November 25, 2024 • 27 mins
William "Bill" Enright is a seasoned biotech executive with more than thirty years of experience in building and financing both privately held and publicly held companies. Bill spent more than ten years at Altimmune (NASDAQ: ALT) as a Director, President & CEO, moving multiple programs into clinical testing, completing several acquisitions and eventually taking the company public.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank resients. iHeartRadio's CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
You should know, powered by the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Let's meet Bill Enright. He is the CEO for Barnthus Biotherapeutics,
located in Germantown, Maryland, is a biotechnology company that develops
immunotherapies in vaccine for cancer and infectious diseases. Their mission
is to improve patients' lives by developing immunotherapy that helped
T cells control disease. Before we talk more about Bill's company,
(00:30):
I first asked him to talk a little bit about himself,
where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
So I grew up in Buffalo, New York for most
of my life.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Was there and through elementary school and high school and
into college. So I went to suniyat Buffalo for both
my undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
All right, I'm not going to make any assumptions, but
a long suffering Bills.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Fan, long suffering Bills fan, Yeah, Bill's mafia.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Before there was a Bill's mafia.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I love your fans and I love your team. This year,
are you feeling good?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I'm feeling reasonably easily good. I felt good last year also,
so you know, stranger.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Things have happened.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's a Bills fan through and through. But they are
in a good year and I'm I'm a big fan
of your team and I hope they do well well. Listen,
obviously we're here to talk about Brenthas and I do
want to start off about some context for our listeners
because you've done such a neat job of this company
with biotherapeutics the last five plus years. But when you
were coming out of school, did you want to get
(01:31):
in this industry? What did you want to do?
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah, well, I shouted off as as a pre med major,
I thought I was going to be a doctor, mostly
because my mom wanted me to be a doctor. But
you know, that's how it goes. Realized that I actually
like going to the bar and having a beer more
than I like to studying for organic chemistry. So I
settled and went into science instead and really enjoyed it.
(01:57):
So I started working at the bench as an under
at got me interested enough to go and work on
my PhD, which ended up not completing, but still had
a good time.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, this is an industry you've been in for a
long time, and once again for contextual purposes, for our listeners.
Can you kind of go over your resume because you
worked for some very cool companies done some very cool
things before joining at Barathis, But tell us what you did.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, so well, after graduating, I went to work in
an academic lab for a little while and then moved
down to the Maryland area in an industry job working
for a company called Life Technologies. Life tech was a
research products company. Worked for them for quite a while
(02:44):
and led a research team, let a manufacturing team. But
they had this really cool opportunity that I was able
to be part of where they started up companies within
the bigger company and they put new research and manufacturing
and market getting all in kind of a wing of
a building and let you build a business. And I
(03:06):
was at a market and manufacturing role at that incubator
and realized that I really liked the business side of science,
and so I went back to the carry Business School
at Hopkins and got my business degree and started moving
into more business oriented roles, first within Life Technologies, but
(03:28):
then they got acquired by company out in California, and
while I was offered a position out there, for a
number of personal reasons, I wanted to stay here. And so.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I did some consulting for a little while, realized that
that wasn't what I was.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Interested in doing long term, so I went to work
for a company at the time was called gen Vec
that's now been acquired by a company called President, still
local company, so I worked through in the business development
group for them, ultimately headed up the business development grew
(04:08):
and then got a call one day from a guy
who said, listen, I'm don't hang up on me, but
I'd like to talk to you about becoming the CEO
of my companies. I'm seventy three years old and I'm
not ready to retire yet, but I am ready to
scale it back a little bit. And we had a
mutual friend that introduced us and ultimately became the CEO
(04:31):
of a company called that's now called ALTERNATEDE.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Was called.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Vason when I first joined it, but it was a
little spin out in Birmingham, Alabama. So I relocated that
company up to Maryland and got that company public. I
was able to ring the bell on NASDAQ wood and
move that forward. After a little over ten years there,
(04:58):
I decided that I was going to look for my.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Next opportunity, and so took some time off to think
about it.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And while I was doing that, I had a friend
of mine asked me for a reference for him. He
was looking at becoming a CEO of a company in
Oxford in the UK, and so gave him a reference,
and the recruiter then followed up with, so, you know,
what are you doing? And I told her what was
going on and I'm looking trying to figure out what
(05:27):
I'm doing next, and she said, you know, I think
I have some time for you, and that led to
the role I have now is a CEO of Parentthus
so at the time that company was called Voxtech and
joined there in eighteen and I was sorry two and
twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
There we go, Yeah, you're right, because you're over five
years now as CEO and on the board too. Listen,
we're going to ask you about mission statement, what you do,
and really get into the weeds on everything. But I
did want to ask you about the industry in general,
because I've learned over the last using this series, and
I imagine NIH has a lot to play with it.
But the biotech industry is extraordinary. I mean people are
(06:08):
moving here in the droves. I'm out of Rockville, where
I hearts right now. But Montgomery, it's extraordinary. Can you
tell us why so many people are moving in the area.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah, I mean there's been a big push since since
I've been in the county actually to try and make
the biotech cluster was always making number three by twenty
twenty three. Yeah, that was the goal for this biotech cluster,
and we succeeded there. So you know, we've got really
great academic and science institutions.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You mentioned the nih but also Johns.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Hopkins and the University of Maryland, and there's really the
county's done a great job at luring people in. We've
had a large pharma come in. They've done some acquisitions
that resulted and spin outs where management teams that have
(07:03):
left and started new companies, and it's really grown into
a really nice cluster of vaccine and selling teen therapy
companies in this area. So you've got a great cadre
of scientists and people that are experts at developing drugs.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, Bill, I love to hear that, and as I said,
we're going to find out exactly what you your team
and the company does. But it just thrills me to
death because I've always been a big economic development guy.
And that's because of my sports background, and my examples
are when a new stadium is built, if you can
get the proper infrastructure to grow around it, you've got
your own little mini city where an influx of money
(07:42):
is coming in from residents, people visiting the city, hotels,
rental cars. It's endless, right, And the same happens with
all these biotech companies, including yours, in the area. We're
talking about schools being built, people spending their money in
the area, a lot of extraordinary smart people living here now.
So I think it's absolutely wonderful. Let's do me favor
(08:03):
before we get into mission statement. I'm always curious when
I hear an unusual name, what does the origin start
story behind the name of the company?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, so, barnthis is the mythical navigator who.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Led King Arthur to the Isle of Avalon when he
was wounded in battle with Merlin the Magician, so that
he could be healed.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So that's that's kind of the origin.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You know, again, the company was started as a spin
out from the University of Oxford, that it ties in
with our UK roots. But also you know, getting to
the mission statement, you know what we're focused on is
the immune system and guiding the immune system to help
cure disease, and so that fits in really nicely with
(08:50):
that as well.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I'm glad to hear that our listening audience knows is
about me. I've had rheumatori arthritis since i was twenty one,
so I've had an autoimmune thing, and I've learned a
lot because I was only you know, twenty one back
in nineteen eighty seven and no internet, no social media,
know nothing back then, and it's extraordinary where it's come
from my disease and just the therapeutics and the drugs
and all the different the opportunities that I have now.
(09:14):
So I'm just so anxious to hear what you guys do.
So let's do that. If you were to give us
a thirty thousand foot view and tell people for the
first time what you do, what would you say?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
So right now, what we're involved in is drug development,
where we're trying to guide the immune system, rebalance the
immune system to help cure diseases. And you know, a
lot of these diseases, you've got antibodies, what you hear
a lot about with vaccines, but you also have t cells,
(09:45):
which is another arm of the immune system, and so
we're really focused on that T cell side, so rebalancing things.
In chronic infections, you've got one aspect where you can't
fight off the disease well enough, But in autoimmune diseases
you've got the other aspect.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Where your immune system is too active.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
And we're kind of dealing with both of those things,
trying to get the immune system back in check so
that we can deal with things and fight off viruses,
but also in the autoimmune space, you know, kind of
settle the immune system down so you're not attacking yourself.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So I'm curious, So where you started in the industry
to where we are now, I'm going to make some
assumptions after watching how thorough and quick everybody was coming
up with the COVID vaccine, that technology has been not
only fluid but moving very quickly, and I imagine that's exciting,
probably a little bit scary, but also the endless possibilities.
How has the industry change? Has it been dramatic from
(10:46):
when you started to where we are now in the
last five years and joining this company.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's unbelievable. You know, when I started my first industry job.
In nineteen eighty nine, I was involved in one of
the early commercial production lots for an enzyme called TAC
DNA polymerase, which is necessary for PCR polymerase chain reaction.
(11:16):
It kind of revolutionized molecular biology and lots. You do
so many different things, but that was it's just exploded.
We know so much more about cancer, about the immune system,
about autoimmune diseases, about central nervous system diseases, Alzheimer's, and
you know, things like that. The information is just exploding.
(11:42):
And you mentioned the COVID nineteen vaccine. You know, that
was an area that our platform technology has.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Good intents, are good basis for going after.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And you know, we had been working on a different
coronavirus vaccine called MERS, which is the Middle East respiratory syndrome.
And this is it's kind of similar in many ways
to the COVID nineteen vaccine, only much more lethal. So
it's got about a thirty five percent people die when
(12:20):
they get this disease.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
So we had already had that in clinical trials, and so.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
With this platform we were able to very quickly develop
a vaccine and so we were co inventors and involved
in the early development of the COVID nineteen vaccine that
that asrasen goal sold around the world. So they sold
billions of doses of the vaccine they called vas Erea,
and you know, it's just amazing to be part of
(12:50):
something that you know, epidemiologists estimated saved a million lives
in the first year of distribution. You know, many people
in the in the biotech space never get a drug
to commercialization. It takes a lot of time and a
lot of money in order to get a drug improved,
and so you know, they work for different companies and
(13:12):
may never see the final product get approved. And that
just happened so quickly, you know, unbelievable amount of effort
went into making sure that thing for safe and effective
and went through all the proper testing and everything that
had to happen in just such a compressed timeline.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Extraordinary stuff. So, speaking of money, how are you funded?
How does money roll in for the company?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Well, we're non reavey generating, so you know at this
point where we spend money developing these new drugs, and
so we're dependent on investors and so as I said,
you know, I think they estimate right now it takes
about ten to twelve years and one to two billion
dollars to develop a drug.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And so you know, we're always on the.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Lookout for right kind of capital to continue to allow
us to move our products forward.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So I don't want to dumb that down. But boy,
you have to play the slow game sometimes, don't you,
and have patience.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You do, and you have to you also have to prioritize,
and you need to get to know quickly if if
a drug isn't going to work, you know, you'd rather
find out sooner, you know, hopefully in early testing before
you get into people and those kind of things where
it gets much more expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So, Bill, I imagine there are a lot of different
levels and layers of partners and partnerships. Who do you
work with it? How does it all work?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, So you know, initially as a private company you
work with entra capital groups and high net worth individuals
and family offices and things like.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
That, and then then hope you get to hopefully.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
To get to take advantage of the public markets. So
we went public on Nasdaq in twenty twenty one, and
so we get funded through the public market. So raising
money that way where people think are hopeful that we've
got development efforts that are going to yield new drugs
(15:20):
to cure people.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
So right now we're working on a potential cure.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
For hepatitis B, a potential functional cure for hepatitis B
that's in phase two clinical testing. So you know, there's
three phases of the clinical testing. We're in round two here,
and we've got best in class data that we shared
at a major liver conference earlier this year, and we'll
(15:45):
have some more data coming up here soon later this
month actually, and so we're excited about.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Where that program is and you know, being able to I.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Mean, hepatitis B is a huge unmet medical didn't need
over two hundred fifty million people chronically infected with hepatitis
B around the world, so almost a million people dying
every year from cirrhosis and cancer of the liver as
a result of this spiral infection. So really have a
great opportunity there. And then the other major program that
(16:18):
we're working on is in Celiac disease, trying to.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Again huge medical needs.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I mean, the only cure right now for celiac is
gluten free diets and it impacts almost one percent of
the global population growing at about seven and a half
percent a year right now, So a huge problem for many,
many people. And so we just got that program into
(16:48):
early phase one test standard. Now we announced that a
couple of weeks ago. Soon Excited about where we are
with these programs and our ability to move these things forward.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well, I can tell you're excited. You know, I've mentioned
my disease. You mentioned a couple that you're working on
with vaccines and maybe a curative someday. I'm just super
curious about this. How do you get to narrow down
the list of thousands of diseases beside it affecting a
major part of our population that says, you know what,
this is the one that we're going to work on.
How what's the criteria for that?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah, so a lot of things to go into it,
actually is do you think you can be successful? Are
the you know, our approaches are disease specifics, So do
you have the right targets that you are identified?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Does your platform work well there? Do you think you
can actually.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Rebalance the immune system so that you can impact disease
and that it will take over you know, bodies immune
system can take over and continue to keep to disease
and check is there.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
A commercial opportunity. It was interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
It was one of the things when we were first
looking at the COVID nineteen situation, not an area we
were focused on at all. And my chief scientific officer
came to me and said, you know, there's this weird
viral outbreak in China right now.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That I think we should pay attention to. I said, nope,
not doing it.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
You know, we've had stars, We've had H five N one,
you know, they flew virus, and there are a number
of these kind of outbreaks that were supposed to be
huge commercial issues, impacting you know, lots of people, and
they all peeded out. And so we're not taking the money,
we're not taking the resources to go after that. And
(18:35):
he convinced me to give him a small enmount of
money so that you could get things started just in
case it really broke loose. And you know, we by
the time we got things started and moving, it really
broke loose, and so we were we were well on
our way.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
So it was really persistence of.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
My chief scientific officer at the time was a guy
named Tom Evans, who.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Really just in that direction. So we're able to help quickly.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Absolutely fascinating. I'm glad you shared that story. You know,
once again another layman question, and I know that we
talked about playing the long game, because sometimes it takes years,
if not decades, to develop stuff. And I don't want
to make any assumptions, but I think things I've read
about the COVID nineteen vaccine, things are being worked on
for years prior to that to get to that point.
But I imagine there are some drugs that can be
(19:25):
designed quickly, some that can Specifically that one. Was it
because it was a ruled epidemic and you had the
smartest people in the world. Is that why it was
so expedient to get so everybody could get the opportunity
to take the vaccine if they wanted. Is that what
kind of happened?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, A lot of things came together there, right, so
that both the RNA technology that we ch used and
our platform, which is a viral platform, have been worked
out for decades, right, and so the platforms have been
tried in other disease areas, so they were really well known,
(20:02):
and so we were able to move very quickly. From
a science perspective, when when you have a pandemic outbreak
clip that you have no idea what the mortality rate
is going to be, what the morbidity rate.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Is going to be, and so you want to get
something to as many people.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
As quickly as possible. That the thing that really brought
it all together was external funding. So government's putting up
money because then you're taking the business risks out of
it as well.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Right, So so as a company, you have to do
many things in series.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Right, you don't start a phase two trial until you
have data front of a phase one trial, so you
understand you know you can you can control certain parameters
and things like that, and then you go to phase
three and you know, all these things are done in series.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And because we're taking out some of that.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Busines, this risk, we did a lot of things in
parallel and that really allows you to really expedite the
approval process for that.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So, Bill, I imagine funding has always been a challenge
in the industry and you'll probably continue to do that,
but just currently right now in the industry, any other
challenges are presenting themselves for you.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, as you said, the science is exploded, right, so.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
What you start today, there may be a new technology
out tomorrow that you know, makes you what you're doing
no longer relevant that risk absolutely, yeah, exactly before you
can get you know, your drug commercialized, right, so you
got to stay on tap the top of the competitive
landscape and really understand what's going on in the science
(21:50):
area as well. But yeah, money, there's there's also you know,
all fit a shortage of labor right, getting the right
people and the right teams together that that can prioritize things,
can that new drug development inside and out, UH aren't
(22:14):
be able to uh to kill the programs that aren't
going to be successful early and to push on the
programs that that you know have the highest probability of
success to bring stuff to market.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Well, listen, I'd like to put a pin in the
business just for a second, but it might affect the
business with my next question, and it's about philanthropic and
charity work. When you have an opportunity, and I know
you and the team are very busy all the time,
but when you have a chance to be a part
of that stuff, what do you like to be a
part of.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, so you know, in my business role, I actually
do a lot of helping develop the biotech ecosystem. I'm
a mentor for companies. I work with the Carrie School
at Johns Hopkins a lot, and you know, doing business
planning competitions, mentoring small companies, helping them develop, mentoring individuals
(23:07):
trying to find their place, and you know in career
logs and things. I worked with the Maryland Tech Council
as well and do a lot of work with them,
and with the Frederick Tech Council as well, and small
business associations veterans. I'm a veteran subcommittee to side with
(23:31):
US Army deployed in Berlin in my early days kind
of mid college careers. So do you have a special
place for vess as well.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Well, it's wonderful to hear. And you know, with my
industry and broadcastings, specifically a sports bill, there's always been
kind of a payd forward in my industry with with
people that are older than me. Sounds like you do
that with the young mentors out there. I don't know
if it's prevalent in your industry. Bysroom, Glad that you
do stuff like that. I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
No, it's it's fairly prevalent, especially you know, you want
to build that that critical mass, especially you know, as
we are trying to develop the biotech ecosystem in Maryland.
And so you want companies to be successful. You want
you want places for your team to be able to
move to. You want places to draw from so that
(24:25):
you're not always fun to go to Boston or San
Francisco or North Carolina or whatever to bring people into
the area of just build to fill specific roles and.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
In kind of a different way, you're building a culture
just like a sports team would, right.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Absolutely, Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
That's that's that's one of the things that it's kind
of on top of my list of things is building
the right culture within it and within the company.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Well, that's wonderful. Well, listen, Bill, I really appreciated our conversation.
I do want to just get some final thoughts from
me and recap everything when it comes to your wonderful
company in the last five years. But if you could
just some final thoughts and recapping everything the floors your sirs, Well, listen.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I really appreciate the opportunity to come on and this
has been great fun. You know, we are a rapidly
growing company. We are always looking for high caliber employees.
We've got the facilities both here in Maryland as well
as in the UK just outside of Oxford.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
So we're about one and fifteen people now.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
In all aspects of drug development, finance, quality, manufacturing, so
lots of different opportunities from that perspective, and we're really
pushing on very cool science and developing things where I think,
particularly in the autoimmune space, we have a lot of opportunity,
(25:52):
not just to con Celiac disease, but I think this
really shows the proof of principle for this type of
approach in many other diseases like type one diabetes, like
rhumatordos right, it's right, multiple sclerosis and others where I
think we really have an exciting opportunity there to uh,
(26:13):
you know, cool cool science.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
And and lots of room for growth.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Outstanding and folks have got a great website, easy to
navigate and there is a careers tab on there if
you want to check out if you're one of the best,
the best. I think Bill will be very interested in
chatting with you with his team. Bill, let's give that
website to everybody.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Sure, it's www dot brinthasbio dot com. I want you
to say R I N T h U S b
io dot com good.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Thank you very much, just ask you to spell that,
but you're way ahead of me. Listen, I can't tell
you how much I appreciate it, and personally, you knowing
what I have now, anybody that's working on autoimmune stuff,
I'm thrilled about. Technology for me personally has come a
long way. I'm able to function and do all the
things I want to do on one of the lucky
out of there when it comes to RA But I'm
always apprecia of somebody in the industry that's trying to
(27:04):
make a lot of people better, not necessarily come over
with the curative all the time, because that's not realistic
for some disease out there. But Bill, you and your
team and all the scientists and cool doctors that everybody
you're working for is just wonderful and we can't thank
you enough for your hard work. Thank you so much
for joining us on CEOs. As you know, we really
appreciate it and continued success.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Thank you very much, appreciate us.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Montgomery County, Maryland, is built for business success. With the
Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, CEOs find the support and
resources they need to help them grow and expand their
businesses from site selection to the county provided incentives. Together,
they drive growth in key industries and foster economic prosperity.
M and T Bank resients. iHeartRadio's CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
You should know, powered by the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Let's meet Bill Enright. He is the CEO for Barnthus Biotherapeutics,
located in Germantown, Maryland, is a biotechnology company that develops
immunotherapies in vaccine for cancer and infectious diseases. Their mission
is to improve patients' lives by developing immunotherapy that helped
T cells control disease. Before we talk more about Bill's company,
(00:30):
I first asked him to talk a little bit about himself,
where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
So I grew up in Buffalo, New York for most
of my life.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Was there and through elementary school and high school and
into college. So I went to suniyat Buffalo for both
my undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
All right, I'm not going to make any assumptions, but
a long suffering Bills.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Fan, long suffering Bills fan, Yeah, Bill's mafia.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Before there was a Bill's mafia.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I love your fans and I love your team. This year,
are you feeling good?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I'm feeling reasonably easily good. I felt good last year also,
so you know, stranger.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Things have happened.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's a Bills fan through and through. But they are
in a good year and I'm I'm a big fan
of your team and I hope they do well well. Listen,
obviously we're here to talk about Brenthas and I do
want to start off about some context for our listeners
because you've done such a neat job of this company
with biotherapeutics the last five plus years. But when you
were coming out of school, did you want to get
(01:31):
in this industry? What did you want to do?
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yeah, well, I shouted off as as a pre med major,
I thought I was going to be a doctor, mostly
because my mom wanted me to be a doctor. But
you know, that's how it goes. Realized that I actually
like going to the bar and having a beer more
than I like to studying for organic chemistry. So I
settled and went into science instead and really enjoyed it.
(01:57):
So I started working at the bench as an under
at got me interested enough to go and work on
my PhD, which ended up not completing, but still had
a good time.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, this is an industry you've been in for a
long time, and once again for contextual purposes, for our listeners.
Can you kind of go over your resume because you
worked for some very cool companies done some very cool
things before joining at Barathis, But tell us what you did.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, so well, after graduating, I went to work in
an academic lab for a little while and then moved
down to the Maryland area in an industry job working
for a company called Life Technologies. Life tech was a
research products company. Worked for them for quite a while
(02:44):
and led a research team, let a manufacturing team. But
they had this really cool opportunity that I was able
to be part of where they started up companies within
the bigger company and they put new research and manufacturing
and market getting all in kind of a wing of
a building and let you build a business. And I
(03:06):
was at a market and manufacturing role at that incubator
and realized that I really liked the business side of science,
and so I went back to the carry Business School
at Hopkins and got my business degree and started moving
into more business oriented roles, first within Life Technologies, but
(03:28):
then they got acquired by company out in California, and
while I was offered a position out there, for a
number of personal reasons, I wanted to stay here. And so.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I did some consulting for a little while, realized that
that wasn't what I was.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Interested in doing long term, so I went to work
for a company at the time was called gen Vec
that's now been acquired by a company called President, still
local company, so I worked through in the business development
group for them, ultimately headed up the business development grew
(04:08):
and then got a call one day from a guy
who said, listen, I'm don't hang up on me, but
I'd like to talk to you about becoming the CEO
of my companies. I'm seventy three years old and I'm
not ready to retire yet, but I am ready to
scale it back a little bit. And we had a
mutual friend that introduced us and ultimately became the CEO
(04:31):
of a company called that's now called ALTERNATEDE.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Was called.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Vason when I first joined it, but it was a
little spin out in Birmingham, Alabama. So I relocated that
company up to Maryland and got that company public. I
was able to ring the bell on NASDAQ wood and
move that forward. After a little over ten years there,
(04:58):
I decided that I was going to look for my.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Next opportunity, and so took some time off to think
about it.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And while I was doing that, I had a friend
of mine asked me for a reference for him. He
was looking at becoming a CEO of a company in
Oxford in the UK, and so gave him a reference,
and the recruiter then followed up with, so, you know,
what are you doing? And I told her what was
going on and I'm looking trying to figure out what
(05:27):
I'm doing next, and she said, you know, I think
I have some time for you, and that led to
the role I have now is a CEO of Parentthus
so at the time that company was called Voxtech and
joined there in eighteen and I was sorry two and
twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
There we go, Yeah, you're right, because you're over five
years now as CEO and on the board too. Listen,
we're going to ask you about mission statement, what you do,
and really get into the weeds on everything. But I
did want to ask you about the industry in general,
because I've learned over the last using this series, and
I imagine NIH has a lot to play with it.
But the biotech industry is extraordinary. I mean people are
(06:08):
moving here in the droves. I'm out of Rockville, where
I hearts right now. But Montgomery, it's extraordinary. Can you
tell us why so many people are moving in the area.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah, I mean there's been a big push since since
I've been in the county actually to try and make
the biotech cluster was always making number three by twenty
twenty three. Yeah, that was the goal for this biotech cluster,
and we succeeded there. So you know, we've got really
great academic and science institutions.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You mentioned the nih but also Johns.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Hopkins and the University of Maryland, and there's really the
county's done a great job at luring people in. We've
had a large pharma come in. They've done some acquisitions
that resulted and spin outs where management teams that have
(07:03):
left and started new companies, and it's really grown into
a really nice cluster of vaccine and selling teen therapy
companies in this area. So you've got a great cadre
of scientists and people that are experts at developing drugs.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, Bill, I love to hear that, and as I said,
we're going to find out exactly what you your team
and the company does. But it just thrills me to
death because I've always been a big economic development guy.
And that's because of my sports background, and my examples
are when a new stadium is built, if you can
get the proper infrastructure to grow around it, you've got
your own little mini city where an influx of money
(07:42):
is coming in from residents, people visiting the city, hotels,
rental cars. It's endless, right, And the same happens with
all these biotech companies, including yours, in the area. We're
talking about schools being built, people spending their money in
the area, a lot of extraordinary smart people living here now.
So I think it's absolutely wonderful. Let's do me favor
(08:03):
before we get into mission statement. I'm always curious when
I hear an unusual name, what does the origin start
story behind the name of the company?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, so, barnthis is the mythical navigator who.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Led King Arthur to the Isle of Avalon when he
was wounded in battle with Merlin the Magician, so that
he could be healed.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So that's that's kind of the origin.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You know, again, the company was started as a spin
out from the University of Oxford, that it ties in
with our UK roots. But also you know, getting to
the mission statement, you know what we're focused on is
the immune system and guiding the immune system to help
cure disease, and so that fits in really nicely with
(08:50):
that as well.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I'm glad to hear that our listening audience knows is
about me. I've had rheumatori arthritis since i was twenty one,
so I've had an autoimmune thing, and I've learned a
lot because I was only you know, twenty one back
in nineteen eighty seven and no internet, no social media,
know nothing back then, and it's extraordinary where it's come
from my disease and just the therapeutics and the drugs
and all the different the opportunities that I have now.
(09:14):
So I'm just so anxious to hear what you guys do.
So let's do that. If you were to give us
a thirty thousand foot view and tell people for the
first time what you do, what would you say?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
So right now, what we're involved in is drug development,
where we're trying to guide the immune system, rebalance the
immune system to help cure diseases. And you know, a
lot of these diseases, you've got antibodies, what you hear
a lot about with vaccines, but you also have t cells,
(09:45):
which is another arm of the immune system, and so
we're really focused on that T cell side, so rebalancing things.
In chronic infections, you've got one aspect where you can't
fight off the disease well enough, But in autoimmune diseases
you've got the other aspect.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Where your immune system is too active.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
And we're kind of dealing with both of those things,
trying to get the immune system back in check so
that we can deal with things and fight off viruses,
but also in the autoimmune space, you know, kind of
settle the immune system down so you're not attacking yourself.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So I'm curious, So where you started in the industry
to where we are now, I'm going to make some
assumptions after watching how thorough and quick everybody was coming
up with the COVID vaccine, that technology has been not
only fluid but moving very quickly, and I imagine that's exciting,
probably a little bit scary, but also the endless possibilities.
How has the industry change? Has it been dramatic from
(10:46):
when you started to where we are now in the
last five years and joining this company.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's unbelievable. You know, when I started my first industry job.
In nineteen eighty nine, I was involved in one of
the early commercial production lots for an enzyme called TAC
DNA polymerase, which is necessary for PCR polymerase chain reaction.
(11:16):
It kind of revolutionized molecular biology and lots. You do
so many different things, but that was it's just exploded.
We know so much more about cancer, about the immune system,
about autoimmune diseases, about central nervous system diseases, Alzheimer's, and
you know, things like that. The information is just exploding.
(11:42):
And you mentioned the COVID nineteen vaccine. You know, that
was an area that our platform technology has.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Good intents, are good basis for going after.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And you know, we had been working on a different
coronavirus vaccine called MERS, which is the Middle East respiratory syndrome.
And this is it's kind of similar in many ways
to the COVID nineteen vaccine, only much more lethal. So
it's got about a thirty five percent people die when
(12:20):
they get this disease.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
So we had already had that in clinical trials, and so.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
With this platform we were able to very quickly develop
a vaccine and so we were co inventors and involved
in the early development of the COVID nineteen vaccine that
that asrasen goal sold around the world. So they sold
billions of doses of the vaccine they called vas Erea,
and you know, it's just amazing to be part of
(12:50):
something that you know, epidemiologists estimated saved a million lives
in the first year of distribution. You know, many people
in the in the biotech space never get a drug
to commercialization. It takes a lot of time and a
lot of money in order to get a drug improved,
and so you know, they work for different companies and
(13:12):
may never see the final product get approved. And that
just happened so quickly, you know, unbelievable amount of effort
went into making sure that thing for safe and effective
and went through all the proper testing and everything that
had to happen in just such a compressed timeline.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Extraordinary stuff. So, speaking of money, how are you funded?
How does money roll in for the company?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Well, we're non reavey generating, so you know at this
point where we spend money developing these new drugs, and
so we're dependent on investors and so as I said,
you know, I think they estimate right now it takes
about ten to twelve years and one to two billion
dollars to develop a drug.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And so you know, we're always on the.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Lookout for right kind of capital to continue to allow
us to move our products forward.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So I don't want to dumb that down. But boy,
you have to play the slow game sometimes, don't you,
and have patience.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You do, and you have to you also have to prioritize,
and you need to get to know quickly if if
a drug isn't going to work, you know, you'd rather
find out sooner, you know, hopefully in early testing before
you get into people and those kind of things where
it gets much more expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So, Bill, I imagine there are a lot of different
levels and layers of partners and partnerships. Who do you
work with it? How does it all work?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, So you know, initially as a private company you
work with entra capital groups and high net worth individuals
and family offices and things like.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
That, and then then hope you get to hopefully.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
To get to take advantage of the public markets. So
we went public on Nasdaq in twenty twenty one, and
so we get funded through the public market. So raising
money that way where people think are hopeful that we've
got development efforts that are going to yield new drugs
(15:20):
to cure people.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
So right now we're working on a potential cure.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
For hepatitis B, a potential functional cure for hepatitis B
that's in phase two clinical testing. So you know, there's
three phases of the clinical testing. We're in round two here,
and we've got best in class data that we shared
at a major liver conference earlier this year, and we'll
(15:45):
have some more data coming up here soon later this
month actually, and so we're excited about.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Where that program is and you know, being able to I.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Mean, hepatitis B is a huge unmet medical didn't need
over two hundred fifty million people chronically infected with hepatitis
B around the world, so almost a million people dying
every year from cirrhosis and cancer of the liver as
a result of this spiral infection. So really have a
great opportunity there. And then the other major program that
(16:18):
we're working on is in Celiac disease, trying to.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Again huge medical needs.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I mean, the only cure right now for celiac is
gluten free diets and it impacts almost one percent of
the global population growing at about seven and a half
percent a year right now, So a huge problem for many,
many people. And so we just got that program into
(16:48):
early phase one test standard. Now we announced that a
couple of weeks ago. Soon Excited about where we are
with these programs and our ability to move these things forward.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well, I can tell you're excited. You know, I've mentioned
my disease. You mentioned a couple that you're working on
with vaccines and maybe a curative someday. I'm just super
curious about this. How do you get to narrow down
the list of thousands of diseases beside it affecting a
major part of our population that says, you know what,
this is the one that we're going to work on.
How what's the criteria for that?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah, so a lot of things to go into it,
actually is do you think you can be successful? Are
the you know, our approaches are disease specifics, So do
you have the right targets that you are identified?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Does your platform work well there? Do you think you
can actually.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Rebalance the immune system so that you can impact disease
and that it will take over you know, bodies immune
system can take over and continue to keep to disease
and check is there.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
A commercial opportunity. It was interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
It was one of the things when we were first
looking at the COVID nineteen situation, not an area we
were focused on at all. And my chief scientific officer
came to me and said, you know, there's this weird
viral outbreak in China right now.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That I think we should pay attention to. I said, nope,
not doing it.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
You know, we've had stars, We've had H five N one,
you know, they flew virus, and there are a number
of these kind of outbreaks that were supposed to be
huge commercial issues, impacting you know, lots of people, and
they all peeded out. And so we're not taking the money,
we're not taking the resources to go after that. And
(18:35):
he convinced me to give him a small enmount of
money so that you could get things started just in
case it really broke loose. And you know, we by
the time we got things started and moving, it really
broke loose, and so we were we were well on
our way.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
So it was really persistence of.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
My chief scientific officer at the time was a guy
named Tom Evans, who.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Really just in that direction. So we're able to help quickly.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Absolutely fascinating. I'm glad you shared that story. You know,
once again another layman question, and I know that we
talked about playing the long game, because sometimes it takes years,
if not decades, to develop stuff. And I don't want
to make any assumptions, but I think things I've read
about the COVID nineteen vaccine, things are being worked on
for years prior to that to get to that point.
But I imagine there are some drugs that can be
(19:25):
designed quickly, some that can Specifically that one. Was it
because it was a ruled epidemic and you had the
smartest people in the world. Is that why it was
so expedient to get so everybody could get the opportunity
to take the vaccine if they wanted. Is that what
kind of happened?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, A lot of things came together there, right, so
that both the RNA technology that we ch used and
our platform, which is a viral platform, have been worked
out for decades, right, and so the platforms have been
tried in other disease areas, so they were really well known,
(20:02):
and so we were able to move very quickly. From
a science perspective, when when you have a pandemic outbreak
clip that you have no idea what the mortality rate
is going to be, what the morbidity rate.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Is going to be, and so you want to get
something to as many people.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
As quickly as possible. That the thing that really brought
it all together was external funding. So government's putting up
money because then you're taking the business risks out of
it as well.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Right, So so as a company, you have to do
many things in series.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Right, you don't start a phase two trial until you
have data front of a phase one trial, so you
understand you know you can you can control certain parameters
and things like that, and then you go to phase
three and you know, all these things are done in series.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And because we're taking out some of that.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Busines, this risk, we did a lot of things in
parallel and that really allows you to really expedite the
approval process for that.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So, Bill, I imagine funding has always been a challenge
in the industry and you'll probably continue to do that,
but just currently right now in the industry, any other
challenges are presenting themselves for you.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, as you said, the science is exploded, right, so.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
What you start today, there may be a new technology
out tomorrow that you know, makes you what you're doing
no longer relevant that risk absolutely, yeah, exactly before you
can get you know, your drug commercialized, right, so you
got to stay on tap the top of the competitive
landscape and really understand what's going on in the science
(21:50):
area as well. But yeah, money, there's there's also you know,
all fit a shortage of labor right, getting the right
people and the right teams together that that can prioritize things,
can that new drug development inside and out, UH aren't
(22:14):
be able to uh to kill the programs that aren't
going to be successful early and to push on the
programs that that you know have the highest probability of
success to bring stuff to market.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Well, listen, I'd like to put a pin in the
business just for a second, but it might affect the
business with my next question, and it's about philanthropic and
charity work. When you have an opportunity, and I know
you and the team are very busy all the time,
but when you have a chance to be a part
of that stuff, what do you like to be a
part of.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, so you know, in my business role, I actually
do a lot of helping develop the biotech ecosystem. I'm
a mentor for companies. I work with the Carrie School
at Johns Hopkins a lot, and you know, doing business
planning competitions, mentoring small companies, helping them develop, mentoring individuals
(23:07):
trying to find their place, and you know in career
logs and things. I worked with the Maryland Tech Council
as well and do a lot of work with them,
and with the Frederick Tech Council as well, and small
business associations veterans. I'm a veteran subcommittee to side with
(23:31):
US Army deployed in Berlin in my early days kind
of mid college careers. So do you have a special
place for vess as well.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Well, it's wonderful to hear. And you know, with my
industry and broadcastings, specifically a sports bill, there's always been
kind of a payd forward in my industry with with
people that are older than me. Sounds like you do
that with the young mentors out there. I don't know
if it's prevalent in your industry. Bysroom, Glad that you
do stuff like that. I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
No, it's it's fairly prevalent, especially you know, you want
to build that that critical mass, especially you know, as
we are trying to develop the biotech ecosystem in Maryland.
And so you want companies to be successful. You want
you want places for your team to be able to
move to. You want places to draw from so that
(24:25):
you're not always fun to go to Boston or San
Francisco or North Carolina or whatever to bring people into
the area of just build to fill specific roles and.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
In kind of a different way, you're building a culture
just like a sports team would, right.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Absolutely, Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
That's that's that's one of the things that it's kind
of on top of my list of things is building
the right culture within it and within the company.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Well, that's wonderful. Well, listen, Bill, I really appreciated our conversation.
I do want to just get some final thoughts from
me and recap everything when it comes to your wonderful
company in the last five years. But if you could
just some final thoughts and recapping everything the floors your sirs, Well, listen.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I really appreciate the opportunity to come on and this
has been great fun. You know, we are a rapidly
growing company. We are always looking for high caliber employees.
We've got the facilities both here in Maryland as well
as in the UK just outside of Oxford.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
So we're about one and fifteen people now.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
In all aspects of drug development, finance, quality, manufacturing, so
lots of different opportunities from that perspective, and we're really
pushing on very cool science and developing things where I think,
particularly in the autoimmune space, we have a lot of opportunity,
(25:52):
not just to con Celiac disease, but I think this
really shows the proof of principle for this type of
approach in many other diseases like type one diabetes, like
rhumatordos right, it's right, multiple sclerosis and others where I
think we really have an exciting opportunity there to uh,
(26:13):
you know, cool cool science.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
And and lots of room for growth.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Outstanding and folks have got a great website, easy to
navigate and there is a careers tab on there if
you want to check out if you're one of the best,
the best. I think Bill will be very interested in
chatting with you with his team. Bill, let's give that
website to everybody.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Sure, it's www dot brinthasbio dot com. I want you
to say R I N T h U S b
io dot com good.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Thank you very much, just ask you to spell that,
but you're way ahead of me. Listen, I can't tell
you how much I appreciate it, and personally, you knowing
what I have now, anybody that's working on autoimmune stuff,
I'm thrilled about. Technology for me personally has come a
long way. I'm able to function and do all the
things I want to do on one of the lucky
out of there when it comes to RA But I'm
always apprecia of somebody in the industry that's trying to
(27:04):
make a lot of people better, not necessarily come over
with the curative all the time, because that's not realistic
for some disease out there. But Bill, you and your
team and all the scientists and cool doctors that everybody
you're working for is just wonderful and we can't thank
you enough for your hard work. Thank you so much
for joining us on CEOs. As you know, we really
appreciate it and continued success.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Thank you very much, appreciate us.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Montgomery County, Maryland, is built for business success. With the
Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, CEOs find the support and
resources they need to help them grow and expand their
businesses from site selection to the county provided incentives. Together,
they drive growth in key industries and foster economic prosperity.
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