Power to the Patients

Drug discovery from nature is not a new idea. It is one of pharma’s oldest ideas.


Aspirin, metformin, and many other small molecule drugs trace their origins back to natural sources. Historically, the bottleneck was complexity. Finding a single active molecule inside a plant with 10,000 unique compounds used to take years. In this episode of Power to the Patients, host Brandon Li speaks with Dr. José Trevejo, Chief Medical Officer at Enveda, about how the company is using AI, high-throughput mass spectrometry, chemistry and traditional medicine knowledge to speed up that search.


What You’ll Learn:

• Why roughly half of FDA-approved small molecule drugs have natural origins
• Why natural product discovery was historically slow, even when the biology looked promising
• How Enveda uses mass spectrometry and AI to identify chemical structures faster
• Why José sees mass spectra as a language AI can learn to interpret
• How traditional medicine knowledge graphs guide candidate selection
• What ENV-294 reveals about the link between historical use and modern inflammatory disease research
• Why natural-product-derived molecules may have a development safety advantage
• Why real-world data, synthetic control arms, and in silico safety tools could shape the next phase of clinical development
  
  

About the Guest

Dr. José Trevejo is the Chief Medical Officer at Enveda, a clinical-stage biotechnology company using AI to translate nature's chemistry into new medicines.

He is a Cornell-Rockefeller-Sloan Kettering trained physician-scientist with deep experience leading clinical development and regulatory strategy at Vertex, Genentech, and Tarsus.

At Enveda, José helps lead the company's clinical pipeline strategy, including ENV-294, an oral small molecule in development for inflammatory conditions like atopic dermatitis and asthma.

His work sits at the intersection of natural product chemistry, AI-assisted drug discovery, and practical clinical development.


Episode Resources

• José Trevejo on LinkedIn 
• Enveda Website 
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
• With Power Website
• Power on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/withpower/ 
  
  

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

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• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

For many ovarian cancer patients, platinum-based chemotherapy works well at first. Then resistance begins: the tumor adapts, treatment loses effect, and clinical options narrow.

That is the clinical problem Thomas Zindrick and his team at Genelux Corporation are trying to address with their lead candidate, Olvi-Vec.

In this episode of Power to the Patients, host Brandon Li speaks with Thomas about Genelux's work in oncolytic virus therapy. They discuss why Olvi-Vec is designed to selectively replicate in tumor cells, trigger systemic immune activity, and modulate the tumor microenvironment.

The goal is not to replace platinum chemotherapy, checkpoint inhibitors, or other oncology tools, but rather to make these combinations work harder for patients who have run out of options.


For many ovarian cancer patients, platinum-based chemotherapy works well at first. Then begins the resistance - the tumor adapts, treatment loses effect and options narrow. That is the clinical problem Thomas Zindrick and the team at Genelux Corp are trying to address with Olvi-Vec.


What You’ll Learn:

• Why platinum resensitization is such a high-priority problem in ovarian cancer
• How Olvi-Vec is designed to work as an oncolytic virus therapy
• Why Thomas describes the platform as off-the-shelf personalized medicine
• How thymidine kinase deletion supports selective replication in tumor cells
• Why Genelux sees other oncology agents as collaborators, not competitors
• How immune activation may support tumor microenvironment modulation
• What the STAT1 pathway has to do with platinum resistance
• Why one platinum-refractory patient’s 17-cycle response mattered clinically
• How the immunity paradox shapes oncolytic virus development
• Why manufacturing, cold chain and viral shedding still matter in this modality
• How late-stage data could shape future frontline development
  
  

This is a conversation for anyone who’s thinking seriously about how new mechanisms move from late-stage signals into earlier lines of treatment.


About the Guest:

Thomas Zindrick is the CEO and President of Genelux Corporation, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing oncolytic virus therapies for solid tumors.

He brings more than three decades of life sciences experience, including a background in biology and patent law, alongside executive leadership roles at Amgen and other biotechnology companies 

At Genelux, he leads the development of Olvi-Vec, the company's proprietary oncolytic virus candidate being studied in platinum-resistant and platinum-refractory ovarian cancer and other solid tumor settings.



Episode Resources:

• Thomas Zindrick on LinkedIn
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
• Genelux Corp Website
  
  

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

Gout is often treated solely as a lifestyle problem. James Mackay calls that a myth. 


In this episode of Power to the Patients, host Brandon Li sits down with James, CEO and co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics, to unpack why gout has been misunderstood, under-prioritized, and under-innovated for decades. They also explore how biotech teams learn from setbacks, choose the right assets, design trials around patient reality, and return to an overlooked disease when the work is not finished.


What You’ll Learn:

• Why the “gout is caused by diet” narrative has done real damage to patient care
• How poor uric acid excretion drives the majority of gout cases
• What James Mackay learned from leading the Zurampic program through Phase 3 and approval
• Why renal toxicity became such an important lesson in URAT1 inhibitor development
• How Dotinurad’s smoother 12- to 14-hour profile changes the safety conversation
• Why Crystalys is positioning Dotinurad for patients who are not controlled on first-line therapies
• What it takes to run multiple clinical programs with a small, experienced biotech team
  
  

About James:  


James Mackay is the CEO and co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming treatment options for people living with gout. Before Crystalys, James spent 30 years at AstraZeneca, where he worked across life sciences and business development before moving into biotech leadership. He previously led Ardea Biosciences after AstraZeneca acquired the company, taking Zurampic through Phase 3 development, regulatory submission, and approval. Today, James is applying those lessons to Dotinurad, Crystalys Therapeutics’ lead candidate and a next-generation oral URAT1 inhibitor being developed for patients with gout who remain uncontrolled on existing therapies.



Episode Resources:

• James Mackay on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/james-m-mackay
• Crystalys Therapeutics Website: https://crystalystx.com/
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonhli/
• With Power Website: https://www.withpower.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show-notes&utm_campaign=power-to-the-patients-ep30
• Power on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/withpower/ 

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

Learn more about Alzheimer's disease drug development and clinical trial design for small molecule therapies using biomarkers in Alzheimer's research, and AI in drug development.


Solving neurodegeneration requires redefining how we view the timeline of disease. While billions have been spent on amyloid research, Sacha Schermerhorn suggests we may be focusing on the wrong markers at the wrong time.


In this episode, Brandon Li sits down with Sacha Schermerhorn, the Founder and CEO of Babylon Biosciences, to explore his unconventional approach to one of medicine’s hardest problems. Sacha shares how a personal family diagnosis fueled a decade of research and the eventual creation of a company designed to amortize risk through orthogonal shots on goal.


The conversation covers the "Burning House" analogy for pathology, the strategy behind recruiting legendary drug hunters like John Macor, and the development of a specialized AI model with OpenAI to forecast the success of clinical trials. They also examine why the highest leverage for AI lies in late-stage development and asset selection rather than early-stage screening.


What You’ll Learn:

• Why treating amyloid is 20 years too late
• The "Burning House" analogy for prioritizing treatment vectors
• How to recruit the "Avengers" of drug discovery out of retirement
• Using fine-tuned AI models to predict clinical trial primary endpoints
• Why AI creates more value in late-stage development than early screening
• The potential for 12-month biomarkers to enable prevention trials
• Managing the ethical implications of public clinical trial prediction markets
  
  

About the Guest:


Sacha Schermerhorn is the Founder and CEO of Babylon Biosciences, a small molecule therapeutics company focusing on Alzheimer’s disease. His commitment to the field began at age 15 and intensified following his grandmother’s diagnosis. Sacha has successfully assembled a team of world-class drug hunters to apply innovative computational tools and deep scientific expertise toward solving neurodegeneration.



Episode Resources:

• Sacha Schermerhorn on LinkedIn
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
• Babylon Biosciences Website
  
  

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

In this episode of Power to the Patients, host Brandon Li speaks with Dr. Aaron Koenig, Chief Medical Officer at Delix Therapeutics, about the emerging field of neuroplasticogens and the effort to develop medicines that promote neuroplasticity without the hallucinogenic effects associated with psychedelics.


The conversation explores how neuroplasticity plays a central role in many brain disorders. Conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease involve disruptions in the connections between neurons. By restoring or strengthening those connections, neuroplasticogens may help address the underlying biology of these illnesses rather than simply managing symptoms.


Koenig explains how Delix Therapeutics builds on foundational discoveries in psychedelic science while pursuing a different therapeutic strategy. The company focuses on compounds that stimulate structural neuroplasticity while avoiding the perceptual and behavioral effects traditionally associated with psychedelics. This approach could simplify clinical development and make treatments easier to scale in real world healthcare systems.


Koenig also discusses the practical challenges of measuring plasticity in living patients. Since researchers cannot directly observe synaptic changes in the human brain, Delix uses surrogate measures such as quantitative EEG to track patterns of neural activity associated with plasticity. Early findings show signatures that resemble those seen in highly effective treatments like electroconvulsive therapy, offering a potential biomarker for target engagement.


Finally, the episode looks at the broader implications for drug development. Psychedelics have captured significant attention in recent years, but their clinical use presents logistical and regulatory hurdles. Neuroplasticogens could offer a path toward scalable treatments that patients can take at home while still harnessing the therapeutic potential of plasticity-based approaches.


Throughout the discussion, Koenig emphasizes the urgency of continued investment in neuroscience. As populations age and the prevalence of neurological and psychiatric disorders increases, developing safe and accessible treatments for brain diseases remains one of the most important challenges in medicine.


What You’ll Learn:

• Why neuroplasticity is emerging as a central target in psychiatric drug development
• How neuroplasticogens aim to deliver therapeutic effects without hallucinogenic experiences
• The scientific differences between psychedelics, dissociatives, empathogens, and plasticity-promoting compounds
• How quantitative EEG may serve as a biomarker for measuring neuroplasticity in patients
• Why scalable, take-home medications are essential for treating brain disorders at population scale
• The role of structural brain connectivity in depression, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative diseases
• How drug developers design compounds that promote plasticity while avoiding safety risks
• Why continued investment in neuroscience research is critical as neurological disease prevalence rises
  
  

About the Guest:


Dr. Aaron Koenig is Chief Medical Officer at Delix Therapeutics, where he leads the clinical development of novel neuroplasticity-promoting therapeutics for psychiatric and neurological disorders.


Koenig is a trained psychiatrist and geriatric psychiatrist with extensive experience in clinical research across central nervous system diseases. Over the course of his career he has led and contributed to clinical trials focused on a range of CNS targets, including neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease as well as psychiatric disorders.


Before joining Delix Therapeutics, Koenig held roles across academia and industry, including work at Massachusetts General Hospital where he treated patients with neurodegenerative disorders while collaborating with neurology teams on translational research. His work focuses on advancing treatments that address the underlying biology of brain diseases while remaining practical and scalable for patients and healthcare systems.


Episode Resources:

• Aaron Koenig on LinkedIn
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
• Delix Therapeutics Website
  
  

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

Psychedelic therapy for postpartum depression shows breakthrough results. Reunion Neuroscience CEO Greg Mayes details luvesilocin clinical trials. While many developers focus on treatment-resistant depression, Reunion is carving a path through postpartum depression and adjustment disorder. Greg shares insights from his transition from legal counsel to biotech CEO, emphasizing the operational rigor required to bring these paradigm-shifting molecules to market.

The conversation covers the science of 4-OH-DiPT prodrugs, which provide a therapeutic experience in roughly half the time of traditional psilocybin. Greg explains why targeting niche indications like oncology-related adjustment disorder can lead to blockbuster opportunities. We also dive into the realities of biotech fundraising and why resilience is the most critical asset for any life sciences leader.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why postpartum depression remains a massive unmet medical need in psychiatry.
  
  
• The clinical significance of luvesilocin and its 70 percent remission rate.
  
  
• How shorter-acting psychedelic experiences improve clinical operations and patient access.
  
  
• The strategic reasoning behind choosing adjustment disorder as a lead indication.
  
  
• Why the FDA recommended expanding research into ALS, Parkinson’s, and MS.
  
  
• The difference between psychedelic therapies and non-hallucinogenic neuroplasticogens.
  
  
• Lessons from a 25-year career transitioning from law to biotech operations.
  
  
• How to navigate the "numbers game" of raising a $132 million Series A.
  
  

About the Guest:

Greg Mayes is the President and CEO of Reunion Neuroscience. With a 25-year career in life sciences, he has served as lead oncology counsel at AstraZeneca and played a key role in the $6.5 billion sale of ImClone Systems to Eli Lilly. A personal experience with his son’s epilepsy diagnosis led him to transition into biotech operations, where he now focuses on delivering paradigm-changing therapies for mental health and neurological disorders.

Episode Resources:

• Greg Mayes on LinkedIn
  
  
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
  
  
• Reunion Neuroscience Website

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

Psychiatry has long been considered one of the most complex and least understood areas of medicine. While other therapeutic fields have advanced rapidly with clear biomarkers and objective endpoints, mental health has remained rooted in subjective assessments and decades-old treatment approaches.


In this episode, Brandon Li speaks with Ken Kramer, PhD, Vice President and Head of Neuropsychiatry Medical Affairs at Bristol Myers Squibb, about why psychiatry has historically lagged behind and why the field is now entering a new phase of innovation.


Kramer explains how schizophrenia treatment has relied on dopamine receptor-blocking antipsychotics for over 70 years, often forcing patients to trade symptom relief for serious tolerability and safety challenges. He walks through how a new class of treatments, targeting muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, represents a fundamentally different approach, one that may reduce these trade-offs while addressing a broader range of symptoms.


The conversation also explores the structural challenges that have made psychiatric drug development so difficult, from subjective clinical endpoints and high placebo responses to the lack of reliable biomarkers. These barriers pushed many large pharmaceutical companies out of psychiatry for decades.


Now, that trend is reversing. With better scientific understanding, improved trial design, and new mechanisms of action, pharma is re-entering the space with renewed confidence.


Brandon and Ken also discuss the real-world challenges of launching novel treatments, including clinical inertia, physician adoption, and the importance of medical affairs in bridging the gap between approval and actual patient impact.


This episode covers where psychiatry has been, what’s changing, and what it will take to deliver better outcomes for patients living with serious mental illness. 


What You’ll Learn:

• Why psychiatry has lagged behind other therapeutic areas in innovation
• How dopamine-based antipsychotics shaped schizophrenia treatment for decades
• The trade-offs patients face with current standard-of-care therapies
• How muscarinic receptor-targeting drugs offer a new approach
• Why psychiatric clinical trials are uniquely difficult to design and execute
• How subjective endpoints and placebo effects impact drug development
• Why pharma companies exited psychiatry and why they’re returning now
• The role of medical affairs in driving the adoption of new treatments
• How clinical inertia affects real-world patient outcomes
  
  

About the Guest:

Ken Kramer has a PhD and Vice President and Head of Neuropsychiatry Medical Affairs at Bristol Myers Squibb. He has spent his entire career focused on psychiatry and neuroscience, with a deep commitment to advancing treatment options for serious mental illness and addressing the stigma associated with these conditions. At BMS, he leads efforts to translate scientific innovation into real-world patient impact across neuropsychiatric disorders.



Episode Resources:

• Ken Kramer on LinkedIn
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
• Bristol Myers Squibb Website
  
  

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

Kidney disease affects 37 million people and is now the ninth leading cause of death globally. Yet despite its scale and severity, it has largely been absent from the precision medicine revolution that reshaped oncology.


In this episode of Power to the Patients, Jason Coloma, CEO of Maze Therapeutics, explains how his team is applying genetics-driven precision medicine to kidney disease by moving beyond statistical associations to true mechanistic understanding.


Jason describes the limits of genome-wide association studies when they stop at correlation, and why understanding the functional impact of specific gene variants is essential for successful drug discovery. At Maze, this approach led to uncovering the pathogenic mechanism behind APOL1-mediated kidney disease, a condition that disproportionately affects Black communities, presents earlier in life, progresses more aggressively, and does not respond to current standard therapies.


Finally, Jason addresses the current state of AI in biotech, where natural language processing and structure-prediction tools accelerate workflows but do not replace cryo-EM, x-ray crystallography, or experienced drug hunters.


What You’ll Learn:

• 
  Why most genetic associations fail to translate into medicines
• How variant functionalization enables mechanism-driven drug discovery
• The biological mechanism behind APOL1-mediated kidney disease
• Why dialysis outcomes highlight the urgency for disease-modifying therapies
• How to identify which diseases are suitable for genetics-driven platforms
• The operational infrastructure required to implement precision nephrology
• Where AI meaningfully improves drug discovery workflows and where it does not
  
  

About the Guest:
Jason Coloma is Chief Executive Officer of Maze Therapeutics, where he leads the company’s mission to transform drug discovery through genetics-driven precision medicine. A trained scientist with deep experience in drug discovery, Jason previously held leadership roles at Genentech and Roche, including Head of Business Development focused on oncology and research technology platforms.


He later served as a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he worked on early-stage biotech formation before building Maze Therapeutics. Under his leadership, Maze has developed a platform centered on variant functionalization to generate mechanism-based therapies for genetically defined diseases.



Episode Resources:

• Jason Coloma on LinkedIn
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

In this episode of Power to the Patients, Brandon Li speaks with Dr. Ken Sharlin, a neurologist and principal investigator with decades of experience across clinical practice, functional medicine, and clinical research. Dr. Sharlin shares his journey from traditional academic neurology to a systems-based, precision medicine approach that focuses on restoring homeostasis rather than treating diagnoses in isolation.


The conversation explores why lifestyle, environment, and behavioral change play a central role in neurodegenerative disease and how advances in biomarkers, prognostics, and AI-driven diagnostics are transforming how clinicians understand and manage conditions like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s. Dr. Sharlin explains how tools such as blood-based biomarkers, disease activity scores, and predictive testing can help tailor therapies to the individual rather than relying on trial-and-error prescribing.


Brandon and Dr. Sharlin also dive into the realities of running clinical trials in a crowded therapeutic landscape, the challenges of patient recruitment when effective treatments already exist, and why sponsors must rethink timelines, communication, and study design. 

What You'll Learn:- Why most neurodegenerative diseases are driven by lifestyle and environmental factors - not just genetics


- How restoring biological homeostasis can lead to symptom improvement and potential disease reversal


- The difference between diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers and why all three matter


- How precision medicine is changing treatment selection in multiple sclerosis and beyond


- Why behavioral change is foundational to functional and integrative neurology


- The role of emerging technologies like neuromodulation, photobiomodulation, sound, and electromagnetic therapies


- What sponsors often underestimate when designing and launching clinical trials


- Why patient recruitment is becoming harder in MS despite therapeutic advances


- How AI and biomarker-driven tools can accelerate drug development and trial execution


- Dr. Sharlin’s vision for the next 10 years of neurological care and research


About the Guest:
Dr. Ken Sharlin is a board-certified neurologist, clinical researcher, and leader in neurological disease reversal. With over 25 years of experience, his peer-reviewed research shows that cognitive decline and early Alzheimer’s disease can be improved and in some cases reversed through personalized, systems-based care.


He integrates conventional neurology, precision medicine, functional medicine, and regenerative therapies to treat conditions including Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, epilepsy, and chronic migraine. Dr. Sharlin is the founder of the Sharlin Health Neuroscience Research Center, where he leads Phase II–IV clinical trials for next-generation neurotherapeutics, and the creator of the Brain Tune Up! Protocol.


His work focuses on improving brain health, resilience, and quality of life by addressing neurological disease at its root causes.

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian
  
  

Psychiatric drug development may be overcomplicating progress while overlooking effective treatments. Brandon Li speaks with Dr. Jacob Jacobsen, neuroscientist and CEO of Evecxia Therapeutics, about why clinical outcomes should matter more than novel mechanisms.


Jacobsen argues that the field’s fixation on discovering entirely new mechanisms has distracted from the real goal: delivering treatments that produce better clinical outcomes for patients. Drawing on decades of human clinical data, he explains how serotonin synthesis amplification builds on well-established biology to enhance the effectiveness of existing antidepressant approaches, rather than replacing them.


The conversation explores why oral, scalable treatments are essential for addressing the massive unmet need in treatment-resistant depression, especially when costly clinic-based therapies reach only a fraction of patients. Jacobsen also breaks down why OCD presents a smarter initial indication for development, with lower placebo response rates, better patient selection, and a clear regulatory gap for next-line therapies.


Brandon and Dr. Jacobsen take a candid look at the structural failures in psychiatric research, including the continued reliance on animal behavioral models that have repeatedly failed to predict human outcomes. Instead,Dr. Jacobsen advocates for a return to human biology, biomarker research, and clinically grounded trial design, approaches that prioritize real-world impact over theoretical elegance.

What You'll Learn:- Why clinical novelty matters more than mechanistic novelty in psychiatric drug development


- How serotonin synthesis amplification can improve outcomes beyond traditional SSRIs


- The scalability advantages of oral treatments compared to clinic-based therapies like ketamine


- Why OCD is a strategically stronger indication than depression for early clinical development


- How placebo response rates distort psychiatric trial outcomes and how to reduce them


- Why animal models have repeatedly failed psychiatry and continue to slow innovation


- The importance of prioritizing human biology, biomarkers, and real-world clinical data


- How smarter trial design can reduce risk while increasing the likelihood of meaningful results

About the Guest:
Dr. Jacob Jacobsen is a neuroscientist, inventor, and CEO of Evecxia Therapeutics. He is the originator of the serotonin synthesis amplification pharmacological concept and has led seminal cross-disciplinary research in this area. Prior to Evecxia, Jacobsen held research positions at Duke University and Duke–National University of Singapore and spent eight years in pharma-biotech at NeuroSearch and Lundbeck, working on drug discovery and target validation.
Dr. Jacobsen is widely published in leading psychiatry journals, is an inventor on multiple issued and pending patents, and holds a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Copenhagen.


Episode Resources:

• Jacob Jacobsen on LinkedIn 
• Brandon Li on LinkedIn
• Company Website:
  • Evecxia 

Power to the Patients is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Top 3 most downloaded episodes

• Inside the ALS Breakthrough: 20-Year Journey to FDA Approval with Dr. Joseph Palumbo
• Why Clinical Trial Speed Kills Success - And What Top Sponsors Do Instead ft. Steve Branna
• Who Really Protects Patients in Clinical Trials? With Dr. Lara Shirikjian