWD through the BC Platform technology. 4Pharma (HQ Turku, Finland and Lund, Sweden) was founded more than 20 years ago, and has collaborations with around 70 clients in the Nordics, Central Europe, and the U.S. The company has developed expertise in a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, neurology, ophthalmology, musculoskeletal, respiratory diseases, infectious diseases, and gynecology. The company provides medical research services in several areas: high-quality and cost-effective solutions for the management and delivery of clinical trial data, including real world data; medical writing; patient safety data collection, analysis, and reporting including data visualization; trial design & interpretation; health technology assessment; global regulatory submissions to the FDA (U.S.), EMA (Europe) and PMDA (Japan); and risk-based patient monitoring. With this acquisition BCP bolsters its capabilities in these areas for drug development and clinical research, which further diversifies its service portfolio for pharma and biotech clients. Tero Silvola, CEO at BC Platforms, said: “This exciting acquisition of the excellent 4Pharma brings impressive healthcare data intelligence expertise. It aligns with our vision to build a world leading analytics platform to enable the pharmaceutical industry’s advancement of precision medicine, improving the efficiency of drug development and patient outcomes. This expands our service offering to healthcare and lifesciences customers, as well as connecting data partners in a global, interoperable federated network. We combine omics and clinical data assets around the world, without compromising data privacy and security. This enables our customers to conduct novel research and discover fascinating new insights to advance healthcare which are fundamental to helping patients receive better treatments and care.” | |||
| 16 Jun 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 50: cell and gene therapy | 01:09:01 | |
2:45 Labiotech news The event took place in Paris, France. The ISCT 2023 Translational Pathway Program featured plenary and concurrent sessions designed to address and overcome barriers at each stage of development across a full range of modalities such as CAR T, iPSC, and a dedicated half-day program on unlocking the potential of exosomes (EVs). In this week’s podcast, we look into two of the sessions: ‘Will allogeneic cell therapy replace autologous when it comes down to patient access?’ and ‘Have exosomes replaced MSCs?’ Our guests to talk about these subjects are Carole Nicco, CSO at BioSenic; Dalip Sethi, director of scientific affairs, Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies; Matthieu de Kalbermatten, CEO of CellProthera; and Vered Caplan, CEO of Orgenesis. | |||
| 23 Jun 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 51 | 00:54:38 | |
1:13 Labiotech news Sapient is an end-to-end biomarker discovery organization dedicated to accelerating the mapping of circulating chemistries in humans through rapid, large-scale small molecule biomarker profiling. Its platform combines next-generation mass spectrometry technologies capable of assaying tens of thousands of small molecule biomarkers in human biosamples, advanced biocomputational learning, and a proprietary Human Biology Database with extensive data from several hundred thousand biosamples. Together these approaches enable rapid discovery and validation of circulating biomarkers of health, disease, and drug responsiveness at unprecedented speed and scale. We spoke with founder and CEO of Sapient, Mo Jain. Lund Spring Symposium The inaugural Lund Spring Symposium held in Lund, Sweden from May 24 to 26. It was an impressive forum where an exceptional set of international and national top researchers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders gathered around the subject of ‘Enabling Novel Therapeutic Principles,’ with examples of actual treatment breakthroughs, as well as novel modalities across therapeutic areas ranging from cancer, COVID-19 to neuroscience. Six researchers were awarded for their groundbreaking discoveries and outstanding achievements: Craig Crews Yale University; Brian Kobilka, Stanford University; Robert Langer, MIT; Jude Samulski, University of North Carolina; Sarah Tabrizi, University College London; and Drew Weissman, University of Pennsylvania. The symposium also featured two other Nobel Prize laureates, David Julius, from the University of California San Francisco, who gave a presentation, and Bengt Samuelsson, after whom one of the awards was named. The organizer, Lars Grundemar, Lund University and AGB Pharma, decided together with Mikael Dolsten, Lund University, and chief scientific officer, president R&D, Pfizer, and Claes Wahlestedt, Lund University and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, to create the event featuring high-profile international and local researchers at a symposium in Lund to raise the profile of pharmacology as a cross-functional discipline in the 21st century, and to provide a forum to facilitate collaborations across academia and industry. “This event was designed to reflect the importance of combining basic research with clinical applications and entrepreneurship in successful development of novel therapeutic principles,” Grundemar said. The symposium was intended for scientists and entrepreneurs to be an engaging and interactive forum to broaden the participants’ horizons of cutting-edge science. The Lund Spring Symposium will be held biannually, with the next event taking place in 2025. | |||
| 30 Jun 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 52: Antiphospholipid syndrome | 00:43:46 | |
2:38 Labiotech news APS is a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body recognizes certain normal components of blood and/or cell membranes as foreign substances and produces antibodies against them. There are two known forms. APS may occur in people with systemic lupus erythematosus, other autoimmune disease, or in otherwise healthy individuals. APS is also referred to as APLS or APLA in the U.S., and formerly Hughes Syndrome or Sticky Blood in the U.K. The APS Foundation of America, Inc. (APSFA) was founded in 2005, and is the only U.S. nonprofit health agency dedicated to bringing national awareness to APS, a major cause of multiple miscarriages, thrombosis, young strokes and heart attacks. The APSFA’s Medical Advisory Team includes nationally & internationally recognized experts on Antiphospholipid Syndrome. We also had a conversation with APS researcher Dr Jason Knight, Marvin and Betty Danto Research Professor of Connective Tissue Research and Associate Professor, Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan. Current APS trials
David Ware Branch, from the University of Utah, is also undertaking a trial with results expected in 2024. The treatment trial is evaluating the addition of an anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha drug,certolizumab, compared to the usual treatment (a heparin agent and low-dose aspirin) in pregnant women with APS and repeatedly positive tests for lupus anticoagulant (LAC) to determine if this regimen will improve pregnancy outcomes. All enrolled patients will receive certolizumab, and pregnancy outcomes will be compared to those of women with APS and repeatedly positive tests for LAC enrolled in a previous study by the investigators. Another study, in China, also with results anticipated in 2024, is being run by Zhang Lei. The study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of zanubrutinib in the treatment of APS with secondary thrombocytopenia in 10 patients. The University of Turin in Italy is sponsoring BLAST (belimumab antiphospholipid syndrome trial), which is expecting to see results in 2025. BLAST aims to evaluate the safety and tolerability of belimumab for up to 24 months in patients with persistent aPL positivity and clinical features attributable to aPL that are resistant to warfarin and/or heparin. | |||
| 07 Jul 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 53: Antibody-drug conjugates | 00:26:35 | |
2:55 Labiotech news Mablink Bioscience Mablink Bioscience is a biotechnology company developing the next generation of an emerging class of cancer drugs, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Mablink’s patented hydrophilic drug-linker technology, PSARLink, enables the design of homogeneous, plasma-stable, next generation ADCs with high DAR (drug-to-antibody ratio) while maintaining pharmacological properties and tolerability. The company recently announced the appointment of Dr. Pejvack Motlagh as chief medical officer. “We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Pejvack Motlagh as our chief medical officer. His experience in managing oncology portfolios, especially in the immuno-oncology and large molecules’ space, will be a great asset to take Mablink’s pipeline of innovative therapies to the next level,” said Jean-Guillaume Lafay, CEO of Mablink. “As MBK-103 enters the last preclinical phases, Pejvack’s appointment is a very important step in making Mablink’s clinical ambitions a reality.” We spoke with Motlagh about his work, Mablink, and antibody-drug conjugates. | |||
| 14 Jul 2023 | Beyond Biotech 54 | 00:27:48 | |
1:24 Labiotech news | |||
| 20 Jul 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 55: Inflammasomes | 00:33:10 | |
1:54 Labiotech news The company recently announced it is the first to show a reduction in neuroinflammation with an inflammasome inhibitor. NodThera announced positive initial data from four subjects in the elderly volunteer stage of its phase Ib/IIa study evaluating the effects of its lead candidate NT-0796 on inflammatory and disease-specific biomarkers in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). NodThera is a clinical-stage biotech developing brain-penetrant NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors to treat chronic inflammatory diseases. Initial data from the ongoing study confirm earlier findings from the completed first-in-human and preclinical studies with NT-0796 showing excellent pharmacokinetics with a novel capsule formulation. Subjects in the study were cannulated and CSF-sampled on day one (pre-dose) and day seven following daily NT-0796 dosing. CSF drug levels were confirmed as consistent with previous observations and a range of inflammatory CSF biomarkers demonstrated meaningful reductions. Neurofilament light chain (NfL), exclusively synthesized in the central nervous system (CNS), decreased by approximately 25% over seven days in the most inflamed subject and by 13% on average. NfL is now recognised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a key biomarker of neuroaxonal damage and neurodegeneration. | |||
| 28 Jul 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 56: BaseLaunch | 00:35:31 | |
2;00 Labiotech news The discussion includes BaseLaunch’s approach to empowering early-stage biotech entrepreneurs with not just financing, but also the necessary tools for success, from team-building to IP licensing. Emmerth and Reddy offer their perspectives on the realities of building a biotech startup, the perfect time to transition from a lab to a new venture uncover the significance of choosing the right team making this episode a must-listen for anyone looking to navigate the biotech landscape successfully. | |||
| 04 Aug 2023 | Beyond Biotech 57: Group B Strep | 00:30:51 | |
2:02 Labiotech.eu news To recognize International Group B Strep Awareness Month in July, we had a conversation with MinervaX CEO, Per Fischer. MinervaX is a privately-held Danish biotechnology company developing a novel prophylactic vaccine against Group B streptococcus (GBS), with two phase II clinical trials ongoing in pregnant women and a phase I clinical trial ongoing in older adults. Due to the global burden and no current mechanism for preventing this invasive GBS disease available. There is an urgent need for a vaccine to prevent GBS which has a well-recognized morbidity and mortality rate. MinervaX’s GBS vaccine has been granted Fast Track regulatory status by the US Food and Drug Administration. The process is designed to facilitate the development of investigational treatments that demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs in serious or life-threatening conditions. This follows the European Medicines Agency’s decision to award Priority Medicine (PRIME) status to the vaccine. | |||
| 11 Aug 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 58: Pepteins | 00:19:56 | |
To learn about pepteins, we had a conversation with Christian Schwarz, CEO and co-founder of Numaferm. Numaferm is a German biotech company, specializing in the production of pepteins, which are an underdeveloped class of molecules located between peptides and proteins (with a length of 30-300 amino acids). Pepteins are non-structured and complex posing a challenge for manufacturing, yet exert a high biological activity, wherefore they play an increasing role as innovative molecules in a range of industries, including animal and human health. To date, peptein production via chemical synthesis or recombinant approaches is cumbersome, leading to time and resource-intensive development programs. This, in combination with high production costs, limits promising peptein applications. The company and Zoetis, an animal health company, recently signed a licensing agreement for the development and production of defined veterinary therapeutics. | |||
| 18 Aug 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 59 – World Lung Cancer Day | 00:19:11 | |
Since its inception in 2012, World Lung Cancer Day has been observed every year on August 1 in order to raise awareness of lung cancer issues and magnify the need for more lung cancer research funding. Around a quarter of a million people in the US alone will be diagnosed with some form of lung cancer in 2023. And more than 125,000 people in the US will die from the disease. And another pretty awful stat is that one in 16 men and one in 17 women will be diagnosed with lung cancer, which kills three times as many people as breast cancer or prostate cancer. However, there are some positive trends. This week’s guest is Prof. Iris Barshack, Head of the Pathology Institute at Sheba Medical Center, to talk about a new diagnostic tool for lung cancer. Sheba Medical Center’s new AI cancer diagnostics platform reduces diagnosis time Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest medical center, has announced the deployment of a new accelerated, AI-powered cancer diagnostics research platform to improve patient diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. The platform enables the integration of AI technology developed by Sheba in addition to solutions created by innovative digital health startups. One of the first AI solutions to be deployed was developed by Imagene, an emerging leader in AI-based precision oncology, incorporating an algorithm to identify actionable biomarkers of non-small cell lung cancer. The algorithm is directly applied to a digitized image of a conventionally stained pathology slide and can then, within minutes, identify the presence of actionable biomarkers in the tumor, thus providing crucial information for diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. The solution essentially shortens diagnostic time from three weeks to minutes, enabling patients to begin treatment earlier. “We have reached another significant milestone in digital pathology with this ability to detect biomarkers by AI. The use of deep learning algorithms is changing the world of diagnosis, and in certain cases can drastically shorten the cost and time to treatment. I am excited to hear about the growing number of patients who were able to receive rapid diagnoses and treatment using our new service,” said Prof. Iris Barshack, Head of the Pathology Institute at Sheba Medical Center. This latest advancement in cancer diagnostics builds on the progress Sheba’s Pathology Institute has made in recent years. In 2019, the pathology lab at the hospital went fully digital, using computer screens for diagnosis instead of microscopes. Once the lab turned fully digital, the team worked with Imagene who developed a rapid AI-based molecular profiling algorithm to identify actionable biomarkers from the digital biopsy image alone. “We are very proud to be part of this incredibly important initiative by Prof. Barshack to facilitate an accelerated program for rapid diagnosis of cancer patients,” said Dean Bitan, co-founder and CEO of Imagene. “It takes an innovative approach and openness to new and advanced technologies to drive cancer research and advanced cancer care. We believe this program will showcase the importance of rapid molecular profiling within the clinical workflow.” | |||
| 25 Aug 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 60 – The cost of research | 00:33:45 | |
On this week’s podcast, we have a conversation with Dr Jack Scannell, CEO of Etheros Pharmaceuticals Corp. Scannell recently co-authored a paper on the expenses related to clinical research and the factors that underly the translational failure of inhibitors of the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) in oncology. Costs and Causes of Oncology Drug Attrition With the Example of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Receptor Inhibitors, published in Jama Network Open, looked at 16 inhibitors of IGF-1R, in 183 clinical trials involving more than 12,000 patients. None of the agents received approval for clinical use in oncology practice and the trials were estimated to have had expenses of greater than $1.6 billion. Half of the published in vivo preclinical data analyzed showed less than a 50% inhibition of tumor growth by IGF-1R inhibitors. The authors stated that failed drug development in oncology incurs substantial expense. At an industry level, an estimated $50 billion to $60 billion is spent annually on failed oncology trials. Improved target validation and more appropriate preclinical models are required to reduce attrition, with more attention paid to decision-making before launching clinical trials. A more appropriate use of resources may better reduce cancer mortality, the authors argued. | |||
| 01 Sep 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 61 - Blood Cancer Awareness Month | 00:24:44 | |
On this week’s podcast, to recognize Blood Cancer Awareness Month, we have a conversation with Affimed's CMO, Andreas Harstrick, to talk about blood cancers, and what Affimed is doing to tackle blood cancers. One of the main challenges in treating blood cancers is the limited options for therapeutic intervention. Treatment relies primarily on chemotherapy, which is often associated with high toxicity and limited duration of response. Most other approaches to treating hematologic tumors target the adaptive immune system, neglecting the importance of innate immunity. However, harnessing the body’s first line of response could be an important gateway to treating these cancers, which could drastically lower side effects and overcome immune evasion by cancers, especially in refractory or relapsed patients. Approaches based on the innate immune system mainly utilize NK (natural killer) cells. Innate Pharma, Dragonfly Therapeutics, and Affimed are among the biotech companies directing NK cells to tumors with the help of bi- or multi-specific antibodies. Affimed has completed a phase 2 trial with its innate cell engager (ICE), AFM13. To address the fact that cancer patients often lack a functional immune system, Affimed has combined its ICE approach with PD-1 inhibitors or allogeneic cord blood-derived NK cells to further increase the potential success of its treatments. Initial results from an exploratory study together with MD Anderson have already provided encouraging data with relapsed or refractory patients that previously exhausted all treatment options showing a complete response rate of 71% when treated with AFM13 precomplexed with cord blood-derived NK cells. | |||
| 08 Sep 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 62 – cytokine-based drugs | 00:33:42 | |
As September 8 is Stand Up To Cancer Day, one area of promising research lies in cytokine-based drugs, which have the potential to activate T cells against tumors. Historically, toxicity from systemic cytokine treatment has remained a challenge, prompting several companies to explore ways to “engineer” drugs with modified cytokine molecules like interleukin 2 (IL-2) for targeted and safer delivery. Cue Biopharma is a standout in this field, harnessing nature’s ‘cues’ to selectively activate the immune system against cancer. Their approach overcomes IL-2’s narrow therapeutic window by directing IL-2 delivery specifically to cancer cells, targeting only disease-specific T cells. Cue Biopharma is a Boston, U.S., based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of injectable biologics to selectively engage and modulate disease-specific T cells directly within the patient’s body. The company’s proprietary platform, Immuno-STAT (Selective Targeting and Alteration of T cells) and biologics are designed to harness the body’s intrinsic immune system as T cell engagers without the need for ex vivo manipulation or broad systemic immune modulation. Anish Suri, Cue’s chief scientific officer, spoke with us about Cue Biopharma’s platform and its approach in the evolution of immunotherapies. | |||
| 15 Sep 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 63 – Tackling cancer with STRIs | 00:33:32 | |
This week’s podcast is sponsored by Vetter. On this week’s episode, we have a conversation with Steve Worland, CEO of eFFECTOR Therapeutics. eFFECTOR is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of a new class of oncology drugs referred to as STRIs (selective translation regulation inhibitors). eFFECTOR’s STRI product candidates target the eIF4F complex and its activating kinase, mitogen-activated protein kinase interacting kinase (MNK). The eIF4F complex is a central node where two of the most frequently mutated signaling pathways in cancer, the PI3K-AKT and RAS-MEK pathways, converge to activate the translation of select mRNA into proteins that are frequent culprits in key disease-driving processes. The company’s product candidates are designed to act on a single protein that drives the expression of a network of functionally related proteins, including oncoproteins and immunosuppressive proteins in T cells, that together control tumor growth, survival and immune evasion. The lead product candidate, tomivosertib, is an MNK inhibitor currently being evaluated in KICKSTART, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2b trial of tomivosertib in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Zotatifin, eFFECTOR’s inhibitor of eIF4A, is currently being evaluated in phase 2a expansion cohorts in certain biomarker-positive solid tumors, including ER+ breast cancer and KRAS-mutant NSCLC. | |||
| 22 Sep 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 64 – Precision immuno-oncology therapies | 00:38:31 | |
Despite the huge commercial success of PD-1 inhibitors and widespread use of checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 or anti-CTLA4, 70 to 80% of patients still experience limited or no response to existing therapies. In response to this critical challenge, Portage Biotech is on a mission to expand the number of patients who derive long-term benefits from immunotherapies. Portage Biotech is advancing a portfolio of novel precision immuno-oncology therapies, including invariant natural killer T-cell (iNKT) engagers, designed to correct the tumor microenvironment and enable the body to recognize and attack tumors, and next-generation adenosine inhibitors for a variety of cancers, with better potency, selectivity and durability. Heading this pioneering endeavor is Dr. Ian Walters, Portage's CEO, who brings decades of experience in the immuno-oncology space. With a unique background as a physician with a business degree, Dr. Walters has been deeply involved in academia and large pharmaceutical companies. He played a pivotal role in the development of some of the first checkpoint inhibitors and has supported the approval of five oncology drugs. In this conversation, Walters tells Labiotech about Portage's unique approach to targeting known checkpoint resistant pathways and the company's strategy to revolutionize immunotherapy research and drug development. | |||
| 29 Sep 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 65 – Disease X and pandemic preparedness | 00:43:11 | |
Disease X, a concept shrouded in mystery, represents the unknown pathogens that could unleash future epidemics or pandemics. In the wake of recent global health crises, our understanding of the profound impact of those pandemics has deepened. On this week’s podcast, we have a conversation with Hamilton Bennett, who led Moderna’s mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine development program team to the authorized use and approval of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic. Disease X was intended to be a placeholder name; it was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2018 on their shortlist of blueprint priority diseases to represent a hypothetical, unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic. | |||
| 06 Oct 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 66 – treating rare diseases with tRNA | 00:32:08 | |
Compared to the smallest mRNA molecule, which is 300 nucleotides long, the largest transfer RNAs (tRNA) is less than a third of the size at 76 nucleotides. Scientists at Alltrna are harnessing the unique biology of tRNAs to engineer a single tRNA medicine that could treat thousands of rare diseases that share the same genetic mutation. This year, Alltrna presented at ASGCT the first demonstration that an engineered, modified tRNA could recognize and correct, in vivo, a flawed mRNA instruction no matter where it occurred in the genome. Alltrna, which was founded in 2018 by Flagship Pioneering, recently announced it had raised $109 million in a Series B financing to advance the company’s platform and first drug candidates towards the clinic for a first indication in Stop Codon Disease. Stop Codon Disease encompasses thousands of rare and common diseases that arise from premature termination codons (PTC), also known as nonsense mutations, where the code for an amino acid has been mutated into a premature “stop” codon. This results in a truncated or shortened protein product with no or altered biological activity that causes disease. Approximately 10% of all people with a genetic disease have Stop Codon Disease, representing approximately 30 million people worldwide. Alltrna’s tRNA medicines can read these PTC mutations and deliver the desired amino acid, thereby restoring the production of the full-length protein. The company’s platform incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to ‘learn’ the tRNA language and deliver diverse, programmable molecules with broad therapeutic potential. | |||
| 13 Oct 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 67 – natural killer cells | 00:28:55 | |
This week, we speak to Artiva Biotherapeutics’ CEO, Fred Aslan, M.D. AlloNK (also known as AB-101) is a non-genetically modified, cord blood-derived, allogeneic, cryopreserved, ADCC-enhancing NK cell therapy candidate for use in combination with monoclonal antibodies or innate-cell engagers in the out-patient setting. Artiva is investigating AlloNK in a phase 1/2 multicenter clinical trial to assess the safety and clinical activity of AlloNK alone and in combination with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, rituximab, in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell-non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Artiva is also investigating the safety and clinical activity of AlloNK in combination with rituximab in patients with lupus nephritis. In addition, Artiva is collaborating with Affimed in a phase 2, open-label, multi-center, multi-cohort study, testing a combination therapy, comprised of AlloNK and the innate cell engager AFM13, for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory CD30-positive lymphomas. Artiva selects cord blood units with the high affinity variant of the CD16 receptor and a KIR-B haplotype for enhanced product activity. Using the company’s cell therapy manufacturing platform, Artiva can generate thousands of doses of pure, cryopreserved, infusion-ready NK cells from a single umbilical cord blood unit while retaining the high and consistent expression of CD16 and other activating NK receptors, without the need for engineering. AlloNK is being administered in the outpatient setting over multiple doses and multiple cycles. Artiva’s pipeline also includes AB-201, an anti-HER2 CAR-NK cell therapy candidate for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing tumors, such as breast, gastric, and bladder cancers, and for which an IND has been allowed by FDA, and a pipeline of CAR-NK candidates targeting both solid and hematopoietic cancers. Artiva has also entered into therapeutic NK cell collaborations with Merck Sharp & Dohme. | |||
| 20 Oct 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 68 – rejuvenation with stem cells | 00:29:43 | |
This week, our guest on the podcast is Mark Kotter, founder of newly-created company clock.bio. clock.bio, a sister company to bit.bio, which Kotter also founded and is the CEO of, aims to extend and improve quality of life by reversing the harmful effects of time in our cells, harnessing the regenerative capabilities of human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). These hiPSCs have the ability not only to stay young but also to rejuvenate when forced to age. Clock.bio’s approach is to harness this power of ‘resetting the clock’ in hiPSCs to identify new approaches to treating age-related diseases. It has developed an aging model that ‘force ages’ hiPSCs and triggers their self-rejuvenation mechanism. Unbiased CRISPR screens on large samples of these cells allows for the identification of gene candidates that are causally relevant for cell rejuvenation. This enables a decoding of rejuvenation biology and corresponding IP; the resulting knowledge will be used to create novel treatment approaches. The company’s mission is to extend health span by 20 years based on biomarkers of aging in a phase 3 trial by the end of this decade. Clock.bio recently published a white paper for rejuvenation therapies and a blueprint for clock.bio. | |||
| 27 Oct 2023 | Beyond Biotech podcast 69 – improving access to cell and gene therapy | 00:37:06 | |
This week, our guest on the podcast is Jason C. Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech. Ori is a London, U.K. and New Jersey, U.S. based manufacturing technology company pioneering flexible process discovery with translation and scalable commercialization of cell and gene therapies (CGT). Ori has developed a proprietary, full stack manufacturing platform that closes, automates and standardizes CGT manufacturing allowing therapeutics developers to develop and bring their products to market at commercial scale. The promise of the Ori platform is to fully automate CGT manufacturing to increase throughput, improve quality and decrease costs by combining proprietary hardware, software, data and analytics. Ori was founded in 2015 by Dr Farlan Veraitch from University College London. The company also produces a monthly report on its website, which covers the latest in CGT approvals, regulations, trials and industry news. | |||
| 03 Nov 2023 | How quantum computing can accelerate drug discovery | 00:28:45 | |
On today’s podcast, Jean-Philip Piquemal, the chief scientific officer and co-founder of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, explains how the company’s Atlas platform is leading the way to more effective and safer drugs. 00:54-01:52: The history of Qubit Pharmaceuticals 01:52-04:04: What is the Atlas software? 04:04-05:18: Failing quickly is the key 05:19-06:53: What are digital twins? 06:54-09:00: Improving safety, reducing costs, and boosting drug discovery 09:00-10:44: Areas of interest 10:44-13:21: Recent successes 13:23-14:57: Preparing for future pandemics 14:58-17:03: Staying ahead of other companies 17:04-18:29: Enough diseases to go around 18:30-20:11: Upgrading Atlas software 20:13-21:59: How Qubit works with pharma companies 21:59-24:41: The Quantum for Bio program 24:42-27:58: Looking to the future, and helping patients Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 10 Nov 2023 | Mending a broken heart with biotech | 00:29:10 | |
French company CellProthera has seen some remarkable results treating people who have had a heart attack. On this week’s podcast, the company’s CEO Matthieu de Kalbermatten tells us how it works. 01:00-03:29: About CellProthera Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 17 Nov 2023 | How to make vaccines affordable | 00:40:36 | |
Among other things, UK-headquartered company Phenotypeca has been working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce albumin for low and middle-income countries to reduce the costs of vaccines. The company’s CEO, Johnny Cordiner, and research and development director, Professor Ed Louis, tell us about the work, as well as the company and its other projects. 01:01-11:57: About Phenotypeca Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 24 Nov 2023 | New class of small molecule therapeutics introduced | 00:26:35 | |
On this week’s podcast we have a conversation with Jordi Mata-Fink, co-founder and chief executive officer of the newly-launched U.S. company Gate Bioscience. 00:45-01:06: About Gate Bioscience Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 01 Dec 2023 | Ipsen advances liver disease treatment | 00:21:47 | |
Jennifer Schranz is senior vice president and global head of rare diseases in the R&D division at Ipsen. 00:56-00:49: Background information Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 08 Dec 2023 | Using worms to treat diseases | 00:21:37 | |
Is there a connection between worms being eradicated from the gut in the early 20th Century and an increase in allergies and autoimmune disease? This week, we have a conversation with Holoclara CEO Andrea Choe, who not only believes there is a connection, but also sees secretions from worms as a way to tackle such diseases. 01:31-06:05: About Holoclara
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| 15 Dec 2023 | Tackling challenging diseases with vaccines | 00:25:47 | |
Vaxxinity, Inc. is a U.S.-based biotechnology company looking to develop vaccines for several hard-to-treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The company is pioneering a new class of medicines through its proprietary technology platform, which has enabled the innovation of novel synthetic peptide immunotherapy candidates to bring the efficiency of vaccines to the treatment of chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, migraine, and hypercholesterolemia. In this week’s podcast, the company’s CEO, Mei Mei Hu, tells us about its work, and the aim of democratizing healthcare across the globe. 01:00-02:21: About Vaxxinity Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 05 Jan 2024 | Gene editing in the microbiome to treat acne | 00:29:02 | |
Eligo Bioscience is a gene-editing company focused on addressing diseases driven by the expression of bacterial genes from the microbiome. This week, we talk to Xavier Duportet, CEO of Eligo Bioscience, as the company looks to head to the clinic with its acne vulgaris treatment. 00:53-02:42: About Eligo Bioscience Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 12 Jan 2024 | Could natural killer cells transform Alzheimer’s treatment? | 00:28:14 | |
A US company, with its origins in South Korea, is using natural killer (NK) cells to treat Alzheimer’s disease, with remarkable results. This week, we have a conversation with Dr Paul Song, CEO of NKGen Biotech, a company with its sights set on changing the Alzheimer’s treatment landscape. 00:58-02:55: About NKGen Biotech Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 19 Jan 2024 | Epic Bio - gene editing without cutting DNA | 00:32:43 | |
Epic Bio is an epigenetic editing company, leveraging the power of CRISPR without cutting DNA. This week, we discuss epigenetic editing, why it’s reversible, and how it can treat FSHD and other conditions, with Epic Bio’s founder, Dr Stanley Qi, one of the original inventors of CRISPR. 01:15-02:51: Dr Xi’s background Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 26 Jan 2024 | Boosting fertility by changing the vaginal microbiome | 00:32:38 | |
Freya Biosciences is a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to reimagining women's health and redefining fertility for those previously deprived of options. With a focus on microbial immunotherapies, Freya addresses immune drivers underlying a range of reproductive health conditions. The company recently received $38 million Series A financing to advance the clinical development of its lead drug candidate, an investigational vaginal microbial immunotherapeutic. The treatment is to address infertility in women with dysbiotic vaginal microbiota who are undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART). This week’s conversation is with Freya chief science officer and co-founder Johan van Hylckama Vlieg. 00:58-01:55: About Freya Biosciences Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 02 Feb 2024 | BioSenic developing severe knee osteoarthritis treatment | 00:31:43 | |
BioSenic, a Belgian clinical-stage company specializing in serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and cell therapy, will share data on its late-clinical asset JTA-004 at the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) World Congress 2024 in Vienna, Austria. The post hoc analysis of a phase 3 study found that a single injection of JTA-004 was safe and efficacious for patients with a newly characterized severe inflammatory subtype of knee osteoarthritis (OA). This week on the podcast, we talk about the treatment with BioSenic chief scientific officer and chief operating officer, Dr Carole Nicco. 00:52-03:19: About BioSenic Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 16 Feb 2024 | How does AI assist drug discovery? | 00:38:26 | |
Artificial intelligence (AI) is certainly in the news constantly; however, it’s been used in drug discovery for some time. A new collaboration between artificial intelligence drug discovery company Insilico Medicine and University of Toronto biochemist and molecular geneticist Igor Stagljar will test AI-designed molecules against "undruggable" cancer targets.
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| 09 Feb 2024 | Biosimilars and what’s new in cell and gene therapies | 00:37:17 | |
This week on the podcast, we have a conversation with Fran Gregory, vice president of Emerging Therapies at Cardinal Health. 00:40-02:30: About Cardinal Health Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 23 Feb 2024 | Transforming treatments for epilepsy | 00:41:27 | |
After decades of lagging nearly many other disease areas, neurology is finally seeing signs of significant innovation. One of the biggest reasons it’s trailed behind has been the difficulty in teasing out complex neurobiology – an understanding necessary to design novel medicines. Rapport Therapeutics is playing a significant role in turning the tide. Rapport creates precision neuromedicines that act only in the brain regions where disease originates, avoiding the side effects that affect many of today’s treatments.
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| 01 Mar 2024 | Is Tome writing the final chapter in genomic medicine? | 00:33:11 | |
Tome Biosciences recently exited stealth mode with almost a quarter of a billion dollars in funding. The company has developed a new approach to gene editing, programmable genomic integration (PGI), which it says represents the final chapter in genomic medicines. We discussed the company’s formation and approach with the CEO and president of Tome, Rahul Kakkar. 00:45-04:30: About Tome Biosciences Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 08 Mar 2024 | How AI immune system mapping can boost drug discovery | 00:28:46 | |
Immunai is mapping the immune system at unprecedented scale and granularity. The map, paired with machine learning, looks at how the immune system will respond to drug targets, offering an affordable way to prevent expensive drug failures. The ultimate goal is to market immune treatments for diseases like cancer faster than ever before. In this week’s conversation, Noam Solomon, CEO and co-founder of Immunai, covers the data gap in drug discovery and how machine learning (ML) can solve it, how to de-risk early-stage drug discovery, predictions for AI, and more. 00:41-01:05: About Immunai Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 15 Mar 2024 | Reformulating psychedelics for neurodegenerative diseases | 00:41:37 | |
There is a clear demand for novel, neurological treatments. While it’s widely known psychedelics hold enormous therapeutic potential, there are a host of challenges, including dosing and potential side effects for the patient. Our guest this week is Dr Sam Clark, who founded Terran Biosciences to develop a safe, effective portfolio of therapeutics and technologies for patients with neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here!
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| 22 Mar 2024 | New treatments being developed for schizophrenia | 00:25:31 | |
It would appear that 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for the development of treatments for schizophrenia, with several clinical trials under way. Recently, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sosei Group Corporation (Sosei Heptares) announced a global collaboration and exclusive option-to-license agreement. This is to develop and commercialize Sosei Heptares’ portfolio of first-in-class GPR52 agonists, a novel G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) target. The goal is to improve patient outcomes by addressing the positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. Clíona MacSweeney, Sosei Heptares’ GPR52 program leader, spoke with us about that partnership, as well as other developments in the field of schizophrenia treatments.
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| 05 Apr 2024 | Colossal aims to bring back mammoth by 2028 | 00:38:24 | |
Based in Austin, Texas, biotech Colossal Biosciences is at the forefront of de-extinction, critically endangered species protection and the repopulation of critical ecosystems. Its mission is to use CRISPR technology to bring back extinct animals, such as the mammoth, the thylacine, and the dodo. Since DNA was recovered in 2021 from mammoths frozen in the Arctic tundra, the company has been working on splicing bits of the recovered DNA into the genome of its closest relative, the Asian elephant, as it shares 99.6% of its DNA.
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| 12 Apr 2024 | Redefining chronic pain treatment | 00:35:42 | |
Doloromics is a precision neuropharmaceuticals company. It was set up four years ago, to use newer technologies, particularly in the omics space, to take advantage of different single-cell transcriptomic technologies or proteomic technologies to better understand the progression of neurological diseases like chronic pain. The Doloromics pipeline is built upon a proprietary discovery and validation platform DOLOReS. Jackson Brougher, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Doloromics, is our guest on this week’s Beyond Biotech podcast.
Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 19 Apr 2024 | The biotech investment landscape in 2024 | 00:28:32 | |
RTW is a global multi-strategy investment firm focused on supporting innovative biotech and biopharma companies across the US, Europe, and China. The company invests in both public and private companies across their entire life cycle, with a focus on those addressing next-generation gene and RNA therapies, rare diseases, targeted oncological, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders, and more.
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| 26 Apr 2024 | Overcoming clinical trial challenges | 00:26:00 | |
This week, we have a conversation about clinical trial design with Gen Li, the president and founder of Phesi, a global provider of patient-centric data analysis. Earlier this year, Phesi’s global analysis of all clinical trials conducted in 2023 revealed that more than a quarter (28%) of trials were cancelled during phase II – above the average attrition rate of 20% before 2020.
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| 03 May 2024 | New ways to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy | 00:23:56 | |
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder with progressive muscle degeneration and weakness due to changes in the protein dystrophin, which helps keep muscle cells intact. There are few treatments for DMD, although recent advances mean that males – who are primarily affected by DMD – can now sometimes survive into their 30s. More drugs are being developed in the fight against DMD, and this week we had a conversation with Frank Gleeson, CEO of Satellos Bioscience, about recent work on addressing DMD, including the company’s own work in the field.
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| 10 May 2024 | Making waves in cardiovascular disease treatment | 00:21:02 | |
Cytokinetics is a late-stage, specialty cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing first-in-class muscle activators and next-in-class muscle inhibitors as potential treatments for debilitating diseases in which cardiac muscle performance is compromised. This week, we have a conversation with the CEO of Cytokinetics, Robert Blum, about the company’s aficamten, its next-in-class cardiac myosin inhibitor, prior to results from a phase 3 clinical trial in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
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| 17 May 2024 | Antisense oligonucleotides | 00:27:22 | |
German-headquartered Isarna Therapeutics is developing a portfolio of antisense therapies targeting an emerging therapeutic field in human biology – transforming growth factor beta (TGF-B) signaling. The company’s lead compound, ISTH0036, is in clinical development in ophthalmology. On the podcast this week we chat with René Rückert, chief operating officer at Isarna Therapeutics, who explains TGF-B and antisense oligonucleotides’ role in tackling disease.
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| 24 May 2024 | How biotech is tackling myasthenia gravis | 00:28:50 | |
June is myasthenia gravis awareness month. Myasthenia gravis is a chronic autoimmune disorder where antibodies destroy the communication between nerves and muscle, and this results in weakness of the skeletal muscles. It especially affects the voluntary muscles of the eyes, mouth, throat and/or limbs. It is most frequent in women from 20 and 30 and men aged 50 and older. To talk about the disease, how it is being treated, and what is in the pipeline for future treatments, we had a conversation with Dana Vigier, head of Central Eastern and Northern Europe at Alexion. 01:07-04:26: Background on Dr Dana Vigier Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 31 May 2024 | Can cell therapy tackle hearing loss? | 00:31:00 | |
Hearing loss is a huge – and growing – global challenge. Using its OSPREY platform, UK-based Rinri Therapeutics is developing a portfolio of off-the-shelf regenerative cell therapy products to address sensorineural hearing loss, a significant global medical challenge. The company’s lead asset, Rincell-1, is designed to regenerate auditory neurons and provide a novel treatment for patients with severe-to-profound age-related hearing loss or auditory neuropathy. The company is looking to start first-in-human trials in 2025. Today, on the podcast we have a conversation with Rinri CEO Simon Chandler about the different kinds of hearing loss, what’s being done to tackle them, and Rinri’s novel approach to treatments. 01:08-03:19: About Rinri Therapeutics Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||
| 07 Jun 2024 | Developing treatments for rare pediatric diseases | 00:29:17 | |
Rare diseases affect around 1 in 2,000 people. Many of the thousands of rare diseases are difficult to diagnose. Of the known rare diseases, about 80% have genetic causes. Leukodystrophies are a group of rare genetic disorders for which there is currently no curative therapy. This week on the podcast we are discussing novel treatments of rare pediatric diseases in a conversation with Dan Williams, CEO, executive director and co-founder of Synaptix Bio. Synaptix Bio is working on developing treatments for severe leukodystrophies. The company has partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to take a TUBB4a leukodystrophy therapy to the clinic and beyond. 01:41-05:08: About Synaptix Bio This week’s podcast was sponsored by KBI Biopharma. Visit their facility in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 27, to join the discussion on solving biotherapeutic challenges. Register at kbibiopharma.com/conferences. Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter | |||