The Bio Report

Incubators create success stories, but usually aren’t thought of as success stories themselves. The newly renamed MBC Biolabs, which started with humble beginnings in a utility closet as the first technology incubator in the University of California system, has been a big success by meeting the needs of entrepreneurial scientists. We spoke to Doug Crawford, managing director of Mission Bay Capital and General Manager MBC Biolabs, about its recent rebranding, how it operates, and its plans for expansion.

Across the continuum of drug discovery, development, and delivery there’s a growing effort to incorporate the patient perspective into the process. Last year FasterCures, the nonprofit focused on accelerating and improving medical research, held a multi-stakeholder workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities of patient reported outcomes and how to make them a more powerful tool for incorporating patients’ perspectives into R&D and care decision-making. A new report from the organization captures the results of that workshop. We spoke to Cynthia Grossman, director of science of patient input at FasterCures, about the report, why patient reported outcome measures and patient-centric outcomes are not one and the same, and what can be done to better reflect what matters to patients.

CellMax Life believes it can transform cancer diagnostics with its affordable non-invasive tests for early cancer detection. The company says with its platform it has been able to overcome the challenge of detecting rare circulating tumor cells in pre-cancer and early-stage cancer patients when the disease can be successfully treated. We spoke to Atul Sharan, co-founder and CEO of CellMax, about the challenges of liquid biopsies, how the company’s technology works, and why he thinks it has the potential to change the way cancer is diagnosed today.

The development of a biomarker to identify people with prostate cancer increased the diagnosis of the disease, but did little to suggest the appropriate course of treatment for individual patients. Kenneth Pienta, professor of urology and co-director of the Johns Hopkins University InHealth Signature Initiative, is trying to change that by using surveillance and extensive data gathering to continuously stratify patients and refine treatment approaches. Pienta, who will be speaking at the Precision Medicine World Conference in Mountain View, California January 22 to 24, discussed InHealth, how its transforming the treatment of prostate cancer patients, and why it may be a model for applying precision medicine approaches to a broad range of diseases.

A surge in merger and acquisition activity in the life sciences is expected this year, according to a new report from EY. The company annual M&A Firepower Report says increased competition, new sources of capital, and the change in U.S. corporate tax laws will drive greater dealmaking in the sector. We spoke to Jeff Greene, EY global life sciences transaction advisory services leader, about the report, the drivers of the activity, and why nontraditional players in the sector may be in a better position to make a splash in 2018.

We conclude our biotech review-preview series with our final installment this week as we take a look at the year ahead as the industry readies for the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. We spoke to Jon Gardner, U.S. News Editor for EP Vantage, about the EP Vantage 2018 Preview(http://bit.ly/2CT2RDP), the outlook for big-value drug launches, and whether dealmaking or clinical success will drive stock prices in 2018. As a note, this podcast was recorded prior to Spark Therapeutics announcement of its pricing for its gene therapy Luxturna.

In the second installment of our three-part review-preview series of podcasts, we continue an annual tradition by sitting down with Adam Feuerstein, senior biotech writer for STAT, to discuss the year that was in biotech and what to look for in 2018. We talked to Feuerstein about the themes that emerged in 2017, his annual best and worst biotech CEOs, and what he’ll be watching at JPMorgan and beyond.

It’s that time of year when we begin to look back and think ahead. Starting with this week’s interview, we begin a three-part review-preview series to discuss the year in biotech and what to look for in 2018. In 2017, there were exciting developments in the area of immune-oncology with the approval of the first Car-T therapies and Gilead’s acquisition of Kite Pharma. As the year approached the finish line, investors got to view data from a range of studies at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Atlanta, setting the stage for 2018 when data from studies looking at combinations of immunotherapies will be closely watched. We spoke to Brad Loncar, CEO of Loncar investments, about the state of immunotherapies, what caught his attention at the ASH meeting, and what he’ll be watching in 2018.

Last month Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Proteus Digital Health won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for what’s being hailed as the first digital pill. Abilify Mycite, a drug-device combination that marries Otsuka’s Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, with Proteus’ ingestible sensor, wearable sensor, and smartphone app intended to monitor and improve compliance. We spoke to George Savage, chief medical officer of Proteus, about the technology, other potential uses, and how it may help address the quality and cost of healthcare.

Climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events carry a toll on human health. Not only do floods, hurricanes, and other similar phenomenon cause death and injury, they also create long-term health effects. Jesse Bell, a research scientist at the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies at North Carolina State University recently examined the issues in an article in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. We spoke to Bell about the health consequences of these weather events, the challenges they create for public health systems to plan and prepare, and why new research is needed to better understand the relationship between these events and human health.

Tom Frieden, after eights years of running the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is turning his sights to global health. Frieden has set a goal of saving 100 million lives from cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries by applying proven strategies used in developed countries. His program Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, will also work to prevent infectious disease epidemics and pandemics by strengthening public health systems in these nations. We spoke to Frieden about the initiative, whether strategies that worked in the developed world can be translated to low- and middle-income countries, and what it will take to be successful.

A public-private consortium is seeking to cut the time it takes to discover and advance new cancer therapies to the clinic to one year from the six years it takes on average today. Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine, or ATOM, brings together scientists from government, academia, and industry with the ambitious goal of harnessing supercomputers to transform cancer drug discovery into a rapid process that can determine molecules that will be safe and effective before advancing them to human clinical trials. We spoke to Michelle Arkin, a member of ATOM and associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco’s school of Pharmacy, about the consortium, the approach its taking, and why it may alter the way therapies for a much broader range of diseases than cancer are developed.

Merger and acquisitions may be a path to creating value for life science companies, but talks can breakdown because of flaws in management thinking that skew their sense of the value of their company. Oded Ben-Joseph, managing director of Outcome Capital, applied behavioral economics to the M&A front to discuss how cognitive biases can derail M&A transactions in an article in the September issue of In Vivo. We spoke to Ben-Joseph about cognitive biases, why the life sciences sector is particularly prone to the problem, and what executives can do to minimize their effects.

The growing problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics represents a significant public health threat. That’s been made worse by the dearth of new therapies that have come to market. AmpliPhi Biosciences is developing bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria, to provide a way to target drug-resistant bugs. We spoke to Paul Grint, CEO of AmpliPhi about the health need, AmpliPhi’s approach, and why harnessing these natural killers of bacteria may provide a promising source of new therapeutics.

Bioelectronic therapies are being developed to treat a number of conditions that currently can only be addressed using pharmaceutical interventions. Thync, a bioelectronics company, believes its technology that targets the cervical and thoracic spinal nerves to modulate the autonomic nervous system, can be used to treat variety of ailments including mental health, inflammatory disorders, and skin conditions. It points to a growing body of scientific literature that demonstrates the important role the nervous system plays in regulating the body’s immune response. We spoke to Thync CEO Isy Goldwasser about the technology, how it works, and why the company’s first clinical trial of it will be as a potential treatment for psoriasis.

Despite the growing volume of electronic health records, they have so far left the recruitment of clinical trial patients, clinical trial designs, and site selection largely unchanged. The result is that drug companies are often designing clinical trials with gaps in information about the patient population they are serving, the medical issues these patients face, and where they can find them. This adds to the high cost and long timelines required to move an experimental therapy through clinical development. TriNetX is trying to address this problem through its health research platform that allows drug developers to analyze large amounts of patient data from healthcare organizations within its network. We spoke to Gadi Lachman, CEO of TriNetX, about its platform, how it works, and why he believes this could lead to more efficient drug development.

Synthetic biology is promising to harness living organisms to replace industrial processes that rely on toxic chemicals, consume large amounts of energy and water, and leave environmental degradation in their wake. One such example of a company seeking to transform an industry in this way is Colorifix, which is developing a revolutionary dyeing process to help the textile industry dramatically reduce its environmental impact in a cost-effective way using a synthetic biology based approach. We spoke to Orr Yarkoni, founder and CEO of Colorifix, about the company, how it is using synthetic biology to change the process of dyeing materials, and why he expects it to change the environmental toll of the textile industry.

Kindred Biosciences is looking to leverage the billions of dollars that others have invested in approved drugs by modifying, improving, and repurposing them for the animal market. The company believes it can formulate, develop, and win approval for these medicines for between $3 million and $5 million each in a matter of three to five years, and capture markets that range between $10 million and $100 million annually. We spoke to Richard Chin, founder and CEO of Kindred, about the business strategy, the company’s pipeline, and the opportunity created by our willingness to spend big money on our pets.

When the BIO Investor Forum convenes in San Francisco October 17 and 18, a key point of discussion will be the availability of funding for emerging life sciences companies. One of the panelist addressing that issue this year will be Asish Xavier, vice president of venture investments for Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s venture arm JJDC. We spoke to Xavier about JJDC’s approach to investing as a strategic investor, the changing landscape for venture capital, and how competitive the environment is for access to compelling technologies today.

In April 2016, the consulting firm LifeSci Advisors adopted a comprehensive action plan to advance gender diversity in the life sciences industry. It has partnered with Women in Bio and Girls Inc. of New York City to provide mentorship and advancement programs for women and girls in the STEM fields, started its own board diversity initiative, and created the LifeSci Advisory Board on Gender Diversity. We spoke to Michael Rice, LifeSci Advisors founding partner, about the state of gender diversity in biotech boardrooms, what the firm has been doing, and why it decided to focus its efforts there.