Business Of Biotech
The Business of Biotech is the pod dedicated to leaders of emerging biopharma firms. SUBSCRIBE to our new newsletter at www.bioprocessonline.com/bob. We bring you insight into organizational, finance and funding, HR, clinical, manufacturing, regulatory, and commercial challenges you’ll face as you navigate your company from an idea to success in the clinic and beyond. Each episode features guest commentary and best practices from accomplished founders and biopharma industry luminaries. The Business of Biotech is produced by Life Science Connect.
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Company Turnarounds And AI For Infectious Diseases With Seek Labs' Jared Bauer
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Jared Bauer, Cofounder and CEO at Seek Labs, talks about his adventures in company turnarounds, and setting up Seek Labs to improve patient diagnoses and to discover and develop new treatments for infectious diseases. Jared explains the technology convergence that was needed to build Seek Labs' AI diagnostic and CRISPR-based therapeutics platform, an African Swine Fever proof-of-concept study that reduced viremia in pigs, mapping pathogens for rapid target design, and engaging with the FDA and global regulatory...
Bringing Curative Cell Therapies To Market with Kite Pharma's Cindy Perettie
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we're speaking with Cindy Perettie, Executive Vice President and Global Head at Kite Pharma, a Gilead-owned company focused on curing cancer with cell therapies. Perettie talks about scaling cell therapies in the community setting, global manufacturing strategy, preparing for the launch of late-stage development programs in lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and working with partners like Arcellx. She also discusses cell therapy funding cycles and big pharma, the autologous versus allogeneic divide, why in vivo CAR-T therapies could...
BoB@JPM: Brian Hilberdink, Boehringer Ingelheim
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Brian Hilberdink, President of U.S. Human Pharma at Boehringer Ingelheim, returns to the show during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, and following his departure from LEO Pharma (see episode 164). Brian talks about new opportunities in obesity, the benefits of private ownership in funding early science, Boehringer's deal strategy, using AI to improve commercialization efforts, and the FDA's selection of zongertinib (in patients with HER2-mutant NSCLC) for the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher program. </p><p>Acc...
BoB@JPM: Ron Cooper, enGene
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech -- on location at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference -- we're speaking with Ron Cooper, CEO and Board Member at enGene, to unpack how he scaled Albireo from a small research shop to a global commercial company, and why he’s now betting on nonviral gene therapy at enGene to help patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer keep their bladders. Cooper talks about the importance of keeping development, financing, and hiring in sync as biotech companies gr...
BoB@JPM: Marc Salzberg, M.D., Airway Therapeutics
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>The Business of Biotech was back in San Francisco for the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (January 12 - 15) and this week we sit down with Marc Salzberg, M.D., CEO, CMO, and Board Chair at Airway Therapeutics, a company developing a recombinant version of human surfactant protein D for several respiratory, inflammatory, and infectious diseases including bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), which is currently in Phase 2b/3 trials. Brian talks about why he selected BPD as a lead clinical indication (a disease primarily affecting preterm infants), what he...
A Royalty Model For Value Creation With Zymeworks' Kenneth Galbraith
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we're speaking with Kenneth Galbraith, CEO and Board Chair at Zymeworks, a biotech developing multispecific therapies internally and through partnerships with companies including Jazz Pharmaceuticals and BeOne Medicines (formerly BeiGene), J&J, Merck, Daiichi Sankyo, and GSK. Ken talks about Zymeworks' shift to a royalty model for development funding and value creation, lessons learned from platform deals and cross-border R&D, the benefits of strong royalty agreements and backloaded milestone payments over headline upfronts, and industry dynamics...
Life Science Connect Editors' Roundtable: Wrapping Up 2025 And Looking Ahead
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>This week's special holiday episode of the Business of Biotech brings seven chief editors from the Life Science Connect family together to talk about the life sciences industry topics, trips, and reporting that mattered most in 2025, and what each editor has planned for 2026. From the RNA, cell, and gene therapy space to small molecule manufacturing, bioprocessing, drug discovery, and outsourcing, the editors weigh in on key industry trends, new developments, and policy surprises from their respective coverage areas. Topics include biotech funding dynamics, FDA leadership, China's...
Building Cell Therapy Companies With Kenai Therapeutics' Nick Manusos
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Nick Manusos, CEO at Kenai Therapeutics, talks about his experiences building cell therapy spinouts from FujiFilm Cellular Dynamics, learning from big pharma decision-making processes, and dosing the first patient with Kenai's allogeneic neuron replacement cell therapy for Parkinson's disease. Nick also talks about funding an early-stage cell therapy company and forging key manufacturing and therapy administration partnerships. </p><p>Access this and hundreds of episodes of the <b>Business of Biotech videocast</b> under the <b>Business o...
Modernizing Clinical Trial Operations With Merck's Jennifer Sheller
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Jennifer Sheller, SVP and Head of Global Clinical Trial Operations at Merck talks about simplifying trial protocols and what she likes about Merck's hybrid functional service provider model for conducting trials in over 60 countries. Jennifer shares her experiences integrating Merck's acquisitions without breaking studies or losing people, using new technology to improve trial operations, and co-designing studies with trial sites for agility and speed. </p><p>Access this and hundreds of episodes of the <b>Business of B...
Transforming Chronic Kidney Disease With ProKidney's Bruce Culleton, M.D.
<p>We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. </p><p>On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Bruce Culleton, M.D., CEO at ProKidney, talks about moving from academic research to industry and the role a key mentor played in his career path. Bruce discusses his experiences as a first-time CEO at ProKidney, a late-stage autologous cell therapy biotech focused on pioneering new treatments for chronic kidney disease (CKD), the benefits of FDA's Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation, how delaying or avoiding kidney dialysis would be a game-changer for CKD patients, and more. </p...
