Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech

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.2:15 News4:28 Nevrargenics22:26 Triastek37:14 Endpoint HealthTriastek and Lilly working together on 3D printing for drugsA 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 pipelineEndpoint 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.NevrargenicsNevrargenics 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.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter

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.1:40 News3:47 PTC18:32 Micropep33:01 Valneva42:12 ARCHARCH Venture Partners closes $2.97B biotech fundARCH 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 lightPTC 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 productsFrench 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 studyPfizer 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.”SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on App

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.News: 02:30Endogena Therapeutics 5:10eureKARE 21:00Deep Science Ventures 33:46Biotech Growth Trust 47:44Endogena 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.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear you

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.World Hepatitis DayTaking 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’.Dr Ahmed Elsharkawy is a consultant transplant hepatologist and honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham and he is also chair of hepatitis B virus special interest group which is part of the British Association for the Study of the Liver. He is a strong supporter and advocate of World Hepatitis Day. 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.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter

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.Poolbeg Pharma, a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company, has received ethics and competent authority approval to commence its lipopolysaccharide (LPS) human challenge clinical trial for POLB 001, a strain agnostic, small molecule immunomodulator which aims to address the unmet medical need for a treatment for severe influenza.Biopharma company Mogrify Limited, and Japanese regenerative medicine firm Astellas Pharma Inc., have announced a collaborative research agreement on in vivo regenerative medicine approaches to address sensorineural hearing loss. Belgian headquartered biotech Galapagos NV has acquired CellPoint and AboundBio, a move the Belgian company said propels it into next-generation cell therapy.The deal saw the Lausanne-based team of US venture capital firm, +ND Capital, mark its second successful exit in the European biotech market. SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter 

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.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter 

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.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter 

On this week’s Labiotech.eu podcast, we have three guests.We had conversations with Manfred Rüdiger, CEO of Ariceum Therapeutics; Jon Hague, Unilever’s R&D VP for homecare; and Olivier Rolland, executive director at TWB.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter 

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.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter 

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. And a quick look at the news from the past seven days.SponsorInterested in sponsoring one or more episodes of the podcast? Learn more here!Leave a review on Apple podcastsReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, we would love to hear your feedback!Connect with uslabiotech.euSubscribe to our newsletter