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Industry Podcast
The Life Science Report
The Back Bay Life Science Report brings you expert insights from our advisors and investment bankers on life science development. Every month, we speak with life sciences executives and developers, scientific investigators, biotech and medtech executives, physicians, and strategists who excel at guiding global life sciences companies and their investors through complex decisions.
Start listening for insights generated from in-depth scientific, strategic, and financial analysis at the intersection of science and business.
Tune in bi-monthly for our latest podcast release.
Latest Podcast Episodes
Gene Editing to Cross-Species Transplantation: The Most Compelling Healthcare Stories of 2022
Podcast experts: Brendan Wang, Christian Thienel and Peter Bak, with special thanks to Micheka Fenelon.
In our first podcast episode of 2023, Bay’s strategic advisors summarize some of the most compelling healthcare development stories from 2022—from CRISPR and gene editing to cross-species organ transplantation and the latest in the evolving regulatory and reimbursement landscape, Back Bay highlights the stories that captivated us and continue to herald progress in health and human care.
Listen to the full episode here:
Preparing BioPharma and Medtech Companies for Public Listing Back Bay Life Science Advisors and Nasdaq Nordic
The Nordic Nasdaq system—specifically the Stockholm markets—recently unveiled access to US biopharma and medtech companies to list on the Stockholm Exchange, either primarily or as a dual listing.
In this episode Jonathan Gertler and Maria Groschopp Dellwik of Nasdaq talk through how this recent policy shift could change the game for Nordic and US companies and their best practices for companies preparing to go public.
The Promising Field of Targeted Protein Degraders (TPDs)
with Dr. Peter Bak and Dr. Mavra Nasir
Back Bay’s 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.
Topics in this podcast include:
An intro into targeted protein degradation (TPDs) and proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs)
Industry advantages of TPDs vs. traditional antibodies
Biopharma and VC's growing interest in molecular glues
Commercial hurdles ahead in this space
How TPD companies can differentiate, from a pipeline and breadth of opportunities to select an indication, communicate to investors and drive value
If you have a question about life sciences development, submit it here. We may feature it on an upcoming episode.
Thanks for joining us! *
Mavra Nasir, PhD is a senior consultant at Back Bay Life Science Advisors where she supports strategic engagements across a range of therapeutic areas including rare diseases, hematology/oncology and metabolic diseases for biopharma and MedTech. Dr. Nasir joined Back Bay after receiving her PhD in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences from Dartmouth College.
Read Dr. Nasir's article "From drug target inhibition to degradation: a TACtical strategy" here.
Developer Questions on Pricing and Market Access
with Pete Bak, Christian Thieniel and Brendan Wang
This is the first episode in our 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 tremendous amount of experience in the life sciences, especially as it relates to scientific, clinical and commercial issues, offer guidance on issues related to pricing and early market access.
Topics include:
For early-stage clients, when is the right time to think about pricing and access, and why it is important to identify market access hurdles early
For later stage clients, how to get more granular on pricing and market access insights (narrowing the price range, broadening the payer sample, etc.)
Which real-life and project examples lend clarity here, including an example from Back Bay’s work in the anti-infectives space. How upfront P&MA research can lead to more confidence and varied project positioning in partnering discussions
Would you like us to include your life sciences development question in an upcoming episode? Please submit it here.
Make sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platforms and follow Back Bay Life Science Advisors on LinkedIn.
Thank you for joining us.
Living Medicines – Current and Future Uses of Car T Cells
with Peter Bak, PhD and Mike Bogetofte, MD, PhD
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 spans basic and clinical immunology, with a particular interest in advanced cellular modalities, such as chimeric antigen or CAR T-cells. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Back Bay’s hometown, and completed his PhD at Oxford University.
Topics in this podcast include:
The current clinical and academic uses of CAR T-cells and where they are headed in the near-term
How cellular therapies factor into a robust and thriving public healthcare-based system
Ongoing questions of pricing and reimbursement
Challenges and approval processes in getting these "living medicines" to people
Hurdles and considerations when building a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) cellular facility
Do you have a question about development in the cell therapy space? Drop Back Bay a line.
Make sure to subscribe to our podcast and follow Back Bay Life Science Advisors on LinkedIn.
The Evolving Regulatory Framework for Novel Medicines in the EU
with Peter Bak and Alexander Natz
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 Science podcast, Pete Bak is joined by Alexander Natz, Secretary-General of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE), Europe’s principal trade body for companies working in the field of pharma, biotech, and medtech. Based in Brussels, EUCOPE provides expertise across a number of strategic issues such as regulatory paths and pricing and market access.
For questions on regulatory and market access, reach out to Back Bay Life Science Advisors and check-in with EUCOPE at www.eucope.org.
Follow EUCOPE on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/eucope and on Twitter: @EUCOPE.
Make sure to subscribe to The Life Science Report podcast and follow Back Bay Life Science Advisors on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you for joining us.
If there's a question or subject you'd like us to cover, submit it here. It may be the topic of one of our upcoming podcasts.
The Commercial Potential of Optogenetic Therapies
with Peter Bak, PhD and Kevin Norman, PhD
Fifteen years ago, scientists discovered optogenetics, a technique of using light to stimulate light-sensitive receptors in order to turn brain cells “on” and “off" at the flip of a switch. Advances in optogenetics have allowed this technology to move from the laboratory to humans, and more recently biopharma companies have been quick to incorporate optogenetic therapies into their ophthalmology portfolios.
In this episode of Back Bay’s Life Science Report, Peter Bak is joined by Kevin Norman to discuss the promise and commercial considerations of optogenetics.
Topics include:
The basic principles of optogenetics and the diseases it may be a treatment for
How Big Pharma, biotech and VC view the promise of optogenetics for the future
Current issues, technical challenges and functional end points for active therapy trials like those with Nanoscope Therapeutics, GenSight Biologics, Allergan, etc.
The state of play for how optogenetics may be useful as a technology beyond the realm of ophthalmology, including cancer
Read Back Bay Life Science Advisors' latest industry article on optogenetics in Cell & Gene here.
Make sure to subscribe to The Life Science Report podcast and follow Back Bay Life Science Advisors on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you for joining us.
If there's a question or subject you'd like us to cover, submit it here. It may be the topic of one of our upcoming podcasts.
The Latest on Antibiotic Development—with Antabio
Antibiotics act as a safety net for all of healthcare. They make medical procedures such as surgeries, childbirth and cancer treatments safer, but what happens when bacteria or other microorganisms become resistant to the drugs we use against them?
Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ Managing Director Peter Bak sits down with Marc Lemonnier, a molecular and cellular microbiologist and CEO of Antabio, a clinical-stage company located in France developing novel antibiotic therapies, for a conversation on the current clinical landscape of novel agents to address antimicrobial resistance and the regional and global initiatives to tackle the issue.
Topics include:
The growing rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Which global organizations are at work on this issue and their list of priority pathogens
How COVID 19 and the pandemic exacerbated the issue of AMR
Push and pull incentives and subscription models for innovative antimicrobials and how they work in various countries around the world
Why global access is a real issue and how to solve the problem
For more, read Back Bay Life Science Advisors' recent take on the role of investments in antimicrobials in STAT here.
Learn more about Antabio, a private biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibacterials targeting drug-resistant pathogens deemed a critical priority by the WHO. www.antabio.com
Best Practices for Successful Sell-Side Licensing, Partnering and M&A
Despite the heavy influx of capital over the past years, medtech and biopharma sell-side assignments can still be ripe with challenges. In this episode of Back Bay’s industry podcast, Stephan Gauldie, PhD, Greg Benning and Jonathan P. Gertler, MD of Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ investment banking team discuss best practices for successful sell-side licensing, partnering, and M&A, including:
Best practices for readying vital aspects of deal preparation
Identifying deal issues, red flags ahead of time
Articulation of the path forward, including indication and proof of concept and telling the story through to market
The importance of choosing the right partner and alignment for stakeholders, management, board, investors, internal champions and others
The most significant mistakes made in competitive intelligence, technology, position, IP regulatory strategies
Networking, contacts and how to know who’s going to be responsible for what and when.
Cell and Gene Therapy Investment Trends
Cell and gene therapies are currently among the hottest investments in the biotech space, both in the public and private markets. In this episode, Back Bay’s Managing Director and host Pete Bak, PhD is joined by Kyle O’Neil and Brendan Wang, who are returning to the podcast after attending the 2021 Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa. Tune in to hear their discussion on emerging investment themes and which ones were key topics of discussion at this year’s conference.
Topics include:
The next generation of gene-editing technology
CRISPR 2.0
Off-target effects
Novel nucleases
PAM sequences
Autologous and Allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy
Ex vivo vs. in vivo approaches
The business model on gene therapies
Figuring out manufacturing capabilities first
How to tap into larger markets
Building businesses around small monogenic diseases
Learn more, read Bay Life Science Advisors' latest white paper on gene therapy innovation here.
Make sure to subscribe to The Life Science Report podcast and follow Back Bay Life Science Advisors on LinkedIn and Twitter.
MedTech Investing with Paul LaViolette, SV Health Investors and Jonathan P. Gertler, BioVentures MedTech Funds
“I have a deep belief that medtech and healthtech are going to carry us forward to markedly improve delivery and quality of healthcare.” - Jonathan P. Gertler, MD
For years, biotech has been the dominant theme in life sciences development, offering a great deal in treatment advances and in terms of investing versatility and returns potential. But with promising system solutions serving broader swaths of patients, medtech is resurging. Medtech investment has grown dramatically over time, with scale and diversification capable of weathering economic storms and fueling expansion in the markets.
Medtech is a significant driver of our healthcare economy, contributing to more meaningful patient care solutions and technology that continue to move care further from the hospital and more toward the home.
In this episode of The Life Science Report, Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ industry podcast, Dr. Jonathan Gertler speaks with Paul LaViolette Managing Partner & COO, SV Health Investors about the varying elements of medtech investments, including structured deals and strategies, the regulatory changes that are driving medtech forward and how more cost-effective care will be a turning point for granting access to more and more patients.
Topics in this podcast include:
The role of investment in medtech and how to match capital to the asset or company
Why “incremental" is a four-letter word in the world of venture
How medtech is a systems solution provider, which differs from biotech as a disease modifier based on increasing patient segmentation
How structured deals, traditionally the territory of biotech, have found their way deeply into medtech M&A and how the public markets are offering alternatives in a more robust way than recent history has shown
The regulatory changes for medtech in Europe and the profound impact this has on how investors and buyers make decisions
Surging Investment in Remote Patient Monitoring
One of the unexpected outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic has been rapid and widespread uptake of remote patient monitoring. Just ahead of the pandemic, investment in patient monitoring was booming—priming the system for quick uptake and innovation. As with vaccines, much groundwork had been done to prepare for dramatic innovation and widespread, rapid patient use, seemingly “overnight.”
In this episode of Back Bay Life Science Advisors’ industry podcast, Drs. Jonathan Gertler and Corinne Nawn discuss the clinical considerations of remote patient monitoring, including advances in sensing platforms, wearables, and the current investment landscape driving the innovations that allow patients and physicians to interact meaningfully and safely from different locations.
Topics in this podcast include:
Investment in digital healthcare companies
The spectrum of financings, acquisitions, IPOs, and SPACs in this space
New ways of patient monitoring through wearable tech
Understanding the details of sensing and capturing
Coordinating care based on analytics
Company partnerships and/or acquisitions
New Drug Pricing and Market Access
In this episode of our life science industry podcast, Dr. Peter Bak sits down with Brendan Wang and Christian Thienel of Back Bay Life Science Advisors to discuss how pharmaceutical companies price their drugs. They cover the ins and outs of health economics, how payers make sense of a high price, and ways this varies around the globe.
With a focus on Biogen’s recent Aduhelm approval, the discussion includes how Biogen likely went about price setting and how this aligns with ICER’s initial evaluation and analysis.
Topics in this podcast include:
Relevant pricing analogs
Net level pricing decisions
Demand and utilization of products affecting pricing
Patient population levels
ICER’s role in drug pricing
The price point of a drug, given its controversial approval
Read Back Bay’s perspective on early-stage market access and price setting in STAT News, here.
The Question of Investment in Antimicrobials
Drs. Peter Bak and Jonathan Gertler discuss the current landscape of anti-infectives, antimicrobials & antifungals, including:
How commercial dynamics drive clinical unmet need
The role the pandemic played on development & investments
The deployment of cell therapies for viral diseases
Foundation support for anti-infectives
“Push incentives” to usher therapies into commercial stages
Read Dr. Peter Bak's article in STAT News, “Investment in antimicrobials was up in 2020, but much work remains.”
Life Science SPACs, A Forward Look at this Evolving Asset Class
Ahead of our financing forum on June 17th with Endpoints News, Back Bay's investment banking leads discuss the current landscape of life science SPACS. The feeling surrounding healthcare SPACs right now is almost giddy. With enormous capital flowing into the biotech sector, SPACs have emerged as one of the hottest financing options. Last year, the market saw $80B in SPAC issuance, which 2021 will far exceed. We are still at the beginning of this market shift, but is the SPAC vehicle the right vehicle to fund the strategy of science? Topics include:
Traditional IPO markets vs. the hot market of SPACs
How COVID affected the SPAC landscape
The delicate balance of near-term data, valuations & due diligence
Cautions, concerns & the importance of the use of proceeds
Regulators & litigation risks in biotech
The potential of U.S. SPAC markets for European companies.
The Next Innovations in Gene Therapies: What’s to Come as The Industry Moves Forward
Dr. Peter Bak talks to Brendan Wang and Kyle O’Neil of Back Bay Life Science Advisors about the field of gene therapies and insights from their recently authored piece in Cell & Gene, “The Next Decade In Gene Therapy Innovation — 6 Critical Questions (And Answers),” and their newly released white paper, “The Next Decade of Gene Therapy Innovation.”
Gene therapy has been talked about for many years, and it’s only in the past few years that we have started to see some initial products make it to market. When many people think about gene therapies, they think they will be a curative treatment, but commercial positioning, pricing and the business model of gene therapies are still in flux.
Topics in this podcast include:
The scientific and commercial challenges of gene therapies
How the space is evolving from a commercial standpoint
The complicated issue of delivery
The investment of gene therapy & the outcome-based gene therapy business models
Risk-sharing agreements, payment methodologies & pricing models.
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PODCAST HOSTS
Peter Bak, PhD
Managing Director
Dr. Bak has more than a decade of experience in cell cellular, molecular and biochemical and approaches. His development expertise spans immunology and infection through oncology, and more. He guides international biopharma and medtech companies on the development and in bringing the next generation of therapies to people around the world. Read more and connect with Dr. Bak, here.
Jonathan P. Gertler, MD
Managing Partner, CEO
Dr. Gertler is a former vascular surgeon and has more than 30 years of clinical and scientific experience, with extensive advisory and investment work with biotech, medtech, diagnostic, medical device and healthcare IT companies. He is a frequent speaker and writer on strategic issues related to life sciences development in the US and global life sciences realm. Read more and connect with Dr. Gertler, here.