Back Bay Life Science Report

Examining the dynamic progress in targeted oncology, the episode delves into the shift from single-mutation therapies to broad pathway targeting, highlighting advances in EGFR, KRAS, and the MAPK axis. Recorded prior to the recent release of Revolution Medicine’s impressive Phase 3 data for daraxonrasib in pancreatic cancer, Mavra Nasir interviews Peter Bak for an in-depth exploration of the comme...

As ovarian cancer research enters a pivotal new era, Back Bay Life Science Advisors' Dr. Pete Bak is joined by Director Mavra Nasir and Consultant Trent Gordon for a deep dive into one of oncology's most active and rapidly evolving therapeutic landscapes. Despite ranking as one of the top causes of cancer death among women worldwide—with a five-year survival rate still hovering around 50%—ovarian...

As the life sciences industry turns the page to 2026, Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ Dr. Pete Bak and Dr. Mavra Nasir take a detailed look back at FDA drug approvals in 2025 , a year marked by regulatory turbulence, shifting policy signals, and several category-defining product launches. Despite a dip in the total number of approvals compared to prior years, 2025 delivered meaningful innovation a...

In this DNB//Back Bay Healthcare Capital Markets podcast episode, Jim Cirenza, Head of Fixed Income and Equities at DNB, Kristoffer Braaten, Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets at DNB, and Vasilios Kofitsas, Partner and Managing Director of Investment Banking at Back Bay Life Science Advisors, review the performance of the healthcare markets in 2024, offering insights into what 2025 could...

The topic of bispecific antibodies has been an area of interest in the pharma space for a long time now. The recent news of the notable late-stage data from Akeso and Summit’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab to treat non-small cell lung cancer that has captured the industry writ large encouraged us to revisit the topic.   To date, there have been ten bispecific antibody approvals in onco...

In this DNB//Back Bay Healthcare Capital Markets Episode, Vasilios Kofitsas, Partner and Managing Director at Back Bay Life Science Advisors speaks with Jim Cirenza and Kristoffer Braaten of DNB Bank in New York. They focus on key drivers affecting markets this year and discuss the recent news of the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates by 50-basis points.  Topics in the podcast include:  After tw...

After a summer away from podcasting, Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ Dr. Pete Bak and Christian Thienel are back on the mic to discuss current market dynamics in liver disease with a focus on one of the most closely watched space in hepatology, MASH.  The big news includes a rebrand from NASH (non-alcohol related steatohepatitis) to MASH (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis), the FDA...

In this DNB//Back Bay Healthcare Capital Markets podcast episode, learn about the key considerations, mechanics and timelines of going public on a US exchange.    Topics in this podcast include:    An overview of the decision-making process through execution for US-based and ex-US healthcare companies thinking about listing in the US Core considerations after deciding to pursue a US listing and ho...

Guests: Pete Bak and Christian Thienel   Length: 27 minutes   In this episode of The Life Science Report, Dr. Pete Bak and Back Bay Director, Christian Thienel catch up on the area attracting the most industry interest over the past couple of years: the anti-obesity space.   From big players looking to capitalize on the renewed interest in the obesity space to the staggering success of Novo Nordis...

Welcome to another episode with the DNB//Back Bay Partnership for Healthcare. In this episode Jonathan Gertler, Back Bay CEO and Managing Partner, is once again joined by James Cirenza, Head of Fixed Income and Equities at DNB, Kristoffer Braaten, Director of US Equity Capital Markets at DNB, and Vasilios Kofitsas, Managing Director of Investment Banking at Back Bay Life Science Advisors, to talk...

Guests: Pete Bak and Christian Thienel   Length: 37 minutes   With the advent of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, we saw a tremendous amount of interest in not only COVID vaccines, but other companies riding the tailwind and developing vaccine therapies that span across viral illness, maternal infections and bacterial infections.   In this episode resident immunologist Dr. Pete Bak and Christian Thienel...

A Podcast Discussion on the Trends and Investment Activity in Radiopharmaceuticals and Psychedelics Guests: Pete Bak and Christian Thienel Length: 25 minutes Here at Back Bay we’ve seen a number of notable trends in the radiopharmaceutical and psychedelic spaces playing out over the past couple of years. Increasingly, investors have been asking our opinions and perspectives on these topics. Our te...

As we move into 2024, Back Bay’s strategic advisors summarize key product approvals from three classes and indications over this past year, including the December CRISPR and Vertex approval of Exa-cel, Biogen and Sage’s August approval of an oral treatment for women with postpartum depression and Genmab and Roche’s May approval in oncology.     In this episode:   CRISPR and Vertex’s approval of Ex...

In our latest podcast, Back Bay Life Science Advisors focused on the chronic and rare disease development of kidney disease. Recently, there have been some changes in treatment, some recent commercial launches and certainly some interest from pharma consolidators, as M&A activity picks up in this area.   In this next installment of The Life Science Report, Dr. Pete Bak and Christian Thienel of...

With the DNB//Back Bay Partnership for Healthcare In the current markets, Healthcare continues to rally as the second-largest industry behind technology in the stock market, and in the US markets there’s been roughly $2.5B raised from an IPO standpoint YTD. In Europe, the markets have been more challenging, with IPOs for five companies going public this year, including Schott Pharma, Germany’s lar...

A conversation on the rising trends in the cardiology space Cardiology has historically been a cornerstone of large pharmaceutical portfolios. The late 2000s and 2010s saw many pharmaceutical companies and investors abandon or severely deprioritize cardiology research and development in favor of oncology, immunology, and neurology. During this episode of The Life Science Report, Dr. Pete Bak and C...

In this episode, Dr. Peter Bak is joined by Trent Gordon and Dr. Mavra Nasir as they discuss their Bioprocess Online article published earlier this year, “The Transactional Landscape of ADCs: A Payday for Payloads.” This conversation explores the dynamics and data within the emerging ADC field, including: Background information on the class of therapeutics known as ADCs, which have been on the mar...

The world of health tech has changed dramatically since decades ago when physicians had to endure 11 keystrokes to prescribe a single aspirin. These days, AI-based radiology and AI-based pathology are transforming patient lives through machine learning and data analytics, in some cases offering early disease warning systems and improving quality of care while reducing healthcare costs.     In this...

For biopharma and medtech companies developing new treatments, capital for advancement and growth is invariably dependent on strategic preparation, differentiation, and persistence. Good preparation can mean funding or famine in a retracted market—and ultimately can impact the trajectory of a company and whether treatment reaches people in the clinical setting.   In a down market, there are creati...

In our first podcast episode of 2023, Back Bay’s strategic advisors summarize some of the most compelling healthcare development stories from 2022. From CRISPR and gene editing advancement to cross-species organ transplantation and the latest in the evolving regulatory and reimbursement landscape,  these stories captivated us and continue to herald progress in health and human care.  Podcast exper...

For biopharma and medtech companies, the decision to go public is predicated on many business decisions—what kind of capital can be raised? Is our investor base strong and interested? Is now the right time? The Nordic Markets offer some distinct advantages at the earlier stage, and also offer new possibilities for US companies to list abroad. And although the specific logistical and mechanical asp...

with Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ Dr. Peter Bak and Dr. Mavra Nasir Dr. Mavra Nasir recently published a thought piece in Biopharma Dealmakers outlining the current state of play in the promising field of protein degradation. In this episode, Dr. Nasir sits down with Peter Bak to discuss the recent surge of venture funding and partnerships surrounding TPDs. Read Dr. Nasir's article "From drug t...

This is the first episode in our podcast series of Q&As on biopharma and medtech development—directly from active developers. Our podcast listeners, including Back Bay clients, have submitted timely and relevant questions about life science development and the daily challenges they face. Christian Thieniel and Brendan Wang, two senior members of the Back Bay Life Science Advisors team with a t...

In this episode of Back Bay’s industry podcast, The Life Science Report, Dr. Peter Bak is joined by Mike Bogetofte Barnkob, a doctor with the Department of Clinical Immunology at Odense University Hospital in Denmark and a research fellow at the University of Southern Denmark, to discuss current perspectives—clinical, scientific and manufacturing—on the cell therapy space.  Dr. Barnkob’s expertise...

Biopharma companies looking to establish a footprint in Europe face country-specific decision-making processes. The health technology assessments (HTAs) in France and Germany, for example, look very different. Does this regional level of thinking make it easier or potentially more difficult to get medicines to market and into the hands of patients who need them? In this episode of Back Bay’s Life...