The BioCentury Show

Richard Pops has lived the biotech roller coaster over three decades as CEO of Alkermes: an IPO, M&A, near-death events for his company, FDA setbacks, battles with an activist investor, and the satisfaction of knowing that millions of patients have benefited from the company’s medicines. He has led PDUFA reauthorization negotiations for industry, chaired BIO, and advocated for the interests of mid-sized biotechs.
As Pops prepares to retire as CEO (he will remain chairman), he spoke with BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin about the ways policy and economics shape the development of medicines. Pops discussed the impact of the Trump administration’s most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing policy and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), concerns about FDA’s loss of talent, and competition and collaboration with China’s life sciences sector.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659601

#DrugPricing #BiotechLeadership #FDAPolicy #LifeSciencesPolicy #DrugDevelopment

00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - Alkermes’ Evolution
05:12 - PBMs, Pricing & Access
10:54 - IRA
18:14 - MFN
24:36 - PDUFA Negotiations
28:05 - FDA Staffing
31:40 - China & U.S. Policy

Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, believes the central problem in cancer drug development is not discovery, but a broken “translational middle.”
In a wide-ranging interview on The BioCentury Show with BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin, Knudsen discussed the Parker Institute’s focus on accelerating the path from scientific breakthrough to medical impact.
As it approaches its tenth anniversary, the institute has deployed about $400 million, catalyzing roughly $4 billion in follow-on investment across 17 companies.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659476

#CancerImmunotherapy #TranslationalScience #DrugDevelopment #Biopharma #CancerResearch

00:00 - Introduction
01:34 - Optimizing Translation
07:42 - Training the Immune System
16:33 - China’s Opportunity
20:50 - Need for a Cancer Strategy
24:40 - Enhancing Cancer Survivorship
27:55 - Scientific Foundation Under Threat

A paradigm shift in research tools, combined with large-scale unbiased screening, has positioned the biopharma industry not only to rethink target discovery, but also to execute more faithfully on causal biology, according to Syncona CEO Chris Hollowood.
Hollowood spoke on The BioCentury Show with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn about how discovery is evolving, why causal biology has been stuck in a loop of circularity, and where the U.K. investor is headed. He also discussed the firm’s approach to gene therapy investments, how it is surmounting the field’s challenges and Syncona’s pivot last year, with a portfolio shift from 25% to over 85% clinical-stage companies.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659341

#CausalBiology #GeneTherapy #BiotechInvesting #DrugDiscovery #ClinicalStage

00:00 - Introduction
01:06 - Rational Target Discovery
16:48 - Gene Therapy
23:15 - Syncona’s Strategy

The European biotech ecosystem has gone through a substantial maturation process over the past 20 years, as VC funds such as Forbion have experienced exponential growth to fund the region’s innovation. But Forbion co-founder and managing director Sander Slootweg says there’s still more that can be done to fund future European innovations and improve Europe’s competitiveness globally.
“We’ve observed in Europe that although we see great science, and we’ve been able to build great companies, in terms of the absolute magnitude of the ecosystem, we’re still lagging behind the U.S., and also China is coming up quickly,” Slootweg said in conversation with BioCentury's Stephen Hansen.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659150

#EuropeanBiotech #VentureCapital #BiotechFunding #Bioeconomy #GlobalInnovation

00:00 - Introduction
01:34 - Forbion’s growth
05:35 - Deal flow in Europe
10:20 - Green Investing
14:24 - Sourcing Asia Deals
22:20 - Unlocking the EU’s Capital
27:54 - Speeding Up Trials
30:13 - Building a Thriving EU Market
34:38 - Central & Eastern Europe

The U.K. is excellent at invention and science, and creating institutions to further innovation, but poor at capturing their economic value, says Daniel Mahony, a problem that various forces in the U.K. are now putting serious efforts into solving.
Mahony, one of the major influential figures in U.K. biotech, is a senior partner in growth investments at Novo Holdings, and was until December chair of the U.K.’s BioIndustry Association (BIA). In conversation with BioCentury Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCentury Show, Mahony discussed the future of U.K. and European biotech, and the intersection of reforms related to financing and clinical trials, as well as the need for a rethink on drug pricing.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658997

#UKBiotech #BiotechInnovation #DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #LifeSciencesPolicy

00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - U.K. Clinical Trial Reform
04:23 - Funding U.K. Biotech
10:40 - Propagating Innovation
15:08 - Measuring Progress
18:22 - Drug Pricing
22:40 - Scaling Europe’s Biotechs
25:16 - AI in Biotech