December 1, 2025 • 29 mins
Novo Nordisk’s highly anticipated data for semaglutide in Alzheimer’s dashed hopes that the GLP-1 therapy could become a game changer in the disease. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, Executive Editor Selina Koch discusses the Phase III readout including what it says about the mechanism’s use in the neurodegenerative disease, Novo’s decision to skip Phase II and enroll a large patient group in a later stage trial, and what other datasets for GLP-1s in the indication have shown.
Washington Editor Steve Usdin explains why FDA’s new vaccine policies, driven by CBER Director Vinay Prasad, could have impacts more far-reaching than expected, including making it more difficult to develop or modify vaccines. And Lauren Martz, Executive Director of Biopharma Intelligence, analyzes the bleak investment outlook for cell and gene therapy companies in the U.S. and why China’s biotech ecosystem offers a glimmer of hope for sponsors of these assets.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/657721
#Semaglutide #GLP1Therapies #VaccinePolicy #CellAndGeneTherapy #AlzheimersResearch
00:00 - Introduction
01:53 - Novo's Alzheimer’s Miss
13:19 - FDA's New Vaccine Policy
19:53 - Funding C> Biotechs
To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[AI-generated transcript.]
Jeff Cranmer (00:01):
Novo Nordisk data for semaglutide in Alzheimer's
were highly anticipated.
But last week's readout for theGLP-1 therapy dashed what may
have been long shot hopes fora game changer in the disease,
we'll discuss what the datamean in detail on this week's
(00:24):
BioCentury This Week podcast.
Plus you've seen the headlines,Vinay Prasad is ready to deploy
a new vaccine strategy at FDA,the impacts could be more far
reaching than has been reported.
And cell and gene therapieshave fallen off the radar for
(00:47):
early stage venture investorsin the U.S. Why is that
happening and could therebe hope across the Pacific.
I am Jeff Cranmer.
joining me today aremy awesome colleagues.
Selina Koch (01:02):
Selina Koch, Executive Editor.
Steve Usdin (01:04):
Steve Usdin, Washington Editor.
Lauren Martz (01:06):
And Lauren Martz, Executive Director
of Biopharma Intelligence.
Jeff Cranmer (01:10):
All right, well, I'm happy to be
here with you guys.
Uh, I know there's a lotof talk around J.P. Morgan
every year about the weatherwe have here in California.
I'm just happy to behome after, uh, well, a
lot of snow in Chicago.
I gotta say, uh, much respect,to the good folks that,
uh, managed to get me on aflight, me and my family on
(01:30):
a flight back to California.
Steve, how were your travels?
I know you were on the road.
Steve Usdin (01:35):
Montreal is, people say Montreal is the, uh, you
know, it's like if, London andParis had a child, it would be
Montreal, and it lives up to it.
It's great.
Jeff Cranmer (01:44):
That's awesome.
Alright.
Hopefully it was smooth droppingback down into the country.
I, I guess they'd letyou cross the border,
which is always good.
All right.
Let's talk a little Alzheimer's,Novo Nordisk Alzheimer data,
were highly anticipated in lastweek's readout, dashed what may
(02:06):
have been long shot hopes fora game changer in Alzheimer's.
Selina for those of us whohaven't been following this
program so closely, can youtell us about the program
and why there has been somuch excitement around it.
Selina Koch (02:21):
Yeah, thanks Jeff, well, why is there so much hype?
I mean, it's GLP-1, it'sone of the hottest targets
in the industry, undisputedfor its efficacy in
diabetes and now obesity.
And, you know, big top sellingdrugs where there's been
these tantalizing signalsacross really a wide range
of indications that maybeit's gonna be effective, in
(02:44):
many, settings from sleepapnea where it's relatively
established, to things likeaddiction, and Alzheimer's.
And of course Alzheimer'sis a big financial
opportunity for Novo.
So in its mandate to maximize,its profits from Semaglutide,
it would've been a, a big one.
But alas, it willnot, it will not be.
Steve Usdin (03:06):
Selina.
One of, one of the thingsthat, you know, I wonder,
and, and you wrote aboutthis, was the decision to jump
right into Phase III trials.
What are the consequencesof that or the implications
of that for the Alzheimer'sfield more generally?
Selina Koch (03:20):
Yeah, that was the thing that stood out to
me most about this program.
So the reactions to thisnegative result have ranged
from, you know, what apredictable waste of resources
to isn't it so wonderfulthat we have these robust
definitive data now andeverything in between.
And what stood out to me aboutNovo's press release, and it's
kind of been saying this allalong, is that because it had
(03:44):
lots of real world data from usein diabetes patients, compelling
preclinical data, and it knowssome things about the mechanism,
the semaglutide, although thatis a complex mechanism that's
only partially understood thatit had a quote, responsibility
to explore it in Alzheimer's.
And on one hand I kindof agree with that.
(04:05):
I'm really glad they exploredit in Alzheimer's, but what gave
me some cognitive dissidentswas that that same release
said that it had a very, thesestudies had a low probability
of success, and it's beensaying that, acknowledging
that all along the way.
So if your studies have a lowprobability of success, do you
really have a responsibility torecruit nearly 4,000 patients
(04:27):
to answer the question.
Steve Usdin (04:29):
And the, the other thing is you talk about the
preclinical data, but wasn'tthe preclinical data suggestive
of a protective effect andthe trial was in patients
who already had Alzheimer's.
Selina Koch (04:40):
Yeah, so the real world data that was so
important for this programis in diabetes patients,
and some obesity patients, Iguess, but primarily diabetes.
And what it shows is that thetime, so diabetes is a risk
factor for Alzheimer's, right?
And the time to diagnosisof Alzheimer's in the
(05:01):
real world data is delayedwith semaglutide use.
And semaglutide seemsto be better at delaying
Alzheimer's than someof the other treatments
available for those patients.
But yeah, when it came totesting it in Phase III, they
jumped right into a settingwhere you're not talking
about diabetes patientshere, you're talking about
Alzheimer's patients whoare already symptomatic.
(05:23):
So it, it's a pretty big leapand I think, patients are just
a really valuable resource.
And so, if you're recruiting4,000 of them to studies that
you think of a low probabilityof success when you could
answer that, que question witha robust Phase II, like say a
500 patient Phase II, which iswhat Johnson and Johnson just
(05:43):
did with its anti-tau mAb.
You can get a, a fairlydefinitive read on a product
with a robust Phase IIin Alzheimer's disease.
Jeff Cranmer (05:51):
Yeah.
Selina, so you, you wrotethat, recruitment and
retention are just suchbottlenecks for Alzheimer's.
Especially at a time whenthe therapeutic pipeline
is, is broadening.
So is it, maybe this is naive,but like, is this a super
hardship on other companies?
Selina Koch (06:10):
Well, let's see.
I mean, we'd have to getdata on that to know for sure.
Right.
Um.
But the pipelinehas been expanding.
It's not that there's a bunch ofcandidates in Phase III that are
highly promising, there aren't.
But there's lots of earlystage trials going on.
Testing, you know, variousneuroinflammatory mechanisms,
for instance, and just thingsbeyond amyloid and tau.
(06:34):
You know, I don't, I couldn'tsay if for certain that,
because 4,000 people wereenrolled in this trial and
took X number of patientsaway from trial X or Y or
Z. But there is a sense inwhich you think something as
low probability of success,so you're kind of instilling
false hope and far morepatients than would strictly be
necessary to ask your question.
(06:56):
That's the part that kindof left me just wondering.
Jeff Cranmer (06:59):
Yeah, are there other GLP-1 programs,
for Alzheimer's or otherneurodegenerative diseases
that you're looking out for?
Selina Koch (07:08):
Well, there have been along the way,
liraglutide has been tested.
Several of the GLP-1sactually have been tested in
different neurodegenerativedisease settings.
None of them have been aobvious success so far.
Now a lot of those studieshave been kind of small
academic, early stage, right.
(07:28):
So I get that you wantsomething more robust than
that to be definitive.
There was a recent failurein Parkinson's that I think
was pretty interesting.
And I think right now interms of like getting the most
learning out of this very robusttrial that Novo ran, you know,
I'm very keen to see that CTADpresentation coming up this
week where the actual detailsof the data will be shared when
(07:52):
you do have this many patients.
I think one of the positives,right, is that you can, um, do
a lot of subgroup analyses andhopefully there was a robust
set of biomarkers that were,you know, employed, so we can
do some hypothesis generationor learn whatever it is there
is, there is to be learned.
So that's on the positiveside of the ledger.
Jeff Cranmer (08:11):
Cool.
So this, this was last Mondaybefore Thanksgiving, big hit on
Novo shares, raised about 11 12billion, from its market cap.
But J&J had some toughdata too for its, uh,
anti-tau program, yeah?
Selina Koch (08:25):
Yeah, it sure did.
So tau, I think we've allseen that there's been several
failures of tau antibodies.
There's sort of two hypothesesabout, tau is just a more
complicated target thanamyloid in a sense, because
it exists in lots of forms.
It can be splicedin different ways.
It can be phosphorylatedat lots of different sites,
(08:46):
individually or in combinationsof phosphorylations.
That it's thought to spread,like misfolded tau seeds
are thought to spreadextracellularly, but tau
aggregates kind of wreaktheir havoc intracellularly.
So exactly what form of tau totarget, where and when is just a
little, it's complicated, right.
But there's really goodreason to think that tau
(09:08):
plays important roles inAlzheimer's, you know.
And so I think this is justa hypothesis that's going
to continue to take time totest because it, it's not
really a one hypothesis.
It has to be tested in thevarious, all the various ways
That kind of makes sense.
So what was interesting aboutthis J&J antibody is that it
targeted a mid region piecepart of tau that people thought
(09:31):
was kind of the businessend for this extracellular
spreading hypothesis.
The first, I think it was fourMABs that failed in Phase II
were all end terminal targeting.
And it's just not clear howimportant the end terminal
is for the escape of tau fromwhere it first aggregates and
the medial temporal lobe, toit's escaped into the frontal
(09:54):
lobe or the parietal lobe,which are very well timed with
symptom onset and the characterof those system symptoms.
Tau it ends up in the frontalcortex, you get different
symptoms and if it ends upin the parietal cortex for
instance, that's some of thatdata that makes you think the
how it's probably important.
Anyway, the internalones failed.
There's a lot of hopethat these mid region
ones might be more useful.
(10:17):
We now have two bepranemab fromUCB and now, um, posdinemab
from J&J that missed.
Their endpoints.
Still the bepranemab dataset waskind of interesting because it
showed changes on on tau pet.
Now we're looking forward tocouple antibodies that bind
specifically to the microtubulebinding domain there's still
some C terminal ones, workingtheir way through the clinic.
(10:39):
I think the field is most,the prospects have certainly
dimmed for blocking justthe extracellular piece
of tau being effective.
I think people are most excitednow about Biogen's BIIB080,
which is a antisense programwith Ionis that knocks,
just knocks down tau, right.
It's at the mRNA level,you stop producing it.
So you're gonna blockall of those forms.
(11:01):
Biogen was able to show thatthat could actually reduce some
of the tau pathology, not juststop progression of getting
more neurofibrillary tangles,but like reverse some of them.
Um, that was prettyexciting early data.
So I think all eyes will bebe watching that next year
when they report more data.
Jeff Cranmer (11:19):
All right, well, you can see Selena's story up
on our website, BioCentury.comBioCenturypodcast.com.
I'll drop a linkinto the show notes.
we're gonna take a quick breakand we're gonna come back and
talk about what is happeningwith FDA's new vaccine policy.
Alanna Farro (11:40):
BioCentury This Week is brought to you by
The 5th East-West BiopharmaSummit in South Korea.
An arc of innovation isemerging across Asia, and
Western biopharma leadersare taking note-from
cross-border deals to newcos.
In March, 2026, The 5thBioCentury-BayHelix East-West
BioPharma Summit visits SouthKorea for the first time.
(12:03):
Meet the biopharma leadersputting Korea innovation
on the global map.
Learn why Korea hasbecome a clinical trial
in manufacturing hub.
Discover if Korea is the nexthotspot for NewCo formation.
Plus, meet biopharmainnovators from India to
Singapore, to China and Japan.
Register now atBioCenturyEastWest.com.
Jeff Cranmer (12:28):
Okay, we're back.
Yes, we are gettingclose to the BioCentury
East-West Summit in Seoul.
I am, pressing Josh, ourguru behind our conference
is hard to have an event tiedto noraebang that is, uh,
Korea's answer to karaoke.
(12:49):
So you should signup to be a delegate.
If you're interested inpresenting we are recruiting
companies from across Asia'sarc of innovation, from Europe,
from the U.S., from Canada.
Reach out to me via LinkedInor go to our website, and
submit your interest inbeing a presenting company for
(13:12):
the 5th BioCentury BayHelixEast-West Summit in Seoul.
Okay.
Vaccines have been in thespotlight more than ever since
RFK Jr became head of HHS.
Now, Vinay Prasad, Head ofFDA's CBER wants to change
(13:32):
how vaccines are regulated.
He claims that a new reviewhas tied 10 children's
death to the COVID vaccine.
Steve, I know you'vebeen working the phones
over the weekend.
What are you hearing?
Steve Usdin (13:47):
Yeah.
So Vinay Prasad and FDACommissioner Marty Makary
are using disputed analysesthat purport to link COVID
vaccines to pediatric deaths.
To justify a set of policiesthat would make it really
difficult to create newvaccines, and especially to
update existing vaccines inresponse to emerging threats
or evolving pathogens.
(14:08):
So Prasad, Makary, as yousaid, they've asserted that
COVID vaccines caused thedeaths of at least 10 children.
That conclusion, they haven'tprovided the data to support it.
It's at odds with investigationsthat were conducted during
the Biden Administration.
A Senior CDC EpidemicIntelligence Service Officer and
an FDA Pharmacovigilance Stafferreviewed all the pediatric
(14:31):
deaths that reported to theagency as being possibly related
to COVID vaccines and determinedthat none were definitively or
probably caused by the vaccines.
That's what two former senioragency officials told me.
I think that what's evenmore important is that
this conclusion about thepediatric deaths is being
used as a lever to roll outcontentious vaccine policies.
(14:57):
Policies that are really gonnachange the way that, the way
the vaccines are, are developed.
So in, in the memo, which
was released at 4 (15:03):
21, on the Friday following Thanksgiving,
Black Friday, Prasad saidthat FDA is no longer
gonna allow manufacturersto rely on immunogenicity
surrogates, and will requirepre-market randomized control
trials for most vaccines.
He also indicated the FDAwill revise the framework
for approving annual fluvaccines, and that it's
(15:24):
reassessing the safety ofmulti vaccine administration.
These are gonna haveprofound effects on vaccine
development, as I said.
And some of the concernsare also around how
this policies have beendeveloped and rolled out.
They've been developed bypolitical appointees, in secret.
There's been no advisorycommittee meeting.
(15:46):
There's been no opportunityfor a discussion among
the scientific and medicalcommunity about these changes.
And in his memo, Prasad also,basically told CBER staff that
it's his way or the highway,that if they don't agree with
the actions that he's taken,that they should resign.
This is alsounprecedented at FDA.
Selina Koch (16:08):
So Steve, what would this have looked like
if this had been in effect,in effect in the past?
Steve Usdin (16:13):
Well, yeah, and that's a good way to look at it,
you know, to, to understand whatit's gonna mean going forward.
So for example, the HPV vaccinesthat are making eradication
of cervical cancer a realpossibility, wouldn't have
happened, if these policieshad been in place, neither
would Ebola vaccines, neitherand the chikungunya vaccines
(16:33):
that are under development,all those would be impossible
because they all rely to anextent, to a critical extent
on immuno bridging studies.
So for example, Gardasil,the leading HPV vaccine,
was approved, based on alarge trial that showed high
efficacy against virologicendpoints and high grade
cervical pre-cancer and placebocontrolled trials in young
(16:56):
adult women, placebo controlledtrials in early adolescents
weren't practical or ethical.
So the, licensure wasextended to younger age groups
to nine to 15 year olds.
And dosing changes, approvedbased on immuno bridging.
Regulators accepted vaccinationin adolescents because their
antibody responses werenon-inferior to those seen
(17:17):
in adults in whom clinicalefficacy was demonstrated.
Jeff Cranmer (17:21):
So, where do we go from here, Steve?
Steve Usdin (17:23):
You know, it, it's really unclear.
I think that this ispart of a, a broader
assault on vaccination.
It's not a coincidencethat, this memo was sent
out just a few days aheadof the next ASIP meeting.
The members that were were inASIP were, most of them were
fired, and they were replacedby individuals who were on board
(17:44):
with Robert F Kennedy's MakeAmerica Healthy again ideology.
They're gonna be meeting thisweek, likely to discuss, and
recommend changes to the,pediatric vaccine schedule.
Changes in vaccine formulationthat will make it difficult to
approve new vaccines and couldresult in, um, removing existing
(18:06):
vaccines from the market.
Martin Kulldorff, hasjust been named to a
senior position at HHS.
So I think we're seeing this,this really broad kind of
movement across governmentto implement policies that
are gonna result in reducedaccess to existing vaccines
and a halt, or at leastenormous slowdown in the
(18:27):
development of future vaccines.
Now, there's also gonna be,of course, there's gonna be
a backlash against this fromthe public health community.
And it, it isn't clear howit's all gonna be resolved.
The other thing I thinkthat's important also
is that it's gonna haveeffects outside of vaccines.
The climate of, of fear andtop-down management at CBER,
(18:51):
isn't restricted to vaccines.
And I think it's gonna haveeffects on, um, CBER's ability
to function more broadly.
Selina Koch (19:00):
And very recently, we asked you all out there on
your views on how things aregoing at FDA, what you like,
what you don't like, wherethings are headed across various
domains including vaccines.
So we are busy analyzing thatnow, and stay tuned for the
results probably next week.
Jeff Cranmer (19:21):
And we should note that Prasad's memo does not
name any specific company, it'sjust the vaccine that allegedly
caused these kids deaths.
That said stocks of vaccinecompanies are down today.
Uh, a few notable ones, Vaxcytedown eight, as we recorded,
(19:44):
Moderna six, BioNTech five,we'll see how this plays out.
And keeping with the upbeatnews, Lauren, uh, you've got a
story coming out on funding forcell and gene therapy companies.
It doesn't look good forearly stage investments in
these plays in the U.S. what'sbehind the negative sentiment?
Lauren Martz (20:08):
Yeah, this won't be very up uplifting
either, and it's not justone thing, but it's behind
the negative sentiment.
So there have been patientdeaths this year linked
to AAV gene therapies.
The ongoing manufacturinglogistical access problems
around cell therapies,CAR T cells in particular.
(20:30):
You know, have just madea difficult business
case for advancing someof those, the challenges
of moving CAR Ts beyondhematological malignancies.
And some competitive dynamicsthat we've talked about
recently between some of thegene editing technologies
and, different modalitiesare also just contributing
to general negative sentimentfor cell and gene therapies.
(20:52):
I took a look at the numberof seed and series A rounds
closed this year relative torecent years, dating back to
2020 to see how all of thisis reflecting, you know, new
company formation and that earlystage venture funding that's
going into these technologies.
(21:13):
And in terms of the absolutenumber of rounds it's very
few have happened this year.
So, you know, theyear's not over.
Of course, venture funding hasbeen down overall this year,
so that's maybe not surprising.
But there were almost noAAV gene therapy seed in
series A rounds in the USthis year, for example.
(21:34):
And then looking at these asa percentage of the number
of overall seed and seriesA rounds for biotech, it
was pretty striking, so eachof the last five years have
cell and gene therapies havecaptured like 17 to 20% of
these early stage rounds.
It was 12% overall basedon the data that we have
(21:55):
in BCIQ for 2025 so far.
And then when you look just atthe rounds in the US it was a
little higher, historically,cell and gene therapies
were about 17 to 21%, andit was only 7% this year.
So there is a, a big drop offin, in what we've seen over
the past year is when thesetwo modality classes have
(22:17):
just been exploding, but, um,interest is definitely way down.
Selina Koch (22:21):
I'm wondering if the ones we are seeing this
year, this is cell and gene, I'mwondering if they're mostly in
vivo CAR T, or if they clusterin certain areas, like the ones
that can make it through toactually get funding right now.
Lauren Martz (22:34):
Sure.
So there are, I was actuallysurprised that in vivo CAR T
didn't necessarily stand outas like the modality that's,
that's getting funding.
It's been pretty consistentover the period that, that
I was watching with thenumber of rounds for in
vivo CAR T cell companies.
So this is actuallysomething that's been funded
back to like, uh, 2022.
(22:54):
There were a few this year.
The number of rounds wasso small that it was hard
to pick out trends of whatexactly is in the funding.
But some of the things thatwere notably absent were
AAV gene therapies in theUS in particular, and immune
cell therapies were down.
(23:14):
CAR T cells inparticular were down.
And so all of the CAR T cellfunding that we saw in the past,
uh, season series A funding inthe past, two years, 2024 and
2025, was really focused onnew indications and expanding
access for that modality.
So it's all allogeneic, gammadeltas, um, you know, ways to
(23:39):
make these more accessible.
And then tweaks to thedesign that may make the
cell therapies work in solidtumors, which is something that
we haven't really seen yet.
So, multiple targets, orarmoring the cells with
cytokines and things like that.
Jeff Cranmer (23:55):
Alright, Lauren.
That's all in the U.S.
is there hope overseas?
We know we've beenfollowing China closely.
Uh, what's it, what's itlooking like in China?
Lauren Martz (24:05):
So in China, the proportion of seed and
series A rounds that wehave data covering is really
exploding for cell and genetherapy since about 2021.
So I mentioned that it was only7% in the U.S. It was 29% based
on the data that we have, whichmay not be entirely complete.
(24:26):
So a big difference in thelevel of focus that these
modalities are getting in China.
And something that I foundreally interesting was that
the specific technologiesthat are getting funded
at Chinese biotechs arenot what I was expecting.
So NK cells were a very hotarea, this is a type of immune
(24:48):
cell therapy that has had alot of negative sentiment in
the US in particular and inEurope in the past couple years,
just because there's been someevidence that an NK cell, a
CAR NK, may not be as effectiveor as durable as a CAR T cell.
We've seen deals that aredissolved, we've seen programs
dropped, but it seems likesome biotechs in China
(25:09):
are sort of taking on thechallenge of figuring out how
to make this cell type work.
There's also a lot ofdevelopment of AAV gene
therapies, which I mentionedwe're not seeing a lot of
early stage funding forcompanies that are specifically
working on that in the U.S.
They're a lot workingon it in China.
So, you know, the regulatoryenvironment obviously is
(25:30):
different there than here.
One of the contributors thenegative sentiment in the US
that I didn't mention is allof the uncertainty around how
FDA will handle rare and ultrarare diseases, going forward.
So that may contributeto the fact that we're
seeing a lot of innovationthere in other regions.
Selina Koch (25:47):
Lauren, with the commercial challenges
in the US for cell genetherapies formidable, what
does the path look like forthese Chinese companies?
'Cause I would think a lotof them would be hoping for
overseas partners to really,you know, take these therapies
into lucrative markets.
I know pricing pressure withinChina is pretty intense.
So what's the commercialdynamics in the poll
(26:10):
look like over there?
Lauren Martz (26:12):
That's a good question.
I don't think we have theanswer, but I know that
what we've seen with celltherapies, I think is what we
may see with gene therapies.
So it is possible to getclinical proof of concept for a
cell and gene therapy in Chinathrough an IIT in a way that's,
you know, potentially fasterand less expensive than what may
(26:32):
be possible to do in a US basedPhase I. I think ultimately
at the hope may be a US basedpartner and de-risking.
An asset for a rare or ultrarare disease in a, in a way
that changes the economicsenough to make Western companies
willing to take on the risk.
Jeff Cranmer (26:53):
All right.
Well any hope of thischanging in the near term
in the U.S. Lauren, well,what's it gonna take?
Are there any products you'rewatching that that might
give a much needed win?
Lauren Martz (27:04):
We've talked about this before too, but as we,
we mentioned earlier, on thispodcast, I think the in vivo CAR
Ts are something that everyone'swatching because there's good
early proof of concept data froma very small number of patients.
But this is a potential tosolve the access issues of
a really effective modalityfor cancer and potentially
(27:26):
autoimmune diseases too.
That could bring this celltherapy product into more
patients, more indications.
Jeff Cranmer (27:33):
And, and one company, I'd just say, uh,
maybe have a look at, Immuneel,founded by Kiran Mazumdar
Shaw, she's the founderof Biocon most successful
biotech company in India.
She partnered up with a coupleof other Indian KOLs and, and
launched Immuneel, which aimsto bring CAR T to patients
(27:58):
at a fraction of the cost.
I've had the CEO on a coupleof my East-West panels lately.
And, you know, he says thatthey're making progress, so
that's one to watch as well.
Steve, you, you spoketo them back in the day?
Yeah.
Steve Usdin (28:13):
Yeah, and they have a, an interesting model
for developing CAR T and forproviding them to patients.
Basically looking atproducing CAR Ts in hospitals,
something akin to the waythat transplants are handled
in the United States.
Jeff Cranmer (28:30):
Look, you know, a lot of this stuff
doesn't work until it works.
And, uh, hardworking peoplelike, uh, many of our listeners,
you know, they brought youKRAS after how many years?
40 years.
And, uh, just gottakeep going at it.
All right, well don't miss oursister podcast coming out later
this week, The BioCentury Show,Selina will be sitting down with
(28:54):
the CEO of Fore Biotherapeutics,that's Bill Hinshaw, And also
on biocentury.com BioCentury.comwe have our colleague Lindsey
Martin's analysis of seriesA rounds, worth checking out.
And we will catchyou next Monday.
(29:17):
Don't forget tolike and subscribe.
Send us a question and wewill see you next week.
Kendall Square Orchestraprovides the music for
BioCentury's This Week.
The group connects scienceand technology professionals
and other members of theGreater Boston community
to collaborate innovate andinspire through music, while
(29:40):
supporting causes relatedto healthcare and education.
[AI-generated transcript.]
Jeff Cranmer (00:01):
Novo Nordisk data for semaglutide in Alzheimer's
were highly anticipated.
But last week's readout for theGLP-1 therapy dashed what may
have been long shot hopes fora game changer in the disease,
we'll discuss what the datamean in detail on this week's
(00:24):
BioCentury This Week podcast.
Plus you've seen the headlines,Vinay Prasad is ready to deploy
a new vaccine strategy at FDA,the impacts could be more far
reaching than has been reported.
And cell and gene therapieshave fallen off the radar for
(00:47):
early stage venture investorsin the U.S. Why is that
happening and could therebe hope across the Pacific.
I am Jeff Cranmer.
joining me today aremy awesome colleagues.
Selina Koch (01:02):
Selina Koch, Executive Editor.
Steve Usdin (01:04):
Steve Usdin, Washington Editor.
Lauren Martz (01:06):
And Lauren Martz, Executive Director
of Biopharma Intelligence.
Jeff Cranmer (01:10):
All right, well, I'm happy to be
here with you guys.
Uh, I know there's a lotof talk around J.P. Morgan
every year about the weatherwe have here in California.
I'm just happy to behome after, uh, well, a
lot of snow in Chicago.
I gotta say, uh, much respect,to the good folks that,
uh, managed to get me on aflight, me and my family on
(01:30):
a flight back to California.
Steve, how were your travels?
I know you were on the road.
Steve Usdin (01:35):
Montreal is, people say Montreal is the, uh, you
know, it's like if, London andParis had a child, it would be
Montreal, and it lives up to it.
It's great.
Jeff Cranmer (01:44):
That's awesome.
Alright.
Hopefully it was smooth droppingback down into the country.
I, I guess they'd letyou cross the border,
which is always good.
All right.
Let's talk a little Alzheimer's,Novo Nordisk Alzheimer data,
were highly anticipated in lastweek's readout, dashed what may
(02:06):
have been long shot hopes fora game changer in Alzheimer's.
Selina for those of us whohaven't been following this
program so closely, can youtell us about the program
and why there has been somuch excitement around it.
Selina Koch (02:21):
Yeah, thanks Jeff, well, why is there so much hype?
I mean, it's GLP-1, it'sone of the hottest targets
in the industry, undisputedfor its efficacy in
diabetes and now obesity.
And, you know, big top sellingdrugs where there's been
these tantalizing signalsacross really a wide range
of indications that maybeit's gonna be effective, in
(02:44):
many, settings from sleepapnea where it's relatively
established, to things likeaddiction, and Alzheimer's.
And of course Alzheimer'sis a big financial
opportunity for Novo.
So in its mandate to maximize,its profits from Semaglutide,
it would've been a, a big one.
But alas, it willnot, it will not be.
Steve Usdin (03:06):
Selina.
One of, one of the thingsthat, you know, I wonder,
and, and you wrote aboutthis, was the decision to jump
right into Phase III trials.
What are the consequencesof that or the implications
of that for the Alzheimer'sfield more generally?
Selina Koch (03:20):
Yeah, that was the thing that stood out to
me most about this program.
So the reactions to thisnegative result have ranged
from, you know, what apredictable waste of resources
to isn't it so wonderfulthat we have these robust
definitive data now andeverything in between.
And what stood out to me aboutNovo's press release, and it's
kind of been saying this allalong, is that because it had
(03:44):
lots of real world data from usein diabetes patients, compelling
preclinical data, and it knowssome things about the mechanism,
the semaglutide, although thatis a complex mechanism that's
only partially understood thatit had a quote, responsibility
to explore it in Alzheimer's.
And on one hand I kindof agree with that.
(04:05):
I'm really glad they exploredit in Alzheimer's, but what gave
me some cognitive dissidentswas that that same release
said that it had a very, thesestudies had a low probability
of success, and it's beensaying that, acknowledging
that all along the way.
So if your studies have a lowprobability of success, do you
really have a responsibility torecruit nearly 4,000 patients
(04:27):
to answer the question.
Steve Usdin (04:29):
And the, the other thing is you talk about the
preclinical data, but wasn'tthe preclinical data suggestive
of a protective effect andthe trial was in patients
who already had Alzheimer's.
Selina Koch (04:40):
Yeah, so the real world data that was so
important for this programis in diabetes patients,
and some obesity patients, Iguess, but primarily diabetes.
And what it shows is that thetime, so diabetes is a risk
factor for Alzheimer's, right?
And the time to diagnosisof Alzheimer's in the
(05:01):
real world data is delayedwith semaglutide use.
And semaglutide seemsto be better at delaying
Alzheimer's than someof the other treatments
available for those patients.
But yeah, when it came totesting it in Phase III, they
jumped right into a settingwhere you're not talking
about diabetes patientshere, you're talking about
Alzheimer's patients whoare already symptomatic.
(05:23):
So it, it's a pretty big leapand I think, patients are just
a really valuable resource.
And so, if you're recruiting4,000 of them to studies that
you think of a low probabilityof success when you could
answer that, que question witha robust Phase II, like say a
500 patient Phase II, which iswhat Johnson and Johnson just
(05:43):
did with its anti-tau mAb.
You can get a, a fairlydefinitive read on a product
with a robust Phase IIin Alzheimer's disease.
Jeff Cranmer (05:51):
Yeah.
Selina, so you, you wrotethat, recruitment and
retention are just suchbottlenecks for Alzheimer's.
Especially at a time whenthe therapeutic pipeline
is, is broadening.
So is it, maybe this is naive,but like, is this a super
hardship on other companies?
Selina Koch (06:10):
Well, let's see.
I mean, we'd have to getdata on that to know for sure.
Right.
Um.
But the pipelinehas been expanding.
It's not that there's a bunch ofcandidates in Phase III that are
highly promising, there aren't.
But there's lots of earlystage trials going on.
Testing, you know, variousneuroinflammatory mechanisms,
for instance, and just thingsbeyond amyloid and tau.
(06:34):
You know, I don't, I couldn'tsay if for certain that,
because 4,000 people wereenrolled in this trial and
took X number of patientsaway from trial X or Y or
Z. But there is a sense inwhich you think something as
low probability of success,so you're kind of instilling
false hope and far morepatients than would strictly be
necessary to ask your question.
(06:56):
That's the part that kindof left me just wondering.
Jeff Cranmer (06:59):
Yeah, are there other GLP-1 programs,
for Alzheimer's or otherneurodegenerative diseases
that you're looking out for?
Selina Koch (07:08):
Well, there have been along the way,
liraglutide has been tested.
Several of the GLP-1sactually have been tested in
different neurodegenerativedisease settings.
None of them have been aobvious success so far.
Now a lot of those studieshave been kind of small
academic, early stage, right.
(07:28):
So I get that you wantsomething more robust than
that to be definitive.
There was a recent failurein Parkinson's that I think
was pretty interesting.
And I think right now interms of like getting the most
learning out of this very robusttrial that Novo ran, you know,
I'm very keen to see that CTADpresentation coming up this
week where the actual detailsof the data will be shared when
(07:52):
you do have this many patients.
I think one of the positives,right, is that you can, um, do
a lot of subgroup analyses andhopefully there was a robust
set of biomarkers that were,you know, employed, so we can
do some hypothesis generationor learn whatever it is there
is, there is to be learned.
So that's on the positiveside of the ledger.
Jeff Cranmer (08:11):
Cool.
So this, this was last Mondaybefore Thanksgiving, big hit on
Novo shares, raised about 11 12billion, from its market cap.
But J&J had some toughdata too for its, uh,
anti-tau program, yeah?
Selina Koch (08:25):
Yeah, it sure did.
So tau, I think we've allseen that there's been several
failures of tau antibodies.
There's sort of two hypothesesabout, tau is just a more
complicated target thanamyloid in a sense, because
it exists in lots of forms.
It can be splicedin different ways.
It can be phosphorylatedat lots of different sites,
(08:46):
individually or in combinationsof phosphorylations.
That it's thought to spread,like misfolded tau seeds
are thought to spreadextracellularly, but tau
aggregates kind of wreaktheir havoc intracellularly.
So exactly what form of tau totarget, where and when is just a
little, it's complicated, right.
But there's really goodreason to think that tau
(09:08):
plays important roles inAlzheimer's, you know.
And so I think this is justa hypothesis that's going
to continue to take time totest because it, it's not
really a one hypothesis.
It has to be tested in thevarious, all the various ways
That kind of makes sense.
So what was interesting aboutthis J&J antibody is that it
targeted a mid region piecepart of tau that people thought
(09:31):
was kind of the businessend for this extracellular
spreading hypothesis.
The first, I think it was fourMABs that failed in Phase II
were all end terminal targeting.
And it's just not clear howimportant the end terminal
is for the escape of tau fromwhere it first aggregates and
the medial temporal lobe, toit's escaped into the frontal
(09:54):
lobe or the parietal lobe,which are very well timed with
symptom onset and the characterof those system symptoms.
Tau it ends up in the frontalcortex, you get different
symptoms and if it ends upin the parietal cortex for
instance, that's some of thatdata that makes you think the
how it's probably important.
Anyway, the internalones failed.
There's a lot of hopethat these mid region
ones might be more useful.
(10:17):
We now have two bepranemab fromUCB and now, um, posdinemab
from J&J that missed.
Their endpoints.
Still the bepranemab dataset waskind of interesting because it
showed changes on on tau pet.
Now we're looking forward tocouple antibodies that bind
specifically to the microtubulebinding domain there's still
some C terminal ones, workingtheir way through the clinic.
(10:39):
I think the field is most,the prospects have certainly
dimmed for blocking justthe extracellular piece
of tau being effective.
I think people are most excitednow about Biogen's BIIB080,
which is a antisense programwith Ionis that knocks,
just knocks down tau, right.
It's at the mRNA level,you stop producing it.
So you're gonna blockall of those forms.
(11:01):
Biogen was able to show thatthat could actually reduce some
of the tau pathology, not juststop progression of getting
more neurofibrillary tangles,but like reverse some of them.
Um, that was prettyexciting early data.
So I think all eyes will bebe watching that next year
when they report more data.
Jeff Cranmer (11:19):
All right, well, you can see Selena's story up
on our website, BioCentury.comBioCenturypodcast.com.
I'll drop a linkinto the show notes.
we're gonna take a quick breakand we're gonna come back and
talk about what is happeningwith FDA's new vaccine policy.
Alanna Farro (11:40):
BioCentury This Week is brought to you by
The 5th East-West BiopharmaSummit in South Korea.
An arc of innovation isemerging across Asia, and
Western biopharma leadersare taking note-from
cross-border deals to newcos.
In March, 2026, The 5thBioCentury-BayHelix East-West
BioPharma Summit visits SouthKorea for the first time.
(12:03):
Meet the biopharma leadersputting Korea innovation
on the global map.
Learn why Korea hasbecome a clinical trial
in manufacturing hub.
Discover if Korea is the nexthotspot for NewCo formation.
Plus, meet biopharmainnovators from India to
Singapore, to China and Japan.
Register now atBioCenturyEastWest.com.
Jeff Cranmer (12:28):
Okay, we're back.
Yes, we are gettingclose to the BioCentury
East-West Summit in Seoul.
I am, pressing Josh, ourguru behind our conference
is hard to have an event tiedto noraebang that is, uh,
Korea's answer to karaoke.
(12:49):
So you should signup to be a delegate.
If you're interested inpresenting we are recruiting
companies from across Asia'sarc of innovation, from Europe,
from the U.S., from Canada.
Reach out to me via LinkedInor go to our website, and
submit your interest inbeing a presenting company for
(13:12):
the 5th BioCentury BayHelixEast-West Summit in Seoul.
Okay.
Vaccines have been in thespotlight more than ever since
RFK Jr became head of HHS.
Now, Vinay Prasad, Head ofFDA's CBER wants to change
(13:32):
how vaccines are regulated.
He claims that a new reviewhas tied 10 children's
death to the COVID vaccine.
Steve, I know you'vebeen working the phones
over the weekend.
What are you hearing?
Steve Usdin (13:47):
Yeah.
So Vinay Prasad and FDACommissioner Marty Makary
are using disputed analysesthat purport to link COVID
vaccines to pediatric deaths.
To justify a set of policiesthat would make it really
difficult to create newvaccines, and especially to
update existing vaccines inresponse to emerging threats
or evolving pathogens.
(14:08):
So Prasad, Makary, as yousaid, they've asserted that
COVID vaccines caused thedeaths of at least 10 children.
That conclusion, they haven'tprovided the data to support it.
It's at odds with investigationsthat were conducted during
the Biden Administration.
A Senior CDC EpidemicIntelligence Service Officer and
an FDA Pharmacovigilance Stafferreviewed all the pediatric
(14:31):
deaths that reported to theagency as being possibly related
to COVID vaccines and determinedthat none were definitively or
probably caused by the vaccines.
That's what two former senioragency officials told me.
I think that what's evenmore important is that
this conclusion about thepediatric deaths is being
used as a lever to roll outcontentious vaccine policies.
(14:57):
Policies that are really gonnachange the way that, the way
the vaccines are, are developed.
So in, in the memo, which
was released at 4 (15:03):
21, on the Friday following Thanksgiving,
Black Friday, Prasad saidthat FDA is no longer
gonna allow manufacturersto rely on immunogenicity
surrogates, and will requirepre-market randomized control
trials for most vaccines.
He also indicated the FDAwill revise the framework
for approving annual fluvaccines, and that it's
(15:24):
reassessing the safety ofmulti vaccine administration.
These are gonna haveprofound effects on vaccine
development, as I said.
And some of the concernsare also around how
this policies have beendeveloped and rolled out.
They've been developed bypolitical appointees, in secret.
There's been no advisorycommittee meeting.
(15:46):
There's been no opportunityfor a discussion among
the scientific and medicalcommunity about these changes.
And in his memo, Prasad also,basically told CBER staff that
it's his way or the highway,that if they don't agree with
the actions that he's taken,that they should resign.
This is alsounprecedented at FDA.
Selina Koch (16:08):
So Steve, what would this have looked like
if this had been in effect,in effect in the past?
Steve Usdin (16:13):
Well, yeah, and that's a good way to look at it,
you know, to, to understand whatit's gonna mean going forward.
So for example, the HPV vaccinesthat are making eradication
of cervical cancer a realpossibility, wouldn't have
happened, if these policieshad been in place, neither
would Ebola vaccines, neitherand the chikungunya vaccines
(16:33):
that are under development,all those would be impossible
because they all rely to anextent, to a critical extent
on immuno bridging studies.
So for example, Gardasil,the leading HPV vaccine,
was approved, based on alarge trial that showed high
efficacy against virologicendpoints and high grade
cervical pre-cancer and placebocontrolled trials in young
(16:56):
adult women, placebo controlledtrials in early adolescents
weren't practical or ethical.
So the, licensure wasextended to younger age groups
to nine to 15 year olds.
And dosing changes, approvedbased on immuno bridging.
Regulators accepted vaccinationin adolescents because their
antibody responses werenon-inferior to those seen
(17:17):
in adults in whom clinicalefficacy was demonstrated.
Jeff Cranmer (17:21):
So, where do we go from here, Steve?
Steve Usdin (17:23):
You know, it, it's really unclear.
I think that this ispart of a, a broader
assault on vaccination.
It's not a coincidencethat, this memo was sent
out just a few days aheadof the next ASIP meeting.
The members that were were inASIP were, most of them were
fired, and they were replacedby individuals who were on board
(17:44):
with Robert F Kennedy's MakeAmerica Healthy again ideology.
They're gonna be meeting thisweek, likely to discuss, and
recommend changes to the,pediatric vaccine schedule.
Changes in vaccine formulationthat will make it difficult to
approve new vaccines and couldresult in, um, removing existing
(18:06):
vaccines from the market.
Martin Kulldorff, hasjust been named to a
senior position at HHS.
So I think we're seeing this,this really broad kind of
movement across governmentto implement policies that
are gonna result in reducedaccess to existing vaccines
and a halt, or at leastenormous slowdown in the
(18:27):
development of future vaccines.
Now, there's also gonna be,of course, there's gonna be
a backlash against this fromthe public health community.
And it, it isn't clear howit's all gonna be resolved.
The other thing I thinkthat's important also
is that it's gonna haveeffects outside of vaccines.
The climate of, of fear andtop-down management at CBER,
(18:51):
isn't restricted to vaccines.
And I think it's gonna haveeffects on, um, CBER's ability
to function more broadly.
Selina Koch (19:00):
And very recently, we asked you all out there on
your views on how things aregoing at FDA, what you like,
what you don't like, wherethings are headed across various
domains including vaccines.
So we are busy analyzing thatnow, and stay tuned for the
results probably next week.
Jeff Cranmer (19:21):
And we should note that Prasad's memo does not
name any specific company, it'sjust the vaccine that allegedly
caused these kids deaths.
That said stocks of vaccinecompanies are down today.
Uh, a few notable ones, Vaxcytedown eight, as we recorded,
(19:44):
Moderna six, BioNTech five,we'll see how this plays out.
And keeping with the upbeatnews, Lauren, uh, you've got a
story coming out on funding forcell and gene therapy companies.
It doesn't look good forearly stage investments in
these plays in the U.S. what'sbehind the negative sentiment?
Lauren Martz (20:08):
Yeah, this won't be very up uplifting
either, and it's not justone thing, but it's behind
the negative sentiment.
So there have been patientdeaths this year linked
to AAV gene therapies.
The ongoing manufacturinglogistical access problems
around cell therapies,CAR T cells in particular.
(20:30):
You know, have just madea difficult business
case for advancing someof those, the challenges
of moving CAR Ts beyondhematological malignancies.
And some competitive dynamicsthat we've talked about
recently between some of thegene editing technologies
and, different modalitiesare also just contributing
to general negative sentimentfor cell and gene therapies.
(20:52):
I took a look at the numberof seed and series A rounds
closed this year relative torecent years, dating back to
2020 to see how all of thisis reflecting, you know, new
company formation and that earlystage venture funding that's
going into these technologies.
(21:13):
And in terms of the absolutenumber of rounds it's very
few have happened this year.
So, you know, theyear's not over.
Of course, venture funding hasbeen down overall this year,
so that's maybe not surprising.
But there were almost noAAV gene therapy seed in
series A rounds in the USthis year, for example.
(21:34):
And then looking at these asa percentage of the number
of overall seed and seriesA rounds for biotech, it
was pretty striking, so eachof the last five years have
cell and gene therapies havecaptured like 17 to 20% of
these early stage rounds.
It was 12% overall basedon the data that we have
(21:55):
in BCIQ for 2025 so far.
And then when you look just atthe rounds in the US it was a
little higher, historically,cell and gene therapies
were about 17 to 21%, andit was only 7% this year.
So there is a, a big drop offin, in what we've seen over
the past year is when thesetwo modality classes have
(22:17):
just been exploding, but, um,interest is definitely way down.
Selina Koch (22:21):
I'm wondering if the ones we are seeing this
year, this is cell and gene, I'mwondering if they're mostly in
vivo CAR T, or if they clusterin certain areas, like the ones
that can make it through toactually get funding right now.
Lauren Martz (22:34):
Sure.
So there are, I was actuallysurprised that in vivo CAR T
didn't necessarily stand outas like the modality that's,
that's getting funding.
It's been pretty consistentover the period that, that
I was watching with thenumber of rounds for in
vivo CAR T cell companies.
So this is actuallysomething that's been funded
back to like, uh, 2022.
(22:54):
There were a few this year.
The number of rounds wasso small that it was hard
to pick out trends of whatexactly is in the funding.
But some of the things thatwere notably absent were
AAV gene therapies in theUS in particular, and immune
cell therapies were down.
(23:14):
CAR T cells inparticular were down.
And so all of the CAR T cellfunding that we saw in the past,
uh, season series A funding inthe past, two years, 2024 and
2025, was really focused onnew indications and expanding
access for that modality.
So it's all allogeneic, gammadeltas, um, you know, ways to
(23:39):
make these more accessible.
And then tweaks to thedesign that may make the
cell therapies work in solidtumors, which is something that
we haven't really seen yet.
So, multiple targets, orarmoring the cells with
cytokines and things like that.
Jeff Cranmer (23:55):
Alright, Lauren.
That's all in the U.S.
is there hope overseas?
We know we've beenfollowing China closely.
Uh, what's it, what's itlooking like in China?
Lauren Martz (24:05):
So in China, the proportion of seed and
series A rounds that wehave data covering is really
exploding for cell and genetherapy since about 2021.
So I mentioned that it was only7% in the U.S. It was 29% based
on the data that we have, whichmay not be entirely complete.
(24:26):
So a big difference in thelevel of focus that these
modalities are getting in China.
And something that I foundreally interesting was that
the specific technologiesthat are getting funded
at Chinese biotechs arenot what I was expecting.
So NK cells were a very hotarea, this is a type of immune
(24:48):
cell therapy that has had alot of negative sentiment in
the US in particular and inEurope in the past couple years,
just because there's been someevidence that an NK cell, a
CAR NK, may not be as effectiveor as durable as a CAR T cell.
We've seen deals that aredissolved, we've seen programs
dropped, but it seems likesome biotechs in China
(25:09):
are sort of taking on thechallenge of figuring out how
to make this cell type work.
There's also a lot ofdevelopment of AAV gene
therapies, which I mentionedwe're not seeing a lot of
early stage funding forcompanies that are specifically
working on that in the U.S.
They're a lot workingon it in China.
So, you know, the regulatoryenvironment obviously is
(25:30):
different there than here.
One of the contributors thenegative sentiment in the US
that I didn't mention is allof the uncertainty around how
FDA will handle rare and ultrarare diseases, going forward.
So that may contributeto the fact that we're
seeing a lot of innovationthere in other regions.
Selina Koch (25:47):
Lauren, with the commercial challenges
in the US for cell genetherapies formidable, what
does the path look like forthese Chinese companies?
'Cause I would think a lotof them would be hoping for
overseas partners to really,you know, take these therapies
into lucrative markets.
I know pricing pressure withinChina is pretty intense.
So what's the commercialdynamics in the poll
(26:10):
look like over there?
Lauren Martz (26:12):
That's a good question.
I don't think we have theanswer, but I know that
what we've seen with celltherapies, I think is what we
may see with gene therapies.
So it is possible to getclinical proof of concept for a
cell and gene therapy in Chinathrough an IIT in a way that's,
you know, potentially fasterand less expensive than what may
(26:32):
be possible to do in a US basedPhase I. I think ultimately
at the hope may be a US basedpartner and de-risking.
An asset for a rare or ultrarare disease in a, in a way
that changes the economicsenough to make Western companies
willing to take on the risk.
Jeff Cranmer (26:53):
All right.
Well any hope of thischanging in the near term
in the U.S. Lauren, well,what's it gonna take?
Are there any products you'rewatching that that might
give a much needed win?
Lauren Martz (27:04):
We've talked about this before too, but as we,
we mentioned earlier, on thispodcast, I think the in vivo CAR
Ts are something that everyone'swatching because there's good
early proof of concept data froma very small number of patients.
But this is a potential tosolve the access issues of
a really effective modalityfor cancer and potentially
(27:26):
autoimmune diseases too.
That could bring this celltherapy product into more
patients, more indications.
Jeff Cranmer (27:33):
And, and one company, I'd just say, uh,
maybe have a look at, Immuneel,founded by Kiran Mazumdar
Shaw, she's the founderof Biocon most successful
biotech company in India.
She partnered up with a coupleof other Indian KOLs and, and
launched Immuneel, which aimsto bring CAR T to patients
(27:58):
at a fraction of the cost.
I've had the CEO on a coupleof my East-West panels lately.
And, you know, he says thatthey're making progress, so
that's one to watch as well.
Steve, you, you spoketo them back in the day?
Yeah.
Steve Usdin (28:13):
Yeah, and they have a, an interesting model
for developing CAR T and forproviding them to patients.
Basically looking atproducing CAR Ts in hospitals,
something akin to the waythat transplants are handled
in the United States.
Jeff Cranmer (28:30):
Look, you know, a lot of this stuff
doesn't work until it works.
And, uh, hardworking peoplelike, uh, many of our listeners,
you know, they brought youKRAS after how many years?
40 years.
And, uh, just gottakeep going at it.
All right, well don't miss oursister podcast coming out later
this week, The BioCentury Show,Selina will be sitting down with
(28:54):
the CEO of Fore Biotherapeutics,that's Bill Hinshaw, And also
on biocentury.com BioCentury.comwe have our colleague Lindsey
Martin's analysis of seriesA rounds, worth checking out.
And we will catchyou next Monday.
(29:17):
Don't forget tolike and subscribe.
Send us a question and wewill see you next week.
Kendall Square Orchestraprovides the music for
BioCentury's This Week.
The group connects scienceand technology professionals
and other members of theGreater Boston community
to collaborate innovate andinspire through music, while
(29:40):
supporting causes relatedto healthcare and education.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.