C-Suite Speaks

After manufacturing issues disrupted a Phase III study for its lead pipeline candidate, Pharnext believes it is back on track with new management, a fresh clinical trial and strong guidance from regulators. New CEO David Horn Solomon has blockbuster expectations for the company’s rare disease drug. 

The annual J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference has come to a close. In Vivo has summarized some of the key themes to appear from 2021’s virtual meeting of industry leaders, investors and technology creators.

New drug development is an increasingly communal enterprise. In Vivo examines how one major US academic institution – the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) – is expanding its range of research contacts to open new areas of therapy and shorten the transition from bench to the bedside.  Its commercial impact is considerable: over the past two decades, private-sector VC’s have invested more than $2bn in UCLA-backed innovations, with 26 start-ups launched through the university in 2019 alone. Amir Naiberg, UCLA’s point man on technology transfer, explains the factors that have made the university a successful advocate for partnerships that produce results for patients.

Becoming a first-time CEO of a biotech company in 2020 meant dealing with unexpected challenges without any instruction book to follow. Santhera Pharmaceuticals’ Dario Eklund not only had COVID-19 upheaval to manage, but also a late-stage trial failure, a virtual financing and a new plan for the company to sell to stakeholders.

Money in the bank, biotech legacies onboard, a fresh partnership, an emerging internal cell therapy pipeline and a grand vision for the broad-scale application of its technology – has Mogrify got it all? The biotech’s chief business officer, Karin Schmitt, talks to In Vivo about the group’s near- and long-term goals.

A singular focus on defeating COVID-19 will likely dominate the biopharma agenda at the beginning of 2021 and will determine how quickly the industry, and world, can bounce back to something like normalcy. New digital capabilities and learnings will continue to emerge as the pandemic ebbs, and strong industry balance sheets will keep the deal volume moving, according to experts and executives.

A change in direction for the French firm means a new approach to R&D. Sanofi’s global head of development and chief medical officer Dietmar Berger talked to In Vivo about what was needed to get the company’s R&D machine back on track. 

In Vivo discusses dimensions around pharma CEO pay in India and whether it should be part of cost management efforts amid the pandemic.

Five years on from the first US biosimilar approval, the country’s biosimilars market is starting to fulfil its potential, in part driven by a recent oncology “revolution” according to Sandoz’ Sheila Frame.

Diversity in all forms is critical to innovation in health care, says AstraZeneca’s chief medical officer, Ann Taylor. In an exclusive interview, she talks about the company’s work in mentoring and education, and why tackling issues around diversity and inclusion must be driven by the C-suite alongside community initiatives. 

In this installment of VC Playbook, profiling venture capital strategies in biopharma and medtech, In Vivo talks to Sofinnova Partners' Graziano Seghezzi about market access trends, Italy’s growing biotech offering and the perils of “health nationalism” to business partnering in the aftermath of COVID-19.

The role of biopharma start-ups in bringing innovative therapies to the market has grown enormously. These waves of new specialist companies often have the most innovative approaches to targeting a disease, and big pharma has become increasingly reliant on their fresh ideas to power pipelines. 

A selection of articles you might have missed from September 2020, including exclusive interviews with industry leaders and a review of value-based contract approaches in the US.

In the latest instalment of VC Playbook, In Vivo gets to know Arix Bioscience, a relatively young venture capital firm that went public in 2016. Arix has “has many similarities yet some key differences from a typical venture capital firm,” says the management team.

Corin has transformed from a niche UK hip resurfacing company into an innovative global player in orthopedics with a portfolio that includes robotics. UK branch managing director Paul Gibbons explained the group’s approach to business during COVID-19 and its culture of innovation.

Rabia Khan, managing director of discovery sciences at Sensyne Health, talks to In Vivo about pairing biology with technology in the most effective way, managing COVID-19 challenges and what the future leaders of biopharma might look like.