BioCentury This Week

The ESMO Congress yielded another win for cancer immunotherapy target TIGIT, but the readout resurfaced worries about the mechanism’s past failures to turn positive earlier stage data into Phase III success. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors deliver their takeaways from this year’s meeting, including analysis of data for TIGIT blocker belrestotug from iTeos Therapeutics, a colorectal cancer readout featuring J&J's Rybrevant and an antibody-drug conjugate from Genmab. The BioCentury team is joined by Gwyn Bebb, who is global franchise head for oncology at podcast sponsor Parexel. Bebb discusses what’s changed in the oncology landscape in the 10 years since the approval of the first immunotherapies, observations that COVID-19 vaccines might have a role in treating cancer and developments in the radiopharma field. This episode of BioCentury This Week was sponsored by Parexel Biotech.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653681

00:01 - Sponsor Message: Parexel BioTech
01:55 - iTeos' TIGIT Data
04:56 - Rybrevant Colorectal
07:22 - Gwyn Bebb's Take
21:38 - More ESMO Highlights

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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Rep. Frank Pallone’s misunderstanding of how the pediatric priority review voucher program works has been one factor undermining support for an incentive that brings new drugs to kids, argues Washington Editor Steve Usdin on the latest BioCentury This Week podcast. Usdin explains how the voucher process works and why it’s valuable to the country’s youngest patients, as well as to small biotechs and larger biopharma alike.
Usdin also discusses the latest twists and turns for the Biosecure Act, and BioCentury’s Stephen Hansen assesses the obesity data from Novo Nordisk that destroyed more than $30 billion in value for the Danish pharma. This episode of BioCentury This Week was sponsored by Parexel Biotech.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653633

00:01 - Sponsor Message: Parexel Biotech
01:47 - Pediatric PRVs
06:42 - Biosecure Act
12:44 - Novo's Obesity Miss

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors deliver their takeaways from the debut Grand Rounds conference, which focused on whether biotech can write a more successful playbook for translating from target to product. Weaving together takeaways from the panels, fireside chat and keynote at the conference, the editors assess the tensions between generalizability and fit-for-purpose models, between having control and capturing complexity, and, in human data, between scale and robustness/reliability, particularly for longitudinal readouts. The editors also discuss BioCentury's Q&A with USC Keck School’s Patrick Lyden, who explained how high-quality, reproducible preclinical science can be feasible.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653631

00:00 - Introduction
02:56 - Generalizability vs. Fit for Purpose
10:03 - Control vs. Complexity
17:57 - Scale vs. Robustness in Human Data
26:25 - Hypothesis-Driven vs. Unbiased Research
28:50 - Grand Rounds 2025


To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors assess the shifting market for biotech IPOs, including the profiles of the three companies that went public on NASDAQ last week, the aftermarket performance of the year's IPO class, and the prospects for more companies to make their own debut in the coming months. BioCentury’s editors also discuss whether the rush to GLP-1s for obesity will mirror the development of PD-1s for cancer and the impact on biopharma of the recent mainstream expansion of AI. This episode of BioCentury This Week was sponsored by Parexel Biotech.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653538

00:01 - Sponsor Message: Parexel Biotech
01:30 - IPOs
10:56 - GLP-1 & Obesity
22:18 - AI & Biotech

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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Will bispecifics be the drugs to dethrone cancer’s biggest blockbusters? Akeso is the latest company with a bispecific to impress in a head-to-head study, this one for non-small cell lung cancer. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss the latest data from Akeso’s ivonescimab, a VEGFxPD-1 bispecific antibody that went up against Keytruda pembrolizumab in one of its largest indications, first-line non-small cell lung cancer.
The editors also discuss data from  Vaxcyte that the infectious disease company parlayed into the year’s largest follow-on financing and a new initiative by FDA veteran Janet Woodcock to bolster quality in biopharmas’ manufacturing. This episode of BioCentury This Week was sponsored by Parexel Biotech.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653507

00:01 - Sponsor Message: Parexel Biotech
01:39 - Akeso's Bispecific Challenge
08:22 - Vaxcyte Pneumococcal Vaccine
12:32 - Woodcock's Quality Initiative
14:48 - Recap: The BioCentury Show on Biosimilars

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In this year’s series of Back to School essays, BioCentury’s editors ask whether the era of human first, causal biology and personalized medicine can reshape drug discovery to solve the weakest link in biotech — translation to the clinic. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, the three authors of BioCentury’s 32nd Back to School edition, Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn, Executive Editor Selina Koch, and Executive Director of Biopharma Intelligence Lauren Martz, discuss how industry can solve its biggest bottleneck.

The editors zero in on inflammation and immunology, specifically how immunoproteomics upstage genomics in I&I target discovery, and neurology, notably how neuroscience companies are reducing to practice the concept of human-first discovery. Finally, they discuss the thread that runs through it all — precision medicine — and how biomarkers can help validate targets while bringing precision medicine to I&I and neurology.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653485


00:00 - Introduction
01:32 - Introducing Back to School
10:42 - Validation Tools
14:50 - I&I
21:00 - Neurology
27:19 - Precision Medicine

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A vote on the Biosecure Act in the U.S. House of Representatives early next week shines the spotlight back on legislation seeking to rein in Chinese CDMOs and genomics companies, as Congress returns to work. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors handicap the legislation’s chances of passage in the House and Senate and assess what’s at stake for the law authorizing rare pediatric disease priority review vouchers.
They also discuss the results of BioCentury’s snap poll gauging the biopharma industry’s reaction to the IRA Medicare drug price negotiation program, recalling the latest trends among pharma’s deals with biotechs over the past 12 months. Plus, a preview BioCentury’s annual Back to School package, next week’s new Grand Rounds R&D conference and highlights from this month’s Distillery roundup of translational papers.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653385


00:00 - Introduction
01:36 - Biosecure on Deck
04:33 - Priority Review Vouchers
08:11 - BioCentury IRA Survey
17:07 - Back to School: Target Discovery
19:49 - Translational Highlights

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Shaking up an underwhelming year for fresh biotech paper, a trio of biotechs filed to go public on NASDAQ last week. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss the IPO filings by MBX and Massachusetts companies Zenas and Bicara. Washington Editor Steve Usdin returns to the podcast to provide updates on the Inflation Reduction and Biosecure acts, as well as the life sciences policies of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And Director of Biopharma Intelligence Karen Tkach Tuzman zeroes in on the latest trends among pharma’s deals with biotechs over the past 12 months and the latest start-up out of Versant Ventures, Borealis.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653354

00:00 - Introduction
01:48 - Biotech IPOs
12:48 - Washington Update
20:39 - Versant, Novartis Newco
24:34 - Pharma-Biotech Deal Trends

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Grand Rounds is an R&D meeting that represents BioCentury’s latest initiative to create new networks linking academic discoveries with translational skills and the investors who will finance them, BioCentury co-founder, President and CEO David Flores said on a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast previewing the new conference. The meeting, on Sept. 9-11 in Nashville, focuses on whether biotech can write a more successful playbook for translating from target to product.
The podcast features three special guests who will be at the conference: McKinsey's Guang Yang, Candel Therapeutics' Paul Peter Tak, and Abby Trotter of Life Science Tennessee. There is still time to register for BioCentury Grand Rounds, which will take place Sept. 9-11 in Nashville. Network, partner and debate key bottlenecks in translation. See the conference website for more information.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653324

00:00 - Introduction
00:13 - Spotlight Grand Rounds
02:03 - Conference Themes
08:40 - Nashville's Biotech Ecosystem
16:58 - Paul Peter Tak on I&I
25:22 - McKinsey Report Preview

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The Biden administration has disclosed what Medicare will pay for the first graduates of its drug price negotiation program but biopharma companies, biotech investors and patient advocates are still waiting for the government to reveal how those prices were determined — details that are critical to informing the decisions that will shape the future of medicine. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss what last week’s disclosure tells us — and what information is yet to come.
They also discuss why psychedelics companies believe they can avoid the hurdles that tripped up Lykos Therapeutics as it sought approval of its MDMA program to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and preview this year’s BioCentury Back to School report, which focuses on whether biotech can write a more successful playbook for translating from target to product.

Take part in BioCentury’s Snap Survey on the IRA and Part D pricing. We’ll be publishing the results next week, which means we need your input now! All results will be anonymous.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/653298

00:00 - Intro
01:32 - Medicare Drug Pricing
11:38 - Psychedelic Setback
18:53 - Back to School Preview

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