Ep. 347 - Speeding China's Innovation. Plus: Neuro Catalysts and Newcos

New rules in China are adding rigor while fueling the country's gene and cell therapy engine. We'll have a look at the new rules which take effect in May on this week's BioCentury This Week podcast. Plus, twenty twenty six catalysts for the biotech industry this week. BioCentury kicks off its annual look at the milestones that will drive biotech in the year ahead. We'll be starting with neuro. Plus, a couple of gems from our emerging company profile series. We'll take a look at Elkadonia, and Argo Bio founded French Bio tech, which is investigating a potentially first in class intracellular target to treat neuropsychiatric disorders starting with treatment resistant depression. And Bexorg, a Yale spin out that is developing a platform to test drugs in donated whole human brains that remain molecularly active. It's an approach that the company believes could transform CNS drug discovery. I'm Jeff Cranmer, host of the BioCentury This Week podcast. And joining me today are my colleagues. Steve Austin, Washington editor. Selena Koch, executive editor. And Danielle Golovin, senior biopharma analyst. Okay. Well, we've been telling you recently about our East West Summit, which will be in March in Seoul, Korea. Returning for its twenty sixth year in May is Bioequity Europe. This is BioCentury's flagship conference, sells out every year. So now is your chance to take advantage of early bird rates, which end on Friday. Bioequity Europe is where CEOs and investors gather to network, partner, and debate critical issues facing the biotech industry. We also have a podcast fun run, which, our colleague Josh Berlin is always bugging. I don't know if Josh has ever done the fun run and nor do I think running is very fun. But, nonetheless And is is the podcast interviewing people while they're running? You know, we'd have to get probably Steven Hansen to host that episode because I do not think I can keep up with some of, the folks in industry who are always out cycling and and running. My my speed's more, elbow on the bar and asking people about the cool things they're doing with their technologies. I don't know, Steve. Would you be up for hosting that one? If I can ride a bike, yeah. I'll ride a bike alongside them jogging and and running. Yeah. All joking aside, take BioCentury with you on the go. Listen to the podcast while you're out for a run, a ride, or a walk in the hills, which is my preferred type of exercise. And look out for sign ups for the BioSentry fun runs at BioEquity Europe. Alright, Steve. You've been talking to a few folks about these new rules that China is introducing around gene and cell therapy investigator initiated trials, I believe. What did you learn? Here's the most important part of it. For the first time, Chinese medical centers are gonna be allowed to charge for investigational therapies, cell and gene therapies, that have been tested in an …