Biotech 2050 Podcast

Synopsis: Sean Bohen is the President and CEO of Olema Oncology, a company dedicated to developing targeted therapies for women with breast cancer. An oncologist by training, Dr. Bohen has a background in big pharma, having worked at Genentech and AstraZeneca before joining Olema. He talks with host Rahul Chaturverdi about the differences between working for biotech and big pharma companies, the work his team is pursuing at Olema, the opportunities and challenges within the breast cancer landscape, the ups and downs of running a biotech company and managing a team with the current market dynamics, and the importance of partnerships and how they can strength companies. Biography: Dr. Bohen has served as Chief Executive Officer of Olema Oncology and a member of the Board of Directors since September 2020. He is also a non-executive director of Gyroscope Therapeutics, Ltd. and AltruBio, Inc. He has extensive oncology drug development experience, having served as Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development, and Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca PLC. Before that, he held a number of senior leadership roles at Genentech, Inc., including Senior Vice President, Early Development, Genentech Research and Early Development. Prior to Genentech, he was a Clinical Instructor in Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine; a research associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Bohen received a B.S. in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco.

Synopsis: Bill Hinshaw is the President and CEO of Axcella Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to treat complex diseases using endogenous metabolic modulator (EMM) compositions. Bill entered biotech a little over four years ago following a long life sciences career in pharma, working for companies such as Novartis and Schering Plough. He joins host Rahul Chaturverdi for a discussion about where Axcella is from a development perspective and the therapeutic areas they’re pursuing, the company’s work to treat long Covid, the challenges of developing drugs to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and Axcella’s “combination by design” multi-targeted approach to tackle complex diseases. Read More on Axcella Announces Positive Interim Data from Phase 2b EMMPACT Study of AXA1125 in Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) https://bit.ly/3U0iEa6 Biography: Mr. Hinshaw joined Axcella as CEO in May 2018. He is the former Executive Vice President of U.S. Oncology at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, having served 15 years with the organization. Mr. Hinshaw led all aspects of this >$6B organization, heading up more than a dozen product launches, including Tasigna®, Gleevec®, and Kymriah®; the integration of the GSK oncology portfolio; innovative medical, commercial, and market access models; and a patient-centric focus on education and support programs. He also played a key role on the Global Oncology Executive Committee, including leading key strategic programs to maximize the portfolio and pipeline development. Mr. Hinshaw was formerly the Head of the Northern and Central Europe Region for Novartis Oncology where he was responsible for leading all functions across 33 countries. Prior to that role, Mr. Hinshaw was the head of Group Emerging Markets, which included all divisions of Novartis in 50 countries worldwide. Prior to his role as EVP, Mr. Hinshaw held a number of lead roles for Novartis, including Head of the Hematology Business Franchise, which achieved >20% overall growth each year under Mr. Hinshaw’s leadership. He also was the Global Head of Infectious Disease and Transplantation and Immunology (IDTI) based out of Basel, Switzerland, with responsibility for all functions of the organization, including commercial, development, BD&L, and strategy for the Business Unit. Other Novartis positions held by Mr. Hinshaw included Global Head of Infectious Disease Marketing and IDTI Development and Business Development & Licensing; Business Franchise Head, Infectious Disease; and Head of Infectious Disease Marketing. Mr. Hinshaw started his career at Schering Plough, where over the course of 12 years, he held a series of roles of increasing responsibility in the sales and marketing functions in both primary care and specialty business units, including market research, new products and in-line brand management, and sales positions at the representative, district, regional, and national levels. He also led the U.S. Oncology Unit where he was responsible for sales, marketing and business development. Mr. Hinshaw holds a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin.

Synopsis: Jeremy Levin is the Chairman and CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, a company that develops medicines to treat patients with rare neurological conditions, including epilepsies and seizure-related disorders. Dr. Levin earned a PhD from Oxford and medical and surgical degrees from Cambridge before moving to the States in the late 1980s and eventually working in big pharma for companies such as Teva Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He discusses how his formative years shaped his personal philosophy and mission to change the world for the better, the differences he experienced from running big pharma companies to early stage biotech startups, the science at Ovid and their pipeline, and his hopes for R&D in neurology over the next 10-20 years. Biography: Jeremy Levin, D.Phil, MB BChir, is chairman and chief executive officer of Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OVID), a company whose mission is to bring treatments to patients with rare neurological conditions. Dr. Levin is concurrently the chairman of Opthea (NASDAQ.OPT). Prior to founding Ovid, Dr. Levin was president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., (TLV: TEVA). Before Teva, Dr. Levin was a member of the executive committee Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY). In that capacity, he was the architect, lead and implementer of the String of Pearls Strategy, which transformed Bristol and facilitated the dawn and massive growth of the immuno-oncology revolution in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Levin joined Bristol from Novartis (NYSE: NVS), where he was the global head of strategic alliances. He has served as a member of the board of directors of various public and private biopharmaceutical companies, including Biocon Ltd., (NSE: BIOCON), and is currently on the board of directors of Lundbeck (OMX: LUN). Dr. Levin also serves on the board and executive committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) as the immediate past chairman. Dr. Levin was voted as one of the 25 most influential biotechnology leaders by Fierce Biotech, one of the top three biotechnology CEOs by The Healthcare Technology Report and one of the PharmaVoice100 CEOs in 2020. He was selected by Endpoints in 2021 as one of the 60 living pioneers of the industry. He is the recipient of the Albert Einstein Award for Leadership in Life Sciences and the B’nai B’rith Award for Distinguished Achievement. In June 2020, he edited and published the best seller “Biotechnology in the Time of Covid-19”. Dr Levin has been widely quoted and interviewed in national and international news outlets and life science industry-related publications. He believes that the role of leaders in business is to take a public stand on public policy matters as a core part of their business strategy and responsibility to shareholders, industry and society. He is committed to a public stance on key aspects of society and industry, including, but not limited to: encouraging immigration; policies that drive innovation; patient access to medicines; the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion; the primacy of medicine and science as the sole determinants to develop medical products; and the democratic right to vote for all citizens. Dr. Levin has practiced medicine at university hospitals in England, South Africa and Switzerland. Dr. Levin earned a First-Class Bachelor in Zoology, winning the University Prize, and subsequently, was awarded a master’s degree and doctorate in chromatin structure, at the University of Oxford. Thereafter, he earned his medical and surgical degrees from the University of Cambridge, where he won the Kermode Prize for his work on Captopril.

Synopsis: Keith Flaherty is the Director of Clinical Research at Mass General Cancer Center and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Flaherty is a medical oncologist and has worked in the field for 22 years, during which he has founded seven biotech companies. He joins Rahul for an in-depth conversation about his work in oncology. They cover a wide range of topics including his early decision in school to switch from neuroscience to oncology, his entrepreneurial journey and what he’s learned along the way, his perspective on the immuno-oncology landscape and opportunities that lie ahead in this field, what he values in a board and how you can be most effective as a board member, and much more. Biography: Dr. Keith Flaherty is the Director of Clinical Research at Mass General Cancer Center, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Physician of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Flaherty is also the Deputy Chair for Biomarker Sciences and the Chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. Dr. Flaherty has served as Principal Investigator for numerous first-in-human clinical trials with novel, targeted therapies, including the first in-human trials of the first prospectively developed selective BRAF inhibitors for metastatic melanoma and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. He currently serves on the board of directors of Scorpion Therapeutics (founder), Strata Oncology (founder), Kinnate Biopharma, and Clovis Oncology. Dr. Flaherty has a Bachelor of Science from Yale University and medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Flaherty trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Synopsis: Dennis Zaller is the Chief Scientific Officer of ROME Therapeutics, a company developing novel therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases by harnessing the power of the dark genome, defined as vast stretches of uncharted genetic material that have long been dismissed as “junk DNA.” Dennis joins host Rahul Chaturverdi for a conversation about ROME’s unique path to conquering disease and the multiple drug discovery programs they have underway. They also discuss Dennis’ transition to biotech after having worked in big pharma for 30 years, the application of data science and drug development at ROME tx, what the company’s pipeline and company building looks like over the next several years, and how the dynamic between biotech and big pharma has changed over the last 10-20 years, and where it’s headed. Biography: Dennis is Chief Scientific Officer at ROME Therapeutics. He has more than 30 years of experience in the biopharma industry. Most recently, he spent five years as executive director, integrative sciences at Celgene (later Bristol Myers Squibb). In this role, he provided scientific leadership across a large portfolio of external collaborations with early stage biotechs that helped bring six novel molecules to the clinic. During his time at Celgene, Dennis participated in more than 20 joint steering research committees with biotechs and academic collaborators and helped bring six novel molecules to the clinic. Prior to Celgene, he spent 25 years at Merck Research Laboratories in a series of roles with increasing responsibility leading large drug discovery teams at Merck’s New Jersey and Boston sites. While at Merck, Dennis helped to advance 28 molecules into the clinic resulting in eight marketed drugs, including aprepitant, sitagliptin and vibegron. Before joining industry, he conducted academic research at the California Institute of Technology. Dennis has a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany, and an M.A., M.Phil. & Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is an author of more than 60 manuscripts in leading journals covering a variety of scientific discoveries and is an inventor on seven patents.

Synopsis: This episode is co-hosted by Chris Ghadban at BIOS Builders. Guests Tim Lu and Kanya Rajangam are the Co-Founder & CEO and Chief Medical and Development Officer, respectively, of Senti Bio, a company that develops and manufactures intelligent gene circuits for use in next-generation cell and gene therapies across therapeutic areas and modalities. They join Chris and Alok for a conversation about how Senti Bio uses its gene circuit technologies to increase the efficacy of cancer treatments. They also discuss their path to an IND from the FDA, some of the challenges they still have to overcome, and the potential their platform has for enabling future cell therapies. Watch on BIOS Builders: https://bit.ly/3sNe5EZ Biography: Tim Lu has served as Senti Bio’s CEO since he co-founded the company in 2016. Since 2010, Dr. Lu has been an MIT faculty member in the departments of Biological Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In addition, Dr. Lu has been a co-founder and a Scientific Advisory Board member to a number of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies, including BiomX, Corvium, Eligo Bioscience, Engine Biosciences, Synlogic and Tango Therapeutics. Dr. Lu earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Medical Engineering and Medical Physics Program. Dr. Lu has extensive experience in the field of synthetic biology and has received numerous awards: NIH New Innovator Award, US President Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, MIT Technology Review’s TR35, Navy and Army Young Investigator Prizes and others. Kanya Rajangam is responsible for leading the development and regulatory strategy to rapidly advance Senti Bio's off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell oncology programs into and through clinical development. Dr. Rajangam served in leadership roles at various biotech companies, most recently Nkarta Therapeutics where, as chief medical officer, she was responsible for clinical development of CAR-NK cell therapies for oncology. Prior to Nkarta, she was chief medical officer at Atara Biotherapeutics where she led the development of T-cell therapies for oncology, neurology and infectious diseases. Prior to that, Dr. Rajangam was chief medical officer of Cleave Biosciences, where she led oncology clinical development programs. Prior to becoming a chief medical officer, Dr. Rajangam gained relevant senior leadership experience at Onyx and Exelixis, while contributing to the clinical development and global approval of several marketed oncology products including Kyprolis®, Cotellic® and Cometriq®/Cabometyx®. Dr. Rajangam currently serves on the board of directors of Turnstone Biologics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation tumor infiltrating lymphocyte cell therapies and oncolytic virus cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Rajangam received a medical degree from St. Johns’ Medical College and completed her surgical residency with a focus on oncology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), both in India. She received a Ph.D. in biomedical cell and tissue engineering from Northwestern University.

Synopsis: Ivan Dimov is the Co-Founder and CEO of Orca Bio, a cell therapy company focusing on next-generation precision cell therapies for blood cancer patients. Orca Bio’s cell therapies are designed to replace a patient’s cancerous blood and immune system with a healthy one, with the goal of improving survival rates and quality of life for survivors. Ivan discusses the historically limited treatment options for blood cancer patients and the resulting unmet need, how Orca Bio’s innovative technology is tackling this problem, and how he uses lessons from history to learn from failures and build success. Biography: Ivan launched Orca Bio in 2016 and is Chief Executive Officer of Orca Bio. He is also co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer of Lucira Health, a molecular diagnostics company that received the first FDA authorization for a COVID-19 at-home self-testing kit. Prior to Orca Bio, Ivan was Siebel Fellow and visiting Instructor in Irv Weissman’s laboratory and Senior Scientist at Stanford University. He was also a visiting research scholar at the BioPOETS Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, where he developed innovative microfluidic platforms for stem cell research and low-cost molecular diagnostics. Earlier in his career, Ivan founded BlobCode Technologies, a startup that incorporates 2D barcode reading capabilities using the standard camera within a mobile phone. Ivan has a PhD in applied biophysics from Dublin City University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electronics, telecommunications, and computer science from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile. He has established 2 research centers in Chile in the robotics and hospital technologies arena that provide clinical engineering and technology innovation to the largest hospitals in the country. Ivan has published more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has more than 40 patents or patent applications.

Synopsis: Stanley Crooke is Founder and CEO of n-Lorem Foundation, a nonprofit with the goal of discovering, developing and providing experimental ASO treatments to nano-rare patients for free for life. He joins us for a discussion about the business model behind rare diseases and how n-Lorem is looking to industrialize and scale the treatment of this unique population. Stanley talks about the challenges behind developing and bringing a new modality to the clinic, the company’s collaboration with the FDA, and how n-Lorem seeks to be sustainable and scalable over time. Biography: Dr. Crooke is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of n-Lorem, a nonprofit foundation focused on providing treatments for patients with nano-rare disease (1 to 30 patients worldwide), which he initiated in January 2020. Prior to n- Lorem, Dr. Crooke founded and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Lead Scientist of Ionis Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at Ionis, he led the scientific development of a new platform for drug discovery, antisense technology and the creation of one of the largest and more advanced development pipelines in the biotechnology industry, and commercialized several antisense drugs including, Spinraza, Tegsedi and others. Early in Dr. Crooke’s career, he led the creation of the first broad anticancer program in the industry at Bristol-Myers, bringing numerous anticancer drugs to the market in the first five years of his career. He then assumed responsibility for worldwide R&D (president) at SmithKline Beckman (now GSK). During his tenure at SKB, Dr. Crooke led the restructuring of R&D and the development of several drugs that were commercialized. Dr. Crooke has also contemporaneously led a successful academic career becoming a full professor at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School where he trained a number of PhD students and won several teaching awards. Dr. Crooke has been an active scientist throughout his career as well. Dr. Crooke has received a number of awards, most recently, Prix Galein Roy Vagellos Pro Bono Humanum Award, the American Chemical Society’s E.B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances, the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, the Scrip Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2019 Massry Prize. Dr. Crooke received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees and house staff training at Baylor College of Medicine and has been an active scientist throughout his career. In 2021, Dr. Crooke has been named Distinguished Alumnus of both Baylor College of Medicine’s Graduate and Medical schools and named one of the 20 of the most influential biopharma R&D executives by Endpoints News. He has published nearly 600 scientific publications, edited more than 20 books, has numerous patents, and led the development of more than 23 drugs that have been commercialized.

Synopsis: Andrew Sandford and Michael Paglia are the President and COO, respectively, of ElevateBio BaseCamp, a cell and gene therapy technology company powering transformative therapies. They join us from the company’s manufacturing facilities in Waltham, Massachusetts, for a discussion about the landscape of company creation in the cell and gene therapy space and how ElevateBio is helping companies bring innovation and therapeutics to clinics and patients to help treat and cure diseases. They talk about how ElevateBio is driving next-generation technologies like gene editing and regenerative medicine that empower new therapies in the industry. They also cover what they think the next two decades in this space will look like, opportunities they feel are untapped, and advice for their younger selves. Biographies: Andrew Sandford brings over 20 years of experience in building, operating, and leading life science technology and manufacturing companies and will continue to extend ElevateBio BaseCamp strategic partnerships in the field of cell and gene therapy. Prior to ElevateBio, Andrew worked in several leadership roles to oversee the successful implementation of strategic business development, marketing, and manufacturing operations. Notably, as Global Vice President of Business Development, Biologics for Catalent Pharma Solutions, Inc., his teams were responsible for driving revenue expansion, enabling the transformation of Catalent to a global biologics services provider. Prior to Catalent, Andrew held various leadership positions at Selexis Inc, Lonza Corporation, and Dow Chemical Company, creating strategic value through global business and licensing opportunities and increasing business unit profitability. Most recently, Andrew was an Executive in Residence for Anzu Partners, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of VREX Therapeutics, and Founder, Inventor and Managing Director of Arthropod Biosciences. Michael Paglia has spent the last twenty years in biotechnology building, leading and motivating process development and manufacturing teams to support clinical programs from early development to late-stage clinical trials. Currently, Michael is the Chief Operating Officer at ElevateBio BaseCamp, leading facility, process development and manufacturing operations for a broad portfolio of cell and gene therapy products and technologies. Prior to ElevateBio, Mike was the Vice President of CMC Operations at Oncorus and Program Lead for the development of a next-generation oncolytic immunotherapy platform. Prior to Oncorus, Michael was the Sr. Director of Technical Operations and Head of Cellular Process Development and Manufacturing Operations at bluebird bio.

Synopsis: Josh Wolfe is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in emerging science and technology ventures. Josh joins us for a discussion centered around investing in biotech. He discusses the arc of his career and the forces that led him to pursue a path at the intersection of science and finance. Josh also talks about the current state of biotech investing, trends he expects to see in the future, his advice to founder-led biotech companies, what he believes are the top three criteria for success for biotech companies, and his thoughts on the future of biotech. It’s an illuminating conversation you won’t want to miss. Biography: Josh co-founded Lux Capital to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time in order to lead us into a brighter future. The more ambitious the project, the better—like, say, creating matter from light. Josh is a Director at Shapeways, Strateos, Lux Research, Kallyope, CTRL-labs, Variant, and Varda, and helped lead the firm’s investments in Anduril, Planet, Echodyne, Clarifai, Authorea, Resilience and Hadrian. He is a founding investor and board member with Bill Gates in Kymeta, making cutting-edge antennas for high-speed global satellite and space communications. Josh is a Westinghouse semi-finalist and published scientist. He previously worked in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and in capital markets at Merrill Lynch. In 2008 Josh co-founded and funded Kurion, a contrarian bet in the unlikely business of using advanced robotics and state-of-the-art engineering and chemistry to clean up nuclear waste. It was an unmet, inevitable need with no solution in sight. The company was among the first responders to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. In February 2016, Veolia acquired Kurion for nearly $400 million—34 times Lux’s total investment. Josh is a columnist with Forbes and Editor for the Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report. He has been invited to The White House and Capitol Hill to advise on nanotechnology and emerging technologies, and a lecturer at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and NYU. He is a term member at The Council on Foreign Relations and Chairman of Coney Island Prep charter school, where he grew up in Brooklyn. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and Finance.