March 23, 2026 • 18 mins
Dr. Robert Ryan, CEO, Paradigm Therapeutics
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs. You should know. CEOs you should Know
Charleston is brought to you by SC two to fifty
Charleston Www dot SC two fifty Charleston dot org.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It's Michael Blaze. Welcome to CEOs you should know. Joining
us is doctor Robert Ryan. He's CEO of Paradigm Therapeutics. Welcome, Robert.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Thank you very much for having me here. I'm excited
to be talking with you.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, same here. So let's start with explaining to our
audience what Paradigm Therapeutics is.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Sure. So, Paradigm Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company. We're focused
on developing a therapy for probably one of the most
devastating diseases I've ever been involved with. It's called epidermal
issis blosa, which is a genetic disease that starts at
birth and what we're in the process of completing development
of a therapy that's going to have a dramatic impact
on patients beginning basically at birth.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Now you're also the co founder of Innova Therapeutics.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
That's correct, Yes, so we have two companies. As I
mentioned before, Paradigm is focused on this rare disease, and
that's a later stage program. We also have an Ova Therapeutics,
which I've spent about half of my career over sixteen
seventeen years in developing cancer therapies. It's probably the most
exciting cancer therapy I've ever worked on, and I think
it's going to be a game changer across cancers, and
(01:15):
we're focusing on that again, move that forward very quickly
across especially cancers where they really are very limited options.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Sure, now, what sent you down this road? What was
the impetus for you to pursue this career?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So fortunate enough, my dad previously was an executive at
a pharmaceutical company and I had exposure when I was
a teenager, and at that point I was initially planned
to go to med school, but I was very interested
in drug development because I felt that that could really
make an impact on patients. So that's kind of where
I started in the pharmaceutical arena. And then for EB,
(01:53):
I was involved with families back since about nineteen ninety nine.
I don't have any family members, but I know a
lot of families that have children are siblings with EB.
So EB was one of my focuses initially in pharmaceutical
that I wanted to try to find a therapy for that,
and I've continued my career in the development of pharmaceuticals
(02:14):
for over thirty five years.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Now. Well, it's just crushing when it involves children, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh, it's devastating, And you know the sad part is
you can imagine in this disease one of the key
characteristics is they get a lot of open wounds and
it's not unusual at any given time for a child
to have fifty sixty seventy percent of their body and
open wounds. As you can imagine, their biggest risk is
infection and you see it too much and unfortunately it's
(02:42):
one of these situations where the child is okay for
a little bit, but then they get an infection and
then unfortunately, in many cases, they pass away. So I
think our therapy is going to make a dramatic impact,
and we're very excited. I mean, we just can't wait
about getting this out for families.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that's wonderful work. And is there any way to
test for EB or is it just something that unfortunately
presents itself?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Sure? So EB has two different components. There is a
form of epidemolysis blosa that is a dominant form, so
one of the parents actually has the disease and it's
visible and manifests, So those patients still wind up getting married,
and they still wind up having children. With those particular patients,
it's about a fifty to fifty chance that they're going
(03:28):
to get the disease. The predominant forms are what's called
recessive and that's where the parents in many cases are carriers,
and then each parent carries that gene and then if
they wind up having children, it's a one in four chance.
So there are tests to do for it, but unfortunately,
unless it runs into your family, to go do a
test just for this particular disease is about five thousand dollars.
(03:49):
But if there's no reason or you know, predominance in
your family to have this disease, people typically would not
run this disease because there's thousands of different rare disease.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You know, there have been so many advancements in biotechnology,
and it seems like it's exponentially, you know, getting faster
and faster and faster the development of new treatments. Explain
that process to us a little bit. Can we look
at technology for that or is it just that we've
learned so many things that it's exponentially going faster.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Well, I think it's going faster because there's so much
on met need. I think that's the key thing. The
unfortunate part is to develop therapies is very long and
it's very expensive. There's a lot of regulatory hurdles because
obviously you want to make sure even if a drug
is effective, that it's safe. So the good thing is
there's a lot of work being done, but the process
(04:41):
itself is very difficult.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Now, that process takes a very long time. I think
a lot of people are not aware of just how
long it takes. Can you explain that to us a
little bit?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Sure, typical from kind of an idea stage to get
into product potentially to market, and a lot of products fail.
I mean, the risk of failure rate is very very
high on fortunately, because when you can have models and animals,
but then you go into the clinic and it may
or may not work. On average, it could take seven
to ten years of work and hundreds of millions of
dollars to get to the point to see if your
(05:11):
drug is effective and its actually can be brought out
to patients. We were very fortunate with our eb therapy
that we had some very good recognition from the Food
and Drug Administration. We're able to move it very quickly
to late stage in about two years.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Wow, it's fast.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
It was fast. Yeah, it was. And the difficult part
is it's very expensive. Now it's not unusual you could
spend fifty to one hundred million dollars for a trial.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
You know, not to get too far in the weeds
on this, but I mean that's an incredible amount of money.
So I would imagine where does that money come from.
Do you have to go and find sponsors for you know,
for the drug that you want to introduce, or investors
or how does that process work?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, So there's a couple options. Obviously. One of the
main is there's a lot of investors venture capitals what
you call our family offices, and they will put in
and typically what they will do is they'll take an
equity stake in your company. So that's one option. The
other option, which is a little bit more risky in
the markets to some companies will go public and then
(06:10):
hope that the public markets are kind to them and
then they raise money through their what I would call
their IPO their initial public offering. So those are the
two main options. The other thing that happens sometimes with companies,
if it's a strategic product that large pharma likes, they
will also get involved early, and that might be through
an equity investment or an option agreement.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Now we talked about the time period being so long.
What are some of the roadblocks that people face when
they're trying to develop a new drug or treatment. Do
you think that it's over regulation?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Regulation is very is very, very difficult, especially outside the US.
But the other is competition for patients. If you're going
into an area where there's not a lot of drugs
being developed, obviously you're going to have patients that will
participate in your trials. If you go into an area,
for example, that crowded, like cancer, it can be difficult
(07:04):
sometimes because you're competing against larger companies that are doing
trials maybe in the same disease state. So it's convincing
sites and also patients to go on your therapy versus
going on to their therapy.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That's pretty fascinating. How do you get the word out
to potential patients?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, for eb which is nice, so there's a patient
advocacy group called Deborah, and there's a chapter in the US,
and then there's a chapter virtually in every country in
the world. That's one of the main sources of information
for families with all types of EB. I've been the
vice chair of the Deborah organization in the US for
and been involved for over twelve years. So that's one
(07:41):
of the main sources that families go to to get information.
So if there's upcoming trials and so forth, they will
be the source of information. And this is not only
in the US, but it's also global. The other source
in again we're talking about epidemolysis blosa is there specialty
centers in different parts of the world. So in the
(08:01):
US there's about twelve of them. They are multifunctional centers.
Those are also sources of information, and they also have
a lot of patients they're already treating with the best
they can, but that's also a source for the patients
to realize when clinical trials are available.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Now, if there's a family out there dealing with EB
right now, what would your advice be to give them
a next step for hope?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Well, I think the good thing when we initially worked
on our therapy, nobody was focused in this disease, so
we were basically the main player. Now since we've come
along and our therapy I think is much different and
much better than the ones that have been approved. The
awareness is there, So what I would tell families with
eb which most of them keep in touch with the
(08:45):
Devor organization, is just to look and see what therapy
is are available. The unfortunate part for some of the therapies
that have come out recently which are substandard, but they're
very expensive. And that's the part that for us, it's
not only having a therapy that's going to make a
change for the fan families, but a therapy that everybody
can afford, and that, unfortunately, with a lot of rare diseases,
is not the typical situation.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Now, where does insurance play a role in this or do.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
They they do? That's that's been the hurdle for not
only in the US, but outside the US. To give
you an example, two therapies that are out there recently
for this particular disease, their cost for reimbursement, which they
will cost for the product which they hope the insurance
is going to reimburse can run upwards of two to
(09:31):
three million dollars a year for treatment, and this is
not a cure. And the problem that comes in there
is a lot of insurance companies will not cover it.
We've done that. We've had discussions because when we come
out on the market, we're going to price it out
of situation where all the insurance companies are going to
cover it. And we've had those discussions. So that's one
of our main goals. It's not to go out and
(09:52):
put it at the price as high as we can.
It's put it at a price where the families have availability.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Now do you think that, and I'm not telling thing
about exactly in its current state, but medical care in
this country, do you think that the profit motive is
healthy for ultimately for the greatest success in the best
medicine and the best development.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I think it depends on the companies. In other words,
for some companies that go after I guess smaller populations,
a lot of them push the price as high as
they can, and then you get some families that can
afford it and some families that can't. I think that
happens a lot more than it should. But the one
on the counter side pharmaceutical is about nine every ten
(10:36):
products that actually go into the clinic do not work.
They don't make it to market. So one thing that
people don't understand sometimes that some of the pricing on
products that are successful has to take into account the
products that failed and the costs that we're associated with it.
But I think there's a balance and I think some
of the companies could do better on that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Now, tell us about your background to shift Gears a
little bit. Where did you grow up? So?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Originally grew up in Virginia, in Roanoke, Virginia. After that
I moved to New Jersey and went to school, wound
up going to college. Actually moved out to Fargo, North Dakota.
For about eight years, worked on in the emergency room
and on the ambulance and I planned to again get
my PhD. So I decided to do that. I was
planning to go to med school initially, and then I
(11:20):
was able to get involved in pharmaceuticals. One of my
team members when I was in grad school wound up
working at Bristol Myers and that was my entry into
pharmaceutical and that was back about thirty five years ago.
So I started out in pharmaceuticals large companies Bristol, Myers, Pfizer, Roche. Basically,
I've worked in drug development since then, been also in
small companies as I mentioned before, mid size, So I've
(11:45):
been fortunate enough to be involved in the development across
all therapeutic areas. But my first focus outside of EB
has always been cancer therapies because I think they're still
large on mid need.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Now you mentioned your father. What is it that he did.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
He was an executive company called Hirkst, so he was
on the pharmaceutical side. So that's where I had the
opportunity and when I lived in New Jersey to get
exposed to what pharmaceutical development was all about.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Now, what about your mom? Was she involved at all?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Or she wasn't? She was more of she was home
raised the family, so it was primarily through my dad.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Now do you have children? You had mentioned Do you
have a couple of sons? Right? That's correct.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I have two sons. One actually is a physician. He
just finished his pediatric residency down in South Carolina here
and now he's doing another three year residency in pediatric ICEEU.
So he likes to be involved in children that come
in that are sick, but they can really make a difference.
So he's doing that. My other son has his family
(12:46):
down here. He's actually involved in both my companies. He
heads up my regulatory groups. So the nice part is
we've got the families nearby.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Absolutely, and I'm sure it's nice working with your son too.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I love it. There's nothing better. And we have four
grand children. They have two, and then our other son
has two, so it's a it's a great situation.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Now you mentioned your wife is from here, from Sullivan's Island, right.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
That is correct. Yeah, she born raised in Sullivan's Island.
I met her actually when I was up in North Carolina.
We both worked at Roche and that's where we met
and that's when we wind up getting married and came
down here about ten years ago. We're down in Aisle
of Palms and this is where we're here to stay.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
It's hard to leave here once once you get used
to the lifestyle and once you move here, everybody falls
in love. Right.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Oh, absolutely, it's just it's a great environment to raise families.
But it's just the whole atmosphere is just wonderful.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Now you had mentioned your early career, what do you
think along your journey. What was the most difficult thing
to overcome?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I think the difficult to overcome is sometimes therapies that
you hope are going to be effective don't work, or
you know, you have a drug that works, but the
safety is just not as good as it could be.
So the hard part is sometimes trying to figure out
if you can you know, fix issues that come up,
and sometimes you can't. I was fortunate enough way back
one of the first programs that I worked on was
(14:09):
one of the very impactful cancer drugs, which was called
tax Al at Bristol Myers. So that was my first
exposure to a therapy that really was very effective. And
you know, I've been involved in therapy since then. Some
have been very effective and some have not been as
effective as you would hope.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Now, there are so many hurdles to overcome when you're
developing a product like yours, and there's a lot of
entrepreneurs out there, and it might not be something that
has to do with medical, but they are facing the
same kind of hurdles. You're looking at regulation and you're
looking at fundraising, and how do you put all these
(14:45):
moving pieces together. Where would you advise a young entrepreneur
that has the goal of becoming somebody like you. Where
do you suggest that they start. What's a good first
step for them?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Well, I think the key thing is you have to
be passionate of what you're doing. I think that's the
first part. And believe in what you're doing, because you're
going to get a lot of no's. And the way
I look my philosophy in life is every no you
get is one one closer to yes, and don't let
people tell you otherwise. When we first started developing our
(15:19):
therapy for eb I would say I probably talked at
that point. My wife and I self funded it for
quite a few years to probably over two hundred VC
groups venture capital groups, and we weren't successful in raising money,
so we had to develop the product to a later
stage and then we got the funding, and basically that's
(15:39):
where we've gone from here. So don't let the hurdles
block you. If you really believe in your what you're
working on, whether it's a therapy, a diagnostic or whatever,
don't let people tell you no. And it's not simple.
It's gotten harder now because money is a little bit tighter.
But if it's something that you really believe in and
it's effective, it'll work out. And the other thing too,
(16:02):
I would mention, is knock on as many doors, you
never know which investor is going to come across. And
even with our most recent EB program, which were well
funded by an investor up in North Carolina, just happened
to reach out to them as somebody that I knew
from many years ago, and it turned out to be
the person that funded our company.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Now, did you have a mentor along the way.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
I think the mentor I had were people that I
worked with. Unfortunately, you know, when I got into the
companies and so forth and that type of thing, it
was really more people that I worked with directly. I
would say if I talk about as somebody that was
a mentor, and also to keep me focused and not
say it's time to move on. With my wife, she's
always believed in what I do and has never been
(16:44):
a situation to say let's just let's not do this,
So I you know, from a mentor perspective, I would
say that's probably the most important. I'm fortunate the team
that I have are people that I worked with at
different companies for many years. So yeah, to have a
team that's not only very skilled, but can work together
and everybody has basically each other's back. Because when we
(17:07):
were successful in North Carolina, we had a small team
and we got one of the highest accolades from the
FDA and we only had six people. So if you
have a good team, the people are skilled and they
work well together, you're in really really good shape.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Now it sounds like you're awfully busy. What do you
do in your spare time. I think it's more of
spending time with our friends. I used to love playing golf.
I haven't played it as much anymore. We do go
out and boat. We have a boat right where we
are in Isle of Palms, but it's really spending time
with family and enjoying that time. And we do a
lot of travel. Most of it's business related, but we
(17:44):
do get a chance to enjoy some of that also. Well,
it's been interesting and certainly a pleasure to meet you,
doctor Robert Ryan, CEO of Paradigm Therapeutics. Good luck in
your endeavor, sir, and godspeed.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Thank you very much. This has been a pleasure
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Listening to iHeartRadio CEOs you should know heard every Tuesday
and Saturday morning right here on this iHeartRadio station
iHeartMedia presents CEOs. You should know. CEOs you should Know
Charleston is brought to you by SC two to fifty
Charleston Www dot SC two fifty Charleston dot org.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It's Michael Blaze. Welcome to CEOs you should know. Joining
us is doctor Robert Ryan. He's CEO of Paradigm Therapeutics. Welcome, Robert.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Thank you very much for having me here. I'm excited
to be talking with you.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, same here. So let's start with explaining to our
audience what Paradigm Therapeutics is.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Sure. So, Paradigm Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company. We're focused
on developing a therapy for probably one of the most
devastating diseases I've ever been involved with. It's called epidermal
issis blosa, which is a genetic disease that starts at
birth and what we're in the process of completing development
of a therapy that's going to have a dramatic impact
on patients beginning basically at birth.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Now you're also the co founder of Innova Therapeutics.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
That's correct, Yes, so we have two companies. As I
mentioned before, Paradigm is focused on this rare disease, and
that's a later stage program. We also have an Ova Therapeutics,
which I've spent about half of my career over sixteen
seventeen years in developing cancer therapies. It's probably the most
exciting cancer therapy I've ever worked on, and I think
it's going to be a game changer across cancers, and
(01:15):
we're focusing on that again, move that forward very quickly
across especially cancers where they really are very limited options.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Sure, now, what sent you down this road? What was
the impetus for you to pursue this career?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So fortunate enough, my dad previously was an executive at
a pharmaceutical company and I had exposure when I was
a teenager, and at that point I was initially planned
to go to med school, but I was very interested
in drug development because I felt that that could really
make an impact on patients. So that's kind of where
I started in the pharmaceutical arena. And then for EB,
(01:53):
I was involved with families back since about nineteen ninety nine.
I don't have any family members, but I know a
lot of families that have children are siblings with EB.
So EB was one of my focuses initially in pharmaceutical
that I wanted to try to find a therapy for that,
and I've continued my career in the development of pharmaceuticals
(02:14):
for over thirty five years.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Now. Well, it's just crushing when it involves children, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh, it's devastating, And you know the sad part is
you can imagine in this disease one of the key
characteristics is they get a lot of open wounds and
it's not unusual at any given time for a child
to have fifty sixty seventy percent of their body and
open wounds. As you can imagine, their biggest risk is
infection and you see it too much and unfortunately it's
(02:42):
one of these situations where the child is okay for
a little bit, but then they get an infection and
then unfortunately, in many cases, they pass away. So I
think our therapy is going to make a dramatic impact,
and we're very excited. I mean, we just can't wait
about getting this out for families.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that's wonderful work. And is there any way to
test for EB or is it just something that unfortunately
presents itself?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Sure? So EB has two different components. There is a
form of epidemolysis blosa that is a dominant form, so
one of the parents actually has the disease and it's
visible and manifests, So those patients still wind up getting married,
and they still wind up having children. With those particular patients,
it's about a fifty to fifty chance that they're going
(03:28):
to get the disease. The predominant forms are what's called
recessive and that's where the parents in many cases are carriers,
and then each parent carries that gene and then if
they wind up having children, it's a one in four chance.
So there are tests to do for it, but unfortunately,
unless it runs into your family, to go do a
test just for this particular disease is about five thousand dollars.
(03:49):
But if there's no reason or you know, predominance in
your family to have this disease, people typically would not
run this disease because there's thousands of different rare disease.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You know, there have been so many advancements in biotechnology,
and it seems like it's exponentially, you know, getting faster
and faster and faster the development of new treatments. Explain
that process to us a little bit. Can we look
at technology for that or is it just that we've
learned so many things that it's exponentially going faster.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Well, I think it's going faster because there's so much
on met need. I think that's the key thing. The
unfortunate part is to develop therapies is very long and
it's very expensive. There's a lot of regulatory hurdles because
obviously you want to make sure even if a drug
is effective, that it's safe. So the good thing is
there's a lot of work being done, but the process
(04:41):
itself is very difficult.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Now, that process takes a very long time. I think
a lot of people are not aware of just how
long it takes. Can you explain that to us a
little bit?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Sure, typical from kind of an idea stage to get
into product potentially to market, and a lot of products fail.
I mean, the risk of failure rate is very very
high on fortunately, because when you can have models and animals,
but then you go into the clinic and it may
or may not work. On average, it could take seven
to ten years of work and hundreds of millions of
dollars to get to the point to see if your
(05:11):
drug is effective and its actually can be brought out
to patients. We were very fortunate with our eb therapy
that we had some very good recognition from the Food
and Drug Administration. We're able to move it very quickly
to late stage in about two years.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Wow, it's fast.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
It was fast. Yeah, it was. And the difficult part
is it's very expensive. Now it's not unusual you could
spend fifty to one hundred million dollars for a trial.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
You know, not to get too far in the weeds
on this, but I mean that's an incredible amount of money.
So I would imagine where does that money come from.
Do you have to go and find sponsors for you know,
for the drug that you want to introduce, or investors
or how does that process work?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, So there's a couple options. Obviously. One of the
main is there's a lot of investors venture capitals what
you call our family offices, and they will put in
and typically what they will do is they'll take an
equity stake in your company. So that's one option. The
other option, which is a little bit more risky in
the markets to some companies will go public and then
(06:10):
hope that the public markets are kind to them and
then they raise money through their what I would call
their IPO their initial public offering. So those are the
two main options. The other thing that happens sometimes with companies,
if it's a strategic product that large pharma likes, they
will also get involved early, and that might be through
an equity investment or an option agreement.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Now we talked about the time period being so long.
What are some of the roadblocks that people face when
they're trying to develop a new drug or treatment. Do
you think that it's over regulation?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Regulation is very is very, very difficult, especially outside the US.
But the other is competition for patients. If you're going
into an area where there's not a lot of drugs
being developed, obviously you're going to have patients that will
participate in your trials. If you go into an area,
for example, that crowded, like cancer, it can be difficult
(07:04):
sometimes because you're competing against larger companies that are doing
trials maybe in the same disease state. So it's convincing
sites and also patients to go on your therapy versus
going on to their therapy.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That's pretty fascinating. How do you get the word out
to potential patients?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, for eb which is nice, so there's a patient
advocacy group called Deborah, and there's a chapter in the US,
and then there's a chapter virtually in every country in
the world. That's one of the main sources of information
for families with all types of EB. I've been the
vice chair of the Deborah organization in the US for
and been involved for over twelve years. So that's one
(07:41):
of the main sources that families go to to get information.
So if there's upcoming trials and so forth, they will
be the source of information. And this is not only
in the US, but it's also global. The other source
in again we're talking about epidemolysis blosa is there specialty
centers in different parts of the world. So in the
(08:01):
US there's about twelve of them. They are multifunctional centers.
Those are also sources of information, and they also have
a lot of patients they're already treating with the best
they can, but that's also a source for the patients
to realize when clinical trials are available.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Now, if there's a family out there dealing with EB
right now, what would your advice be to give them
a next step for hope?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Well, I think the good thing when we initially worked
on our therapy, nobody was focused in this disease, so
we were basically the main player. Now since we've come
along and our therapy I think is much different and
much better than the ones that have been approved. The
awareness is there, So what I would tell families with
eb which most of them keep in touch with the
(08:45):
Devor organization, is just to look and see what therapy
is are available. The unfortunate part for some of the therapies
that have come out recently which are substandard, but they're
very expensive. And that's the part that for us, it's
not only having a therapy that's going to make a
change for the fan families, but a therapy that everybody
can afford, and that, unfortunately, with a lot of rare diseases,
is not the typical situation.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Now, where does insurance play a role in this or do.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
They they do? That's that's been the hurdle for not
only in the US, but outside the US. To give
you an example, two therapies that are out there recently
for this particular disease, their cost for reimbursement, which they
will cost for the product which they hope the insurance
is going to reimburse can run upwards of two to
(09:31):
three million dollars a year for treatment, and this is
not a cure. And the problem that comes in there
is a lot of insurance companies will not cover it.
We've done that. We've had discussions because when we come
out on the market, we're going to price it out
of situation where all the insurance companies are going to
cover it. And we've had those discussions. So that's one
of our main goals. It's not to go out and
(09:52):
put it at the price as high as we can.
It's put it at a price where the families have availability.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Now do you think that, and I'm not telling thing
about exactly in its current state, but medical care in
this country, do you think that the profit motive is
healthy for ultimately for the greatest success in the best
medicine and the best development.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I think it depends on the companies. In other words,
for some companies that go after I guess smaller populations,
a lot of them push the price as high as
they can, and then you get some families that can
afford it and some families that can't. I think that
happens a lot more than it should. But the one
on the counter side pharmaceutical is about nine every ten
(10:36):
products that actually go into the clinic do not work.
They don't make it to market. So one thing that
people don't understand sometimes that some of the pricing on
products that are successful has to take into account the
products that failed and the costs that we're associated with it.
But I think there's a balance and I think some
of the companies could do better on that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Now, tell us about your background to shift Gears a
little bit. Where did you grow up? So?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Originally grew up in Virginia, in Roanoke, Virginia. After that
I moved to New Jersey and went to school, wound
up going to college. Actually moved out to Fargo, North Dakota.
For about eight years, worked on in the emergency room
and on the ambulance and I planned to again get
my PhD. So I decided to do that. I was
planning to go to med school initially, and then I
(11:20):
was able to get involved in pharmaceuticals. One of my
team members when I was in grad school wound up
working at Bristol Myers and that was my entry into
pharmaceutical and that was back about thirty five years ago.
So I started out in pharmaceuticals large companies Bristol, Myers, Pfizer, Roche. Basically,
I've worked in drug development since then, been also in
small companies as I mentioned before, mid size, So I've
(11:45):
been fortunate enough to be involved in the development across
all therapeutic areas. But my first focus outside of EB
has always been cancer therapies because I think they're still
large on mid need.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Now you mentioned your father. What is it that he did.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
He was an executive company called Hirkst, so he was
on the pharmaceutical side. So that's where I had the
opportunity and when I lived in New Jersey to get
exposed to what pharmaceutical development was all about.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Now, what about your mom? Was she involved at all?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Or she wasn't? She was more of she was home
raised the family, so it was primarily through my dad.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Now do you have children? You had mentioned Do you
have a couple of sons? Right? That's correct.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I have two sons. One actually is a physician. He
just finished his pediatric residency down in South Carolina here
and now he's doing another three year residency in pediatric ICEEU.
So he likes to be involved in children that come
in that are sick, but they can really make a difference.
So he's doing that. My other son has his family
(12:46):
down here. He's actually involved in both my companies. He
heads up my regulatory groups. So the nice part is
we've got the families nearby.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Absolutely, and I'm sure it's nice working with your son too.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I love it. There's nothing better. And we have four
grand children. They have two, and then our other son
has two, so it's a it's a great situation.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Now you mentioned your wife is from here, from Sullivan's Island, right.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
That is correct. Yeah, she born raised in Sullivan's Island.
I met her actually when I was up in North Carolina.
We both worked at Roche and that's where we met
and that's when we wind up getting married and came
down here about ten years ago. We're down in Aisle
of Palms and this is where we're here to stay.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
It's hard to leave here once once you get used
to the lifestyle and once you move here, everybody falls
in love. Right.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Oh, absolutely, it's just it's a great environment to raise families.
But it's just the whole atmosphere is just wonderful.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Now you had mentioned your early career, what do you
think along your journey. What was the most difficult thing
to overcome?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I think the difficult to overcome is sometimes therapies that
you hope are going to be effective don't work, or
you know, you have a drug that works, but the
safety is just not as good as it could be.
So the hard part is sometimes trying to figure out
if you can you know, fix issues that come up,
and sometimes you can't. I was fortunate enough way back
one of the first programs that I worked on was
(14:09):
one of the very impactful cancer drugs, which was called
tax Al at Bristol Myers. So that was my first
exposure to a therapy that really was very effective. And
you know, I've been involved in therapy since then. Some
have been very effective and some have not been as
effective as you would hope.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Now, there are so many hurdles to overcome when you're
developing a product like yours, and there's a lot of
entrepreneurs out there, and it might not be something that
has to do with medical, but they are facing the
same kind of hurdles. You're looking at regulation and you're
looking at fundraising, and how do you put all these
(14:45):
moving pieces together. Where would you advise a young entrepreneur
that has the goal of becoming somebody like you. Where
do you suggest that they start. What's a good first
step for them?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Well, I think the key thing is you have to
be passionate of what you're doing. I think that's the
first part. And believe in what you're doing, because you're
going to get a lot of no's. And the way
I look my philosophy in life is every no you
get is one one closer to yes, and don't let
people tell you otherwise. When we first started developing our
(15:19):
therapy for eb I would say I probably talked at
that point. My wife and I self funded it for
quite a few years to probably over two hundred VC
groups venture capital groups, and we weren't successful in raising money,
so we had to develop the product to a later
stage and then we got the funding, and basically that's
(15:39):
where we've gone from here. So don't let the hurdles
block you. If you really believe in your what you're
working on, whether it's a therapy, a diagnostic or whatever,
don't let people tell you no. And it's not simple.
It's gotten harder now because money is a little bit tighter.
But if it's something that you really believe in and
it's effective, it'll work out. And the other thing too,
(16:02):
I would mention, is knock on as many doors, you
never know which investor is going to come across. And
even with our most recent EB program, which were well
funded by an investor up in North Carolina, just happened
to reach out to them as somebody that I knew
from many years ago, and it turned out to be
the person that funded our company.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Now, did you have a mentor along the way.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
I think the mentor I had were people that I
worked with. Unfortunately, you know, when I got into the
companies and so forth and that type of thing, it
was really more people that I worked with directly. I
would say if I talk about as somebody that was
a mentor, and also to keep me focused and not
say it's time to move on. With my wife, she's
always believed in what I do and has never been
(16:44):
a situation to say let's just let's not do this,
So I you know, from a mentor perspective, I would
say that's probably the most important. I'm fortunate the team
that I have are people that I worked with at
different companies for many years. So yeah, to have a
team that's not only very skilled, but can work together
and everybody has basically each other's back. Because when we
(17:07):
were successful in North Carolina, we had a small team
and we got one of the highest accolades from the
FDA and we only had six people. So if you
have a good team, the people are skilled and they
work well together, you're in really really good shape.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Now it sounds like you're awfully busy. What do you
do in your spare time. I think it's more of
spending time with our friends. I used to love playing golf.
I haven't played it as much anymore. We do go
out and boat. We have a boat right where we
are in Isle of Palms, but it's really spending time
with family and enjoying that time. And we do a
lot of travel. Most of it's business related, but we
(17:44):
do get a chance to enjoy some of that also. Well,
it's been interesting and certainly a pleasure to meet you,
doctor Robert Ryan, CEO of Paradigm Therapeutics. Good luck in
your endeavor, sir, and godspeed.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Thank you very much. This has been a pleasure
Speaker 1 (18:00):
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