Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech

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

What if the key to beating cancer wasn't a new drug, but a new way of thinking about matter itself? That's the question Laurent Lévy asked when he co-founded Nanobiotix over twenty years ago — and it's a question that is now producing some genuinely compelling answers in the clinic.

Nanobiotix is a Paris-based biotech pioneering what they call physics-based nanomedicine. Their lead asset is a radioenhancer made of hafnium oxide nanoparticles, designed to be injected directly into a tumor and amplify the destructive power of radiotherapy from within — without increasing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. It is currently in Phase 3 trials in head and neck cancer.

But that's only half the story. The company's Nanoprimer platform is now emerging as a potential new engine for growth — with the promise of making an entirely new class of genetic medicines work better.

• 02:47 Meet Laurent Lévy
• 06:04 What physics offers that biology cannot 
• 11:12 How JNJ-1900 (NBTXR3) works 
• 15:14 The immune effect 
• 18:16 Pipeline milestones ahead
• 20:56 The Curadigm Nanoprimer platform 
• 25:32 The oversubscribed €85 million raise

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: 

• Radiotherapy-Enhancing Cancer Nanomedicine Secures Good Phase II/III Results
• Get to know 15 of the best biotech companies in Paris
• Eight nanotechnology companies to watch out for

Cancer is still the leading cause of death by disease in children and young people — yet in the last twenty years, only a handful of drugs have been approved specifically to treat it. Most paediatric cancer treatments are simply adult drugs, repurposed, often at real long-term cost to the children who survive. Today's guest is working to change that, and much more besides. 

Tony Hickson is Chief Business Officer for Cancer Research Horizons, Cancer Research UK's innovation engine, responsible for turning early-stage science into new treatments, diagnostics, and start-up companies. Tony's career spans big pharma, university tech transfer, and now the translational front line of cancer research, and he's helped build dozens of spinouts along the way. We'll talk about why charity and pharma need each other more than ever, and about C-Further, a bold new push to finally build medicines made for children, not borrowed from adults.

• 01:25 Meet Tony Hickson
• 05:21 What sets Cancer Research Horizons apart from tech transfer offices
• 12:17 Myrix Bio's exit to Novartis, a standout story
• 15:54 Can patient benefit and commercial success align
• 28:53 Inside C-Further's first two therapeutic programs
• 41:19 How researchers and partners can get involved

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 32: Cancer Research Horizons, Enterome, OncoHost, TrakCel, Turbine
• Cancer Research UK Deploys €700M to Foster Oncology Startups
• Cancer vaccines: 11 biotechs to keep an eye out for

RNA therapeutics has had its defining moments. Antisense oligonucleotides. siRNA. And then, of course, mRNA — which went from a niche academic curiosity to the backbone of a global vaccine program in a matter of months. The next chapter may be circular RNA.

CircRNA is more stable than linear mRNA, longer-lasting in the body, and potentially re-dosable. And one company has quietly built what may be the most advanced independent circRNA platform in the world — and with barely a single line of English-language press coverage, until now.

My guest today is Dr. Lu Gao, CEO of Therorna Inc., a clinical-stage biotech headquartered in Beijing and Shanghai. The company recently presented three posters at ASGCT in Boston, and their lead program has just entered a first-in-human trial. We're going to talk about the science, the clinical strategy, and why Western pharma hasn't paid enough attention to what's being built in China.

• 01:33 Meet Lu Gao and Therorna 
• 09:29 How Therorna's approach differs 
• 15:42 How TI-0032 reprograms T cells in the body 
• 21:22 Off-the-shelf and re-dosable: what it means for patients 
• 24:38 Why no Chinese biotech has landed a major in vivo deal 
• 31:27 What a successful US IND clearance would mean 

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 therapeutic potential of circular RNA: Could it soon trump mRNA technology?
• mRNA, RNAi, circRNA, ASOs: A comparative guide to RNA therapeutics
• Therorna funding to accelerate circRNA-based platform