06.05.26 -- New Podcast Episodes: Validation Challenges, Rare Disease Drug Commercialization, Redefining CAR-T Timing, and More

Check out the latest episodes from Better Biopharma, Cell & Gene: The Podcast, and Business of Biotech. As a member of the Life Science Connect community, you have access to content beyond our weekly newsletters, including our podcast series.

In Part 2 of this conversation on “Better Biopharma,” panelists from the Bioprocess Online Live event “Optimizing Process Development Through Upstream And Downstream Integration” continue their discussion about how upstream and downstream development teams can work together to accelerate timelines and reduce risk and bottlenecks in process development.

In this episode, host Tyler Menichiello is joined by BioPlan Associates’ director of research, Katrina Cordovado, as well as Joshua Nelson, Ph.D., a senior material qualification specialist at Takeda, and Paul Priebe, a consultant and single-use expert, to continue their conversation from the Bioprocess Online Live event, "Closing The Adoption Gap For Advanced Single-Use Materials."

On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, we talk with NervGen leaders Adam Rogers, M.D., and Rich Macary about NVG-291, a daily neuroreparative peptide designed to restore function in patients with spinal cord injuries.

Brett Monia, Ph.D., CEO at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, talks about how antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) graduated from a late-1980s lab concept to real RNA-targeting medicines, and why Ionis stuck with a difficult modality despite multiple setbacks.

Wyatt McDonnell, Ph.D., cofounder and CEO at Infinimmune, talks about how single-cell biology and computational rigor led to the formation of Infinimmune, and a new way to discover human-derived antibody drugs.

Marinna Madrid, Ph.D., Cofounder, Board Member, Chief Product and Regulatory Officer at Cellino, talks about scaling up an automated manufacturing process she co-invented for personalized autologous induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapies using laser-activated substrates and AI.

Neil McFarlane, CEO at Zevra Therapeutics, talks about transitioning to a focused rare disease company through acquisitions, and building out a commercial organization.

Host Erin Harris talks to Tatyana Matveeva, Ph.D., Director of cGMP Operations at George A. "Doc" Lopez, MD Laboratory for Regenerative Cell Therapy, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, about leading cGMP operations within an integrated ecosystem at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where manufacturing, research, and neurosurgery coexist.

Host Erin Harris reconnects with Zachary Roberts, M.D., Ph.D., EVP of Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer at Allogene Therapeutics, to explore how allogeneic CAR-T is evolving from a scalability promise into an earlier-line, potentially curative intervention.