Finance & Capital Markets

1. BoB@JPM: Nima Farzan, Latigo Biotherapeutics 3/19/2025

   In this final installment of our episodes recorded and filmed on-site at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Nima Farzan, CEO of Latigo Biotherapeutics, shares his company's mission to change the pain management paradigm by way of novel, non-opioid medications that target NAV 1.8 sodium channels involved in pain signal transmission.

2. Mission-Driven Dementia Funding with DDF's Jonathan Behr 6/9/2024

   If there's anyone qualified to analyze an early-stage therapeutic technology and place bets with other people's money, it's scientist-turned-venture capitalist Jonathan Behr, Ph.D. He built a distinguished venture capital career on the back of an MIT Ph.D. in biological engineering, having co-founded no fewer than 7 life sciences companies, served on or observed the boards of at least 17, and led investments at Pure Tech Ventures, the JDRF T1D Fund, SV Health investors, and now, the Dementia Discovery Fund, where he's a partner.

3. Biotech Cash Management With Allan Shaw 8/2/2023

   It’s been said that clinical trials are where emerging biotechs go to die. If the science doesn't kill quickly, poor cash management will slowly. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, our favored biotech finance management maven, Allan Shaw, offers pointed advice on stretching cash runways for the long run.

4. The Legend Steve Gorlin's Golden Rules 11/1/2023

   Shortly after Thalidomide became a household word—albeit a very, very bad one—a biotech investor bought it for a couple hundred grand. Who on earth would want a drug pulled from the market for causing birth defects? Steve Gorlin did.

5. Investing In The Biostack With Modi Ventures' Sahir Ali, Ph.D. 9/4/2025

   On the Business of Biotech this week, Sahir Ali, Ph.D., founder and general partner at Modi Ventures, a family office investing at the intersection of technology and biology, talks about adapting the Markowitz model to improve returns and balance risk, his concept of the "biostack" for making direct investments into life sciences companies, and the revolutionary potential of scientific super intelligence.

6. Pivoting To RNA With Circio's Dr. Erik Digman Wiklund 9/1/2024

   This week, it’s another “Business of Biotech-meets-Business-of-RNA” takeover with Circio CEO Erik Digman Wiklund, Ph.D. and guest co-host Anna Rose Welch of Advancing RNA. While Circio’s legacy is in cancer immunology (it still boasts a cancer vaccine candidate targeting KRAS driver mutations), the company made a bold pivot, of sorts, when it committed headlong to the circular RNA future. Now, it’s in the throes of fine-tuning a platform for the development of novel circRNA medicines for rare disease, vaccines, and cancer.

7. Anatomy Of A VC Deal With 4BIO's Dima Kuzmin & Ray Therapeutics' Paul Bresge 10/25/2022

   In a particularly candid conversation, 4BIO Managing Partner Dmitry ‘Dima’ Kuzmin and Ray Therapeutics Co-Founder & CEO Paul Bresge share the recipe for a successful relationship between biotech VC firm and startup. Bresge offers insight into VC engagement strategy and pitch, Kuzmin dishes on what investors look for in terms of "fundability" and what throws red flags, such as— perhaps ironically— a CEO like Bresge who has a deep and incredibly personal connection to the indication he's pursuing. The pair also discuss, in real and tangible terms, what constitutes a material, cultural match.

8. Surviving The Microbiome Market with MaaT Pharma's Hervé Affagard 7/20/2023

   MaaT Pharma Founder & CEO Hervé Affagard recently navigated his company through a protracted FDA clinical hold, emerging with a promising Phase 3 candidate in GVHD. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Affagard offers a transparent look at how MaaT is beating the odds with a redundant clinical strategy and scrupulous cash management.

9. CAR T Therapy Cost Control With Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D. 10/26/2020

   Controlling the cost of personalized medicine: We go behind the scenes of the effort to build a system that simplifies production and reduces the cost of non-viral T cell therapies with Ziopharm Oncology CEO Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D.

10. Strategic Deals With CinRx's Gavin Samuels, M.D. 3/17/2024

    Gavin Samuels, M.D., found his work as an intensive care physician boring. It wasn't until he left the hospital and entered biopharma that he found his footing. Now, he's Chief Business Officer and General Partner at CinRx Pharma, where a deep pipeline of early- to late-stage candidates keeps him on his dealmaking toes. Dr. Samuels' introspective reflections on biotech dealmaking and negotiations plants this episode firmly on the Business of Biotech podcast highlight reel.