The Bio Report

Though there are plenty of therapeutic alternatives for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, there are no approved biologics for treating acute exacerbations of these conditions. Connect Biopharma believes that’s an opportunity. It's experimental therapy rademikibart has shown promise treating exacerbations and providing sustained improvements. We spoke to Barry Quart, CEO of Connect Biopharma, about the unmet need the company is seeking to address, how rademikibart works, and Connect’s repositioning as a U.S.-centric company.

When Vanderbilt University Medical Center began to consider how big data and precision medicine were going to impact both research and development and clinical care, it struck on the idea of building a large-scale biobank and tying it to its store of millions of electronic health records. That ultimately led to the founding of Nashville Bioscience, a for-profit subsidiary of the medical center. We spoke to Leeland Ekstrom, co-founder and CEO of NashBio, about the company’s data collection methods, the significance of the alliance it's developed with leading biopharmaceutical companies, and how it's enabling a transformation of drug development with data.

Spirulina, also known as blue-green algae, is edible. It can be engineered to cost-effectively produce biologics that can be taken orally. Though people have long sought to do this, Lumen Bioscience has developed platform technology that solved the various challenges is engineering spirulina to produce medicines. We spoke to Brian Finrow, co-founder and CEO of Lumen, about the company’s platform technology, why it makes possible the pursuit of biologics for indications that were previously not practical, and the potential to make these advanced therapies affordable and accessible in parts of the world where people may not have widely enjoyed their benefits.

Cancer is a global disease, and BeOne Medicines believes it should develop its cancer therapies for global markets. To do so, it’s taking innovative approaches to clinical trials, pricing, and manufacturing to enable it to support patients not only in high-income countries but also in low- and middle-income countries. We spoke to Matt Shaulis, general manager of North America for BeOne Medicines, about the significant global disparities in cancer care, the mission of BeOne Medicines to improve access and affordability to therapies, and the opportunities and challenges of taking a global approach to marketing innovative medicines.

The advent of immunotherapies is transforming cancer care. While early efforts have focused on enabling T cells to attack cancers, Myeloid Therapeutics is developing next-generation immunotherapies that use mRNA to train myeloid cells to attack cancer. We spoke to Daniel Getts, founder and CEO of Myeloid Therapeutics, about the limitations of existing immunotherapies, the role myeloid cells play in the immune system, and the benefits of the company’s therapeutic approach.

Despite having taken steps to prepare for a possible pandemic, the United States fared poorly during the COVID outbreak relative to other developed nations. It also sharpened political divides as conspiracy theories and misinformation spread on social media. In “COVID Wars: America’s Struggle Over Public Health and Personal Freedom,” tech entrepreneur-turned-historian Ronald Gruner takes a deep dive into the public data surrounding the pandemic. We spoke to Gruner about putting the pandemic in historical perspective, what the data showed, and the lessons to be learned.

GLP-1 agonists have been a breakthrough for the treatment of obesity, a global problem with serious health risks. While the benefits of these therapies are seen as outweighing the risks, there have been some concerns about the loss of muscle mass, particularly in older people using these drugs. iBio is developing next-generation obesity therapies that may be able to be used in combination with GLP-1 agonists or by themselves. Its lead experimental therapy is a myostatin inhibitor, part of a class of therapies that have been of interest to treat muscle wasting. We spoke to Martin Brenner, CEO and chief scientific officer of iBIO, about obesity, the limits of GLP-1 agonists, and the potential for myostatin inhibitors alone or in combination with GLP-1 agonists.

At the end of 2024, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awarded a team led by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and including the Foundation Fighting Blindness and six other research groups, up to $46 million to advance research to enable human eye transplants to restore vision in people who are blind. The goal of the project is to make whole eye transplantation a reality by 2030. We spoke to Kia Washington, the project’s principal investigator and professor of surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine; and Chad Jackson,  senior director of preclinical translational research at the Foundation Fighting Blindness about why no one has been able to restore vision through whole eye transplantation yet, the technological advancements that now put the goal in reach, and why maintaining and restoring the optic nerve remains a central challenge.

Synthetic biology companies have faced a difficult few years as share prices have been battered and investment in the sector has waned. As investors and companies are readying to gather for the annual SynBioBeta conference in San Jose May 5 through 8, a new report from the bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology warns that the United States is at risk of losing its leadership to China and is calling for a $15 billion investment into biotech over the next five years to support startups that strengthen national security. We spoke to John Cumbers, founder and CEO of SynBioBeta, about the state of synthetic biology, the policy landscape, and the upcoming SynBioBeta 2025 conference. (Listeners of The Bio Report wishing to attend SynBioBeta can use the discount code “thebioreport” to save on their registration at synbiobeta.com.)  

Until recently, treatments for both chronic and acute pain had been an area that went for decades without the development of innovative new treatments. South Rampart Pharma is seeking to develop safer and more effective pain management therapies that avoid the liver toxicity of acetaminophen, the kidney toxicity of NSAIDs, and the abuse potential of opioids. We spoke to Hernan Bazan, co-founder and CEO of South Rampart Pharma, about the need for new pain medicines, the company’s first-in-class experimental analgesic, and how it avoids the problems common with other pain medications.

The Zimin Institute for AI Solutions in Healthcare, a joint initiative between the Zimin Foundation and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, is seeking to accelerate the integration of AI into the life sciences. Although it is pursuing a wide range of opportunities from precision medicine to therapeutic discovery, its primary focus is on addressing real-world problems and conducting translational research. We spoke to Shai Shen-Orr, director of the Zimin Institute for AI Solutions, about the challenges the institute seeks to address, how it operates, and how it aims to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial applications in healthcare AI.

The search for non-opioid pain relievers opioids has focused on pharmaceutical alternatives including non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants. Brixton Biosciences is developing Neural Ice, an injectable frozen slurry that can degenerate nerves in targeted areas and provide pain relief for extended periods. The discovery capitalizes on unexpected findings about the effects of a fat-reducing cosmetic procedure. We spoke to Sameer Sabir, co-founder and CEO of Brixton Biosciences, about the unmet need for pain management, how Neural Ice works, and the company’s initial focus on osteoarthritis and post-operative knee pain.  

Antibodies have been powerful tools for inhibiting a targeted protein. Abalone Bio is pursuing a new class of antibody therapies called activating antibodies that can regulate cellular processes and restore their balance. One aspect that makes these rare antibodies attractive is that they can target previously undruggable G protein-coupled receptors, allowing them to treat diseases that have been hard to address. We spoke to Richard Yu, co-founder and CEO of Abalone Bio, about activating antibodies, how the company generates massive data sets for its AI-driven platform technology, and how it looks beyond binding to explore the function of these antibodies.

Jorge Goldstein trained for a career in molecular biology and biochemistry before becoming a patent attorney, a background that positioned him to help shape patent law for the biotech industry throughout his 40-year career. In his new book Patenting Life: Tales from the Front Lines of Intellectual Property and the New Biology, Goldstein offers a history of the biotech industry through the lens of the critical patent battles that shaped the landscape. We spoke to Goldstein, founder of the law firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, about the industry’s critical patent battles, his new book, and how he is working today to use patents as instruments for social and economic justice.

Eosinophilic esophagitis is a progressive allergic disease characterized by difficulty swallowing and gastric reflux. It results from an elevated number of inflammatory immune cells in the walls of the esophagus. If left untreated, it can cause long-term complications, including scarring and difficulty swallowing. Revolo Biotherapeutics is developing a synthetic peptide therapy that can potentially restore immune system homeostasis in EOE and other allergic diseases. We spoke to Woody Bryan, president and CEO of Revolo, about eosinophilic esophagitis, how the company’s experimental therapy restores homeostasis to the immune system, and how people exposed to tuberculosis pointed the way toward the experimental therapy.

NK cells, part of the innate immune system, serve as the body’s first line of defense. These cells can recognize and kill abnormal or infected cells. As therapies, they have the advantage over CAR-T and other cell therapies because they can be used off-the-shelf without undergoing gene editing or other genetic modifications. They also don’t trigger cytokine storms, a common reaction to CAR-T therapies that can cause a systemic inflammatory response that can range from flu-like symptoms to life-threatening complications. The greater safety and lower costs of these NK cell therapies open the door to broader uses beyond cancer to include autoimmune diseases. We spoke to Fred Aslan, president and CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics, about the company’s off-the-shelf NK cell therapies, the case for pairing them with monoclonal antibodies, and how they can broaden the uses for cell therapies.

More than a decade after the approval of a curative therapy for hepatitis C, hepatitis B has proven more challenging to tackle. Vir Biotechnology, in collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, is developing a promising combination approach that marries Vir’s monoclonal antibody tobivibart with Alnylam’s siRNA elebsiran. We spoke to Mark Eisner, chief medical officer of Vir, about hepatitis B, the company’s combination therapy in development with Alnylam, and its platform technologies for developing treatments for infectious disease and oncology.

While GLP-1 agonists have been all the rage in treating obesity, Coya Therapeutics sees potential for these therapies to address inflammatory diseases. In fact, Coya is developing its low-dose interleukin 2 in combination with several different agents. The belief is that its approach will address inflammation by targeting dysfunctional regulatory T cells. The company is pursuing multiple neurodegenerative conditions, as well as autoimmune and metabolic diseases. We spoke to Arun Swaminathan, CEO of Coya Therapeutics, about its pipeline-in-a-product strategy to treat neurodegenerative and other inflammatory diseases, its pursuit of a GLP-1 combination therapy for these conditions, and the challenges of being a newly minted public company in the current financial environment.

Though cancer vaccines have been an area of great promise, in practice they have faced several challenges because of the heterogeneity of tumors, the ability of the tumor microenvironment to suppress the immune system, and the challenges of producing a strong and sustained T-cell response. OSE Immunotherapeutics’ off-the-shelf cancer vaccine Tedopi has shown promising results in a phase 3 study in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and the company is now conducting a confirmatory phase 3 study. We spoke to Nicolas Poirier, CEO of OSE Immunotherapeutics, about the company’s off-the-shelf cancer vaccine, non-small cell lung cancer, and how it is leveraging its immune system expertise through partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies.

One of the challenges in treating brain cancer and other diseases of the central nervous system is delivering therapeutics beyond the blood-brain barrier. NeOnc Technologies using a natural compound derived from essential oils in plants that not only can kill cancer cells, but can cross the blood-brain barrier. What’s more, it can transport other therapies as well. We spoke to Thomas Chen, founder and CEO of NeOnc, about brain cancer, how the blood-brain barrier complicates the delivery of therapies to treat the condition, and how its experimental candidate that is delivered intranasally works.