Biotech 2050 Podcast

→ WHAT IT COVERS Adial Pharmaceuticals CEO Cary Claiborne explains how AD04, a repurposed low-dose ondansetron, targets a specific genetic biomarker found in roughly 14% of the estimated 30 million Americans with alcohol use disorder. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Genetic targeting via companion diagnostic:** AD04 only works for patients carrying a specific genotype, identified through a cheek swab test administered before prescribing.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Physician-scientist and serial biotech entrepreneur Sheila Gujrathi discusses her career arc from academic medicine through Genentech, BMS, and multiple CEO and board roles, while sharing frameworks from her book The Mirror Effect on leadership development for women in biotech and life sciences. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Career sequencing in biotech:** Spend the first half of a biotech career at large organizations like Genentech or BMS before moving to startups.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Fred Aslan, CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics, explains how allogeneic NK cell therapy addresses the core limitations of autologous CAR-T — cost, scalability, and hospitalization requirements — and why Artiva is targeting rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases with a single scalable platform derived from umbilical cord units. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Allogeneic NK cell manufacturing:** Artiva derives NK cells from umbilical cord units, scaling one unit into thousands of doses.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Michelle Werner, CEO of Alltrna, explains how engineered transfer RNA technology targets nonsense mutations — premature stop codons — across approximately 4,000 rare genetic diseases, affecting roughly 30–35 million people worldwide, with Alltrna's first clinical program entering human trials in 2025 using lipid nanoparticle delivery targeting liver diseases.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Brian Hilberdink, president of Boehringer Ingelheim's U.S. business, outlines the company's commercial strategy across chronic kidney disease, obesity, interstitial lung disease, and oncology, while addressing how private ownership, portfolio diversification, and early AI adoption shape its growth trajectory through 2027. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Private ownership as R&D advantage:** Boehringer reinvests 27.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Johan Luthman, EVP of R&D at Lundbeck, details how he rebuilt the company's neuroscience pipeline from near-zero innovation spend, using a focused biology-first strategy, early proof-of-concept studies, and targeted acquisitions to generate multiple novel mechanism validations in humans over four years. → KEY INSIGHTS - **R&D Productivity Formula:** Luthman applies a framework borrowed from Eli Lilly where productivity equals (number of assets × PTRS × market value) divided by...

→ WHAT IT COVERS Christophe Bourdon, CEO of LEO Pharma, outlines how the 60-year dermatology company is scaling toward $2B revenue through first-in-class biologics, rare skin disease expansion, China licensing deals, and AI-driven patient identification. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Pipeline expansion strategy:** Rather than acquiring new assets immediately, LEO Pharma maximizes existing drugs by running parallel trials across adjacent rare diseases.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Roivant Sciences CEO Matt Gline details the company's transformation following a $5B Pfizer asset sale to Roche, breakthrough Phase 3 dermatomyositis trial results with parvacitinib, pipeline expansion into noninfectious uveitis and Graves' disease, and lessons on capital discipline, indication selection, and building decentralized biotech organizations.

→ WHAT IT COVERS Jay Hartenbach, President & COO of Diakonos Oncology, explains how the company's dual-loading dendritic cell platform produces exponentially stronger anti-tumor immune responses than prior approaches, while detailing capital-efficient clinical trial execution across glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer, and refractory melanoma programs. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Dual-loading mechanism:** Diakonos loads tumor antigens onto both MHC class one and MHC class two simultaneously, mimicking an...

→ WHAT IT COVERS John Lepore, CEO of ProFound Therapeutics and CEO Partner at Flagship Pioneering, explains how his company identifies tens of thousands of proteins beyond the original Human Genome Project's 20,000, using this expanded proteome platform to generate first-in-class drug targets across oncology, immunology, and cardiovascular metabolism, with partnerships signed with Pfizer, GSK, and Novartis.