Discovery/R&D

31. Business of Biotech 2.0 with Ben Comer 3/27/2025

    After nearly five years as host of the Business of Biotech podcast, Matt Pillar is handing the mic over to the voice of the Business of Biotech 2.0, veteran life sciences journalist Ben Comer.

32. Topical Ocular Biologics with Claris Bio's Clarke Atwell 6/30/2024

    Built on the back of hepatocyte growth factor discoveries by Harvard Drs. Reza Dana and Sunil Chauhan, Claris Bio is rewriting the ophthalmology rulebook. CEO Clarke Atwell acknowledges that it's not the first to bring topically-administered biologic therapies to the front of the eye, but if successful in the clinic, its Neurotrophic Keratitis candidate will vastly improve the patient experience. Atwell joins this episode of the Business of Biotech. Listen now!

33. Don't Be A D**k With Ochre Bio's Dr. Quin Wills 9/27/2023

    Don't be offended by the title of today's Business of Biotech podcast. Dr. Quin Wills' application of what's become known as "Wheaton's Law" (look it up) is central to the ambitious goals his company, Ochre Bio, is pursuing: pioneering the value of computational biology in large mol discovery and development, putting an end to the global liver disease epidemic, and changing the costly, high-risk approach to clinical trials. On this week's episode, Dr. Wills and I explore how those goals are being addressed despite the challenges they present, and how the company's three guiding principles, don't be a d**k being one of them, align the Ochre team with the mission at hand. 

34. Innate Immunity & Mouse Models With LIfT Biosciences' Alex Blyth 7/11/2022

    Serial inventor and entrepreneur Alex Blyth had long held interests in health and science, but losing his mom to pancreatic cancer was the inflection point that launched LIfT Biosciences in 2016. Now, the preclinical company is on a mission to develop the world's first 'off-the-shelf' cell therapy to destroy all solid tumors, irrespective of strain or mutation, beginning with pancreatic cancer. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Blyth shares the company's scientific approach and progress, and we explore the shortcomings of legacy clinical protocols including the inherent problems and limitations of mouse models.

35. What's A Biologic Revolution? With Vaxxinity's Mei Mei Hu, J.D. 8/8/2022

    Vaxxinity CEO Mei Mei Hu, J.D. leads a company with some lofty ambitions. The democratization of healthcare, interplanetary colonization, and development of accessible therapeutic vaccines to serve and enable both. Those big-picture visions have helped the company establish itself as a pioneer of the "third biologics revolution." On this week's Business of Biotech podcast, Mei Mei joins me to share Vaxxinity's strategy, what "democratization" and "revolution" really_mean, why traditional vaccines and biologic therapies are converging to form the "third biologic revolution," and a whole lot more.

36. Gynecological Cancer Therapies With Context Therapeutics' Martin Lehr 4/18/2022

    Context Therapeutics Co-Founder & CEO Martin Lehr shares stories from his self-described "recovery from venture capital," the work his company is doing in gynecological cancers, and how his small company manages a modality-agnostic approach and investigator-sponsored trials across multiple clinical candidates, four of which are in phase 2 clinical trials. We also discuss his "extracurricular" work with BioBreak, Life Science Leader, and Life Science Cares, and why those organizations are important to him personally and professionally.

37. Bio & The Business Of Aging with Life Biosciences' Jerry McLaughlin 9/7/2023

    Core to the clinical-stage biopharma Life Biosciences belief set is that "contrary to popular belief, aging is not caused by random wear and tear, but instead is caused by a discrete set of biological mechanisms that can be targeted therapeutically.”

38. Lipid Nanoparticle Gene Coding With SalioGen Therapeutics' Ray Tabibiazar, M.D. 3/14/2022

    This episode of the Business of Biotech is fire. In fact, it's an interview with SalioGen Therapeutics Chairman and CEO Ray Tabibiazar, M.D.,, whose last name \_literally translates\_ to "Dr. Fire." Learn how he got that name, what's shaped his technology-agnostic philosophy on therapeutic development, the advantages of a genome engineering technology that leverages proprietary mammal-derived enzymes, rather than viruses, and how SalioGen is possibly carrying forth a pipeline that's 15 candidates deep and addressing eye, liver, heart, lung, bone marrow, and kidney diseases.

39. Drug Development: From Bench To Bedside With Allan Shaw 5/10/2021

    CFO to the biopharma stars and frequent Business of Biotech guest Allan Shaw joins us for a candid discussion on the keys to efficiency as you move your candidate from the bench to the bedside. Shaw shares the common perils of insular thinking in biopharma and offers practical advice for avoiding those pitfalls. We discuss the value of being early in the context of the current biopharma market — early to study, early to differentiate, early to kill if necessary, and early to fund your project on its journey to the clinic.

40. Live Biologics & The Microbiome With 4D pharma's Duncan Peyton 5/9/2022

    4D pharma's flagship early-stage clinical candidates are live biotherapeutics, a relatively new class of biologics that seek to impact disease state by modulating the microbiome. CEO Duncan Peyton is leading the effort to understand how the health of the microbiome relates to a wide range of diseases, including immuno-oncology, central nervous system disorders, respiratory disease, auto immune indications, and gastro intestinal disease. 4D pharma is even working on a live biotherapeutic vaccine platform. Join Duncan on this episode of the Business of Biotech as we discuss this new frontier of therapeutic exploration.