Best BioCentury Podcasts (2025)

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Ep. 99 – Stelios Papadopoulos on Biotech’s Long View: Pricing Pressure, China & Big Pharma 37:59

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7d ago37:59

37:59

In historical terms, this is not a bear market, says Stelios Papadopoulos. There’s volatility, which is unnerving, and major issues to reckon with, but the level of anxiety in biotech doesn’t reflect the “extraordinary science, the likes of which we’ve never seen — and it’s getting better,” said Papadopoulos on The BioCentury Show. Papadopoulos is …

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Ep. 98 - Inside Precision Oncology’s Next Chapter with Fore’s Bill Hinshaw 37:38

20d ago37:38

37:38

When Bill Hinshaw looks back across the arc of his career — from his early days helping to commercialize Gleevec to his present role leading Fore Biotherapeutics — he sees a precision oncology field transformed by technological ambition, yet still grappling with many of the structural challenges that defined its beginnings, now compounded by the di…

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Popular Episode - Reimagining FDA: Steve Usdin on Designing the Drug Regulator of the Future 38:39

29d ago38:39

38:39

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show from September 5, 2025. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. If you could redesign FDA from the ground up, what would it look like? That’s the fundamental question underlying the 2025 BioCentury Bac…

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Ep. 97 – From NIH to Industry: Zerhouni Warns Policy & Rhetoric Threaten U.S. Science 34:11

1M ago34:11

34:11

Elias Zerhouni personifies the American dream. He arrived in the U.S. from Algeria as a young man with a couple of hundred dollars in his pocket. Talent, ambition and hard work propelled him into a successful academic career. In 2002, he was nominated and confirmed as NIH director, and later he served in senior positions in the biopharma industry. …

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Ep. 96 – From Pharma Partnering to Biotech CEO: Sophie Kornowski on Boston Pharma’s Playbook 32:17

2M ago32:17

32:17

It took Sophie Kornowski under four years as CEO of Boston Pharma to bring it from a pipeline full of in-licensed assets to an acquisition by GSK for about $2 billion in total deal value for a single MASH program. Though her first gig as a biotech CEO, Kornowski’s success was built on her years of experience as head of partnering at Roche. She disc…

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Ep. 95 - Kymera CEO Nello Mainolfi: Matching Degrader Chemistry to the Problem 31:33

2M ago31:33

31:33

Kymera Therapeutics has a clear mission: to transform immunology with targeted protein degraders that enable “oral drugs with biologics-like activity,” CEO Nello Mainolfi told The BioCentury Show. A pioneer in one of biopharma’s most closely watched new therapeutic modalities, Kymera is now over nine years into its story, with multiple pharma partn…

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Ep. 94 - Frazier's James Li on China’s Rapidly Evolving Biotech Deal Landscape 29:45

3M ago29:45

29:45

The frenzy among Western companies to access China’s biotechnology innovation is remaking the landscape for cross-border dealmaking, with assets becoming more expensive and partnerships earlier and broader than ever before. That’s being driven by exceptional capital efficiency, access to patients and speed of development, said Frazier Life Sciences…

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Ep. 93 – BIO’s Fritz Bittenbender on Trump 2.0, MFN Threats & Pharma’s Concessions 34:03

3M ago34:03

34:03

President Donald Trump’s demands for “most favored nation” drug pricing presents the biopharma industry with an immense public policy challenge. Drug companies are convinced that meeting the president’s demand to reduce U.S. prices to levels below those of other industrialized countries would decimate the industry. On this episode of The BioCentury…

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Ep. 92 - Reimagining FDA: Steve Usdin on Designing the Drug Regulator of the Future 38:43

4M ago38:43

38:43

If you could redesign FDA from the ground up, what would it look like? That’s the fundamental question underlying the 2025 BioCentury Back to School essay, authored by BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin, who has been a leading voice on regulation and policy for over two decades. The topic is especially meaningful in this era of FDA turmoil, w…

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Ep. 91 – Annalisa Jenkins: How MHRA’s Reset Could Revive U.K. Biotech 36:07

4M ago36:07

36:07

A new head at MHRA, a streamlined government life sciences strategy, and a more sophisticated innovation ecosystem have Annalisa Jenkins optimistic about the future of U.K. biotech — and its potential to carve out a stronger global role. On The BioCentury Show, Annalisa Jenkins, chair of Gemma Biotherapeutics, discussed the evolving landscape of bi…

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Popular Episode - Vertex’s Winning Formula: Altshuler on Choosing the Next Breakthroughs 32:44

4M ago32:44

32:44

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show from March 19, 2025. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. Vertex’s approach to research, defined over a decade ago to beat the dismal odds of success in biotech, remains core to its strategy, even a…

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Ep. 90 – Inside Biopharma Dealmaking: ProFound CEO John Lepore on Knowing What Partners Want 33:05

5M ago33:05

33:05

In an environment where everybody hurts, it helps for biotech CEOs to understand the pressures driving pharmas, investors and other key players if they want to secure deals and financings that will help them succeed. That’s how John Lepore, CEO of Profound Therapeutics and former head of research at GSK, is navigating his early stage company throug…

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Ep. 89 - Delivering on the biosimilars promise, a conversation with Gillian Woollett 31:47

6M ago31:47

31:47

Gillian Woollett, head of regulatory strategy and policy at Samsung Bioepis, discusses how FDA can deliver on its promise to “massively streamline” the regulation of biosimilars. Eliminating unnecessary clinical trial requirements could halve the time and cost of developing a biosimilar, according to Woollett. While regulators around the world are …

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Ep. 88 – From Satiety to Muscle: Zealand CEO Steensberg on Amylin’s Edge in Obesity 30:41

6M ago30:41

30:41

Mounting clinical evidence suggests amylin agonists could supplant GLP-1 molecules as the foundational backbone of future obesity therapy, says Zealand Pharma CEO Adam Steensberg on The BioCentury Show. One of the leading cardiometabolic biotechs, Zealand received the largest-ever upfront payment in a biotech licensing deal when it partnered its pe…

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Ep. 87 – Korea’s Biotech Playbook: Orum CEO SJ Lee on Going Global and Creating Novel Therapies 27:41

7M ago27:41

27:41

Globalizing quickly and gaining a first-mover advantage are the winning strategies for South Korean biotechs as they look to compete on the world stage, says Orum Therapeutics founder and CEO SJ Lee in conversation with BioCentury Executive Editor Jeff Cranmer on The BioCentury Show. Lee’s company, a leader in degrader-antibody conjugates, provides…

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Ep. 86 – Macrophages, ASCO & Clever-1: Faron CEO Juho Jalkanen on Bexmarilimab’s Promise 10:22

7M ago10:22

10:22

The macrophage field has seen its share of setbacks, but Faron believes bexmarilimab, its humanized mAb that binds to immune checkpoint target Clever-1, has what it takes to get across the goal line at FDA. On a special sponsored edition of The BioCentury Show, Juho Jalkanen, founder and CEO of Faron Pharmaceuticals, explains how the Finnish biotec…

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Ep. 85 - Stifel’s Opler on Trump 2.0's FDA & the Capital Markets 32:39

7M ago32:39

32:39

Notwithstanding the bad start that the Trump administration got off to on FDA, Tim Opler is optimistic that the agency will serve drug developers well, and sees enough good signals that the direction the agency is headed will not bring the difficult regulatory era that many in the industry feared. Opler, a managing director at Stifel, spoke to Edit…

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Ep. 84 – Leadership Amid Turmoil: Moonlake CEO Jorge Santos Da Silva 29:19

7M ago29:19

29:19

As CEO of a vintage 2021 biotech, Jorge Santos Da Silva has had his leadership mettle tested by a pandemic, rising interest rates, a bear market, and a tumultuous U.S. policy environment — all while building the case for Moonlake’s lead program to become a top therapy for hidradenitis suppurativa and, eventually, a “pipeline-in-a-product.” The key …

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Ep. 83 – Europe’s Biotech Moment: Jérôme van Biervliet on Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity 31:54

8M ago31:54

31:54

Europe did not ask for this opportunity, says VIB’s Jérôme van Biervliet, but with FDA and the U.S. research funding situation headed into uncertain territory, it needs to use this moment to capitalize on its strengths in research, and address the shortcomings of its business and regulatory systems that have made it hard for biotech to fulfill its …

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Ep. 82 – Act Now or Fall Behind: Michelle Rozo on Biotech’s National Security Stakes 31:01

8M ago31:01

31:01

The U.S. will cede its preeminence in biotechnology to China within three years unless the government acts urgently, an independent commission chartered by Congress warns. “Our window to act is closing,” the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology said in a newly released report. “We need a two-track strategy: make America innovate f…

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Ep. 81 - Data-Driven Growth: Immunocore CEO Bahija Jallal on Expanding TCR Therapies 30:52

9M ago30:52

30:52

On the latest episode of The BioCentury Show, Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn speaks with Bahija Jallal, CEO of Immunocore and the former president of Medimmune. While some biotechs are circumspect about gathering data during clinical trials that might not support the product in question, Jallal sees it as part of the obligation to patients and the…

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Ep. 80 - Vertex’s Winning Formula: Altshuler on Choosing the Next Breakthroughs 32:26

9M ago32:26

32:26

Vertex’s approach to research, defined over a decade ago to beat the dismal odds of success in biotech, remains core to its strategy, even as the industry evolves and technologies expand. While that strategy, which EVP and CSO David Altshuler calls “serial innovation,” has seen the company launch eight drugs since 2011 and jump market cap tiers on …

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Ep. 79 - BNP Paribas’ Moneer on Biotech’s Bull Case: M&A, PE, and Market Recovery 29:33

10M ago29:33

29:33

Since the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco in early January, biotech has seen a notable surge in enthusiasm, Zahid Moneer, senior managing director of investment banking at BNP Paribas, told The BioCentury Show. Moneer, who is more upbeat than many in today’s biopharma sector, sees capital raises from million-dollar seed ro…

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Ep. 78 - Biotech’s New Normal: SR One’s Simeon George on Adapting to Market Constraints 31:04

10M ago31:04

31:04

Biotechs need to get used to the new normal, says SR One CEO and Managing Partner Simeon George, and that will require significant adjustments to the business model. This new normal comes from an extended tough capital environment against a backdrop of political uncertainty, but while biotechs face a different set of factors than they have in the p…

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Ep. 77 - AI’s Next Leap: Foresite Labs’ Vik Bajaj on Predictive Biology 35:29

11M ago35:29

35:29

Clinical trials will be launched in the next year or two to test predictions about causal biology made by artificial intelligence models, Vik Bajaj, co-founder and CEO of Foresite Labs and managing director of Foresite Capital Management, believes. Foresite teamed up with Arch Venture Partners last year on a $1 billion venture round to fund Xaira T…

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Ep. 76 - FDA Inflection Point: Steve Usdin on Biopharma during Trump 2.0 34:01

11M ago34:01

34:01

All presidential transitions with a change of party come with disruption and threats as well as opportunities. But this one, in particular with regard to the implications for FDA, is different from all those Steve Usdin has been covering in his 30-year tenure as Washington editor at BioCentury. In particular, this is an inflection point for the age…

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Ep. 75 - PBMs, IRA, RFK Jr: A Conversation With Rep. Jake Auchincloss 36:04

12M ago36:04

36:04

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), an influential voice in Congress on life sciences issues, gained stature last week when he was appointed to serve on the Energy & Commerce Committee, giving him a seat at the table for debates over legislation affecting FDA, CMS and NIH and a host of issues of critical importance to the biopharma industry. In an int…

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Ep. 74 - Chris Bardon on Biotech’s Recovery: Valuations, Obesity Drugs, and M&A 34:03

12M ago34:03

34:03

Specialist public investors are doing their best to hold up the sector, but biotech still has to wash out many of the lower quality companies that were funded during the boom and ended up driving the generalists away, said MPM Bioimpact's Chris Bardon on The BioCentury Show. Bardon said the market hasn’t yet found the footing that will see an openi…

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Ep. 73 - Resilience and the CEO’s Paradox: Aoife Brennan on Leading in Biotech 32:12

1y ago32:12

32:12

Leading biotech companies through the turbulence of the past few years and the uncertainty of the next ones takes not just resilience, but an ability to grapple with the CEO’s paradox, according to Climb Bio CEO Aoife Brennan. This paradox requires preparing for repeated setbacks while planning optimistically, a duality that has been the story of b…

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Ep. 72 - Outlook for Biotech M&A and Financing: Sidley's Robert Darwin 35:54

1y ago35:54

35:54

With new governments both side of the pond, capital markets picking up, and some geopolitical overhang, there’s a mixed feast for biotech, with a net trend to the positive, says Sidley Austin’s Robert Darwin, who specializes in global M&A and private equity for life sciences and healthcare companies and investors. In conversation with Editor in Chi…

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Ep. 71 - Pazdur Unplugged: FDA Director Richard Pazdur on the Past, Future of Cancer Treatments 41:44

1y ago41:44

41:44

Richard Pazdur, director of FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, joined FDA in 1999. Looking back on his 25th anniversary, he draws a line between unpopular decisions at the start of his tenure and a surge in cancer drug development over the last 20 years. He believes this and other lessons from the regulation of oncology can be applied broadly acr…

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Ep. 70 - Trends in Global Biopharma Deals: Lazard’s Kingston and Raine 33:56

1y ago33:56

33:56

With most of the highly attractive late-stage assets already scooped up, pharmas are turning their sights to Phase II companies, and lining up their case to make an attractive offer and move fast. About 40% of the M&A deals in 2023-24 were completed in less than six weeks, from approach to announcement, according to Lazard’s data. Michael Kingston …

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Ep. 69 - Lee Fleisher: An Insider’s Account of CMS’s Alzheimer’s Coverage Decisions 34:36

1y ago34:36

34:36

CMS’s controversial decision to restrict access to Alzheimer’s mAb treatments, including Aduhelm, approved under FDA’s accelerated pathway was a unique case that is unlikely to set a precedent, former CMS CMO Lee Fleisher told BioCentury. “I do not think this will be repeated,” he said. In an interview with The BioCentury Show's Steve Usdin, Fleish…

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Ep. 68 - Inside BeiGene: CEO John Oyler on Owning the Drug Development Process 35:08

1+ y ago35:08

35:08

Few CEOs have built a $20 billion biotech in under 15 years, as John Oyler has with BeiGene, managing to stay in that market cap band even through the downmarket. His strategy, to own clinical trials and manufacturing early on, looks particularly prescient in light of the cost and supply constraints threatening many biotechs today. On this episode …

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Ep 67 - AAM's Craig Burton on Opportunities, Challenges of U.S. Biosimilars Market 28:51

1+ y ago28:51

28:51

There is good news in this year’s Association for Accessible Medicines report on savings from biosimilars, including a 30% increase over the last year in savings attributed to biosimilars. The report also explores the economic, policy and regulatory headwinds that are preventing the industry from generating savings at a level that would have a dram…

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Popular Episode - Bob Nelsen on AI, China and the IRA 35:33

1+ y ago35:33

35:33

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show from February 22, 2024. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. In a wide-ranging conversation with BioCentury, Bob Nelsen, co-founder and managing director of Arch Venture Partners, said he is excited…

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Ep. 66 - Jane Grogan on Building Biogen’s Growth Engine 32:23

1+ y ago32:23

32:23

As Jane Grogan anticipates the unmet needs in patients five years from now, she’s harnessing a wave of interest in targeting B cells as a key driver of an immunology expansion at Biogen. In conversation with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCentury Show, Grogan, who became EVP and head of research of Biogen in October, discusses how she’s …

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Ep. 65 - Astellas' Claus Zieler: Global Launches with Local Impact 32:27

1+ y ago32:27

32:27

As Astellas prepares to launch four products in parallel, Chief Commercial Officer Claus Zieler is balancing the complexity of this multi-faceted enterprise with a simple guiding principle: it has to work at a local level, and that will change with geography, circumstance and time. In conversation with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCent…

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Ep. 64 - NPC CEO John O’Brien: Why America Needs an Honest Conversation About Drug Pricing 33:36

1+ y ago33:36

33:36

Ignorance about the path from scientific discovery to approved drugs, high out-of-pocket costs, and a byzantine healthcare system that obscures net prices while inflating list prices have fueled policies that threaten biomedical progress, John O’Brien, CEO of think tank National Pharmaceutical Council, told BioCentury. In an interview with The BioC…

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Ep. 63 - Day One's Jeremy Bender: Building Pediatric Oncology from the Ground Up 32:27

1+ y ago32:27

32:27

Pediatric cancer drug development is difficult: it requires high levels of safety, involves parents as well as the patients, and has small populations that can make it difficult to achieve the revenues that reward the investment. Squaring that circle, according to Day One Biopharmaceuticals CEO Jeremy Bender, is not impossible, but takes a dedicate…

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Ep. 62 - Rick Bright: Navigating the Avian Flu Threat 40:22

1+ y ago40:22

40:22

The U.S. is experiencing events that are either the first stages of a widespread avian influenza outbreak or a fire drill that will show how well the nation is prepared for an outbreak. The U.S. has not stepped up to meet the challenge, Rick Bright, the former director of BARDA, told BioCentury. In an interview with The BioCentury Show's Steve Usdi…

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Ep. 61 - Vas Narasimhan: How New Data Fit Novartis’ Growth Plan 32:11

1+ y ago32:11

32:11

Differentiating on tolerability, raising the bar for efficacy and concentrating small molecule development on indications with minimal IRA exposure are all pieces of Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan’s strategy to break into the top pharmas by U.S. sales. Two data readouts this week — one for CML drug Scemblix at ASCO and one for inflammatory disease …

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Ep. 60 - JMM John Maraganore: A higher bar for investment is a credit to biotech 36:00

1+ y ago36:00

36:00

“The bar has gotten higher because science has gotten so much better,” John Maraganore says on the latest BioCentury Show. Reflecting on the capital markets and the state of innovation, the founder and former CEO of Alnylam painted a picture of a robust ecosystem fueled by sprawling innovation, where the higher scrutiny by investors will serve the …

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Ep. 59 - Derek Lowe Unplugged: AI; Biosecure; FDA, Abortion & SCOTUS; and more 32:09

1+ y ago32:09

32:09

“I’m a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist” about the potential for AI to transform drug development, Derek Lowe, author of the In the Pipeline blog, told BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin on the latest BioCentury Show. Lowe's skepticism about claims that AI will rapidly transform the field is driven by a belief that the “problems …

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Ep. 57 - BMS's Robert Plenge: Causal biology is the North Star of R&D 31:17

1+ y ago31:17

31:17

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. Within the framework of target, modality and path to clinic, causal biology is the axis along which Head of Research Robert Plenge is building and prosecuting r…

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Ep. 58 - Ysios' Karen Wagner: How Europe's Biotechs Can Rise Above the Noise 30:54

1+ y ago30:54

30:54

It sounds obvious, but still needs saying, says Ysios Capital's Karen Wagner. “How do you rise above the noise? By having the most spectacular data.” In conversation with Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn on The BioCentury Show, Wagner discussed the theme of the upcoming Bio€quity Europe conference — rising above the noise: in a sea of competition wh…

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Ep. 53 - Bob Nelsen on AI, China and the IRA 35:26

1+ y ago35:26

35:26

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. In a wide-ranging conversation with BioCentury, Bob Nelsen, co-founder and managing director of Arch Venture Partners, said he is excited by the potential for A…

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Ep. 54 - Arthur Caplan: Lessons From a Compassionate Use Firestorm 30:52

1+ y ago30:52

30:52

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. On the tenth anniversary of a viral media campaign for access to an unapproved drug that extended a boy’s life, bioethicist Arthur Caplan reflected in an interv…

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Ep. 55 - Bruce Booth: Biotech Benefiting from Belt-Tightening 32:10

1+ y ago32:10

32:10

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. Atlas Venture’s Bruce Booth believes the belt-tightening by biotechs in the past few years will presage a better financing outlook for companies, but the ripple…

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Ep. 56 - BIO’s John Crowley on the Biosecure Act 36:55

1+ y ago36:55

36:55

This is a previously recorded episode of The BioCentury Show. Subscribe to this channel to listen to each new episode. Visit TheBioCenturyYouTube.com to access and watch all prior episodes. BIO CEO John Crowley believes that biotech is part of a “great global rivalry” between the U.S. and China. The role of biotech in determining the outcome of thi…