Freya Biosciences is a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to reimagining women's health and redefining fertility for those previously deprived of options. 

With a focus on microbial immunotherapies, Freya addresses immune drivers underlying a range of reproductive health conditions.

The company recently received $38 million Series A financing to advance the clinical development of its lead drug candidate, an investigational vaginal microbial immunotherapeutic. The treatment is to address infertility in women with dysbiotic vaginal microbiota who are undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART). 

This week’s conversation is with Freya chief science officer and co-founder Johan van Hylckama Vlieg.

00:58-01:55: About Freya Biosciences
01:55-07:12: What is the vaginal microbiome?
07:12-08:11: Are there differences between individuals’ vaginal microbiomes?
08:11-10:20: Does this make treatments challenging?
10:20-15:33: How does your platform use immunotherapy on the microbiome?
15:33-16:51: How does the vaginal microbiome change following treatment?
16:51-18:14: What happens to the vaginal microbiome of unsuccessful treatments?
18:14-20:10: How is success measured?
20:10-21:51: Could this lead to treatments of other conditions?
21:51-22:51: Does the vaginal microbiome change during menopause?
22:51-25:05: What are your clinical trials?
25:05-26:25: Does your treatment work better in combination with others?
26:25-27:36: Is it easy to find patients for trials?
27:36-30:14: How are the treatments manufactured?
30:14-31:55: How important is your recent funding?

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Epic Bio is an epigenetic editing company, leveraging the power of CRISPR without cutting DNA.

The company’s proprietary Gene Expression Modulation System (GEMS) includes the smallest Cas protein known to work in human cells, enabling in vivo or ex vivo delivery via a single viral vector. 

This week, we discuss epigenetic editing, why it’s reversible, and how it can treat FSHD and other conditions, with Epic Bio’s founder, Dr Stanley Qi, one of the original inventors of CRISPR.

01:15-02:51: Dr Xi’s background
02:51-05:11: The beginning of Epic Bio
05:12-09:23: What is epigenetic editing?
09:23-10:47: What is the Gene Expression Modulation System?
10:47-12:47: How is the editing reversible?
12:47-18:01: How will epigenetic editing advance treatments?
18:01-21:24: Tackling multiple conditions
21:24-22:46: How will your platform tackle FSHD?
22:46-24:18: FSHD clinical trial
24:18-25:51: How will you address costs?
25:51-27:18: Are other companies working on epigenetics?
27:18-29:27: What else is in the pipeline?
29:27-31:58: What are the next steps?

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A US company, with its origins in South Korea, is using natural killer (NK) cells to treat Alzheimer’s disease, with remarkable results.

This week, we have a conversation with Dr Paul Song, CEO of NKGen Biotech, a company with its sights set on changing the Alzheimer’s treatment landscape.

00:58-02:55: About NKGen Biotech
 02:56-05:39: Why is Alzheimer’s so challenging to treat?
 05:39-07:28: Are there other treatments making a difference?
 07:28-13:47: What is NKGen Biotech’s approach to treating Alzheimer’s?
 13:47-15:38: Can you treat multiple conditions at the same time?
 15:38-15:55: Are there any side effects?
 15:55-16:33: What dose are you able to give?
 16:33-18:31: How can you keep the cost of treatments low?
 18:31-19:19: How, and how often, will it be administered?
 19:19-20:49: How are you approaching taking on later stage Alzheimer’s?
 20:49-22:21: Are you looking to cure Alzheimer’s?
 22:21-23:50: Can this approach be used for other diseases?
 23:50-24:47: Are you looking for partnerships?
 24:47-25:47: What stage are your trials at?
 25:47-26-19: What are the next steps for NKGen Biotech?
 26:19-26:35: How are you enrolling patients?
 26:35-27:32: What is your approximate timeline?

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Eligo Bioscience is a gene-editing company focused on addressing diseases driven by the expression of bacterial genes from the microbiome. 

Its first target is moderate to severe acne vulgaris, an inflammatory disease that affects about 3% of the global population.

This week, we talk to Xavier Duportet, CEO of Eligo Bioscience, as the company looks to head to the clinic with its acne vulgaris treatment. 

00:53-02:42: About Eligo Bioscience
 02:42-06:07: How are you creating a new class of transformative genetic medicine?
 06:08-10:07: How important is the microbiome?
 10:07-11:48: How do you account for differences in the microbiome?
 11:48-13:17: What conditions are you looking to treat?
 13:17-18:42: What is your EB005 platform?
 18:42-21:28: How will your acne treatment be administered?
 21:28-22:06: How will Eligo keep the cost of the acne treatment low?
 22:06-24:36: Will your platform be applicable to other diseases?
 24:36-25:52: Will a combination of treatments of the microbiome make a difference?
 25:52-28:14: What will the recent funding mean to Eligo Bioscience?

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Vaxxinity, Inc. is a U.S.-based biotechnology company looking to develop vaccines for several hard-to-treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. 

The company is pioneering a new class of medicines through its proprietary technology platform, which has enabled the innovation of novel synthetic peptide immunotherapy candidates to bring the efficiency of vaccines to the treatment of chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, migraine, and hypercholesterolemia. 

In this week’s podcast, the company’s CEO, Mei Mei Hu, tells us about its work, and the aim of democratizing healthcare across the globe. 

01:00-02:21: About Vaxxinity
02:21-03:39: How does Vaxxinity’s approach differ from other companies?
03:39-04:38: How important is being able to roll out products globally?
04:38-06:28: What is your new class of vaccines?
06:28-08:58: How are you tackling diseases that are difficult to treat?
08:58-10:10: How does your Vaxxine Platform work?
10:10-10:58: Do synthetic peptides make this more scalable?
10:58-12:02: How are you addressing safety?
12:02-13:03: What has the reaction been like to your company?
13:03-14:14: What diseases are you tackling?
14:14-15:40: What is your pipeline for taking on these conditions?
15:40-16:16: Do you vaccines need booster shots?
16:16-18:17: Are you looking to cure diseases?
18:17-20:02: Could your approach be applied to other diseases?
20:02-20:29: Are you looking to partnerships?
20:29-21:10: What are the next steps?
21:10-21:24: When do you expect to see data?
21:24-21:42: When do you hope to have products being delivered to patients?
21:42-24:37: How does your COVID vaccine differ from others?

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Is there a connection between worms being eradicated from the gut in the early 20th Century and an increase in allergies and autoimmune disease?  

This week, we have a conversation with Holoclara CEO Andrea Choe, who not only believes there is a connection, but also sees secretions from worms as a way to tackle such diseases. 

01:31-06:05: About Holoclara
06:06-08:26: From discovery to setting up a company
08:26-10:40: Was this a symbiotic relationship?
10:40-12:30: As we are losing species for a variety of reasons, are there other species that may also be beneficial?
12:30-14:03: What are roundworms secreting?
14:03-15:28: How do you take these secretions and advance that to creating a drug?
15:28-15:44: Do you need the worms to make your product?
15:44-16:02: What conditions are you looking to address?
16:02-16:43: Are you looking to cures or disease maintenance?
16:43-16:58: How far down the path are you with this?
16:58-17:26: How important are partnerships and investment?
17:26-18:12: What is reaction like to the concept of using worms to tackle diseases?
18:12-19:25: What are the next steps?
19:25-20:44: Are there other cures to be discovered from other species?

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Jennifer Schranz is senior vice president and global head of rare diseases in the R&D division at Ipsen.

On the podcast this week, she discusses a breakthrough treatment for primary biliary cholerangitis and cholestatic liver disease.

00:56-00:49: Background information
01:44-03:21: What are primary biliary cholerangitis (PBC) and cholestatic liver disease?
03:21-03:50: How rare is PBC?
03:50-04:45: How easy is PBC diagnosis?
04:45-05:45: What are the current treatments for the condition?
05:45-07:22: What are the challenges to innovation?
07:22-08:27: What is elafibranor?
08:27-08:37: How is it administered?
08:37-09:18: Is elafibranor taken for life?
09:18-11:08: What is the ELATIVE trial, and what were the results you presented at the AASLD Liver Meeting?
11:08-13:09: What was the reaction at the meeting?
13:09-13:55: A patient-centric approach
13:55-14:44: Is a cure for PBC a possibility?
14:44-17:20: How important are acquisitions to Ipsen’s pipeline?
17:20-18:33: Working on multiple diseases
18:33-19:58: How much impact can you have on liver diseases?
19:58-21:04: What are the next steps for elafibranor?

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On this week’s podcast we have a conversation with Jordi Mata-Fink, co-founder and chief executive officer of the newly-launched U.S. company Gate Bioscience.

00:45-01:06: About Gate Bioscience
01:06-02:09: What are disease-causing extracellular proteins?
02:09-04:44: How have diseases caused by extracellular proteins been treated in the past?
 04:44-05:47: Have there been diseases that haven’t been addressed?
 05:47-07:05: Tackling the different issues created by extracellular proteins
 07:05-09:41: What are molecular gates?
 09:41-12:56: How does your technique distinguish between good and bad extracellular proteins?
12:56-16:24: How did the idea become a company?
16:24-17:24: Which diseases will you focus on?
17:24-18;47: How do you address costs?
18:47-19:11: How will this be given to patients?
19:11-20:01: Disease cure or disease management?
20:01-21:35: How was the company created?
21:35-24:18: The rise of small molecules
24:18-25:58: What are the next steps?

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Among other things, UK-headquartered company Phenotypeca has been working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce albumin for low and middle-income countries to reduce the costs of vaccines.

The company’s CEO, Johnny Cordiner, and research and development director, Professor Ed Louis, tell us about the work, as well as the company and its other projects.

01:01-11:57: About Phenotypeca
11:57-14:04: What is recombinant protein technology?
14:04-16:39: What are the issues around the cost of albumin?
16:39-20:48: How can you help improve affordability?
20:48-26:55: What is QTL technology?
26:55-30:18: What are the benefits of this technology?
30:19-34:22: Partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
34:22-36:37: What’s the timeline?
36:37-39:45: What else are you working on?

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French company CellProthera has seen some remarkable results treating people who have had a heart attack.  On this week’s podcast, the company’s CEO Matthieu de Kalbermatten tells us how it works.

01:00-03:29: About CellProthera
03:30-06:30: What are ProtheraCytes?
06:30-09:02: Is this a cure?
09:02-10:24: Is prevention the best option?
10:25-11:49: Is this therapy useful to treat other conditions?
11:50-13:55: How quickly do you need to treat a patient?
13:56-16:39: The field of regenerative therapy
16:39-17:52: Is regenerative therapy a growing sector?
17:53-18:26: Clinical trials
18:26-19:22: Upcoming phase 3 trials
19:22-20:36: The regulatory pathway
20:37-23:25: Cost and scale
23:25-24:20: The need for partnerships
24:21-24:57: Next steps
24:57-28:30: Is there excitement in the medical field for this treatment?

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