The BioCentury Show

Ignorance about the path from scientific discovery to approved drugs, high out-of-pocket costs, and a byzantine healthcare system that obscures net prices while inflating list prices have fueled policies that threaten biomedical progress, John O’Brien, CEO of think tank National Pharmaceutical Council, told BioCentury.
In an interview with The BioCentury Show's Steve Usdin, O’Brien, who led efforts to reduce drug prices as an HHS official during the Trump administration, said that whoever wins the White House in November will step into a political atmosphere that is hostile to biopharma companies. While it is difficult to predict what drug pricing policies Trump would pursue if he is re-elected, “Beltway chatter” suggests he would undercut the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation program and attempt to revive international reference pricing proposals, O’Brien said.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/652931
#biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #politics #policy #law #IRA #healthcare
00:00 - Intro
01:15 - Drug Pricing Policy Overview
09:30 - Inflation Reduction Act
16:20 - A Byzantine Healthcare System

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In a wide-ranging conversation with BioCentury, Bob Nelsen, co-founder and managing director of Arch Venture Partners, said he is excited by the potential for AI to “create a language of biology,” is cautious about investing in China given increasing geopolitical tensions, and is convinced that the U.S. healthcare system could do a far better job of delivering on the promise of rapidly progressing science.
Nelsen, who has helped finance and create more than 150 companies, including 47 that have reached valuations exceeding $1 billion, discussed his conviction that focusing on creating transformational medicines, rather than looking for short-term gains, is a key to success in the life sciences.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/651502
#biotech #pharma #biopharma #TheBioCenturyShow
00:00 - Intro
02:00 - The Promise of AI
08:37 - The Inflation Reduction Act
15:50 - China
26:04 - Building Companies Around Big challenges

Vertex’s approach to research, defined over a decade ago to beat the dismal odds of success in biotech, remains core to its strategy, even as the industry evolves and technologies expand. While that strategy, which EVP and CSO David Altshuler calls “serial innovation,” has seen the company launch eight drugs since 2011 and jump market cap tiers on the success of its cystic fibrosis portfolio, it’s now being tested in other areas as Vertex expands to pain, renal disease, Type I diabetes, and more. In conversation with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCentury Show, Altshuler discussed the rising interest in causal biology and the role of AI, noting that the fundamentals of picking targets and programs have not changed.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/655408
#biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience
#RandD #DrugDevelopment #AI
00:00 - Introduction
02:12 - Causal Biology
08:48 - AI in R&D, at Vertex
16:35 - Academia-Industry Interface
22:00 - Cell Therapy for Diabetes
25:35 - Gene Therapy for DMD

Specialist public investors are doing their best to hold up the sector, but biotech still has to wash out many of the lower quality companies that were funded during the boom and ended up driving the generalists away, said MPM Bioimpact's Chris Bardon on The BioCentury Show. Bardon said the market hasn’t yet found the footing that will see an opening of the IPO window and a swing of positive sentiment. But although markets aren’t yet out of the woods, she said M&A will remain robust for years, fueled by obesity drug revenues.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/654649
#biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #financing #investing
00:00 - Introduction
01:30 - Market Sentiment
06:19 - IPO Window
12:04 - M&A Outlook
19:51 - The Obesity Landscape

Pediatric cancer drug development is difficult: it requires high levels of safety, involves parents as well as the patients, and has small populations that can make it difficult to achieve the revenues that reward the investment. Squaring that circle, according to Day One Biopharmaceuticals CEO Jeremy Bender, is not impossible, but takes a dedicated strategy that considers both pediatric and adult development paths from the get-go, and pursues them with equal intensity. In conversation with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCentury Show, Bender discussed the rapid rise of Day One, and how it is building a pipeline and evolving a strategy that allows it to keep pediatric drug development central to its philosophy.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/652807
#RandD #DrugDevelopment #pediatriccancer #biopharma #pharma #biotech #lifescience
00:00 - Intro
02:25 - Origins & What’s Next
07:57 - Commercialization & Capital
15:28 - Precision Pediatric Strategy
21:00 - First v. Best, ADCs
30:00 - Life as a CEO