

Business Of Biotech
Ben Comer
The Business of Biotech is the pod dedicated to leaders of emerging biopharma firms. SUBSCRIBE to our new newsletter at www.bioprocessonline.com/bob. We bring you insight into organizational, finance and funding, HR, clinical, manufacturing, regulatory, and commercial challenges you’ll face as you navigate your company from an idea to success in the clinic and beyond. Each episode features guest commentary and best practices from accomplished founders and biopharma industry luminaries. The Business of Biotech is produced by Life Science Connect.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 11, 2022 • 47min
Commensal Viral Vectors with Ring Therapeutics' Tuyen Ong, M.D.
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. When Tuyen Ong was a child, he and his family escaped Vietnam by boat in the dead of the night, bound for an Indonesian refugee camp. They spent a year in that camp before emigrating to the U.K., where Ong’s underprivileged adolescence found him growing up in the projects of London. Against the odds, Ong worked his way to UCL for an education that culminated with an M.D. Today, he’s CEO of Ring Therapeutics, a promising emerging biotech backed by Flagship Pioneering, the kingmaker behind the rise of Moderna. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Ong shares on his challenging formative years, the unspoken love between a father and son, facing down racism as a poor Chinese kid in Vietnam and London, and how those experiences shape his leadership at Ring. Oh, and we talk about some really great science, too.Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Apr 4, 2022 • 39min
Antibodies For Severe Allergies With IgGenix's Jessica Grossman, M.D.
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In this wide-ranging discussion, IgGenix CEO Jessica Grossman, M.D. discusses the application of and market opportunity for antibody therapy for severe allergies, the gender gap in the biopharma c-suite, why women work harder than men, what it means to be a female biopharma leader, and IgGenix's approach at isolating and re-engineering allergen-specific IgE antibodies into IgG antibodies designed to alleviate — and possibly prevent — allergic cascade.Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Mar 28, 2022 • 56min
Gene Therapies For Ocular Disease With Sparing Vision's Stéphane Boissel
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Since assuming the President and CEO role at Sparingvision in August, 2020, Stéphane Boissel has been making big moves in the arenas of talent acquisition and IP expansion. Those efforts are securing the company's development of a number of genomic medicines to address inherited retinal disease. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Boissel shares the company's foundation story and the role venture philanthropy played in it, his strategy for attracting and retaining big-league talent, and the why behind his vigorous allegiance to internal development. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Mar 21, 2022 • 50min
Biotech M&A Trends With Allan Shaw
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Allan Shaw waxes on his expectations for mergers, acquisitions, and collaborative partnership opportunities for new and emerging biotechs in 2022 and beyond. We tackle questions biotech leaders should be asking about intentionality, what's attractive to potential suitors, and why startups that aren't prepared to take a candidate to the finish line have already conceded a major factor in partnership or buyout negotiations. Don't miss Shaw's advice for startup success in a suddenly tumultuous market. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Mar 14, 2022 • 50min
Lipid Nanoparticle Gene Coding With SalioGen Therapeutics' Ray Tabibiazar, M.D.
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. This episode of the Business of Biotech is fire. In fact, it's an interview with SalioGen Therapeutics Chairman and CEO Ray Tabibiazar, M.D., whose last name literally translates to "Dr. Fire." Learn how he got that name, what's shaped his technology-agnostic philosophy on therapeutic development, the advantages of a genome engineering technology that leverages proprietary mammal-derived enzymes, rather than viruses, and how SalioGen is possibly carrying forth a pipeline that's 15 candidates deep and addressing eye, liver, heart, lung, bone marrow, and kidney diseases. Learn more about gene therapy validation strategies at bioprocessonline.com.Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Mar 7, 2022 • 56min
CAR T-cells For Ovarian Cancer with Anixa Biosciences' Amit Kumar, Ph.D.
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. While success has been seen in animal models, solid tumors have proved a vexing challenge for CAR T-cell therapies. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we're joined by Anixa Biosciences Chairman, President, & CEO Amit Kumar, Ph.D. Dr. Kumar shares on the company's progress with a CAR T-cell therapy that aims to attack both tumor cells and the tumor vasculature, in hopes that it might be the first to destroy solid ovarian cancers. Discover more on recent developments in autologous and allogeneic CAR T-cell therapies in this column from Mustang Bio at BioProcessOnline.com. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Feb 28, 2022 • 50min
AI-Driven Biologics With Fountain Therapeutics' William Greene, M.D
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. With its hypothesis-free, target-free, AI-driven drug discovery platform, Fountain Therapeutics is turning the traditional drug discovery pathway on its ear to address a variety of age-related disease. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Fountain CEO William Greene, M.D. joins us to discuss the approach, its rationale, and how the company is applying substantial support from the likes of Eli Lilly, Alexandria Venture Investments, R42 Group, Khosla Ventures, and Nan Fung Life Sciences.Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Feb 21, 2022 • 42min
Regulatory Harmonization With Aurion Biotech's Dr. Daniela Drago
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. If you're taking a candidate into clinical trials that will be monitored by multiple international regulatory bodies, this episode is an absolute must-listen. Dr. Daniela Drago , Chief Regulatory Officer at Aurion Biotech, shares her encyclopedic knowledge of the dynamic regulatory harmonization landscape. Along the way, she offers concrete advice on creating multijurisdictional regulatory efficiencies that will smooth your journey through the clinic and beyond. Don't miss this one. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Feb 14, 2022 • 51min
Plant-Based Biologics With iBio's Randy Maddux
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. iBio COO Randy Maddux walks us through the Bryan, Texas-based biopharma's attempt to turn the CHO cell biologic development paradigm on its ear with hydroponically-grown N. benthamiana. His company's FastPharming approach to protein production, he says, could be modularized to speed cycle times and dramatically reduce upstream costs at scales large and small. For its part, iBio is proving out the approach on a host of therapeutic and vaccine candidates for oncological, infectious, and fibrotic diseases.Learn more about iBio's COVID-19 vaccine candidate from CEO Tom Isett and Head of Vaccine Development Melissa Berquist, Ph.D. in this feature story at bioprocessonline.com.Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Feb 7, 2022 • 38min
NK Cell Therapy Accessibility With Shoreline Biosciences' Dr. Kleanthis Xanthopoulos
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Shoreline Biosciences CEO Kleanthis Xanthopoulos, Ph.D. joins the Business of Biotech to share the company's strategy for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of off-the-shelf NK (natural killer) cell therapy. On this episode, Dr. Xanthopoulos shares why the cell and gene immunotherapeutic market has underperformed to date, why he believes autologous is not the long-term path forward, and the safety and accessibility advantages he sees in his allogeneic-based, pluripotent stem cell approach. Visit www.bioprocessonline.com to learn how another emerging biopharma is leveraging allogeneic NK cells in oncology. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.comFind Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/


