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On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors explore how biotechs are turning to tumor targeting, IL-15 expression and alternate cell sourcing to enhance the potency and longevity of NK cell therapies. The podcast team also discusses Janet Woodcock’s new remit at FDA, Bristol Myers Squibb's pullout from Russia and the bipartisan effort moving medical product user fee reauthorization legislation forward in both houses of Congress. This week’s podcast is sponsored by MSD, whose London-based European Innovation Hub includes a business development and licensing team, clinical teams and its U.K. Discovery Research Centre. For more information visit, msd.com/licensing.
Ensuring that a biotech reaches its key inflection points as effectively as possible during the ongoing capital crunch affects a company across the board, including its people, pipeline and financing toolkit, Shorla’s Sharon Cunningham said on a special Bio€quity Europe edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast. Cunningham and BII’s Bobby Soni joined the BioCentury podcast team to discuss navigating the downturn as a CEO of a private biotech, the untapped talent pools able to run start-ups and the ecosystem in Bio€quity Europe’s next site, Ireland. This week’s podcast is sponsored by MSD (Merck & Co. Inc. in the U.S.). For more information visit, msd.com/licensing.
Even as industry is facing a global talent crunch, Europe’s biotechs have it better than ever, Medicxi’s Francesco De Rubertis said on a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast recapping the first two days of the Bio€quity Europe conference in Milan. He and MSD’s Khatereh Ahmadi joined the BioCentury podcast team to discuss the battle for top talent and the state of deal-making amid the ongoing downturn. This week’s podcast is sponsored by MSD (Merck & Co. Inc. in the U.S.), whose London-based European Innovation Hub includes a business development and licensing team, clinical teams and its U.K. Discovery Research Centre. For more information visit, msd.com/licensing.
The sale of a minority stake in Sofinnova Partners to PE firm Apollo will allow the European VC to grow while retaining its independence. Fresh off a conversation with Sofinnova’s Antoine Papiernik, Associate Editor Stephen Hansen explains the 50-year-old firm’s proactive approach to finding a partner among private equity firms and what’s next for the firm now that it has more financial firepower. The podcast team also discusses the latest translational tidbits from BioCentury’s Distillery, the first look at clinical data from the CRISPR-based gene editing platform of Caribou and how biopharmas are weighing their commitment to Russian patients against calls to disengage from the country. This week’s podcast is sponsored by MSD (Merck & Co. Inc. in the U.S.), whose London-based European Innovation Hub includes a business development and licensing team, clinical teams and its U.K. Discovery Research Centre. For more information visit, msd.com/licensing.
Industry’s dueling headwinds of capital and talent are the focus of this year’s Bio€quity Europe meeting, and in a special episode of BioCentury This Week, two veterans of the burgeoning Italian life sciences ecosystem, Sofinnova Partners' Graziano Seghezzi & Ambrosetti's Corrado Panzeri, say the country’s biotech sector now has the capital and networks to weather the storm.
The House Energy & Commerce Committee has a bipartisan deal on reauthorizing FDA user fees that sets the parameters for FDA reforms, including enhancing accelerated approval and improving clinical trial diversity — but how much will the legislation change in the coming months and how? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss the requirements for FDA, HHS, sponsors and other stakeholders that would come into effect under the House’s proposed user fee legislation and what’s next for the bill. The podcast team also discusses Howard University’s mission to address racial health disparities, and how the university brings a human focus to research that might have otherwise stuck to laboratory models.
Chinese biotechs face regulatory delays for their therapies due to pandemic-related barriers to inspections by Western regulators and FDA’s reluctance to accept China-only data. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss why a setback for surufatinib from Hutchmed could be a sign of things to come for its China peers. The podcast team also analyzes a flurry of FDA activity and assesses what the IPO by vaccine play HilleVax says about the market for fresh paper. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Kendall Square Orchestra.
The first clinical data from Nkarta’s CAR natural killer cell platform add to the growing evidence that a CAR may provide the efficacy boost NK cell therapies have needed. BioCentury's editors analyze the significance of the data, which drove a 141% gain in the biotech's stock. They also discuss the biopharma legacy of the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, how biopharma companies are coping with the extended lockdown in Shanghai, and takeaways from J.P. Morgan’s Mike Gaito appearance on The BioCentury Show. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Kendall Square Orchestra.
Long-awaited proof of concept for AstraZeneca’s PARP-1-selective therapy opens the door to combination strategies previously limited by hematopoietic toxicity, Senior Editor Karen Tkach Tuzman says on the latest edition of BioCentury This Week. Tkach Tuzman surveys data from the growing DNA damage repair (DDR) field from this year’s American Association for Cancer Research meeting, and the team also discusses the legacy of outgoing NCI Director Ned Sharpless, concerns over McKinsey's work for FDA and life sciences clients and the latest crop of BioCentury Emerging Company Profiles. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Bio€quity Europe.
Positive fund flows and modestly better performance by biotech indexes offer hints that the beginnings of a recovery could be possible in the near term, even as the financing drought grinds on. On a BioCentury This Week Special Report, BioCentury’s editors discuss the conditions, including clinical catalysts and M&A, that could spark a recovery for the biopharma sector. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Bio€quity Europe.
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