Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech

Welcome to a special three-part series called 'The Metabolic Moment'.

In just a few years, GLP-1 drugs have become a phenomenon. They’ve transformed how we treat diabetes and obesity, created one of the biggest markets in pharma, and sparked a cultural conversation that reaches far beyond the clinic. Now that market is shifting. Cheaper alternatives are coming, new mechanisms are entering trials, and some companies are aiming for something closer to a cure.

So what happens next for patients, for the companies leading the field, and for the startups hoping to overtake them? Across three conversations, we’ll follow the money, the science, and the people behind this metabolic moment.

In part three of our series and ahead of Diabetes Awareness Month, I spoke with Ryan Confer, President and CEO of Genprex, about the company’s move from cancer into diabetes, the realities of making gene therapies at scale, and where a potential one-time treatment could fit alongside GLP-1s.

• 02:21 Meet Ryan Confer and Genprex
• 09:49 What gene therapy can offer patients that GLP-1s cannot
• 12:36 How GPX-002 works and the type 2 diabetes data presented at ASGCT
• 17:22 Working with a CDMO to manufacture an AAV gene therapy at scale
• 20:07 Standing out from GLP-1s and stem cell approaches in diabetes
• 27:59 Diabetes Awareness Month and the prospect of a functional cure

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• The Metabolic Moment: 3 big bets to watch in metabolic disease
• Beyond GLP-1s: is there a new wave of metabolic disease treatments?
• The future of diabetes treatment: Is a cure possible?

Welcome to a special three-part series called 'The Metabolic Moment'.

In just a few years, GLP-1 drugs have become a phenomenon. They’ve transformed how we treat diabetes and obesity, created one of the biggest markets in pharma, and sparked a cultural conversation that reaches far beyond the clinic. Now that market is shifting. Cheaper alternatives are coming, new mechanisms are entering trials, and some companies are aiming for something closer to a cure.

So what happens next for patients, for the companies leading the field, and for the startups hoping to overtake them? Across three conversations, we’ll follow the money, the science, and the people behind this metabolic moment.

In part two of our series,  I’m joined by Paul Little, CEO of Atrogi. We talk about what GLP-1s leave unsolved, the science behind ATR-258, and how a small company competes in a market led by giants.

• 02:24 Meet Paul Little
• 05:08 What GLP-1s leave unsolved, from muscle loss to weight rebound
• 10:29 How ATR-258 tunes beta-2 signalling to mimic exercise
• 16:11 Avoiding the cardiovascular side effects of older beta-2 agonists
• 19:03 What the new muscle power and body composition data mean
• 22:03 Phase 2 options, oral advantages and the path to partnering

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• The Metabolic Moment: 3 big bets to watch in metabolic disease
• Beyond Ozempic: the GLP-1 landscape in 2026 
• What can GLP-1s do beside treat diabetes and obesity?

Welcome to a special three-part series called 'The Metabolic Moment'.

In just a few years, GLP-1 drugs have become a phenomenon. They’ve transformed how we treat diabetes and obesity, created one of the biggest markets in pharma, and sparked a cultural conversation that reaches far beyond the clinic. Now that market is shifting. Cheaper alternatives are coming, new mechanisms are entering trials, and some companies are aiming for something closer to a cure.

So what happens next for patients, for the companies leading the field, and for the startups hoping to overtake them? Across three conversations, we’ll follow the money, the science, and the people behind this metabolic moment.

In part one of our series,  I’m joined by Valeriia Simanovskaia, founder and CEO of BioBrokers, an independent capital markets and strategic advisory firm for life sciences. Trained at Harvard Medical School and based in Paris, Valeriia tracks where the money in biotech is flowing.

• 02:15 Meet Valeriia and BioBrokers
• 09:07 Discontinuation rates and what they mean for GLP-1 sales
• 12:39 Generic semaglutide arrives in India and Canada
• 16:28 Why oral GLP-1s may become a separate market segment
• 22:15 Amgen’s MariTide and the case for monthly dosing
• 32:00 Why weight maintenance is the next competitive frontier

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

To dive deeper into the topic: 

• The Metabolic Moment: 3 big bets to watch in metabolic disease
• Beyond Ozempic: the GLP-1 landscape in 2026 
• Nine biotech companies that could revolutionize obesity treatments 

Saudi Arabia has spent the last four years building one of the most ambitious biotech gatherings in the region: the Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit. This September, the fourth edition brought together delegations from more than 57 countries and over 200 speakers, closing with more than 40 agreements and initiatives worth over SAR5 billion. From gene editing and genomics to AI-driven drug discovery and biomanufacturing, the Summit is positioning itself as a serious node in the global biotech map — and it's timed deliberately, arriving just weeks before BIO-Europe in Cologne.

To unpack what happened in Riyadh, what it means for Saudi Arabia's biotech ambitions, and how the Summit connects to the conversations happening at BIO-Europe, I'm joined by Abdulaziz Aldayel, a nanomedicine researcher at the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center. 

• 01:20 – Meet Abdulaziz Aldayel
• 07:21 – What RGMBS has set out to achieve since 2021
• 11:44 – RGMBS dealmaking jumps to $1.3 billion
• 21:17 – How RGMBS and BIO-Europe complement each other
• 28:14 – What to expect at the next RGMBS

This episode is presented with the support of RGMBS. Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Genomes to bioreactors: Saudi Arabia’s gene editing oncology push
• Saudi Arabia: is the country set to become a global biotech hub?
• Saudi Arabia to inject $3B into vaccines and medicines industry

AI has been one of the biggest buzzwords in biotech for years now — but for all the technological progress, actual R&D productivity gains have been hard to find, and the cost of developing a new drug keeps climbing. My guest today believes that's because AI alone was never going to be the answer.

Valo, a biotech founded by Flagship Pioneering, is betting on a different approach: combining AI, predictive chemistry, and — crucially — real-world human data from the very start of drug discovery, using access to more than 17 million longitudinal patient records, some spanning 20 years. That approach has already attracted major partners, including a Parkinson's collaboration with EMD Serono worth up to $3 billion and a cardiometabolic disease partnership with Novo. 

Joining me to talk about it is Valo's CEO, Brian Alexander — a former practicing radiation oncologist whose years treating patients with aggressive brain tumors helped shape his mission to reimagine how we discover medicines. Brian, welcome to the show.

• 01:30 — Meet Brian Alexander
• 04:17 — How treating brain tumor patients shaped his mission
• 09:58 — Valo's two-platform approach to drug discovery
• 16:23 — What 20-year patient records reveal about disease
• 22:23 — Why Valo positions itself as pharma's R&D engine
• 32:43 — How this approach could raise clinical success rates

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Episode 198: The problem at the heart of drug discovery: Lexogen & Ochre Bio on the power of AI on human data
• How human-first datasets are reshaping AI drug discovery
• Webinar: How AI has changed drug discovery & development, and what’s coming next

By 2050, nearly half the world's population is expected to be myopic, with around a billion people projected to progress to high myopia — a leading cause of irreversible vision loss later in life. Children face a narrow window in which to intervene, while the eye is still growing, before those structural changes become permanent. Yet despite the scale of the problem, there is still no FDA-approved drug that slows myopia progression in children, a gap underscored just last month when the FDA declined to approve an atropine eye drop for the same use.

My guest today is Thomas Ruggia, President and CEO of Theialife, a late-stage biotech developing an oral therapy for pediatric myopia derived from a natural caffeine metabolite. Tom joins Theialife after 25 years in ophthalmology leadership, including roles at Johnson & Johnson, Alcon, Novartis, and most recently as CEO of Samsara Vision. We'll talk mechanism, evidence, and the road to Phase 3.

01:49 Meet Thomas Ruggia

06:50 How progressive myopia develops in children and why it's misunderstood

15:55 ND10's mechanism of action

19:51 20 years of Danish compassionate-use data vs. a randomised trial

26:44 Why no FDA-approved pharmacologic therapy exists yet

37:57 Theialife's pipeline beyond myopia

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Innovation in ophthalmology: How biotechs are reshaping the treatment of eye diseases
• Can gene therapy treat vision loss?
• Europe’s Ophthalmology Scene Stays Hot for Biotech Funding

Summer is a busy time for everyone, guests and listeners alike, so today we're taking stock. This is our Summer Recap — a clips episode pulling together the best moments from conversations you might have missed over the past few months.

We'll hear from Randy Teel of Arvinas and Per Lundin of Evox on two very different ways of getting drugs to the brain, and Laurent Lévy of Nanobiotix on outsmarting the liver altogether. We'll meet the founders behind these companies, including Andy Parker of Step Pharma and Gene Mack of Gain Therapeutics, and the unlikely paths that got them there. We'll dig into the science of nonsense mutations with Nerissa Kreher of Alltrna, circular RNA with Lu Gao of Therorna, and a cancer target hiding in human genetics. And we'll close with what these leaders think success actually looks like, years from now.

So sit back, and let's revisit some of our favourite moments from the summer.

• 02:32 Solving the delivery problem
• 08:39 Founder journeys
• 15:13 Platform science
• 24:41 Business, money, and geopolitics
• 32:28 Looking ahead

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Episode 204: The first PROTAC is here. What comes next in protein degradation?
• Episode 205: Turning cancer cell dependencies into targeted therapies
• Episode 208: Gain Therapeutics: a first-in-class, disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson's
• Episode 209: Why Western pharma is sleeping on China's circular RNA revolution
• Episode 211: Beyond biology: Nanobiotix's physics-first approach to cancer
• Episode 213: How Evox Therapeutics is targeting CNS diseases with exosomes
• Episode 214: Rewriting the rules of genetic medicine with tRNA therapeutics

Most genetic medicines are built to treat one gene, one mutation, one disease at a time. That's true even for the newest modalities — gene therapy, gene editing, mRNA — each still has to be engineered disease by disease. Alltrna is testing a different idea: that the real target isn't the gene, but the process of translation itself, where genetic instructions become protein. The company's lead approach focuses on nonsense mutations, a shared error responsible for roughly a tenth of all genetic disease diagnoses, and asks whether a single engineered molecule could address it across many conditions at once.

My guest today is Dr. Nerissa Kreher, Chief Medical Officer of Alltrna. Nerissa brings two decades of rare disease drug development experience, including CMO roles at Entrada Therapeutics, Tiburio Therapeutics, and AVROBIO, to the task of turning that platform thesis into an actual clinical program. We'll talk translation, trial design, and what it takes to bring the first engineered tRNA therapy into the clinic.

• 02:45 Meet Nerissa Kreher and Alltrna's tRNA platform
• 07:29 Gene-by-gene versus mutation-by-mutation drug development
• 12:08 What nonsense mutations are and why they matter
• 15:55 Phase 1 trial approval in Australia
• 19:49 What basket trials are and FDA receptiveness
• 27:27 Where Alltrna could be in five years

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Beyond Biotech - Episode 66: treating rare diseases with tRNA
• Will tRNA therapy be the next big thing in genetic disease treatment?
• Pharma giants pull back on AAV research: what’s next for the gene therapy space?

Gene therapy has largely stayed out of the brain, and the blood-brain barrier has been the reason why — it protects the brain from harm, but it also blocks most advanced medicines from ever reaching it. That's now beginning to change. The recent FDA approval of a brain-penetrant enzyme therapy for Hunter syndrome showed that biologics can cross that barrier and work. The next question is whether gene editing can do the same.

My guest today is Dr. Per Lundin, Co-Founder and CEO of Evox Therapeutics, a UK biotech using engineered exosomes to deliver genetic medicines directly into the brain. Evox is now extending that platform from RNA and biologics into gene editing, targeting the genetic drivers of diseases like Huntington's and ALS, where treatment options remain extremely limited. Per also brings a background as a European Patent Attorney and repeat biotech founder. We'll talk delivery, pipeline, and what a commercially scalable genetic medicine for the brain might actually look like.

• 02:45 Per Lundin's background and Evox's platform
• 09:38 Denali's Hunter syndrome approval and its significance
• 14:58 Targeting MSH3 to treat Huntington's disease
• 20:03 What commercially scalable genetic medicine requires
• 22:13 Evox's dominant IP position in exosome delivery
• 27:34 What success could mean for patients in ten years

Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Evox and Lilly Partner to Develop Neuro RNA Drugs in Deal Worth €1.1B
• Six exosome therapy companies driving development in the field
• Extracellular vesicles: a growing pipeline still searching for validation 

Today we’re thrilled to bring you a special episode highlighting one of Europe’s premier biotechnology events: BIOSPAIN 2026.

Joining us is Stuart Medina of Asebio, who will take us inside this landmark gathering. For the first time and in response to strong sector demand and growing interest, BIOSPAIN moves to an annual format. Hosted this year in vibrant Bilbao in Spain’s dynamic Basque Country, the event runs from 29 September to 1 October at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre.

In this episode we explore the BIOSPAIN program, the partnering opportunities on offer, the new Talent Day on the final day, and all the practical and logistical details for attendees. 

• 04:02 Why BIOSPAIN is moving to an annual format 
• 05:17 Bilbao and the Basque country
• 09:44 BIOSPAIN 2026: four program tracks
• 13:47 One-on-one partnering 
• 16:10 International participation and a growing Latin American presence 
• 22:27 Talent Day: BIOSPAIN's dedicated biotech job fair 
• 27:48 Ticket options, exhibiting, and sponsorship opportunities

This episode is presented with the support of Asebio and BIOSPAIN. Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! 

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To dive deeper into the topic: 

• Pharma in Spain: why global investors and innovators are moving in
• Practical partnering at BIOSPAIN: on the ground with biotech innovators ready to take the next step
• Episode 165 - BIOSPAIN 2025: Why 1000 companies from more than 40 countries will gather in Barcelona this year