🧬 Terry Lo - Vizgen - Part 2 | Terry’s Move from Big Pharma to Diagnostics | Introduction to Spatial Biology | Navigating Regulatory & Reimbursement Challenges in Diagnostics | Balancing Multiple Roles in M&A Negotiations

Part 2 of 3.

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My guest for this week’s episode is Terry Lo, President and CEO of Vizgen. Vizgen is developing and commercializing the next generation of genomics tools to expand on the capabilities of spatially resolved transcriptomics.

Terry is a pioneer in the emerging Spatial Biology market, with a proven track record of driving exceptional growth across global life science organizations, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Hologic, and PerkinElmer. In addition to his two decades of experience scaling and building multinational biopharma and diagnostic groups, he is also an expert in developing business strategies for novel, innovative products.

Join us for part 2 of our conversation with Terry, where we talk about his transition from Big Pharma to diagnostics, the challenges of moving into the diagnostics industry, and the contrasts between drug and diagnostic development processes. Terry also discusses his experience at Roche, his time with Akoya Biosciences after PerkinElmer, and his involvement in the M&A process while balancing multiple roles. Please enjoy my conversation with Terry Lo.

Find Our Guest, Terry Lo, at these links: 

00:28 Intro

01:35 Leaving Bristol, joining Cytyc, and transitioning into International Strategy role 

03:48 The contrasts between Diagnostics and Big Pharma

05:28 Drug development vs. diagnostics development processes

09:27 Moving to China and adapting to his role change from International Strategy to Managing Director

10:43 Adjusting to life in China with his pregnant wife

13:25 Moving back to the US and joining Roche Molecular in California

15:26 Transitioning to PerkinElmer and Terry’s intro to spatial biology

17:28 The challenges and triumphs in this new field

20:25 The challenges of regulatory agencies and reimbursement in Diagnostics and getting a product through the FDA

24:58 Merging with Akoya Biosciences after PerkinElmer to support Terry’s platform

26:51 Terry’s experience with M&A of Akoya by PerkinElmer, balancing multiple roles

29:13 Outro ​

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Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ 

Corporate Business Development https://www.rontar.com/blog/corporate-development-vs-business-development/

International Strategy https://phrase.com/blog/posts/international-strategy/

Diagnostics vs. Pharmaceuticals https://tarikyildirim.com/blog/2019/1/21/pharma-vs-diagnostics

P&L statement https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/plstatement.asp

Drug development vs. diagnostics development https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235489/

AI/ML in drug development https://www.fda.gov/science-research/science-and-research-special-topics/artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning-aiml-drug-development

Protein folding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_folding

Protein therapeutics https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd2399

How Biotech & Big Pharma Partner to Support R&D https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-biotech-partnerships-support-research

Spatial Biology https://www.akoyabio.com/why-spatial-biology/

Regulatory and reimbursement impacts in Pharma https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234312/ 

Drug approval with FDA

Regulatory and reimbursement impacts in Diagnostics https://www.lighthouselabservices.com/understanding-the-keys-to-diagnostic-reimbursement/

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mergersandacquisitions.asp

The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.