Biotech 2050 Podcast

Dr. Ethan Perlstein is the founder and CEO of Perlara PBC, the first biotech public benefit company established in 2014 that partners with highly motivated and entrepreneurial families and foundations to develop treatments and cures for genetic diseases. Ethan is also cofounder and CEO of Maggie's Pearl LLC, a joint venture co-owned by Perlara, a family based in Michigan and the Mayo Clinic that is commercializing a repurposed drug for a congenital disorder of glycosylation. Ethan relaunched Perlara in 2021 as the first fully decentralized, distributed and web3 biotech company.

Michel Detheux is the co-founder, President, and CEO of iTeos Therapeutics, and has held the role of CEO since the company’s inception in 2012. He previously served as a director at Ludwig Cancer Research from December 2010 to March 2012. Prior to that, Michel worked in various scientific and business development roles at Ogeda (f/k/a Euroscreen). He has also held roles concurrent to his time at iTeos, including Founder and Managing Director of MG6A Bioconsulting SPRL, Director of the Board at BioWin, and Board Member at Immune Health. He studied at Université Catholique de Louvain, receiving his undergraduate degree and his PhD in biochemistry there, before doing his post-doc in parasitology at University of Glasgow and receiving a business certificate from Solvay Brussels School. Michel holds a degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Université Catholique de Louvain and a business certificate from Solvay Business School.

Armon Sharei, PhD, is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of SQZ Biotechnologies, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on unlocking the full potential of cell therapies for patients around the world and has active programs in Oncology, Autoimmune and Infectious Diseases, and other serious conditions. SQZ Biotech was founded on Dr. Sharei’s doctoral research at MIT and leverages the broad capabilities of the CellSqueeze® technology to enable a diverse pipeline of antigen-specific cell therapies. SQZ Biotech and the CellSqueeze® platform have been named as one of Scientific American’s Top 10 World Changing Ideas (2014), Fierce Biotech’s Fierce 15 (2015), and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2017). The technology has also been highlighted in numerous scientific publications, such as Nature and PNAS. Dr. Sharei received his BS in Chemical Engineering with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in the laboratories of Professors Klavs Jensen and Robert Langer where he created and implemented the CellSqueeze® technology as a novel method for rapid and flexible cell engineering. Prior to joining SQZ Biotech as CEO, Dr. Sharei completed a Ragon Institute postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Ulrich von Andrian. Dr. Sharei has published 19 peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor on 20 patent families. He has been recognized in INC. Magazine’s 30 under 30, Endpoints 40 under 40, and Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 in Healthcare.

Thomas is a veteran entrepreneur who has turned creative scientific visions into successful businesses for both startups and established organizations for over 20 years and has co-founded or helped launch several companies, including Intellia Therapeutics and Eleven Biotherapeutics. While at Intellia Therapeutics, a CRISPR/Cas9 company which Tom joined as Chief Scientific Officer, he helped build the research team, raise funds (including an IPO), and provide a vision for technology extension. He played a significant role as the corporate spokesperson to lay and industry press, and to governmental and non-governmental organizations on the rapidly evolving and intensely followed CRISPR landscape. Tom has wide-ranging knowledge of biological systems through his work across diverse platforms including gene editing, genomics and gene discovery, small molecule drug repositioning, and protein engineering. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and completed research fellowships at Harvard Medical School and McGill University. He is currently also an Executive Partner at MPM.

Andrew Bellinger is chief scientific officer of Verve Therapeutics. He is a general cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is board-certified in cardiovascular medicine and internal medicine. His scientific expertise includes biomedical engineering and drug delivery, computational modeling, pharmacology, clinical strategy and translational medicine. Prior to joining Verve, Dr. Bellinger co-founded and served as chief scientific officer of Lyndra Therapeutics, where he helped to build the company’s research team and was involved in the company’s key partnerships with Gilead and Allergan. During Dr. Bellinger’s tenure, Lyndra advanced several programs into the clinic. Prior to Lyndra, Dr. Bellinger served as chief scientific officer of Cocoon Biotech, leading the development of the company’s drug delivery platform based on silk fibroin. Dr. Bellinger completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and his clinical training in cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed his postdoctoral research training in drug delivery with Dr. Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bellinger holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, an M.S. in mathematics from New York University, and an A.B. in physics from Princeton University.

Brian Finrow brings the skills and experience of a lawyer to a position that, in the biotech world, is more typically occupied by a scientist. This is essential to an enterprise like Lumen, which is rethinking drug development from the ground up to emphasize speed, efficiency and ease of delivery, and whose approach is so innovative that traditional ways of thinking about IP and regulatory pathways oftentimes do not apply. Prior to co-founding Lumen, Brian oversaw complex negotiations with various major biopharma companies and managed IP strategy for Adaptive Biotechnologies, where he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel. As Senior Attorney at the law firm Cooley LLC, his practice focused on equity financing and M&A transactions, and negotiating complex biotech licensing and collaboration deals. With over 15 years of legal and commercial experience at these market-leading, innovative firms, he is well positioned to develop creative, win-win deal structures with other organizations. Harvard Law School, JD Harding University, BS, Public Administration Harding University, BA, Political Science

Jeffrey Goldberg is the president and CEO of Immunitas. Jeff is an experienced biotech program and brand leader with over 20 years of industry experience. He has driven programs from discovery and pre-clinical through IND, clinical trials, NDA, and commercialization in multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, renal, and other rare and orphan diseases. Prior to joining Immunitas, Jeff was at Akcea Therapeutics, where he was chief operating officer from the time of its formation in January 2015. Previously, Jeff was vice president of business operations, leading both program management and business development at Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company focusing on neurology and rare diseases. He also spent more than 11 years in positions of increasing responsibility with Genzyme and Sanofi, providing brand management for two marketed products within Sanofi Oncology. Prior to joining Sanofi Oncology, Jeff served as Global Program Lead for Genzyme's stem cell mobilization agent Mozobil, leading the global launch team and overseeing the program management and marketing functions for the product. He began his career at Genzyme as Director, Program Management overseeing the development and launch of Renvela in patients undergoing dialysis. Jeff has both an MBA and a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.

Todd Zavodnick has over 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Dermavant in November 2018, Mr. Zavodnick served as Chief Commercial Officer and President of Aesthetics and Therapeutics at Revance. He served in global leadership roles at ZELTIQ Aesthetics prior to the company’s acquisition by Allergan; at Galderma Laboratories, where he was President and General Manager of North America; and at Alcon Laboratories. He is a member of the board of directors of the Children’s Skin Disease Foundation. On August 10, 2021, after this interview was recorded, Dermavant Sciences announced that the FDA accepted for filing a New Drug Application (NDA) for tapinarof for the treatment of plaque psoriasis in adult patients. Tapinarof is an investigational, novel, therapeutic aryl hydrocarbon receptor modulating agent, in development as a once-daily, steroid-free and cosmetically elegant topical cream for the treatment of plaque psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The FDA has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date in Q2 2022.

Alison serves as the chief medical officer at Surface Oncology. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical research, oncology drug development and clinical neuro-oncology. Prior to joining Surface, Alison held several leadership roles in clinical research and development at Radius Health, Synta Pharmaceuticals and at Sanofi in the global oncology division. Prior to entering the biotech industry, she served on faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital where she focused on early phase clinical studies and treating patients with malignancies of the central nervous system. Alison earned both her bachelor’s degree and her medical degree from the University of Chicago. She completed her residency training at the University of Michigan in neurology and her neuro-oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Nancy Lurker: President & Chief Executive Officer Our President, CEO, and a director since September 2016, Ms Lurker has broad-ranging experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a track record of maximizing the potential of new therapies and successfully implementing innovative US and global drug launches. Said Saim, PhD: Chief Technology Officer Dr Saim has more than 25 years of product development experience. Dr Saim has published 22 papers in engineering and science journals, holds 18 patents, and earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas.