BioCentury This Week

A handful of encouraging signals is cause for cautious optimism for biotech headed into the second half of the year — companies have been able to parlay strong data into follow-on capital and M&A activity is picking up. That said, the IPO market continues to be closed and concerns about U.S. drug pricing and FDA stability continue to weigh on expectations for a robust near-term sector recovery. Special guest Megan Hooton from IQVIA Biotech joins BioCentury’s analysts on a special edition of the podcast to discuss key indicators of progress for the biopharma sector. Hooton is president of IQVIA Biotech [https://www.iqviabiotech.com/visionaries], which sponsored this episode of the pod. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656614 [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656614] #biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #BiotechTrends #ClinicalTrials #GeneTherapy #CellTherapy 00:01 – Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 02:37 – Biotech Markets 06:41 – Clinical Highlights 10:26 – Insights from Meg Hooton 23:10 – Advanced Therapies To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com. Reach us by sending a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1035190/open_sms]

This week’s deal between GSK and Jiangsu Hengrui is a prime example of how Western biopharmas have begun to recognize the innovation and opportunities being fostered in China — and how it’s no longer all about fast followers [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656540]. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts put the collaboration [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656602] between GSK and Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, two of the most active cross-border dealmakers, into the context of East-West dealmaking over the past 30 months, assessing the innovation that is driving the rush to partner with biotechs in China, Japan, South Korea and beyond, and the types of companies looking to Asia for assets. BioCentury’s analysts also discuss Steve Bates’ outsized role [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656576] in building the U.K. biotech hub, as he readies to take on a new role in the U.K. government. They examine new VC funds from Omega Funds [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656581] and Brandon Capital [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656572], FDA’s new national priority voucher pilot program [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656559], and fallout from how FDA and  Sarepta Therapeutics handled the deaths [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656586] of four patients who had received the biotech’s gene therapies. This episode of BioCentury This Week is sponsored by IQVIA Biotech [https://www.iqviabiotech.com/visionaries]. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656592 [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656592] #biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #EastWestDealmaking #ChinaBiotech #UKBiotech #FDAPolicy 00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 02:48 - Asia Deals Landscape 17:32 - Steve Bates & U.K. Biotech 25:46 - FDA's New Voucher Pilot 31:01 - New VC Funds 35:28 - Sarepta To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com. Reach us by sending a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1035190/open_sms]

Last week’s public disclosure that a gene therapy from Sarepta had caused a third death led FDA to ask the company to stop distributing its DMD gene therapy Elevidys, a move the biotech has resisted. The deaths, and disputes between FDA and Sarepta, raise questions about the future of AAV gene therapies, as well as the future of FDA’s platform technology designation [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656535]. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts unpack the events surrounding Sarepta’s gene therapies and discuss [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656529]how FDA, industry and patient groups should come together to learn the lessons from the tragic, avoidable deaths. BioCentury’s analysts also assess Monday’s appointment [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656543] of Stanford professor and biotech executive George Tidmarsh to lead FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and check in on the latest [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656502] trends [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656518] in venture financings. This episode of BioCentury This Week is sponsored by IQVIA Biotech [https://www.iqviabiotech.com/visionaries]. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656537 [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656537] #biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #GeneTherapy #AAVTherapy #Sarepta #Elevidys 00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 02:03 - Gene Therapy 17:59 - Leading CDER 27:00 - Venture Report To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com. Reach us by sending a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1035190/open_sms]

Chinese biotech is the lone bright spot for the biopharma financial markets in 1H25, as macro concerns about the most favored nation (MFN) pricing policy and FDA weigh on the prospects for biotech elsewhere. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss the positives — and negatives — impacting investor sentiment headed into the second half of the year. The team also discuss where the quantum computing revolution could have its biggest impact on drug development, and review the proposals and accomplishments of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary over his first 100 days in office. This episode of BioCentury This Week was sponsored by IQVIA Biotech [https://www.iqviabiotech.com/visionaries]. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656482 [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656482/3q-markets-preview-quantum-computing-makary-s-first-100-days-a-biocentury-podcast] #biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #financialmarkets #FDA #quantumcomputing 00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 04:43 - Q25 Financial Markets Preview 22:20 - Quantum Computing Impact on Biopharma 30:07 - Makary's First 100 Days To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com. Reach us by sending a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1035190/open_sms]

Grand Rounds heads to Europe: first meeting Sept. 17 in Cambridge, U.K. There are many reasons why it may be the European biomedical ecosystem’s moment to shine, and advances at the academia-industry interface are a core part of that story, particularly in Cambridge, U.K. — the site of the inaugural BioCentury Grand Rounds – Europe conference. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts are joined by four leaders in the Cambridge, U.K., life sciences community to preview the Sept. 17-19 meeting: Kathryn Chapman, executive director of Innovate Cambridge; Anne Horgan, partner, Cambridge Innovation Capital; Sally Mardikian, business development director, Astrazeneca; and Kristin-Anne Rutter, executive director of Cambridge University Health Partners. The BioCentury team and its Cambridge counterparts discuss the conference’s themes and how they relate to the region’s strengths, and offer both some tough love and a warm invitation to early-stage innovators looking for science-forward investors and partners. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656373 [https://www.biocentury.com/article/656373] #biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #Discovery #Translation #BioCenturyGrandRoundsEurope 00:00 - Introduction 01:53 - Grand Rounds Cambridge Themes 10:14 - Why Cambridge? 23:43 - Tough Love 28:02 - Join us at GlastonGeek To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com. Reach us by sending a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1035190/open_sms]