C-Suite Speaks

Clive Dix was awarded Scrip’s Lifetime Achievement honor jointly with his long-term colleague and friend Dame Kate Bingham in December 2021. With more than 30 years’ experience in pharma and biotech, Dix has seen the industry evolve and take on many challenges. He spoke to In Vivo about his career journey, the future of biotech and his expectations for 2022 – another year under the cloud of COVID-19.

The medtech industry’s successful response to the COVID-19 challenge has in some ways made the pre-pandemic years feel like a lifetime ago, in terms of service delivery. That was the consensus at a high-level Medtech Conference panel chaired by LEK consultancy group.

Sanofi’s general medicines business will embrace an omnichannel commercial model in 2022 to reduce inefficiencies and stabilize topline growth. Virtual sales reps are on the rise after a tough couple of years managing product promotion and launches online only. 

Concern looms in many countries as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise due to the delta variant. Vaccines are having a positive effect, but what is the outlook for those still vulnerable to the virus after inoculation? Not everyone will respond to vaccinations in the same way.

UK-based Immodulon Therapeutics is developing novel immunomodulators in the form of heat-killed bacteria, being trialed in combination with other cancer treatments such as checkpoint inhibitors. The biotech is initially looking at underserved areas, including pancreatic cancer.

We are at a pivotal point in the reassessment of our approach to innovation, with the value of ‘design thinking’ and an ‘iterative innovation approach’ becoming the most promising solutions to solving the scientific and biological challenges of the future.

Obtaining useful biological information from the enormous amount of health data available could reduce attrition rates, accelerate development timelines and optimize trial design.

Italy’s Enthera Pharmaceuticals is targeting a novel stem cell apoptosis pathway involved in several autoimmune diseases, with the aim of restoring cell and organ functions to their original state. The biotech recently closed a €35m series A financing round, the largest the country has seen to date.

CEO Umang Vohra outlines where Cipla is heading in its priority areas of lung route therapies and antimicrobial resistance. He also weighs in on the simmering issue of intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 vaccines.

Building a robotics infrastructure "is the only way to make sure we generate data of sufficient quality at the speed and scale required, and now everybody in the pharma industry is very excited about the idea of end-to-end automation." So says Martin-Immanuel Bittner, CEO of Arctoris.

Sweden-based Elicera Therapeutics is developing next-generation oncolytic viruses and “fourth-generation” CAR-T cells. CEO Jamal El-Mosleh sat down with In Vivo ahead of the company’s IPO.

Following early investor conversations, Laevoroc Oncology has split its leading products into three independent subsidiaries to off-set risk and provide greater choice to future partners. While there is no underlying platform technology, CEO Thomas Mehrling believes the subsidiaries all include potential “game-changing medicines.”

California-based Bioniz’s lead candidate for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma has been granted orphan drug designation and expects to begin Phase III trials in the second half of 2021. CEO Nazli Azimi explains the science, which originated from her research in academia, and talks about her entrepreneurial journey.

Kate Broderick, SVP of research and development at INOVIO and one of In Vivo’s 2021 rising leaders, is hopeful that greater collaboration will be the lasting effect of COVID-19.

As part of In Vivo’s Rising Leaders series, Versameb CEO Klaas Zuideveld discusses the next-generation RNA company’s technology and target indications. He also shares more about his career journey, lessons learned, and gives insight into the contrasting business cultures within big pharma and biotech.

Sarah Howell, one of In Vivo’s 2021 Rising Leaders, was appointed CEO of Arecor in 2015 and has led the company’s transformation into a successful clinical-stage biotechnology company. In an exclusive interview, Howell described Arecor as focused on “affordable innovation,” particularly in disease areas with large and growing patient populations, such as diabetes.