The BioCentury Show

On this edition of The BioCentury Show , Nick Galakatos, Global Head of Life Sciences at Blackstone, joins Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn to discuss the path from Clarus to Blackstone's new $6.3 billion fund, and the goal of game-changing bets. Galakatos discusses Blackstone's thesis for addressing the late-stage financing gap, as Phase III programs costing more than $1 billion drive demand for large, product-based capital. He also addresses structured capital as an alternative to acquisition, noting deals such as Blackstone's with Alnylam and Apogee can reduce dilution and extend runway. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660824 #Biotech #PrivateEquity #DrugDevelopment #LifeSciences #ClinicalTrials 0:00 Introduction 1:22 New Fund & Founding 10:30 Alnylam Deal 17:14 Working with Big Caps 25:54 Biotech Risk 29:13 China

On This Edition of The BioCentury Show , Gonçalo Abecasis, SVP and Chief Genomics and Data Sciences Officer at the Regeneron Genetics Center, joins BioCentury’s Tierney Baum to discuss genetics as a scalable drug discovery platform and the practical use of AI in genomics. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660697 #Genomics #DrugDiscovery #AI #GeneticMedicines #ClinicalTrials 0:00 - Introduction 1:14 - Regeneron Genetics Center 10:29 - Acting on Genetic Signals 16:57 - Getting to Drug Development 21:51 - Best AI Use Cases

The Critical Path Institute’s One to Millions Initiative is using individualized rare disease therapies as the starting point for a development framework that could eventually extend across all genetically defined diseases. The initiative seeks to bring form to FDA’s Plausible Mechanism Framework by standardizing how evidence and methods can be reused across therapies and patients. In conversation with Biopharma Analyst Dr. Tierney Baum on The BioCentury Show , C-Path CEO and CSO Klaus Romero discusses how the principal bottleneck is no longer the ability to design therapies for individual patients but rather the absence of a standardized regulatory and development system that can translate one success into many. C-Path plans to bring companies, academics, patient groups, and regulators together to share data and address recurring development bottlenecks. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660583 #GeneticMedicines #RareDisease #DrugDevelopment #RegulatoryScience #ClinicalTrials 00:00 - Introduction 01:44 - Current Framework 07:01 - Process-based Regulation 13:57 - Overcoming Bottlenecks 20:28 - Use of AI 25:25 - Beyond Rare Diseases

Throughout his career, which has included serving as president and CEO of Teva, chair of BIO, and a leader or senior executive of large and small biopharma companies, Jeremy Levin has challenged the industry to live up to its ideals. In an interview with BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin, Levin discussed why he believes industry leaders should speak out, and why many remain silent, about critical issues. He described concerns about the strength of the pillars that support the U.S. biotech industry, and why he is optimistic about the future of biotech. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660408 #Biotech #DrugPricing #BiopharmaPolicy #ChinaBiotech #Innovation 00:00 - Introduction 03:24 - Biotech Under Threat 10:38 - CEO Compensation 15:39 - Competing with China 22:08 - U.S. Policy Prescriptions 30:00 - Looking Ahead

As AI becomes increasingly commoditized, Initiate Ventures' Jessica Owens argues healthcare and life sciences companies need to use it to solve historically intractable problems, not just streamline workflows. On The BioCentury Show , Owens breaks down how she evaluates founders, when Initiate chooses to fund versus co-found a company, and why she believes proprietary data now matters more than any proprietary model. Owens also discusses gaps in evidence generation for diagnostics, and closes with a look at MASH, arguing that better non-invasive fibrosis staging will become increasingly critical as more GLP-1 combination therapies reach patients. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660203 #AI #VentureCapital #Diagnostics #HealthTech #DrugDevelopment 00:00 - Introduction 01:15 - Initiate Ventures' Thesis 07:04 - What Makes Founders Fundable 17:36 - Defining AI Native Healthcare 23:20 - Diagnostics & Evidence Generation 36:44 - Non-Invasive Fibrosis Testing

Roivant CEO Matt Gline calls the company’s move beyond spinning out subsidiary “vants” to concentrating on late-stage programs and commercial launches less a pivot than an evolution toward an original goal, which could soon be realized with the approval and launch of brepocitinib this year. In conversation with Lindsay Martin on The BioCentury Show , Gline discussed how Roivant’s initial hub-and-spoke approach has provided the foundation needed for the company to develop and commercialize its portfolio now, including lead program JAK-1/TYK2 inhibitor brepocitinib. Gline also discussed how he views AI at Roivant and more broadly in biopharma R&D, the science behind Roivant’s next most advanced program, Phase III anti-FcRN mAb imeroprubart and the lessons he’s taking from a “graduating class” of biotechs that have launched programs, like Alnylam and Argenx S.E. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660059 #DrugDevelopment #BiotechInnovation #Commercialization #ArtificialIntelligence #BiopharmaStrategy 00:00 - Introduction 00:42 - Roivant’s Evolution 09:19 - AI in R&D 17:48 - Lead Asset Brepocitinib 28:23 - Anti-FcRN mAb Imeroprubart 32:23 - China 37:55 - What’s Next for Roivant

Launched in the 1970s as a generics company, Hengrui has become China’s leading innovator in R&D and dealmaking, with more than 100 NMEs in the pipeline and broad alliances with GSK and BMS. Under the leadership of Frank Jiang, EVP and chief strategy officer, Hengrui is engaging in a range of dealmaking and using its partnerships as stepping stones toward its goal of becoming one of the top biopharma companies in the world. In conversation with Executive Editor Jeff Cranmer on The BioCentury Show , Jiang describes the evolution of China’s biotech ecosystem — and Hengrui's — toward first-order innovation and the changing nature of deals in China, from straightforward licensing deals with “safe money” to NewCo deals and “co-co” partnerships. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659912 #ChinaBiotech #BiopharmaInnovation #DrugDevelopment #StrategicPartnerships #GlobalBiotech 00:00 - Introduction 01:32 - Evolution of China Biotech 08:43 - China Deals 17:23 - Hengrui’s Evolution 24:43 - Shareholder Base 26:42 - Deals

Chris Arendt, CSO of Takeda, likens the AI overhaul at the pharma to gutting and rebuilding an old house, from the plumbing and electrical up, while you’re still living there. In a Fireside Chat at Grand Rounds U.S. in Seattle, Arendt sat down with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn to discuss how Takeda is integrating AI across R&D, in and beyond the science, while still executing on the active programs in drug development. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659807 #ArtificialIntelligence #PharmaInnovation #DrugDevelopment #DigitalTransformation #ResearchAndDevelopment 00:00 - Introduction 02:07 - Revamping Takeda for AI 19:03 - Teams & Talent 26:43 - Alliances 32:50 - Q&A

ALS drug development has long been hampered by heterogeneity, but Angela Genge — neurologist at McGill University and CMO of AL-S Pharma — argues the field is getting closer to making that heterogeneity tractable. On The BioCentury Show , Genge discusses progress in pathway prioritization, progression-rate prediction, and endpoint standardization with BioCentury's Selina Koch. On the biology side, Genge expects the field to converge on a small number of high-priority pathways. SOD1 is the first validated example, and AL-S Pharma is now testing whether misfolded SOD1 marks a treatable subset of sporadic ALS. On biomarkers, she's optimistic a TDP-43 marker could arrive within two years. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659713 #ALS #DrugDevelopment #ClinicalTrials #Biomarkers #ALSResearch 00:00 - Introduction 02:03 - ALS Mechanistic Diversity 06:13 - Trial Design Challenges 16:52 - Biomarker Toolkit Update 24:20 - ALS Pharma & SOD1

Richard Pops has lived the biotech roller coaster over three decades as CEO of Alkermes: an IPO, M&A, near-death events for his company, FDA setbacks, battles with an activist investor, and the satisfaction of knowing that millions of patients have benefited from the company’s medicines. He has led PDUFA reauthorization negotiations for industry, chaired BIO, and advocated for the interests of mid-sized biotechs. As Pops prepares to retire as CEO (he will remain chairman), he spoke with BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin about the ways policy and economics shape the development of medicines. Pops discussed the impact of the Trump administration’s most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing policy and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), concerns about FDA’s loss of talent, and competition and collaboration with China’s life sciences sector. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659601 #DrugPricing #BiotechLeadership #FDAPolicy #LifeSciencesPolicy #DrugDevelopment 00:00 - Introduction 01:40 - Alkermes’ Evolution 05:12 - PBMs, Pricing & Access 10:54 - IRA 18:14 - MFN 24:36 - PDUFA Negotiations 28:05 - FDA Staffing 31:40 - China & U.S. Policy

Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, believes the central problem in cancer drug development is not discovery, but a broken “translational middle.” In a wide-ranging interview on The BioCentury Show with BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin, Knudsen discussed the Parker Institute’s focus on accelerating the path from scientific breakthrough to medical impact. As it approaches its tenth anniversary, the institute has deployed about $400 million , catalyzing roughly $4 billion in follow-on investment across 17 companies. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659476 #CancerImmunotherapy #TranslationalScience #DrugDevelopment #Biopharma #CancerResearch 00:00 - Introduction 01:34 - Optimizing Translation 07:42 - Training the Immune System 16:33 - China’s Opportunity 20:50 - Need for a Cancer Strategy 24:40 - Enhancing Cancer Survivorship 27:55 - Scientific Foundation Under Threat

A paradigm shift in research tools, combined with large-scale unbiased screening, has positioned the biopharma industry not only to rethink target discovery, but also to execute more faithfully on causal biology, according to Syncona CEO Chris Hollowood. Hollowood spoke on The BioCentury Show with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn about how discovery is evolving, why causal biology has been stuck in a loop of circularity, and where the U.K. investor is headed. He also discussed the firm’s approach to gene therapy investments, how it is surmounting the field’s challenges and Syncona’s pivot last year, with a portfolio shift from 25% to over 85% clinical-stage companies. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659341 #CausalBiology #GeneTherapy #BiotechInvesting #DrugDiscovery #ClinicalStage 00:00 - Introduction 01:06 - Rational Target Discovery 16:48 - Gene Therapy 23:15 - Syncona’s Strategy

The European biotech ecosystem has gone through a substantial maturation process over the past 20 years, as VC funds such as Forbion have experienced exponential growth to fund the region’s innovation. But Forbion co-founder and managing director Sander Slootweg says there’s still more that can be done to fund future European innovations and improve Europe’s competitiveness globally. “We’ve observed in Europe that although we see great science, and we’ve been able to build great companies, in terms of the absolute magnitude of the ecosystem, we’re still lagging behind the U.S., and also China is coming up quickly,” Slootweg said in conversation with BioCentury's Stephen Hansen. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659150 #EuropeanBiotech #VentureCapital #BiotechFunding #Bioeconomy #GlobalInnovation 00:00 - Introduction 01:34 - Forbion’s growth 05:35 - Deal flow in Europe 10:20 - Green Investing 14:24 - Sourcing Asia Deals 22:20 - Unlocking the EU’s Capital 27:54 - Speeding Up Trials 30:13 - Building a Thriving EU Market 34:38 - Central & Eastern Europe

The U.K. is excellent at invention and science, and creating institutions to further innovation, but poor at capturing their economic value, says Daniel Mahony, a problem that various forces in the U.K. are now putting serious efforts into solving. Mahony, one of the major influential figures in U.K. biotech, is a senior partner in growth investments at Novo Holdings, and was until December chair of the U.K.’s BioIndustry Association (BIA). In conversation with BioCentury Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCentury Show , Mahony discussed the future of U.K. and European biotech, and the intersection of reforms related to financing and clinical trials, as well as the need for a rethink on drug pricing. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658997 #UKBiotech #BiotechInnovation #DrugPricing #HealthcareReform #LifeSciencesPolicy 00:00 - Introduction 01:40 - U.K. Clinical Trial Reform 04:23 - Funding U.K. Biotech 10:40 - Propagating Innovation 15:08 - Measuring Progress 18:22 - Drug Pricing 22:40 - Scaling Europe’s Biotechs 25:16 - AI in Biotech

As AI spreads across biopharma, what will matter most is not who has the flashiest tools, but who can use them to make better medicines. In this episode of The BioCentury Show , Recursion CEO Najat Khan discusses where AI is showing measurable value now, how public techbio companies are being pushed toward proof points, and what comes next — from out-of-domain prediction to stronger data foundations and precompetitive collaboration. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658829 #ArtificialIntelligence #DrugDevelopment #AgenticAI #ClinicalProof #BiopharmaInnovation 00:00 - Introduction 01:41 - AI Hype to Proof 04:52 - Where AI Adds Value 13:30 - AI for Clinical Trials 17:01 - Agentic AI in R&D 25:34 - Out-of-Domain Prediction 28:24 - Future of Techbio 31:13 - Precompetitive Consortia 35:24 - CEO Leadership and Catalysts

There is a real opportunity for artificial intelligence to dramatically transform the speed, cost and efficiency of drug development over the long term, but the uptake of AI tools across biopharma has been much slower relative to the broader healthcare environment, SoftBank’s Jacqueline Fok said on The BioCentury Show . In conversation with BioCentury's Stephen Hansen, Fok, who is investment director, Life Sciences & Health Tech at SoftBank Investment Advisers, also detailed SoftBank’s investment strategy in life sciences and the opportunity the U.K. has to stand out as a globally competitive player, with SoftBank’s obesity portfolio company Metsera as a recent example of success. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658661 #ArtificialIntelligence #DrugDevelopment #BiotechInvestment #UKBiotech #ObesityDrugDevelopment 00:00 - Introduction 01:30 - SoftBank Strategy 08:40 - Metsera 14:48 - U.K. Biotech 21:38 - AI 28:20 - Women in Leadership 32:03 - Fok’s Catalysts

Caution: This episode of The BioCentury Show contains strong language. In a candid interview with BioCentury, RA Capital Managing Partner Peter Kolchinsky warns that staffing losses and growing conservatism at FDA are slowing drug development and pushing companies to launch early-stage trials outside the U.S. In conversation with BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin, Kolchinsky also discusses U.S. policy headwinds, including most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing proposals and the Inflation Reduction Act’s “pill penalty,” and why he’s concerned that the biopharma sector is too “genteel” in its advocacy. Kolchinsky explains his decision to speak publicly about regulatory and political issues, including immigration, and reflected on China’s expanding role in the global life sciences innovation ecosystem. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658433 #BiotechPolicy #FDALeadership #DrugPricingPolicy #LifeSciencesInnovation #CapitalMarkets 00:00 - Introduction 00:37 - Impact of FDA Policy Changes 06:17 - MFN & Drug Pricing in Europe 20:16 - The Importance of Speaking Up 34:26 - China & Innovation

With disease biology still murky and trials notoriously noisy, psychiatry R&D is advancing fastest where teams can solve engineering problems. Delivery, selectivity and tolerability fixes are turning long-standing hypotheses into usable medicines, says veteran CNS drug developer Steven Paul. Few drug developers have had a closer view of the field’s false starts — and occasional breakthroughs — than Paul, who has moved from NIH to pharma R&D leadership and now to company building at Karuna, acquired by BMS for $14 billion, and Seaport. In conversation with The BioCentury Show's Selina Koch, Paul explains why serendipity still plays a disproportionate role in psychiatric drug development and how critical it is for teams to engineer and execute their way from an unexpected signal to a usable medicine. He also discusses psychedelics, brain shuttles, Karuna’s muscarinic approach in schizophrenia, and the delivery and trial-design choices Seaport is using to revisit neuroactive steroid biology in depression. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658314 #PsychiatryTherapeutics #CNSDrugDevelopment #BiotechEngineering #Psychedelics #NeuroScience 00:00 - Introduction 01:32 - Psychiatric Drug Discovery 06:56 - The Karuna Story 22:09 - What’s New in Depression 32:06 - Gene Therapies, Brain Shuttles 33:53 - Psychedelics

Why does great science so often stall before it becomes a medicine? Astellas Pharma CEO Naoki Okamura argues the bottleneck isn’t capital — it’s translation: a shortage of people, processes and platforms that can move ideas across the boundaries of biology, manufacturing, regulation and commercialization. That theme threaded through his conversation on The BioCentury Show with Executive Editor Selina Koch, surfacing most clearly in his diagnosis of what Japan’s biotech ecosystem lacks — and in his rationale for why Astellas is doubling down on cell and gene therapy as other multinational pharmas pull back. The discussion also touches on Astellas’ journey in commercializing a women’s health product, the company’s China strategy, and its plans for life after Xtandi’s patent cliff. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658141 #BiotechTranslation #CellAndGeneTherapy #JapanBiotech #PharmaStrategy #DrugDevelopment 00:00 - Introduction 00:39 - Cell & Gene Therapy 07:22 - Women’s Health 13:00 - Japan’s Biotech Ecosystem 19:00 - Astellas’ China Strategy 22:45 - Astellas’ Near-Term Strategy

Private equity’s expanding role in biopharma as a growth equity investor reflects both the maturation of the life sciences sector and the rising need for large-scale capital, alongside PE firms’ increasing ability to conduct the technical diligence required for investments once considered too risky for their models. In conversation with The BioCentury Show's Stephen Hansen, Bain Capital’s Adam Koppel discussed the evolution of private equity's interest in biotech, Bain’s prioritization scheme for scaled investments and his outlook for the capital markets in the year ahead. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/657997 #PrivateEquity #BiotechDeals #LifeSciencesInvesting #GrowthEquity #BiopharmaMarkets 00:00 - Introduction 01:57 - PE's Evolution in Biotech 06:58 - Bain's Priorities 11:24 - Structuring Deals 18:23 - Capital Market Conditions 24:03 - Environment for Private Companies 27:08 - IPO Outlook