Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech

Today I’m delighted to welcome Andy Parker, CEO of Step Pharma . With over 25 years of experience across AstraZeneca, Shire, Zealand Pharma, and venture capital, Andy has led Step Pharma since 2019. The company is pioneering a targeted approach to cancer and blood disorders by inhibiting the enzyme CTPS1. Their lead candidate, dencatistat, blocks this pathway that certain cancer cells and activate...

Today I'm sitting down with Randy Teel, Ph. D., President and CEO of Arvinas, a clinical-stage biotech based in New Haven, Connecticut, that is doing something genuinely new in medicine. Arvinas is pioneering a technology called PROTAC protein degradation. It's a platform that doesn't just block disease-causing proteins, but eliminates them entirely using the body's own disposa...

Today we welcome Brandy Wilkinson, CEO of GemPharmatech , and Rikki Feng, the company’s Neuroscience Pipeline Leader.  Our discussion focuses on a persistent challenge in drug development: neurology’s stubbornly high clinical failure rates. GemPharmatech is tackling this head-on with proprietary models for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and blood-brain barrier transport that better mirror human disease...

This week we preview the BIO International Convention, starting next week in San Diego. This is the key partnering event of the year where biotechs connect with pharmaceutical companies and investors in partnering meetings, all to advance and fund innovative therapies. My guest is Werner Lanthaler, Founder and CEO of WLAN Holding. Werner spent 15 years as CEO of Evotec SE, scaling the company from...

Today we’re diving into the world of corticosteroids and hormonal therapies — essential APIs that treat everything from asthma and autoimmune diseases to diabetes and endocrine disorders. These molecules may be decades old, but their manufacturing remains highly complex and critical to patients worldwide. Our guest is Olivier Roux, a Senior Director at Curia. He shares how Curia partners with both...

Welcome to episode 200! Today I’m delighted to welcome back a very special guest: Joachim Eeckhout, the co-founder of Labiotech, co-owner of Knowbio, and founder of The Science Marketer. Joachim tells the Labiotech story, one of vision, persistence, and a deep belief that the European life-sciences sector deserved better storytelling. We go back to the very beginning with someone who was there: th...

Today we welcome Dr. Daniel Vitt, CEO of Immunic Therapeutics .  With World MS Day being tomorrow, the 30th of May, this is the perfect moment to focus on multiple sclerosis — a disease that affects nearly three million people worldwide and still leaves many patients searching for better options. In today’s episode Daniel shares his own journey into biotechnology, walk us through what life with MS...

Today I am welcoming two guests: Quin Wills , CEO of Ochre Bio , a biotech developing RNA therapies for chronic liver disease using AI models, and Stéphane Barges , CEO of Lexogen , an RNA transcriptomics company and NGS service provider. It’s a deep dive into cutting edge transcriptomics, human-first data, and artificial intelligence. 00:55 : The challenges of liver disease 04:44 : How Lexogen su...

Today, we're digging into a topic that's getting a lot more attention lately, how early decisions in cell therapy end up shaping or complicating everything that comes later. Our episode today is Freeze Variability, Not Progress, How to Strengthen Your Cell Therapy Supply Chain from the Start , and we're going to challenge a few long-held beliefs about how starting material should be...

Today, we dive into the future of lab management with Ryan Cawood, CEO and co-founder of Lab Thread . Ryan's journey spans groundbreaking work in virotherapy and gene delivery during his D.Phil at Oxford, to founding OXGENE, a cell and gene therapy innovator acquired by WuXi Advanced Therapies in 2021. We'll explore the frustrations of fragmented lab tools that inspired Lab Thread's...

This week we dive into the Beyond Biotech archive to bring you a discussion with Dr Stanley Qi, the founder of Epicrispr. Epicrispr is an epigenetic editing company, leveraging the power of CRISPR without cutting DNA. The company’s proprietary Gene Expression Modulation System (GEMS) includes the smallest Cas protein known to work in human cells, enabling in vivo or ex vivo delivery via a single v...

Today we’re joined by Patrick Andre, Chief Scientific Officer at Diagonal Therapeutics. A trained vascular biologist, Patrick’s career spans groundbreaking work at Pfizer, Acceleron, Pliant Therapeutics, and earlier companies, where he focused on TGF-β superfamily signaling and receptor pathways that keep blood vessels healthy. Now at Diagonal, he’s leading a bold mission: developing clustering an...

Our guest today is Thierry Laugel, Managing Partner of Kurma & Chairman of Argobio. With a PharmD, PhD in pharmacology, and an INSEAD MBA, Thierry has spent more than two decades bridging cutting-edge science and commercial success—first in pharma R&D, then as co-founder of Kurma Partners, and now leading Argobio’s unique venture-builder model. Since raising €50 million in 2021, Argobio ha...

Today, we're exploring the transformative potential of AI in biopharma—separating hype from reality, and zooming in on the complexities of single-cell omics data. Our guest is Parashar Dhapola, co-founder and CEO of Nygen Analytics , a Lund-based startup spun out from Sweden's vibrant single-cell genomics ecosystem. With a PhD in computational genomics from Lund University, Parashar has...

This week we welcome Magdalena Tyrpien, CEO, Co-Founder and President of Nionyx Bio , just days after the company took first place in the BIO-Europe Spring Startup Spotlight competition in Lisbon. With a background that includes leading Forge Biologics through its $620 million acquisition, Magdalena is now steering Nionyx toward a bold new chapter in gene therapy for kidney disease. In this episod...

Today, we welcome Dr Rosanne Dunn, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of HaemaLogiX , an Australian clinical-stage biotech company that's developing next-generation immunotherapies for multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders. HaemaLogiX is taking a precision approach by targeting novel antigens that are expressed exclusively on malignant plasma cells, sparing healthy ones. Recen...

Today we welcome Koenraad Wiedhaup, Co-Founder and CEO of Leyden Labs , and Clarissa Koch, the company's Chief Scientific Officer. Leyden Labs is pioneering a revolutionary non-vaccine approach to combat respiratory viruses like influenza and coronaviruses. Recently, they published groundbreaking data in Science Translational Medicine , demonstrating that their intranasal antibody spray is sa...

Today, we welcome Janita Good, a Partner at Fieldfisher with nearly two decades of experience advising top organizations in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices. With a D.Phil. in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, Janita brings a unique blend of scientific insight and legal expertise to her work on venture investments, joint ventures, partnerships, and M&A deals. She&a...

Today we’re joined by Sean MacDonald , CEO of Kainova Therapeutics . With more than twenty years of biotech leadership and deep expertise in strategy and development, Sean is guiding the company through an exciting new chapter. We’ll dive into Kainova’s innovative GPCR-modulating platform, its promising pipeline, the science behind reversing tumor immunosuppression and targeting inflammation, and...

Our guest is Sergey Jakimov, the Founding and Managing Partner of LongeVC , a venture capital firm dedicated to backing early-stage biotech and longevity startups. A serial entrepreneur, Sergey has co-founded ventures like Longenesis, a medical tech startup unlocking biomedical data for drug discovery, and the Longevity Science Foundation, a non-profit advancing healthy human lifespan. He’s been n...

Today, we're joined by Professor Matthew Wood, a leading figure in neuroscience and RNA-based therapeutics. He is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, Deputy Head of the Medical Sciences Division, and Director of both the MDUK Oxford Neuromuscular Centre and the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre, a groundbreaking partnership between the University of Oxford and Harringto...

As we mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we welcome Avital Sharir-Ivry, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of ProPhet , an innovative Israeli startup launched in late 2024 from the AION Labs venture studio. With a PhD in computational biology and drug research, Avital brings deep expertise in structural biology, enzyme design, and evolutionary bioinformatics to her role...

Today, we're joined by Thomas Hopkins, Vice President and Head of ExploR&D at Eli Lilly. With a background as a physician-scientist in oncology, Thomas has spent his career bridging bold discovery science with rigorous development, first in academia and clinical practice, then at Lilly since 2015. Lilly ExploR&D represents new thinking in the pharma-biotech collaboration model: a shar...

Today, my guest is Dr. Clare Wareing, Founder and CEO of Cumulus Oncology , who joins us from Edinburgh.  With over 25 years of expertise in oncology drug development, Clare has built a remarkable career translating scientific breakthroughs into life-changing therapies. Cumulus Oncology is curating a risk-adjusted portfolio of preclinical assets focused on high unmet needs in oncology. Their platf...

Today, we're thrilled to have Tim Opler , a leading voice in biotech investment banking. Tim's career spans academia, Credit Suisse, and co-founding Torreya Partners, which Stifel acquired in 2023. As Managing Director in Stifel's Global Healthcare Group, he's advised on over 150 deals totaling more than $100 billion, shaping major M&A, licensing, and financings in life sci...