C-Suite Speaks

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.

Big pharma has faced many evolutions to the pharma playbook of old. New technologies such as wearables introduce behavioral change to patients, while e-commerce giants such as Amazon seek a piece of the Rx action. The health care industry has done a reasonable job of weathering the storm inflicted on its core business model over the years, but it has yet to be a true disruptor. As the world marches on is pharma’s choice to disrupt, or inevitably be disrupted for good?

With the global pandemic leading to a big rise in mental health issues, medtech could have a role to play. In Vivo explores transcranial magnetic stimulation systems that are being used to treat severe anxiety and depression, among other indications. As well as the skyrocketing use of telehealth, apps and light therapy for mental health indications.  

Raquel Deering, one of In Vivo's 2020 Rising Leaders, discusses Regeneron's efforts to develop combination therapies, its collaborations with cancer vaccine companies, and its plans to become a major force in the oncology field.

Theragnostics’ CEO Greg Mullen aims to use his wide-ranging “hands-on” scientific and commercial experience to help clinch a $45m series A financing round that will fund a Phase I/II basket study to develop the biotech’s lead radiotherapeutic PARP inhibitor.

Co-founded by Sebastian Nijman and Thijn Brummelkamp in 2017, Scenic Biotech is a spinout of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oxford University. It was established with a focus on identifying genetic modifiers, or genes that suppress or block the disease-causing effects of a mutated gene in the body. In Vivo spoke with incoming CEO Oscar Izeboud about the company’s next steps, and the potential for genetic modifiers to address unmet needs in the rare disease space, and beyond.

In this latest edition of the Lab Links series on notable figures responsible for major advances in drug discovery, In Vivo talks to Harvard Medical School professor and biologist Timothy Springer on his 50-year record as an academic scientist, business entrepreneur and philanthropist. His latest venture is being co-founder – and principal funder – of the independent non-profit Institute for Protein Innovation, an institution designed to fill a critical niche in open-source biomedical research.

Tim Guilliams, CEO of Healx, talks about the company’s mission of creating from existing drugs new options for rare disease patients. The company is using artificial intelligence to find combination treatments against rare conditions, while working closely with patient groups as key partners in the development process. The goal: faster development timelines and cheaper therapies for patients.

Achilles Therapeutics is betting that its clonal neoantigen-targeting T cell (cNeT) products, combined with an industrial scale advanced manufacturing capability and predictive bioinformatics platform, will have a transformational impact on patients with solid tumors and metastasized cancer.

In 2019, more than 75% of the biological therapies approved by the FDA used technologies developed by GE Healthcare Life Sciences for manufacturing. Following the completion of a $21.9bn acquisition by Danaher, the company has rebranded to Cytiva. In Vivo speaks with CEO Emmanuel Ligner to learn more about his vision for the new company and the impact of COVID-19. 

Know your strengths, surround yourself with experts and ensure your solution “does what it says on the tin.” These are among the guiding principles of Christophe Bancel, co-founder of France’s biopolymer innovator TISSIUM, a health care start-up on the cusp of commercialization.

Angeli Möller, recently spotlighted by In Vivo as a 2020 Rising Leader, has quickly moved up the ranks at Bayer and is now spearheading one of its key initiatives to bring artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies into the pharma business.

Taking over at the Swiss firm as CEO in 2018, Vas Narasimhan set about creating an "inspired, curious and unbossed organization." Two years on, he has put the spotlight on several initiatives that are up and running on a number of fronts to achieve that goal.

Founding CEO of the UK’s Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, Keith Thompson, will retire from the company this year. He looks back on the last eight years of progress for CGT Catapult and the  advanced therapies sector – and provides words of wisdom for the challenges still to come.

It has been a bumpy ride for some of the (still modest) number of European biotechs listed on Nasdaq, for various reasons. Yet most expect the direct-to-Nasdaq trend to continue. Europe’s public markets simply cannot compete.