Discovery/R&D

31. BoB@JPM: Gene Writing With Tessera's Michael Severino, M.D. 2/26/2023

    Flagship Pioneering plucked Michael Severino, M.D. away from AbbVie to run point at Tessera, a startup it's backed to pioneer a new category of genetic medicine it calls gene writing. The Business of Biotech caught up with Severino at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco last month. We learned what lured him away from leadership positions at Merck, Amgen, and AbbVie, how gene writing differs from gene therapy and gene editing, why the team at Tessera believes its technologies can write and rewrite DNA at the scales necessary to cure most genetic diseases, and where he plans to take the company from here. 

32. Engineering B Cells With Immusoft's Sean Ainsworth 12/5/2025

    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.

33. IDO Target Perseverence With IO Biotech's Mai-Britt Zocca, Ph.D. 9/13/2022

    Under the leadership of Mai-Britt Zocca, Ph.D., IO Biotech is advancing novel, immune-modulating cancer therapies targeting IDO (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase). Though promising, the target fell out of favor after some high-profile misses – most notably Merck's Phase 3 failure with pembrolizumab in 2018. But Immunome's dual mechanism of action is renewing interest in the target, and Dr. Zocca is gaining confidence as the company's data grows. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, she shares the approach, how it differs from previous attempts, and how her company is working to advance its programs in the wake of IDO's fall from grace.

34. Gene Therapies For Ocular Disease With SparingVision's Stéphane Boissel 3/28/2022

    Since assuming the President and CEO role at SparingVision in August 2020, Stéphane Boissel has been making big moves in the arenas of talent acquisition and IP expansion. Those efforts are securing the company's development of a number of genomic medicines to address inherited retinal disease. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Boissel shares the company'S foundation story and the role venture philanthropy played in it, his strategy for attracting and retaining big-league talent, and the why behind his vigorous allegiance to internal development.

35. Multimodal R&D Management With Incyte's Jim Lee, M.D., Ph.D. 1/18/2024

    Success at multimodal, multi-indication, deep-pipelined Incyte—where commercial operations are as familiar as pre-discovery activity is—begins at the earliest opportunity to achieve research and discovery efficiencies.

36. Pioneering Antiviral Conjugates With Cidara's Dr. Jeff Stein 3/1/2021

    Cidara Therapeutics President and CEO Dr. Jeff Stein joins the Business of Biotech to discuss his career mission to battle microbial organisms and his company's development of a novel approach to producing immunotherapeutic antivirals that couple potent antivirals to a human antibody fragment. We discuss the company's manufacturing approach, which Dr. Stein anticipates yielding a low-cost alternative to standards of care in multiple antiviral indications.

37. Executing A Product Pivot With Vir's Mark Eisner, MD 5/7/2025

    On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Dr. Mark Eisner, EVP and Chief Medical Officer at Vir Biotechnology, talks about the company's post-COVID pivot into infectious diseases (Hepatitis Delta and Hepatitis B) and oncology (solid tumors), how he reprioritized the company's development candidates and assimilated Sanofi's acquired T cell engager platform, and his own transition from healthcare provider to clinical research.

38. Precision Radiopharmaceuticals with Ratio's Jack Hoppin, Ph.D. 2/21/2024

    Multimodal approaches to the delivery of radiologically active compounds have created a fertile environment for players in the space to put on a precision medicine clinic, so to speak. What’s more, Radiopharmaceuticals create a unique business opportunity given the closely related and necessary companion diagnostic arena.

39. mRNA Vaccine Platforms With Combined Therapeutics' Dr. Romain Micol 11/29/2023

    Combined Therapeutics President & CEO Dr. Romain Micol is operating his company in a very noisy space, where hundreds of new biotechs have popped up on the coattails of a COVID-driven renewal of interest in mRNA vaccines. Micol recognizes that noise and the competition it brings for capital and mindshare. 

40. CAR T-cells For Ovarian Cancers with Anixa Biosciences' Amit Kumar, Ph.D. 3/8/2022

    While success has been seen in animal models, solid tumors have proved a vexing challenge for CAR T-cell therapies. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we're joined by Anixa Biosciences Chairman, President, & CEO Amit Kumar, Ph.D. Dr. Kumar shares on the company's progress with a CAR T-cell therapy that aims to attack both tumor cells and the tumor vasculature, in hopes that it might be the first to destroy solid breast and ovarian cancers.