Business Of Biotech

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech we're speaking with Alan Bash, President, Carvykti, at Legend Biotech, about how Carvykti became a blockbuster, category-leading CAR T therapy for multiple myeloma. Alan talks about manufacturing and delivering an autologous cell therapy at commercial scale, Legend Biotech's partnership with Johnson & Johnson, lessons he learned at Bristol Myers Squibb, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, and ZielBio, and his strategy for growing Carvykti's patient footprint and facing new competitors in the market.  Access this and hundreds of episodes of t...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech we speak with Dr. Marc Hedrick, M.D., President and CEO at Plus Therapeutics, about the company's pivot from cell therapy to radiotherapeutics for brain cancers, and what's behind the choice of Rhenium-186 as the radioisotope for its lead development candidate, Reyobiq. We'll talk about Plus Therapeutics' diagnostic subsidiary, CNSide, and hear from Marc about recent FDA meetings and the agency's attitude toward novel radiotherapeutics.      Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of B...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech we speak with Rahul Aras, Ph.D., President and CEO at Iterion Therapeutics, about capital efficient drug development in oncology and progressing a novel therapeutic with relatively small funding amounts. Iterion is a clinical stage company developing cancer therapeutics targeting the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, a known signaling target in oncology, but one that has confounded drug development efforts for decades. Rahul talks about his path from academia to company building and early work in gene therapy, Iterion's p...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we're speaking with Thomas von Erlach, Ph.D., Cofounder and CEO at Vivtex, a company spun out of the Langer Lab at MIT that's focused on developing orally available biologics. The company announced a deal in late February '26 with Novo Nordisk for up to $2.1 billion to develop next-gen oral drugs for obesity and diabetes, bringing the total number of Vivtex's partnerships to 10. Thomas shares his experiences working in the lab with Dr. Robert Langer, Ph.D...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech we speak with Monika Sumra, Ph.D., about how leadership, culture, and performance emerge from the environment and conditions inside an organization. Dr. Sumra, Founder and Managing Partner at Bunka, Inc., a management consulting firm and advisor to manufacturing-based organizations globally, explains how anthropology, CPIs, and rapid ethnography make culture measurable and operations faster, safer, and more reliable. Deploying a unique lens built on biosocial anthropology, she offers guidance on creating environments for sustainable performance in the...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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.    Acc...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business o...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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.  Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of B...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. 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...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Sean Ainsworth, CEO and Chairman at Immusoft, talks about transitioning from the research bench to entrepreneurship, his M&A experiences as a biotech founder, and why engineered B cell therapies offer a better, more patient-friendly administration for lysosomal storage diseases currently treated with enzyme replacement therapies. Sean also discusses FDA pathways, incentives, and agency engagement, and offers thoughts on the regulatory outlook for cell and gene therapies.     Access this and hundreds of episodes of the B...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Dan Schmitt, President and CEO at Actuate Therapeutics, talks about building a company around elraglusib, a GSK-3β inhibitor for cancer. Dan describes his fast-fail approach to early product testing and development, using basket trials to evaluate chemotherapy combinations, and choosing pancreatic cancer as a lead program. He also talks about surviving an IPO during a brutal funding cycle for biotech, building lean teams and efficient operations, and potentially onshoring API in response to changing U.S. policy. ...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode, Cyril Konto, M.D., president, executive director, and CEO at Ichnos Glenmark Innovation (IGI) talks about the promise of multi-specific antibodies, funding the company during the 'biotech winter,' closing a $700 million upfront licensing deal with AbbVie, the impact of China's rising biotech sector, and the keys to successful collaboration. Cyril also discusses IGI's focus on developing innovative therapies for emerging markets, and the shift from animal models to in silico modeling in preclinical research.   Access this and hundreds of ep...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Allan Shaw, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer at Create Medicines, is back on the Business of Biotech this week, with a temperature check on biotech funding and the IPO market. We discuss the implications of recent blockbuster acquisitions, strategies for managing the current funding environment for biotech, what to look for in the IPO market in the coming months, alternative financing opportunities, and what besides lower interest rates might bring generalist investors back into the sector. Access this and hundreds of episodes o...

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Mardi Dier, CFO at Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, talks about building relationships in investment banking and investor relations before moving into business development and becoming a chief financial officer. Mardi describes how drug companies transition from an R&D focus to commercializing products, how to read IPO windows and manage expectations, pricing new drugs, and balancing commercial efforts with pipeline renewal and maintenance. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast u...