August 18, 2025 • 29 mins
BioCentury’s third annual analysis of pharma company deals finds that bispecifics and degraders are in, cell and gene therapies are out, and China is bringing much more than me-too assets to cross-border deals. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts assess a year’s worth of deals between pharmas and biotechs to tease out emerging trends.
The analysts also discuss last week’s FDA approval of a vector-based immunotherapy from Precigen to treat a rare respiratory disease and whether the decision will set a precedent of more flexibility for rare disease therapies. They then take stock of recent translational coverage in BioCentury, including a report by Denali of a way to avoid a key safety issue of anti-amyloid-targeting mAbs.
BioCentury’s Grand Rounds — Europe will take place in Cambridge, U.K., Sept. 17-19. The conference seeks to bridge academia, industry and investors for breakthrough innovation.
View full Story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656802
#PharmaDeals #CrossBorderDeals #Bispecifics #TargetedProteinDegradation #RareDisease #Neurodegeneration
00:00 - Introduction
01:38 - Pharma Deals
10:41 - Precigen
14:40 - Denali's BBB Tech
25:20 - Grand Rounds Europe
To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[ AI-generated transcript ]
Jeff Cranmer (00:01):
BioCentury's third annual pharma deals
analysis finds that bispecificsand degraders are in and cell
and gene therapies are out.
And of course, when we talkdeals, you gotta talk China.
China is bringingmore than me-toos.
We'll discuss m y colleagueLauren Mart's analysis of Pharma
(00:26):
deals on the latest BioCenturythis week, plus FDA's Vinay
Prasad signaled flexibility withlast week's decision on a rare
disease therapy from Precigen.
But will it read throughto other decisions?
And we'll take a look at ourlatest translational coverage,
translational analysis,a big strength among my
(00:49):
colleagues here at BioCentury.
And one topic will be.
Data from A CNS penetrant,amyloid monoclonal antibody from
Denali plus some other gems.
I'm Jeff Cranmer, executiveeditor here at BioCentury,
and joining me today onthe BioCentury Podcast
(01:10):
are my colleagues.
Selina Koch (01:12):
Selina Koch, Executive Editor.
Lauren Martz (01:14):
Lauren Martz, Executive Director of
Biopharma Intelligence.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (01:17):
And Karen Tkach Tuzman, Director
of Biopharma Intelligence.
Jeff Cranmer (01:21):
Karen, great to have you back on.
I know you've been immersed inall things Grand Round Europe.
We'll talk aboutthat in a little bit.
Simone and Steve Usdinare off, as I'm sure you
heard about, uh, last week.
And let's see here.
Lauren, you're putting thefinal touches on your third
(01:42):
annual pharma deals analysis.
What are you finding?
Lauren Martz (01:48):
Thanks Jeff.
The analysis looks atdeals that were announced
from mid-year last year tomid-year this year, you know,
through the end of June.
Overall, there were far fewerdeals than there were in
the prior 12 month period.
And something that stood outamong the set of deals that
we did have this year is that.
There appears to be lessappetite from the set of
(02:09):
21 pharma companies that weanalyzed for, sort of the
well validated, you know, latestage assets that we've seen
a lot of companies, lookingfor in the past few years.
Anecdotally, we haven'theard that this is less of
a priority among pharmas.
We don't know exactly why.
This is the trendthat we've seen.
(02:29):
But, among m and a deals,there were very few Phase III
and later deals, similarlyamong the partnerships.
So that, that was just oneof the trends that we found.
terms of the content of thedeals, the types of assets that
companies, were interested in.
I think one of the biggest,most shocking well, maybe not
shocking, but one of the mostdramatic changes from the last
(02:51):
period was the decline in thecell and gene therapy deals.
There was a dramaticdrop this year.
And a lot of thesedeals happened before.
The shifting administrationand before a lot of the
things that happened withthe gene therapy concerns
around Sarepta's program.
So this is something that'sbeen in motion for a few years.
Selina Koch (03:11):
And something that could possibly be worsened by
recent developments that reallyhappened, you know, towards
the tail end of this period.
Lauren Martz (03:20):
Exactly.
it's an area thatwe follow closely.
It's something that, thatI'm really interested in.
I hope that this is notsomething that continues
to worsen, but I, I thinkwe'll see what happens.
Sort of within the modalityspace, what we did see is
that there was an increasein the number of deals around
bispecific antibodies andtargeted protein degraders, as I
think you mentioned earlier, um,that went along with a decrease
(03:44):
in antibody-drug conjugates.
And so sort of digging deeperinto those antibody based
modalities, we look specificallyat deals with biotechs in China,
and there was a steep dropin the number of a ADC deals.
And what I think is reallyinteresting about sort of the
breakdown of modalities intechnologies coming out of
China is that it's much morebroad than it was in past years.
(04:06):
You know, there are alldifferent kinds of modalities.
So the sense is that, youknow, the multinational pharmas
are looking globally for,technologies and there's,
you know, maybe less of a,this region's good for this
technology, that, that region'sgood for that technology.
Jeff Cranmer (04:21):
Yeah, and if you're looking to tap into
what's going on in China,BioCentury and BayHelix and
McKinsey are putting on our12th Annual China Healthcare
Summit in October in Shanghai,and we will have the CEOs
of many of the top biotechsfrom China, Innovent, 3sbio.
(04:41):
You name it.
So it's a great way to get afirsthand look at that scene.
Selina Koch (04:48):
You got this provocative line in there that
underscores what you were justsaying about i n the eyes of
pharmas, how did you put it?
Regional specialties may bedissolving, like historically,
we think of certain placesas being really strong and
certain things like genetherapies in Europe and antibody
engineering in China, andthose things are still true.
But it seems to me that onething you found in these
(05:10):
deals is that a lot of placesare now getting better at
a wide range of things.
Lauren Martz (05:15):
Exactly, that's exactly what we found.
You know, a few years ago,if we looked to the deals and
the technologies coming fromChina, it would've been, heavily
dominated by MABs and by ADCs.
there's a chart in the storythat is just very telling
of, the expansion of biotechsglobally following, the science,
you know, not necessarilythe specialty in that region.
Selina Koch (05:36):
Yeah.
And then for Chinain particular.
This latest wave of, of assetsis much more weighted towards
first in class, things thanwe have seen in the past.
So that, that alsoseems to be changing.
Lauren Martz (05:48):
Absolute.
Jeff Cranmer (05:49):
China speed.
I mean, when we talk about it,you know, we're usually talking
about clinical development, butas I know, Simone has pointed
out, you've pointed out Selinaand, and Lauren, I think.
From what I'm hearing,China speed, like obesity's
hot, China's in obesity.
Now it's moving quicklyto, add newer modalities.
and, uh, the deals are changing.
(06:11):
terms of the deals aregetting a little richer,
no longer a discount.
and so this is a space thatwe'll continue to follow.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (06:18):
And Lauren, I recall you kind of picked
up on a vibe shift around ADCsa while back, um, saying that
bispecifics were kind of surgingahead more broadly, and this
data really seems to back it up.
What do you thinkis going on there?
Lauren Martz (06:32):
Yeah, this is a, it's something that we've
kind of found hints of in,in various data sources over
the past year or two years.
that huge interest in ADCs.
I don't think that it'snecessarily declining.
I think, you know, onepossibility is that there
are just so many deals aroundADC assets over the past few
years that, big pharmas arebringing these through their
(06:54):
pipelines and generatingdata and, they've, acquired
the assets that they werelooking for in that space.
I think, on the flip sideis that bispecifics, I've
just really been having amoment, you know, we have the
VEGF PD-1 bispecifics thateveryone wants to be in that
space, and, you know, we'vehad some amazing data come
out of, biotechs in Chinaaround this specific modality.
(07:15):
So, that's been a big trendthat has been driving the
bispecifics, uh, surgethat we've seen in deals.
And it's, it's not justthat, it's just that, you
know, this is a modalitythat has been optimized.
That companies are figuringout how to make it safer and
more effective and more in linewith, how a CAR T cell works,
or finding new applicationslike autoimmune diseases for
the bispecific modalities.
(07:36):
I think it's just oneof those kind of gradual
shifting trends that we see.
and, you know, the antibodyfocus, I think it, the both
of those modalities are,are, still very important.
Um, I think it's justthere's a growing interest
in bispecifics right now.
Selina Koch (07:51):
One more thing we should mention before
we move on from this, eventhough g ene therapies of
all sorts, including genemodified cells, kind of dropped
off substantially in this.
Um, in this analysis, there'sone category of gene therapy
that made an entrance.
Do you wanna mention?
Lauren Martz (08:12):
Yeah, so in vivo CAR Ts are sort of
that bright spot in thecell and gene therapy space.
I think it was three dealsthat we saw around in vivo
CAR Ts, three differentpharma companies getting
into, um, this technology.
And so I think the reason thatthis is different is because.
It's something that couldsolve a huge problem.
You know, the issue with celland gene therapies or one of
(08:34):
the biggest issues is access.
It's, the cost andthe complexity.
And we know that CARTs work really well.
We just know that it's hardto get them to all of the
patients who need them, andthere are some toxicities.
So in vivo CAR Ts wouldrepresent a huge, solution to
that problem because this is,you know, you're delivering
an off the shelf gene therapyvector, basically, that targets
(08:57):
the T cells inside a patient'sbody instead of having to
take the T cells out and editthem and put them back in.
And so there may, you know,we've seen early clinical data.
That suggests thatthis may be working as
people hope it will be.
it was just all of the,right ingredients were coming
together for companies totake a chance on this, despite
(09:17):
the overall environment and,sentiment around cell and
gene therapies right now.
Jeff Cranmer (09:22):
Well, we haven't published this yet, so I
don't want to give too muchmore away, but, um, there are
some other interesting trendsthat, uh, Lauren has found,
including on the size of deals.
including what looks like a dropoff in, large M&A by pharmas.
So, keep an eye out thisweek for Lauren's analysis.
Uh, should be out any day now.
(09:44):
We're gonna take a quick break.
I teased Grand Rounds a tthe top, we're gonna hear a
little bit about Grand Rounds,and then you'll hear directly
from Karen and then we'llbe back to talk Precigen.
Alanna Farro (09:57):
BioCentury This Week is brought to you by
BioCentury Grand Rounds Europe.
Grand Rounds, BioCentury'sR&D conference, will make
its European debut in 2025.
Join us to debate keytranslational bottlenecks and
unlock scientific breakthroughswith commercial potential.
Connect with VCs, academicinnovators, and biopharma
(10:18):
R&D and BD leaders to explorecutting edge advancements
in early stage R&D as wedive into disease biology,
therapeutic modalities,and enabling technologies.
Join us for the inauguralBioCentury Grand Grounds
Europe in Cambridge.
U.K. the September 17th to 19th.
Register and learn more atBioCenturyGrandRoundsEurope.com.
Jeff Cranmer (10:41):
Okay.
Last Thursday, FDA approveda vector-based immunotherapy
from Precigen to treat arare respiratory disease, the
biotech had sought acceleratedapproval, but it received full
approval for its Papzimeos totreat recurrent respiratory
(11:02):
papillomatosis or RRPcaused by HPV six or HPV 11.
the disease results inrecurrent benign tumors.
In the respiratory tract, andit affects an estimated 27,000
adults in the U.S. The decisionsurprised investors who bid
(11:24):
up the company's stock 60%.
maybe in part because it comesat a time when, uh, some other
biotechs have been disappointedor surprised by FDA decisions
that went against expectations.
Lauren, Prasad and CommissionerMakary have talked a
lot about prioritizingrare disease therapies.
(11:45):
How are you seeingthis approval?
Lauren Martz (11:47):
Well, I think it's of course, it's great
for cell and gene therapies.
It's, you know, it'sshowing that there a pathway
still exists to, get thesemodalities on the market.
And I think that that is themessage that the leadership
of CBER and FDA is trying toget across with, this decision
to grant full approval for anapplication that was intended
for accelerated approval.
(12:08):
and then I also think thatthis is an example, possibly a
rare example of a case where,this was possible and maybe
not that provocative to, do it.
for this particular program.
So the endpoint in this PhaseI/II study was something that
they call complete response.
(12:28):
this is different than,the complete response
that, you would measurefor a cancer trial.
They were looking for thepercentage of patients who can
go a year without having tohave surgery for the condition.
Which for these patientsis, is an important endpoint
because the patients werehaving three or more surgeries
in, in the year prior,to dosing in the trial.
They found that more than halfof the patients, more than 50%
(12:50):
of the patients in the studywere able to go a full year.
Most of them went two years,without requiring surgery.
So, the efficacylooked very solid.
A lot of times when companiesare seeking an accelerated
approval that will be based ona surrogate endpoint that won't
necessarily measure a clinicalbenefit or clinical efficacy.
In this case, you know, areduction in surgery, this,
(13:11):
may affect how a patientfeels, functions, all, all
of the requirements foran FDA clinical endpoint.
So, There is clinical efficacybased on this Phase I/II trial,
and then when you look at theconfirmatory trial that this
company has already started,it's structured very similarly.
The endpoint is the same.
It's basically a trialto follow patient, a
(13:32):
larger number of patients.
Basically this company hadproven that it has clinical
efficacy, benefitedpatients in the way that
you would want patients withthis condition to benefit.
it's great thatthey've done this.
I think it's also, you know,I don't know how much we can
read through to other cell andgene therapy programs that are
seeking accelerated approval,whether they'll get approved,
whether they'll be able tobypass the accelerated approval.
(13:53):
I don't know thatthis suggests that.
Selina Koch (13:56):
Right this seems like a step in
the right direction.
Like if your clinical endpointindeed measures a real clinical
benefit, a hard benefit, right?
Something that you would wantto see as confirmatory evidence.
It's not that uncontroversialto then go ahead and
grant full approval.
there's just these cases,like this one meeting,
this profile I feel likeare few and far between.
(14:18):
So it was a little bit ofan, an easy c ase to make,
if they were looking forsomething to base this signal
on to the broader community.
Jeff Cranmer (14:27):
And I'll drop a link in the show
notes to the story, which,Lauren co-wrote with our
news editor, Paul Bonanos.
Paul keeps us on topof everything around
here, which is awesome.
Alright, let's turn upstreamto BioCentury's translational
coverage, which is.
Led by Karen, with anassist, from our colleague
(14:50):
Danielle Golovin.
last week Danielle took alook at a recent science paper
from Denali, and here to talkabout that is Selina, who I
believe spoke with, someoneat Denali, uh, late last week.
Selina Koch (15:02):
Yeah.
First I wanna say wedo this every week.
It's called ourScience Spotlight.
For those of you who don'tknow it, and I think Karen will
talk more about this later.
I really enjoy thiscolumn, because.
As a former scientist, I loveto get into the nitty gritty
of the papers that are comingout, and the team does a great
job of looking through allthe literature and picking
the ones that have the mostrelevance, translational
relevance, you know, for all.
(15:23):
You out there listening?
yeah.
So the one that Daniellepicked a kind of be on top of
last week's Science Spotlightwas a paper from Denali.
It's on its, bloodbrain barrier delivery
technology for biologics.
Denali is one of the, um, well,it's one of the originals,
one of the first companiesto say publicly it was
trying to solve this problemof getting, therapies into
(15:44):
the brain, such as enzymereplacements, antibodies,
and genetic medicines.
All of these things arehard to get in the brain.
You have to, for instance, withASOs, you're talking intrathecal
delivery, which is not awesome,you know, for the patient.
the only approved antibodytherapies, right, the beta
amyloid, um, mAbs, justthe tiniest fraction of
(16:06):
those actually makes itinside the brain and they
have real safety concerns.
so.
Not only has Denali been kindof one of the, the originals
in this space, but it's oneof, been one of the most
prolific at, at publishingits papers and showing its
progress to the community.
But, there's been so manycompanies entering since
Denali started doing this.
Large to small, includingthe major pharmas.
(16:28):
Right.
That I was like a littlesurprised at first when I
saw this come out in Science.
'cause Science is what it is.
They have a superhigh bar for novelty.
So that was like one of thethings I wanted to ask Ryan
about when I chatted with himand he said he thought it was
really because what they'veshown with the construction of
their transport vehicle, which.
basically what it does isit binds to a receptor in
(16:52):
the endothelial cells in thebrain, vasculature receptor's
called transferrin andtriggers transcytosis.
So that receptor getsinternalized, it moves across
that cell and releases itscargo on the other side of
that barrier into the brain.
the way that different companiesconstruct their vehicles, these
delivery vehicles differently.
And what Denali showed in itspaper and why, you know, Ryan
(17:16):
thinks it, it got into Scienceis that they can engineer
the FC region in such a waythat there's no effector
function in the periphery.
So transferrin ittransports iron, right.
It does this not just inthe brain and other places.
So if you have too mucheffector function, you
can cause peripheral tox.
You can bind reticulocytesand deplete blood cells and.
(17:40):
also just lose a lot of yourtherapy in the periphery, and
so you can get rid of thatactivity, but they could do it.
They showed, they can do it witha clever engineering trick in a
way that still enables effectorfunction in the brain, in the
sense that it still stimulatesthe microglia, which are like
a resonant immune cell typein the brain to phagocytose.
You know, eat upthe amyloid plaques.
Um, so that was cool.
(18:02):
but yeah, it, this is,this is a huge area.
There's many companies workingon this and it feels like it's
reaching a sort of criticalmass where it might be solved.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (18:11):
Selina, you had a really interesting
panel all about brainshuttles like this, at
our Chicago Grand Rounds.
what were some of the takeawaysfrom there that you think kind
of contextualize what we'reseeing from Denali and others?
Selina Koch (18:24):
Okay.
Um, well if you look at likerecent developments in terms
of deal activity, there's been.
Deals around these shuttletechnologies where the proof
of concept therapy is linkedto an amyloid antibody, right?
There's like quite a lotof these, and so one of
the questions that wasasked on the panel is why?
(18:45):
Why is everybody using amyloid?
And the reason is I think thatthere's precious few validated
targets for neurological, forneurodegenerative diseases.
Amyloid happens to be oneof them, but not just that.
It's a good case study.
Because of the, the specificways in which there's
room for improvement.
So amyloid plaques arein the brain, right?
(19:06):
But they also surroundvessels, the major arteries
in the brain and causecerebral amyloid angiopathy.
And when a naked antibodywithout any carrier leaks
into the brain, it kindacomes into the choroid plexus
and travels along these.
Lymphatic pathways, which reallyfollow these major arteries.
(19:26):
and so you get a lot ofactivity an of the antibody
on these vascular plaques,which erodes the integrity
actually of the vessel wall.
And you get somethingcalled ARIA.
it's uh.
A nice name for a very, not,not very nice side effect
that can cause swelling andbleeding in the brain and can
sometimes be very serious.
(19:46):
So that's a class-wide issuewith anti amyloid antibodies.
and so what you do when you havea brain shuttle is transferrin
is much more highly expressedin the capillary beds than
in these major arteries.
So you shift the distributionto something that's.
Away from the cerebral vesselplaques and just a lot more
(20:07):
diffuse and distributedthroughout the whole brain.
So you can get much wider,much more consistent,
application of your drug.
And you can do it awayfrom the place that
causes a safety issue.
And you can do it ata fifth, the dose.
Right?
So The Ben, the problem withthese antiamyloid maps has
been the risk benefit ratio is,you know, questionable from
(20:30):
both sides of that equation.
But if you can really dialdown that risk and deliver less
dose and get more effectiveplaque clearance and inside
the brain at the same time,maybe you can get a little bit
more out of these in any way.
companies try not to load upon their biology and technology
risk at the same time, so.
was one of the things thatwas discussed in that panel.
Jeff Cranmer (20:52):
Karen, can you tell us a little
bit more about, uh, theScience Spotlight series?
Maybe a shout out to theDistillery as well, uh,
which, which you edit and,uh, what else you're seeing
in the translational space.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (21:05):
So, I have the privilege of sitting down
with a wonderful team everyweek and we, consume abstracts
from about 27 journals.
And, among them we sort ofsort out different things.
We make these, uh, piles.
Sometimes we kind of come outwith analyses that group things
together, because that's,often something we're looking
(21:25):
for is clusters of innovationaround a similar thread.
in our science spotlightseries, which, Danielle
Govin is the queen of.
we're often there pointingto, uh, well first of all,
it's a place where we canget into some of the company.
Technologies that we'reseeing, published in papers.
So that includes things likethe Denali paper that Selina
(21:50):
just, talked about where it'sknown that this company is
working on this space, butthis paper provides kind of
a detailed scientific dive,that, we believe folks in
our audience would want tolook at and be aware of.
but another thing we do withour Science Spotlight series.
Is we love the competinginterest section of papers.
down at the bottom.
That's where, authors oftenacademics will disclose
(22:12):
any links to companies.
And that is where we often findwhat we call our NewCo that we
publish in little tables, wherebasically we're seeing signs
of life from companies that arestill young, maybe stealthy.
you know, the world hasn't heardtheir story 8 million times
or even perhaps even once yet.
And then we get to point outand say, Hey, you know, here's
(22:34):
some papers from NewCos.
And so if you're in the typeof role where you like to scout
NewCos and the science thatthey're after, Or in, you know,
various different contexts.
That's somethingto keep an eye out.
It's usually, the lastsegment of our Science
Spotlight articles.
And, some recent ones, forexample, were, in the same
analysis that, Selenamentioned, the, one last
(22:55):
week we spotlighted some,uh, NewCos, including, a
company called Aethox, spelledinterestingly, uh, founded in
2025, a spin out, I believe,of King's College London.
And, looking at smallmolecule inhibitors
that target macrophages,with a recent Science
Translational Medicine paper.
and that along with a coupleothers were the focus of
(23:17):
our NewCo table t here.
So that's something tokeep an eye out for.
in addition to kind ofspotlighting companies and
what they're doing, we willalso in the Science Spotlights
look at work from academicsthat you know, it's often
a platform technology,something that could affect.
Multiple disease areas,multiple products, and
we'll particularly highlightclusters of innovations.
(23:40):
Um, sometimes you see clustersand published in the back to
back way within a, a givenjournal, but oftentimes we
will, be able to see, oh, acrossa couple different journals.
Hey, there was acluster of things.
examples of this were,recently, Danielle
spotlighted clusters of.
Papers about TCR mimics,the de novo protein design
(24:02):
of TCR, mimic biologicsthat bind, peptide MHC.
And so could be used for,say, bispecifics, going
beyond just those cellsurface antigens that are, you
know, can be bound directlyand maybe getting at those
intracellular antigens thatare presented on peptide MHC.
she also had a really niceroundup recently of molecular
(24:23):
glue innovations that we wereseeing across different papers.
Some with company affiliations,some just out of universities.
And one thingwe've, spotlighted.
Across this series over timeis that TRIM21 is, an E3 ligase
that is coming to the forein terms of, being a, a new
(24:44):
cornerstone for degraders,uh, you know, cereblon and
VHL or kind of the classicfirst generation ones.
That people have focused on.
But, TRIM21 has getting, alot of, play in, preclinical
innovations we're seeingin the literature.
yeah.
And then, you know, withinthe Distillery, that's
(25:04):
where we really focus onpurely academic innovations
that propose new target.
or a new compound, fora specific disease,
or set of diseases.
Jeff Cranmer (25:14):
Karen, you're blinding me with science as,
uh, Thomas Dolby might say.
Um, Grand Rounds coming up.
it's our third grand rounds.
It's our first one outside theU.S. it will be in Cambridge,
U.K. the old school, Cambridge.
What are you most excited about?
Karen Tkach Tuzman (25:32):
Well, I.
Always get excited about ourscientific poster spotlight.
At our Grand Rounds, we reallyhighlight innovations at the
academia industry interface,things that are emerging, not
quite yet, super advanced.
And so, part of that will bethis kind of Science Spotlight
and Distillery come to lifethrough the poster, displays.
(25:56):
Which include, a lot ofour presenting companies,
many of which are academicspinouts from the area.
We really try to spotlight thelocal innovation, but we're
also bringing in innovatorsfrom, Belgium and, elsewhere,
in the U.K. and Europe.
and so, the presentingcompanies display posters,
but we also invite, academicinnovators, to share their sort
(26:18):
of pre company innovations.
And so we're excited for folksto find, some new gems there.
And then, the panel programis, really exciting.
Again, we're doing this sort of.
Three part focus on, onone hand emerging biology
and biomarkers of disease.
So Targets and Selina's got areally interesting session there
(26:38):
in precision neuropsychiatry.
We've got another, uh,segment that's focused on the
modality innovation, so theactual compounds, themselves.
And in addition to spotlightingnext generation approaches to
biologics and small moleculedesigns, we're gonna have
a, a panel that I, I, I wasvery proud of this name.
It's a always the platform,never the product, lessons
(26:59):
from modalities that haveyet to break through.
So, people tend to havestrong opinions about that.
And if you're one of those,maybe you can come and
join the conversation.
And then, the third segment,is the sort of geekiest part,
which I love is the, enablingtechnologies, and tools
portion of it that kind ofmakes the other things run.
(27:20):
And, there we'll have aspotlight on Biobanks.
'cause, you know, theU.K. Biobank and now
our future health.
They're kind.
Next generation,biobanking initiative.
a lot of the researchcommunity already draws on,
U.K. biobanking resources.
And so, uh, it'll bereally interesting to hear
about what's next, forthose, super important.
(27:41):
Data troves.
And then, there'll be apanel on quantum computing.
We're taking that conversationto the next level.
so if you got a chance toread, what I would call my
primer, my one oh one onquantum computing and life
sciences, this is the kind ofnext level, discussion on that.
and we'll also be divinginto foundation models.
(28:01):
All sorts of things.
So, basically, you know,it's the Geekstbury, the,
Geek Festival of the U.K.
hope to see you there.
Jeff Cranmer (28:10):
Excellent, and you can go to BioCentury
Grand Rounds to learn more.
September 17th to 19th,presenting company slots and
poster slots are sold out.
But there's still a chanceto become a delegate.
so go to the website,check that out.
And if you're interestedin coming to Shanghai,
we are still recruiting,presenting companies.
(28:32):
Feel free to reach out tome, or go to our website
and check it out there.
Thanks for tuning in.
If you liked whatyou heard, subscribe.
Leave us a note,ask us a question.
We'd love to hear from you.
Special thanks to our productionengineer Cole Travis and to
Kendall Square Orchestra,which provides the music for
(28:55):
all of BioCentury's podcasts.
We'll catch you next week.
[ AI-generated transcript ]
Jeff Cranmer (00:01):
BioCentury's third annual pharma deals
analysis finds that bispecificsand degraders are in and cell
and gene therapies are out.
And of course, when we talkdeals, you gotta talk China.
China is bringingmore than me-toos.
We'll discuss m y colleagueLauren Mart's analysis of Pharma
(00:26):
deals on the latest BioCenturythis week, plus FDA's Vinay
Prasad signaled flexibility withlast week's decision on a rare
disease therapy from Precigen.
But will it read throughto other decisions?
And we'll take a look at ourlatest translational coverage,
translational analysis,a big strength among my
(00:49):
colleagues here at BioCentury.
And one topic will be.
Data from A CNS penetrant,amyloid monoclonal antibody from
Denali plus some other gems.
I'm Jeff Cranmer, executiveeditor here at BioCentury,
and joining me today onthe BioCentury Podcast
(01:10):
are my colleagues.
Selina Koch (01:12):
Selina Koch, Executive Editor.
Lauren Martz (01:14):
Lauren Martz, Executive Director of
Biopharma Intelligence.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (01:17):
And Karen Tkach Tuzman, Director
of Biopharma Intelligence.
Jeff Cranmer (01:21):
Karen, great to have you back on.
I know you've been immersed inall things Grand Round Europe.
We'll talk aboutthat in a little bit.
Simone and Steve Usdinare off, as I'm sure you
heard about, uh, last week.
And let's see here.
Lauren, you're putting thefinal touches on your third
(01:42):
annual pharma deals analysis.
What are you finding?
Lauren Martz (01:48):
Thanks Jeff.
The analysis looks atdeals that were announced
from mid-year last year tomid-year this year, you know,
through the end of June.
Overall, there were far fewerdeals than there were in
the prior 12 month period.
And something that stood outamong the set of deals that
we did have this year is that.
There appears to be lessappetite from the set of
(02:09):
21 pharma companies that weanalyzed for, sort of the
well validated, you know, latestage assets that we've seen
a lot of companies, lookingfor in the past few years.
Anecdotally, we haven'theard that this is less of
a priority among pharmas.
We don't know exactly why.
This is the trendthat we've seen.
(02:29):
But, among m and a deals,there were very few Phase III
and later deals, similarlyamong the partnerships.
So that, that was just oneof the trends that we found.
terms of the content of thedeals, the types of assets that
companies, were interested in.
I think one of the biggest,most shocking well, maybe not
shocking, but one of the mostdramatic changes from the last
(02:51):
period was the decline in thecell and gene therapy deals.
There was a dramaticdrop this year.
And a lot of thesedeals happened before.
The shifting administrationand before a lot of the
things that happened withthe gene therapy concerns
around Sarepta's program.
So this is something that'sbeen in motion for a few years.
Selina Koch (03:11):
And something that could possibly be worsened by
recent developments that reallyhappened, you know, towards
the tail end of this period.
Lauren Martz (03:20):
Exactly.
it's an area thatwe follow closely.
It's something that, thatI'm really interested in.
I hope that this is notsomething that continues
to worsen, but I, I thinkwe'll see what happens.
Sort of within the modalityspace, what we did see is
that there was an increasein the number of deals around
bispecific antibodies andtargeted protein degraders, as I
think you mentioned earlier, um,that went along with a decrease
(03:44):
in antibody-drug conjugates.
And so sort of digging deeperinto those antibody based
modalities, we look specificallyat deals with biotechs in China,
and there was a steep dropin the number of a ADC deals.
And what I think is reallyinteresting about sort of the
breakdown of modalities intechnologies coming out of
China is that it's much morebroad than it was in past years.
(04:06):
You know, there are alldifferent kinds of modalities.
So the sense is that, youknow, the multinational pharmas
are looking globally for,technologies and there's,
you know, maybe less of a,this region's good for this
technology, that, that region'sgood for that technology.
Jeff Cranmer (04:21):
Yeah, and if you're looking to tap into
what's going on in China,BioCentury and BayHelix and
McKinsey are putting on our12th Annual China Healthcare
Summit in October in Shanghai,and we will have the CEOs
of many of the top biotechsfrom China, Innovent, 3sbio.
(04:41):
You name it.
So it's a great way to get afirsthand look at that scene.
Selina Koch (04:48):
You got this provocative line in there that
underscores what you were justsaying about i n the eyes of
pharmas, how did you put it?
Regional specialties may bedissolving, like historically,
we think of certain placesas being really strong and
certain things like genetherapies in Europe and antibody
engineering in China, andthose things are still true.
But it seems to me that onething you found in these
(05:10):
deals is that a lot of placesare now getting better at
a wide range of things.
Lauren Martz (05:15):
Exactly, that's exactly what we found.
You know, a few years ago,if we looked to the deals and
the technologies coming fromChina, it would've been, heavily
dominated by MABs and by ADCs.
there's a chart in the storythat is just very telling
of, the expansion of biotechsglobally following, the science,
you know, not necessarilythe specialty in that region.
Selina Koch (05:36):
Yeah.
And then for Chinain particular.
This latest wave of, of assetsis much more weighted towards
first in class, things thanwe have seen in the past.
So that, that alsoseems to be changing.
Lauren Martz (05:48):
Absolute.
Jeff Cranmer (05:49):
China speed.
I mean, when we talk about it,you know, we're usually talking
about clinical development, butas I know, Simone has pointed
out, you've pointed out Selinaand, and Lauren, I think.
From what I'm hearing,China speed, like obesity's
hot, China's in obesity.
Now it's moving quicklyto, add newer modalities.
and, uh, the deals are changing.
(06:11):
terms of the deals aregetting a little richer,
no longer a discount.
and so this is a space thatwe'll continue to follow.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (06:18):
And Lauren, I recall you kind of picked
up on a vibe shift around ADCsa while back, um, saying that
bispecifics were kind of surgingahead more broadly, and this
data really seems to back it up.
What do you thinkis going on there?
Lauren Martz (06:32):
Yeah, this is a, it's something that we've
kind of found hints of in,in various data sources over
the past year or two years.
that huge interest in ADCs.
I don't think that it'snecessarily declining.
I think, you know, onepossibility is that there
are just so many deals aroundADC assets over the past few
years that, big pharmas arebringing these through their
(06:54):
pipelines and generatingdata and, they've, acquired
the assets that they werelooking for in that space.
I think, on the flip sideis that bispecifics, I've
just really been having amoment, you know, we have the
VEGF PD-1 bispecifics thateveryone wants to be in that
space, and, you know, we'vehad some amazing data come
out of, biotechs in Chinaaround this specific modality.
(07:15):
So, that's been a big trendthat has been driving the
bispecifics, uh, surgethat we've seen in deals.
And it's, it's not justthat, it's just that, you
know, this is a modalitythat has been optimized.
That companies are figuringout how to make it safer and
more effective and more in linewith, how a CAR T cell works,
or finding new applicationslike autoimmune diseases for
the bispecific modalities.
(07:36):
I think it's just oneof those kind of gradual
shifting trends that we see.
and, you know, the antibodyfocus, I think it, the both
of those modalities are,are, still very important.
Um, I think it's justthere's a growing interest
in bispecifics right now.
Selina Koch (07:51):
One more thing we should mention before
we move on from this, eventhough g ene therapies of
all sorts, including genemodified cells, kind of dropped
off substantially in this.
Um, in this analysis, there'sone category of gene therapy
that made an entrance.
Do you wanna mention?
Lauren Martz (08:12):
Yeah, so in vivo CAR Ts are sort of
that bright spot in thecell and gene therapy space.
I think it was three dealsthat we saw around in vivo
CAR Ts, three differentpharma companies getting
into, um, this technology.
And so I think the reason thatthis is different is because.
It's something that couldsolve a huge problem.
You know, the issue with celland gene therapies or one of
(08:34):
the biggest issues is access.
It's, the cost andthe complexity.
And we know that CARTs work really well.
We just know that it's hardto get them to all of the
patients who need them, andthere are some toxicities.
So in vivo CAR Ts wouldrepresent a huge, solution to
that problem because this is,you know, you're delivering
an off the shelf gene therapyvector, basically, that targets
(08:57):
the T cells inside a patient'sbody instead of having to
take the T cells out and editthem and put them back in.
And so there may, you know,we've seen early clinical data.
That suggests thatthis may be working as
people hope it will be.
it was just all of the,right ingredients were coming
together for companies totake a chance on this, despite
(09:17):
the overall environment and,sentiment around cell and
gene therapies right now.
Jeff Cranmer (09:22):
Well, we haven't published this yet, so I
don't want to give too muchmore away, but, um, there are
some other interesting trendsthat, uh, Lauren has found,
including on the size of deals.
including what looks like a dropoff in, large M&A by pharmas.
So, keep an eye out thisweek for Lauren's analysis.
Uh, should be out any day now.
(09:44):
We're gonna take a quick break.
I teased Grand Rounds a tthe top, we're gonna hear a
little bit about Grand Rounds,and then you'll hear directly
from Karen and then we'llbe back to talk Precigen.
Alanna Farro (09:57):
BioCentury This Week is brought to you by
BioCentury Grand Rounds Europe.
Grand Rounds, BioCentury'sR&D conference, will make
its European debut in 2025.
Join us to debate keytranslational bottlenecks and
unlock scientific breakthroughswith commercial potential.
Connect with VCs, academicinnovators, and biopharma
(10:18):
R&D and BD leaders to explorecutting edge advancements
in early stage R&D as wedive into disease biology,
therapeutic modalities,and enabling technologies.
Join us for the inauguralBioCentury Grand Grounds
Europe in Cambridge.
U.K. the September 17th to 19th.
Register and learn more atBioCenturyGrandRoundsEurope.com.
Jeff Cranmer (10:41):
Okay.
Last Thursday, FDA approveda vector-based immunotherapy
from Precigen to treat arare respiratory disease, the
biotech had sought acceleratedapproval, but it received full
approval for its Papzimeos totreat recurrent respiratory
(11:02):
papillomatosis or RRPcaused by HPV six or HPV 11.
the disease results inrecurrent benign tumors.
In the respiratory tract, andit affects an estimated 27,000
adults in the U.S. The decisionsurprised investors who bid
(11:24):
up the company's stock 60%.
maybe in part because it comesat a time when, uh, some other
biotechs have been disappointedor surprised by FDA decisions
that went against expectations.
Lauren, Prasad and CommissionerMakary have talked a
lot about prioritizingrare disease therapies.
(11:45):
How are you seeingthis approval?
Lauren Martz (11:47):
Well, I think it's of course, it's great
for cell and gene therapies.
It's, you know, it'sshowing that there a pathway
still exists to, get thesemodalities on the market.
And I think that that is themessage that the leadership
of CBER and FDA is trying toget across with, this decision
to grant full approval for anapplication that was intended
for accelerated approval.
(12:08):
and then I also think thatthis is an example, possibly a
rare example of a case where,this was possible and maybe
not that provocative to, do it.
for this particular program.
So the endpoint in this PhaseI/II study was something that
they call complete response.
(12:28):
this is different than,the complete response
that, you would measurefor a cancer trial.
They were looking for thepercentage of patients who can
go a year without having tohave surgery for the condition.
Which for these patientsis, is an important endpoint
because the patients werehaving three or more surgeries
in, in the year prior,to dosing in the trial.
They found that more than halfof the patients, more than 50%
(12:50):
of the patients in the studywere able to go a full year.
Most of them went two years,without requiring surgery.
So, the efficacylooked very solid.
A lot of times when companiesare seeking an accelerated
approval that will be based ona surrogate endpoint that won't
necessarily measure a clinicalbenefit or clinical efficacy.
In this case, you know, areduction in surgery, this,
(13:11):
may affect how a patientfeels, functions, all, all
of the requirements foran FDA clinical endpoint.
So, There is clinical efficacybased on this Phase I/II trial,
and then when you look at theconfirmatory trial that this
company has already started,it's structured very similarly.
The endpoint is the same.
It's basically a trialto follow patient, a
(13:32):
larger number of patients.
Basically this company hadproven that it has clinical
efficacy, benefitedpatients in the way that
you would want patients withthis condition to benefit.
it's great thatthey've done this.
I think it's also, you know,I don't know how much we can
read through to other cell andgene therapy programs that are
seeking accelerated approval,whether they'll get approved,
whether they'll be able tobypass the accelerated approval.
(13:53):
I don't know thatthis suggests that.
Selina Koch (13:56):
Right this seems like a step in
the right direction.
Like if your clinical endpointindeed measures a real clinical
benefit, a hard benefit, right?
Something that you would wantto see as confirmatory evidence.
It's not that uncontroversialto then go ahead and
grant full approval.
there's just these cases,like this one meeting,
this profile I feel likeare few and far between.
(14:18):
So it was a little bit ofan, an easy c ase to make,
if they were looking forsomething to base this signal
on to the broader community.
Jeff Cranmer (14:27):
And I'll drop a link in the show
notes to the story, which,Lauren co-wrote with our
news editor, Paul Bonanos.
Paul keeps us on topof everything around
here, which is awesome.
Alright, let's turn upstreamto BioCentury's translational
coverage, which is.
Led by Karen, with anassist, from our colleague
(14:50):
Danielle Golovin.
last week Danielle took alook at a recent science paper
from Denali, and here to talkabout that is Selina, who I
believe spoke with, someoneat Denali, uh, late last week.
Selina Koch (15:02):
Yeah.
First I wanna say wedo this every week.
It's called ourScience Spotlight.
For those of you who don'tknow it, and I think Karen will
talk more about this later.
I really enjoy thiscolumn, because.
As a former scientist, I loveto get into the nitty gritty
of the papers that are comingout, and the team does a great
job of looking through allthe literature and picking
the ones that have the mostrelevance, translational
relevance, you know, for all.
(15:23):
You out there listening?
yeah.
So the one that Daniellepicked a kind of be on top of
last week's Science Spotlightwas a paper from Denali.
It's on its, bloodbrain barrier delivery
technology for biologics.
Denali is one of the, um, well,it's one of the originals,
one of the first companiesto say publicly it was
trying to solve this problemof getting, therapies into
(15:44):
the brain, such as enzymereplacements, antibodies,
and genetic medicines.
All of these things arehard to get in the brain.
You have to, for instance, withASOs, you're talking intrathecal
delivery, which is not awesome,you know, for the patient.
the only approved antibodytherapies, right, the beta
amyloid, um, mAbs, justthe tiniest fraction of
(16:06):
those actually makes itinside the brain and they
have real safety concerns.
so.
Not only has Denali been kindof one of the, the originals
in this space, but it's oneof, been one of the most
prolific at, at publishingits papers and showing its
progress to the community.
But, there's been so manycompanies entering since
Denali started doing this.
Large to small, includingthe major pharmas.
(16:28):
Right.
That I was like a littlesurprised at first when I
saw this come out in Science.
'cause Science is what it is.
They have a superhigh bar for novelty.
So that was like one of thethings I wanted to ask Ryan
about when I chatted with himand he said he thought it was
really because what they'veshown with the construction of
their transport vehicle, which.
basically what it does isit binds to a receptor in
(16:52):
the endothelial cells in thebrain, vasculature receptor's
called transferrin andtriggers transcytosis.
So that receptor getsinternalized, it moves across
that cell and releases itscargo on the other side of
that barrier into the brain.
the way that different companiesconstruct their vehicles, these
delivery vehicles differently.
And what Denali showed in itspaper and why, you know, Ryan
(17:16):
thinks it, it got into Scienceis that they can engineer
the FC region in such a waythat there's no effector
function in the periphery.
So transferrin ittransports iron, right.
It does this not just inthe brain and other places.
So if you have too mucheffector function, you
can cause peripheral tox.
You can bind reticulocytesand deplete blood cells and.
(17:40):
also just lose a lot of yourtherapy in the periphery, and
so you can get rid of thatactivity, but they could do it.
They showed, they can do it witha clever engineering trick in a
way that still enables effectorfunction in the brain, in the
sense that it still stimulatesthe microglia, which are like
a resonant immune cell typein the brain to phagocytose.
You know, eat upthe amyloid plaques.
Um, so that was cool.
(18:02):
but yeah, it, this is,this is a huge area.
There's many companies workingon this and it feels like it's
reaching a sort of criticalmass where it might be solved.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (18:11):
Selina, you had a really interesting
panel all about brainshuttles like this, at
our Chicago Grand Rounds.
what were some of the takeawaysfrom there that you think kind
of contextualize what we'reseeing from Denali and others?
Selina Koch (18:24):
Okay.
Um, well if you look at likerecent developments in terms
of deal activity, there's been.
Deals around these shuttletechnologies where the proof
of concept therapy is linkedto an amyloid antibody, right?
There's like quite a lotof these, and so one of
the questions that wasasked on the panel is why?
(18:45):
Why is everybody using amyloid?
And the reason is I think thatthere's precious few validated
targets for neurological, forneurodegenerative diseases.
Amyloid happens to be oneof them, but not just that.
It's a good case study.
Because of the, the specificways in which there's
room for improvement.
So amyloid plaques arein the brain, right?
(19:06):
But they also surroundvessels, the major arteries
in the brain and causecerebral amyloid angiopathy.
And when a naked antibodywithout any carrier leaks
into the brain, it kindacomes into the choroid plexus
and travels along these.
Lymphatic pathways, which reallyfollow these major arteries.
(19:26):
and so you get a lot ofactivity an of the antibody
on these vascular plaques,which erodes the integrity
actually of the vessel wall.
And you get somethingcalled ARIA.
it's uh.
A nice name for a very, not,not very nice side effect
that can cause swelling andbleeding in the brain and can
sometimes be very serious.
(19:46):
So that's a class-wide issuewith anti amyloid antibodies.
and so what you do when you havea brain shuttle is transferrin
is much more highly expressedin the capillary beds than
in these major arteries.
So you shift the distributionto something that's.
Away from the cerebral vesselplaques and just a lot more
(20:07):
diffuse and distributedthroughout the whole brain.
So you can get much wider,much more consistent,
application of your drug.
And you can do it awayfrom the place that
causes a safety issue.
And you can do it ata fifth, the dose.
Right?
So The Ben, the problem withthese antiamyloid maps has
been the risk benefit ratio is,you know, questionable from
(20:30):
both sides of that equation.
But if you can really dialdown that risk and deliver less
dose and get more effectiveplaque clearance and inside
the brain at the same time,maybe you can get a little bit
more out of these in any way.
companies try not to load upon their biology and technology
risk at the same time, so.
was one of the things thatwas discussed in that panel.
Jeff Cranmer (20:52):
Karen, can you tell us a little
bit more about, uh, theScience Spotlight series?
Maybe a shout out to theDistillery as well, uh,
which, which you edit and,uh, what else you're seeing
in the translational space.
Karen Tkach Tuzman (21:05):
So, I have the privilege of sitting down
with a wonderful team everyweek and we, consume abstracts
from about 27 journals.
And, among them we sort ofsort out different things.
We make these, uh, piles.
Sometimes we kind of come outwith analyses that group things
together, because that's,often something we're looking
(21:25):
for is clusters of innovationaround a similar thread.
in our science spotlightseries, which, Danielle
Govin is the queen of.
we're often there pointingto, uh, well first of all,
it's a place where we canget into some of the company.
Technologies that we'reseeing, published in papers.
So that includes things likethe Denali paper that Selina
(21:50):
just, talked about where it'sknown that this company is
working on this space, butthis paper provides kind of
a detailed scientific dive,that, we believe folks in
our audience would want tolook at and be aware of.
but another thing we do withour Science Spotlight series.
Is we love the competinginterest section of papers.
down at the bottom.
That's where, authors oftenacademics will disclose
(22:12):
any links to companies.
And that is where we often findwhat we call our NewCo that we
publish in little tables, wherebasically we're seeing signs
of life from companies that arestill young, maybe stealthy.
you know, the world hasn't heardtheir story 8 million times
or even perhaps even once yet.
And then we get to point outand say, Hey, you know, here's
(22:34):
some papers from NewCos.
And so if you're in the typeof role where you like to scout
NewCos and the science thatthey're after, Or in, you know,
various different contexts.
That's somethingto keep an eye out.
It's usually, the lastsegment of our Science
Spotlight articles.
And, some recent ones, forexample, were, in the same
analysis that, Selenamentioned, the, one last
(22:55):
week we spotlighted some,uh, NewCos, including, a
company called Aethox, spelledinterestingly, uh, founded in
2025, a spin out, I believe,of King's College London.
And, looking at smallmolecule inhibitors
that target macrophages,with a recent Science
Translational Medicine paper.
and that along with a coupleothers were the focus of
(23:17):
our NewCo table t here.
So that's something tokeep an eye out for.
in addition to kind ofspotlighting companies and
what they're doing, we willalso in the Science Spotlights
look at work from academicsthat you know, it's often
a platform technology,something that could affect.
Multiple disease areas,multiple products, and
we'll particularly highlightclusters of innovations.
(23:40):
Um, sometimes you see clustersand published in the back to
back way within a, a givenjournal, but oftentimes we
will, be able to see, oh, acrossa couple different journals.
Hey, there was acluster of things.
examples of this were,recently, Danielle
spotlighted clusters of.
Papers about TCR mimics,the de novo protein design
(24:02):
of TCR, mimic biologicsthat bind, peptide MHC.
And so could be used for,say, bispecifics, going
beyond just those cellsurface antigens that are, you
know, can be bound directlyand maybe getting at those
intracellular antigens thatare presented on peptide MHC.
she also had a really niceroundup recently of molecular
(24:23):
glue innovations that we wereseeing across different papers.
Some with company affiliations,some just out of universities.
And one thingwe've, spotlighted.
Across this series over timeis that TRIM21 is, an E3 ligase
that is coming to the forein terms of, being a, a new
(24:44):
cornerstone for degraders,uh, you know, cereblon and
VHL or kind of the classicfirst generation ones.
That people have focused on.
But, TRIM21 has getting, alot of, play in, preclinical
innovations we're seeingin the literature.
yeah.
And then, you know, withinthe Distillery, that's
(25:04):
where we really focus onpurely academic innovations
that propose new target.
or a new compound, fora specific disease,
or set of diseases.
Jeff Cranmer (25:14):
Karen, you're blinding me with science as,
uh, Thomas Dolby might say.
Um, Grand Rounds coming up.
it's our third grand rounds.
It's our first one outside theU.S. it will be in Cambridge,
U.K. the old school, Cambridge.
What are you most excited about?
Karen Tkach Tuzman (25:32):
Well, I.
Always get excited about ourscientific poster spotlight.
At our Grand Rounds, we reallyhighlight innovations at the
academia industry interface,things that are emerging, not
quite yet, super advanced.
And so, part of that will bethis kind of Science Spotlight
and Distillery come to lifethrough the poster, displays.
(25:56):
Which include, a lot ofour presenting companies,
many of which are academicspinouts from the area.
We really try to spotlight thelocal innovation, but we're
also bringing in innovatorsfrom, Belgium and, elsewhere,
in the U.K. and Europe.
and so, the presentingcompanies display posters,
but we also invite, academicinnovators, to share their sort
(26:18):
of pre company innovations.
And so we're excited for folksto find, some new gems there.
And then, the panel programis, really exciting.
Again, we're doing this sort of.
Three part focus on, onone hand emerging biology
and biomarkers of disease.
So Targets and Selina's got areally interesting session there
(26:38):
in precision neuropsychiatry.
We've got another, uh,segment that's focused on the
modality innovation, so theactual compounds, themselves.
And in addition to spotlightingnext generation approaches to
biologics and small moleculedesigns, we're gonna have
a, a panel that I, I, I wasvery proud of this name.
It's a always the platform,never the product, lessons
(26:59):
from modalities that haveyet to break through.
So, people tend to havestrong opinions about that.
And if you're one of those,maybe you can come and
join the conversation.
And then, the third segment,is the sort of geekiest part,
which I love is the, enablingtechnologies, and tools
portion of it that kind ofmakes the other things run.
(27:20):
And, there we'll have aspotlight on Biobanks.
'cause, you know, theU.K. Biobank and now
our future health.
They're kind.
Next generation,biobanking initiative.
a lot of the researchcommunity already draws on,
U.K. biobanking resources.
And so, uh, it'll bereally interesting to hear
about what's next, forthose, super important.
(27:41):
Data troves.
And then, there'll be apanel on quantum computing.
We're taking that conversationto the next level.
so if you got a chance toread, what I would call my
primer, my one oh one onquantum computing and life
sciences, this is the kind ofnext level, discussion on that.
and we'll also be divinginto foundation models.
(28:01):
All sorts of things.
So, basically, you know,it's the Geekstbury, the,
Geek Festival of the U.K.
hope to see you there.
Jeff Cranmer (28:10):
Excellent, and you can go to BioCentury
Grand Rounds to learn more.
September 17th to 19th,presenting company slots and
poster slots are sold out.
But there's still a chanceto become a delegate.
so go to the website,check that out.
And if you're interestedin coming to Shanghai,
we are still recruiting,presenting companies.
(28:32):
Feel free to reach out tome, or go to our website
and check it out there.
Thanks for tuning in.
If you liked whatyou heard, subscribe.
Leave us a note,ask us a question.
We'd love to hear from you.
Special thanks to our productionengineer Cole Travis and to
Kendall Square Orchestra,which provides the music for
(28:55):
all of BioCentury's podcasts.
We'll catch you next week.
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