Biotech Hangout

Guest Frank David, Tufts Professor & Author joins the hosts to discuss 'Hub & Spoke' companies. They cover M&A news, Medicare negotiations, IPO landscape, and Nestle's sale of a peanut allergy drug. They also explore the impact of COVID on the biotech market and the importance of measuring waste and efficiency in biotech projects. The podcast highlights the scrappy culture of the industry and the challenge of FTC to the Amgen horizon deal. Lastly, they discuss the Biden administration's actions on Medicare price negotiations and emphasize the importance of acting on knowledge.

Biotech Hangout podcast discusses biotech M&A, FTC's proposed rules, Amgen and Horizon's lawsuit, private equity financings, and data/regulatory updates. They also cover FDA's consideration of mixed data, Blue Shield of California's drug delivery partnerships, and bispecific drug pricing.

On Biotech Hangout this week, Brad Loncar, Chris Garabedian, Sam Fazeli, Rob Perez and Ethan Perlstein discuss the influence of GLP-1s including cost, safety, drawbacks and more in light of Novo Nordisk’s positive semaglutide SELECT study results and Eli Lilly’s earnings, which rose due to their type 2 diabetes drug. Other big topics include last week’s Sage and Biogen news following the FDA’s decision to approve zuranolone for PPD but not MDD and its effect on Sage’s stock, plus progress and setbacks in ultra rare diseases including Taysha Gene Therapies. The hosts also dive into Iveric Bio’s drug approval for geographic atrophy, Nektar suing Eli Lilly over botched data, Bluebird Q2 earnings, Mirati data and the 3rd annual Timmerman Traverse. *This episode aired on August 11, 2023

On this week’s episode of Biotech Hangout, hosts Daphne Zohar, Tim Opler, Brad Loncar, Bruce Booth, Otello Stampacchia and Mike Yee cover industry news from the week. They discuss the latest deals including Alexion acquiring Pfizer’s rare disease gene therapy portfolio and Revolution Medicines acquisition of EQRx and a broader discussion of merging with negative EV companies as a strategy for fundraising and the “fundability” of certain founders. The hosts also dive into the hot topic of the week: Biogen and Sage’s PDUFA for zuranolone in MDD and PPD. Additionally, they cover the busy week of Q2 earnings, which included news from Pfizer, Vertex, Moderna, Regeneron, TG Therapeutics and more. Other topics of discussion included the state of biopharma jobs, Vertex non-opioid data, an SVB healthcare report on VC funds, climate change and Steve Jobs’ son starting a VC firm for cancer treatments. *This episode aired on August 4th, 2023

On this week’s episode of Biotech Hangout, guest Matthew Gline (CEO of Roivant) joins hosts Brad Loncar, Tim Opler and Brian Skorney to discuss Biogen’s heavy news week, including their acquisition of Reata for $6.5 billion, their decision to cut 1,000 jobs by 2025 and their quiet stance regarding their upcoming PDUFA date to treat PPD and MDD in partnership with Sage. The hosts also cover other layoff and leadership changes, including the resignation of FibroGen’s CEO and layoffs from Infinity and Mersana. The group also touches on the $2.8 billion hypertension deal between Roche and Alnylam and the impact this deal could have on patients. Additionally, they discuss Gilead being accused of slow-walking the development of a new version of an HIV therapy to extend their patent protection, British billionaire Joe Lewis being charged with insider trading and the impact that poor data readouts had on Stoke Therapeutics’, Gilead’s and Kodiak’s shares. *This episode aired on July 28, 2023*

On this week’s episode of Biotech Hangout, guest Neil Kumar (CEO of BridgeBio) joins hosts Daphne Zohar, Brad Loncar, Tim Opler, Bruce Booth and Brian Skorney to discuss BridgeBio’s long awaited, positive Phase 3 transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) data, including the company’s ups and downs and some leadership lessons along with the benefits of diversification. The hosts also cover the Acumen Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly positive Alzheimer’s data, in addition to questions around safety for eye disease trials related to Apellis’ Syfovre and Horizon Therapeutics’ Tepezza. With a news heavy week, the group also discusses data integrity issues (including the Marc Tessier-Lavigne case), the impact of priority review vouchers and deals/M&A. *This episode aired on July 21, 2023*

On this week’s episode of Biotech Hangout, hosts Brad Loncar, Chris Garabedian, Tim Opler, Dawn Bell and guest host Brian Skorney talk the latest in industry news. They discuss the first FDA approved Alzheimer’s drug to slow cognitive decline plus the subsequent retirement of Esai’s CEO /Alzheimer’s lead. Several other headlines this week including Eli Lilly’s Versanis acquisition, ADC Therapeutics pausing trial enrollment, Illumina’s fine and BeiGene and Novartis terminating their agreement. The hosts also talk about China-related news including the FDA planning to import more doses of chemotherapy from China and four of the top 10 global pharma license deals this year have come from China. They also discuss ophthalmology news from Astellas, 4D Molecular Therapeutics and Tenpoint Therapeutics. Other news covered this week includes the role of AI in drug development following Nvidia’s investment in Recursion, Apogee and Sagimet’s IPOs targeting, Viridian data and Avrobio considering M&A. *This episode aired on July 14, 2023*

On this week’s episode of Biotech Hangout, hosts Daphne Zohar, Tim Opler, Chris Garabedian, Mike Yee and Bruce Booth discuss the week’s industry news including M&A, regulatory, data and more. They highlight the continued M&A streak with Eli Lilly acquiring Dice Therapeutics. They also discuss PhRMA’s lawsuit vs. the U.S. government over IRA Medicare Drug Price Negotiations, following similar suits from Merck & Bristol Myers Squibb. They also talk about several Duchenne news items including Santhera licensing its Duchenne drug to Catalyst and Sarepta’s DMD therapy approval. Additional industry news covered includes the SEC’s case against biotech executives and investors and conflicts of interest with PBMs and FTC’s lawsuit against Amgen. The hosts also discuss what happened to big academic tech transfer deals, Leerink is back, Intercept, Alderya and Arcellx regulatory news, plus Uniqure and Roivant data. *This episode aired on June 23, 2023*

This week, hosts Daphne Zohar, Brad Loncar, Tim Opler & Michal Preminger focus on the theme of people and reputation in the industry. The hosts (and several audience members, including STAT reporter Allison DeAngelis and Kojin Therapeutics CEO Luba Greenwood) discuss the hot topic of the week - media coverage of Biogen board changes. Additionally, in the wake of Ram Sasisekharan speaking out after a four-year investigation exonerated him, the group discusses repercussions for accusers and impact to reputation. In addition to people topics, the hosts cover the week’s financings and M&A including the first biotech to file for IPO in months, plus data from EHA 2023 and data integrity. *This episode aired on June 16, 2023*

This week, Daphne Zohar, Brad Loncar and John Maraganore hosted a special live edition of Biotech Hangout at the BIO conference, and they dive into their learnings on this week’s episode. They are also joined by Josh Schimmer and Otello Stampacchia to discuss the latest news, data, deals and more. The hosts debate the hot topic of the week - Merck’s lawsuit against the U.S. government’s IRA negotiations. They also discuss data that was shared at the recent ASCO 2023 conference, and a tweet accused of moving stock. Other topics include a surprising acquisition and oncology response criteria. *This episode aired on June 9, 2023*