This week on The Pharma Letter Podcast, we’re joined by Marina Udier, chief executive of Nouscom — a biotech company developing cancer vaccines.

Founded in 2015, the firm is working on cancer vaccines that use a viral vector platform to train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer. The company is developing both personalized and off-the-shelf approaches, aiming to treat a range of tumors.

Before taking the helm at Nouscom, Dr Udier built a diverse career across healthcare — working in consulting, big pharma, and venture capital. That breadth of experience now informs her leadership at a company with big ambitions in oncology.

With more than $80 million in new funding and a partnership in place with Janssen, the company is focused on moving its vaccines further through clinical development.

Earlier this year, Nouscom shared data at the annual AACR congress from a study in people with Lynch Syndrome — a genetic condition that increases the risk of certain cancers.

In this episode, we’ll ask Dr Udier about the latest results, how partnerships fit into the company’s strategy, and why cancer prevention may play a bigger role in the future of oncology.

This week on The Pharma Letter Podcast, we’re joined by Howard Fillit, co-founder and chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF).

As the FDA approval of anti-amyloid drugs like lecanemab and donanemab marks a new era in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, questions remain around cost, access, and real-world impact. 

A geriatrician and neuroscientist, Dr Fillit has argued for a broader approach to Alzheimer’s—one that targets not just amyloid, but the full biology of aging.
Dr Fillit and the ADDF are working to expand the therapeutic toolbox, backing research into novel mechanisms, smarter diagnostics, and more efficient trial designs.

With new interest in combination therapies, biomarker-driven care, and risk-reduction strategies, the field is evolving fast. In this episode, we’ll talk about what’s coming next in Alzheimer’s R&D, and how philanthropy, biotech, and science are converging to shape the future of care.

This week on The Pharma Letter Podcast, we’re joined by Quin Wills, co-founder and chief scientific officer of UK biotech Ochre Bio.

A physician-scientist with a background in genomics and computational biology, Quin has spent much of his career focused on the biology of liver disease — a path that has shaped Ochre’s approach to RNA-based therapies and human-based validation models.

Founded in 2019, the Oxford-based biotech is developing a pipeline of RNA medicines for chronic liver conditions, using live human donor livers to test therapies in real time. 

With a focus on regenerative biology and fibrosis, the company’s platform has drawn interest from heavyweights in the industry.

In 2024, Ochre landed a regenerative medicine partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim targeting advanced MASH cirrhosis, and signed a multi-year data licensing deal with GSK to deepen AI models of liver disease.

Backed by Khosla Ventures, the firm raised a $30 million Series A in late 22 and is now progressing its first programs toward IND-enabling studies.

In this week’s episode, we ask Quin about the scientific vision behind Ochre Bio, the state of innovation in liver disease, and where AI is beginning to shift the needle in drug development.

This week on The Pharma Letter Podcast, we are joined by Tony Clarke, senior VP of IT digital operations at ICON (Nasdaq: ICLR).

As a leader in digital transformation within clinical research, Tony has been at the forefront of implementing AI-driven solutions to enhance drug development. 

A global contract research organization (CRO), ICON has been tracking industry attitudes toward digital innovation. In 2019, the company conducted a survey to gauge investment trends in new technologies, and now, five years later, a new study reveals how perceptions and adoption have evolved. 

While the rise of AI, particularly generative AI, has dominated the debate across industries, we consider how it is truly shaping clinical research, including potential barriers to adoption.

We’ll also talk about how digital tools are driving efficiencies in drug development, and what the future holds for technology in clinical trials.

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In this week’s podcast, we welcome Iddo Peleg, CEO and co-founder of Yonalink, who provides insights into the current and future state of the clinical trial industry. 

As we move headlong into 2025, a year that appears set to be characterized by global economic and political turmoil, Iddo discusses major trends in the industry, including challenges posed by the COVID-19 aftermath and the potential impacts of regulatory upheaval on clinical trials. 

He also outlines how Yonalink’s technology, which streams data from electronic health records to clinical trial databases, can dramatically reduce timelines and improve accuracy in clinical studies. 

The conversation delves into the practicalities and potentials of decentralized and distributed clinical trials, offering advice to young biotech startups on leveraging the right technology for innovation.

In this episode, we’ll take a look at the role of Japanese pharmaceutical groups in the UK, with Jackie Davis, general manager at Astellas Pharma.

Tokyo-headquartered Astellas (TYO: 4503) has developed a strong portfolio in urology, oncology and immunology, most recently with US FDA approval for Vyloy (zolbetuximab), a key addition to its cancer treatments.

It’s one of many Japanese companies with a strong presence in the UK, represented nationally by the Japanese Pharmaceutical Group, of which Jackie is the current chair.

We’ll get into the details of a recent visit from the JPG to the House of Lords, as well as her view on some of the challenges and opportunities that have arisen in the years since Brexit.

This week, we discuss a novel AI-driven approach to drug development, and its potential to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

We are joined by Yanay Ofran, chief executive and founder of Israel-based Biolojic Design, a company that is working on programmable antibodies.

Biolojic's platform has already yielded a first-of-its-kind computationally designed antibody, now in Phase II trials, as well as a pipeline aimed at autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.

The firm has also forged collaborations with major players in the industry, including fellow Israeli firm Teva (NYSE: TEVA), as well as Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE). 

This week we’re focusing on an area of clinical research that has been of great interest for a number of years, that is NASH, also known as MASH. 

It’s a high area of unmet medical need, with over 20 million diagnosed cases across Europe and the USA, and while there are more than 80 therapies currently in the pipeline, only around 5% of these are in Phase III development.

One company working in this area is San Francisco-based 89bio (Nasdaq: ETNB), which has a candidate now in Phase III, pegozafermin, and in this episode we are joined by the company’s chief executive, Rohan Palekar.

We are also joined by Dr Arun Sanyal, who is Professor of Medicine at VCU Health and founder of the Liver Trust.

This week we are speaking with the chief executive of British drug development company Ellipses Pharma. 

Founded in 2018 to create new cancer therapies, the firm is following a unique multimodal approach to clinical development, leveraging a variety of technologies.

That’s not the only way that Ellipses is rethinking drug development. The company uses a consultative model to provide an unbiased vetting process for candidates, with the goal of de-risking initial asset selection.

Ellipses also wants to make sure that capital is invested in the most efficient way, pursuing a portfolio-based strategy which ensures uninterrupted development capital for each asset.

Our guest on the show is Ellipses CEO and co-founder, Dr Rajan Jethwa.

In the world of outsourced clinical research, ICON is a big fish in a pond full of other increasingly big fish.

In this episode of The Pharma Letter Podcast, we chat with the company’s chief commercial officer, George McMillan.

Like many in the industry, the Dublin-headquartered clinical research organization (CRO) has sought to grow in size to take advantage of increasing demand for its services.

A coming together of numerous advances in biotechnology over recent years has led to a new wave of innovation in the life sciences.

Much of the innovation has come from smaller biotech firms, sometimes incubated by hands-on investment groups dedicated to nurturing early-stage science.

But such start-ups need support to progress into clinical-stage development and beyond, with regulators keeping a close eye on the development and manufacture of new technologies.

This is one area in which CROs and CDMOs have picked up the slack.

Another trend is the increasing desire on the part of large pharmaceutical players to divest non-core parts of the business and focus on their key strengths - providing an opportunity for a company like ICON to pick up new partnerships and development opportunities.

As new biologics and cell and gene therapies start to have a real impact on people’s lives and health, the degree of specialism required has enabled some companies to establish themselves as leading experts in certain areas.

The future looks bright, and as the impact of artificial intelligence is increasingly felt in this sector, there is surely plenty more to come.