Molecule to Market: Inside the outsourcing space

CDMO poacher turned biotech gamekeeper

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Vishnu Dwadasi, Director of Manufacturing at Ashvattha Therapeutics Inc.

 

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Vishnu, covering:

• Lessons learned from 15 years in CDMOs and consulting, before joining a start-up drug development company
• What he’s learned from working with and managing CDMOs all over the world
• Why many CDMOs are behind the eight-ball... fancy marketing meets chaotic operations
• The challenge of scaling up through phases as a drug sponsor, and the evolving needs when it comes to outsourcing
• Major frustrations as a client in a post-covid world and the one area every CDMO needs to invest in moving forward

 

Vishnu Dwadasi is currently a Director of Manufacturing at a biopharmaceutical start-up company, Ashvattha Therapeutics, leading drug programs from pre-clinical to commercialization.

Vishnu brings over a decade of experience in life sciences with a unique background in pharmaceutical operations, consulting, and business development. He has developed extensive experience shepherding complex drug development programs from early clinical development to full-scale commercial manufacturing and distribution. Along with his drug development experience, Vishnu has gained expertise in operations and implementing technology solutions for life sciences companies.

Vishnu earned an MBA from Duke University and a B.S. in Health Sciences from Purdue University.

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Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

Q123 M&A roundtable

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with:

• Ross Burn, Chief Executive at CatSci
• James Hales, Senior Director at NorthEdge
• Tom Cowap, Managing Director for Pharma Services at Baird

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain M&A activity with his guests, covering:

• How the market headwinds, continued consolidation and macro slowdowns are impacting M&A activity in our space... if at all...
• Why PE is still very keen on the pharma and biotech ecosystem and why the size and shape of deals and investments in the market have changed.
• How an investment is enabling Ross’ business to accelerate growth in several directions.
• A look forward to geographic shifts, continued biotech outsourcing, and how there maybe riches in the niches of sub-segments of the pharma services ecosystem.

After completing his PhD in 2007, Ross joined AstraZeneca as a Senior Analytical Chemist in process R&D. Ross’ analytical expertise and entrepreneurial mindset was pivotal to the establishment of CatSci Ltd in 2011. Ross became CEO in 2015 and has since led the company’s pivot from a catalyst screening company to the award-winning innovation partner for medicines development that it is today. As such, Ross was included on the 2021 edition of The Medicine Maker’s annual Power List of inspirational professionals in the pharmaceutical industry. CatSci received PE backing in 2022.

James is a Senior Director at NorthEdge and leads the healthcare origination efforts as part of the wider healthcare sector team. He is fortunate to meet with management teams nationally across a number of sub-sectors to understand their plans and to identify new investment opportunities for NorthEdge via growth and development capital, management buy-outs, equity release and buy-and-build opportunities. Prior to joining NorthEdge, James spent seven years in Corporate Finance at Clearwater International where he was a Director responsible for generating mid-market opportunities and managing the Deal Origination team.

Tom is a Managing Director in Baird’s European Healthcare Investment Banking team. Tom joined Baird from Alantra where he spent nine years building Alantra’s pharma services coverage effort, providing M&A services for financial sponsors and independently owned, founder backed businesses in the space. Prior to Alantra, Tom worked at PricewaterCoopers in their Financial Due Diligence team. He also served in the British Army (Reserve – 7th Battalion, The Rifles and 4th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment). Tom is an ACA and had a bachelor’s degree in finance from Durham University.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.

 

Meet the future of bioreactors

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Will Patrick, CEO at Culture Biosciences.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Will, covering:

• How time at Google, MIT and Kendall Square led him to build disruptive tools and hardware for the bioprocessing sector
• Creating a cloud-based, real-time data alternative for companies wanting access to bioreactors... without the need for large-scale investment
• Why biotech and biopharma firms are embracing digitization, virtualization, and simulation... but less so at CDMOs
• Raising funds from VCs that understand the need for technological disruption
• How biotechs, biopharma companies, and CDMOs alike can leverage Culture’s proprietary, integrated, and cloud-based single-use reactor platform
• How enhanced data-driven modeling and simulation can save a lot of time and costs in upstream bioprocess development going forward

Will is an entrepreneurial engineer with a background in mechanical engineering, product design, and bioengineering. He develops hardware products at the interface of biology and digital fabrication. He holds 17 patents and has published 4 peer-reviewed journal articles. He currently runs Culture Biosciences, a company building and operating automated bioreactor infrastructure for the biotech industry.

Will graduated from the MIT Media Lab in 2015 where he was a researcher in the Mediated Matter group. His research focuses on 3D printing fluidic systems and their applications in biotechnology and product design.

Previously, he worked at Google[x] as a Rapid Evaluator where he developed and prototyped new projects for the organization. Will was a founding member of the Google[x] UAV delivery project, Project Wing, was an early team member of Project Loon, and also led the launch communications for Project Glass.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues, and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

Meet the lean, keen biotech

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with  Ian Walters, CEO and Chairman at Portage Biotech.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Ian, covering:

• What Ian learned from his time working with a team of Nobel Prize winners at Rockefeller University
• Breaking the mold by launching a clinical trial in just three months versus the 12-month standard in a big pharma firm
• Why building relationships with big pharma is key as a small biotech company with multiple assets in the pipeline
• How his lean biotech is running the most rapid proof of concept studies in the market whilst conserving cash and building value
• Why manufacturing and reliance on CDMOs have been the biggest challenge to his business

Dr Ian Walters has over 20 years of leadership and expertise in oncology/immunology drug development and specializes in the evaluation, prioritization and innovation of new therapies for the treatment of severe diseases. 

Prior to Portage, Ian spent seven years at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he managed physicians overseeing the international development of more than eight oncology compounds and biomarker and companion diagnostic work. He was a core member of Bristol Myers Squibb’s Strategic Transactions Group evaluating and executing licensing agreements, mergers and acquisitions, clinical collaborations and the company’s immuno-oncology strategy. Prior to BMS, he held positions at PDL BioPharma, Inc., Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc., leading corporate development, translational medicine, clinical development and medical affairs.

Before entering the private sector, Ian was a lead investigator at the Rockefeller University and initiated advanced immunology research to understand the mechanism of action of several compounds. Ian received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an MBA from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

 

Why biotechs are feeling the bite

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Allan Shaw, CFO, Special Advisor & Board Member of several biotech companies, including Portage Biotech.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Allan, covering:

• Allan’s updated view on what is happening in the market since he was on the show last summer and his own change in investment focus
• Why a downturn, negative enterprise value, and cash burn for many biopharma and biotech firms signals an opportunity for others
• A new breed of slimmer, capital-efficient biotechs that will have a reliance on outsourcing built into their de-risk strategy
• Why the capital-intensive CGT area is not always a sure thing - investment tips from someone that has helped raised more than $4 billion in funds

Allan is a senior biopharmaceutical executive and board member with 20+ years of international and transactional experience. He is a five-time public company CFO and has served on six public boards, which included the chairing of two audits and two compensation committees.

He is currently involved with a portfolio of healthcare activities, including serving as Portage Biotech’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior, Shaw also served as managing director and life science practice leader for Alvarez & Marsal’s healthcare industry group. He was also CFO at Serono.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues, and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing; an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.

The Amalgamator of Biz and Bio

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Oren Beske, Amalgamator of Business and Biology at ATUM.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Oren, covering:

• How he ended up at Atum with one of the most peculiar job titles in the industry...
• The balance (and conflict) of combining a world-class science offering with the economic need of needing to monetise a business
• The journey from transactional, smaller deals in the pre-clinical space to powering outsourcing for biotechs
• The realities of drug development capability sharing in return for a slice of the profit pie, and its upsides when it comes to a CRO vendor and drug sponsor model

Dr. Oren Beske joined ATUM in 2019 and brings over 20 years of industry experience to the team. After receiving his Ph.D. in Cell Biology at UCSF, he led a biology team at an automated microscopy start-up that was developing solutions for the high throughput, high content screening industry. Having spent over five years there he moved from product development to the services industry and joined Aragen Bioscience. Whilst joining early in the building of the company as the director of laboratory services, he moved up through the VP level and into various C-Suite roles over nearly 11 years and led the company through the acquisition by GVK Bio.

Following a short stint as the president of ImmunoPrecise Antibodies, he most recently served as the founding CEO of Alloy Therapeutics, Inc. serving to set up the company, in-license its seminal discovery platform, and get the first customers on board.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.

The 30-year biotech and CDMO entrepreneur

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Derek Hennecke, biotech and CDMO Entrepreneur and Board Member.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Derek, covering:

• The behind-the-scenes story of acquiring, growing and selling Xcelience to Capsugel
• Why Derek loves a carve-out with a clear differentiating capability and bags of growth potential
• How he thinks about investments in both a VC and PE capacity, and how this has evolved
• Why Derek is not seeing a slowdown across his portfolio companies…but why there could be a lag

Derek is a biotech entrepreneur and Chairman of various boards, including Microsize and Particle Dynamics. With over 30 years of experience in the CDMO industry and a 2022 Master’s degree from Harvard in the Inceptor Bio lab, he has developed a deep understanding of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, and as a Partner at Kineticos Ventures, he invests in biotech companies that are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in oncology through technologies like gene editing, mRNA, and CAR-T.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.

The ATMP and CDMO deal maker

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with David Anderson, General Partner at Ampersand Capital Partners.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with David, covering:

• What a world-class healthcare PE company looks for, and is repelled by, in a pharma services acquisition target
• Behind the scenes of some of the biggest M&A deals in the outsourcing space in recent years - including Brammer Bio’s sale to Thermo
• Beyond the dollars of a deal - the importance of relationships, trust and straight talk
• What life is like on the board of several fast-growing advanced therapy companies
• Insights on key market tailwinds and where Ampersand plans to invest its $1.2bn fund

David joined Ampersand in 2010. Previously, David spent six years with Covington Associates, a specialty investment bank focused on middle-market M&A in the healthcare sector. Prior to Covington, he spent five years as a consultant for Boston Healthcare Associates. David’s board seats include Genezen, Arranta Bio, StageBio, Protogene, BioClinica, Brammer Bio, Cellero, and Vibalogics. David holds a B.Sc. from the University of Aberdeen, a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Sheffield, and an M.B.A. from Babson College.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.

From AZ to CRO Founder

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Paul Dickinson, Founder and CSO at Seda Pharmaceutical Development Services.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Paul, covering:

• The success factors and a behind-the-scenes look at one of AstraZeneca’s fastest development programs – from the start of clinical trials to approval in just over two and a half years to meet unmet lung cancer needs
• How working with CROs and CDMOs led to identifying a poorly served niche between clinical development performance and rapid early-phase manufacturing
• Leaving AstraZeneca after years of success to bring collective expertise to a broader audience… “jumping in’ and proving they had what it takes
• The rollercoaster of starting and growing a business, the feeling of ‘good anxiety’, and why the value of a scientific mindset in running experiments has paid off in the business world

Paul has held several senior science leadership roles in Academia and Large Pharma. These roles focussed on applying the best science in projects to ensure optimal product performance in the patient, thus bridging pharmaceutical and clinical disciplines. He founded Seda Pharmaceutical Development Services, a company focused on delivering pharmaceutical development (CMC) and clinical pharmacology services to the Pharma industry.

Prior, Paul led AstraZeneca’s clinical pharmacology program to NDA/MAA for AZD9291, which was the highest priority project in the AZ development portfolio and had been awarded ‘breakthrough therapy’ status by the FDA. As a result of both his internal and external scientific leadership, he has been awarded numerous science and innovation awards by AstraZeneca. Paul has published >30 research papers, 5 patents, 2 book chapters, and presented numerous invited lectures and conference abstracts.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.

The iterative nature of emerging therapeutics

In this episode of Molecule to Market, you’ll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Jennifer Chadwick, CSO of ProtaGene.

Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Jennifer, covering:

• Lessons and learnings moving from the world of academia into commercial industry
• The shift from lowest-price tactical outsourcing to value-based, holistic, and strategic outsourcing at a much earlier stage
• Nuances in the sandbox of playing with the buckets of CGTPs, and why emerging therapeutics do not play by the rules
• The increasing importance of risk-based assessment in early-stage drug development, and the need to increase the bar for understanding complex modalities in a smart, cost-effective and efficient way as we begin to understand them more

Jennifer Chadwick is Chief Scientific Officer of ProtaGene and serves as Site Head in Boston. She brings two decades of experience leading scientific teams in the biotech industry and academia and is a well-recognized expert in development of biologics and gene therapy products.

She served as Vice President of Analytical Development and of Biologic Development at BioAnalytix. Previously, Dr. Chadwick was a tenured Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas.

Jen has authored thought leadership articles related to analytical development of gene therapy products and published approximately 75 peer-reviewed publications, 13 patents, and four book chapters, demonstrating her expertise and deep understanding of biologics and drug development.

Dr. Chadwick has served as an Associate Director of CASSS and a member of the Steering Committee for academic-industry relations at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. She is also a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University. She received her PhD from Purdue University Department of Chemistry.

Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We’d also appreciate a positive rating!

Molecule to Market is sponsored and funded by ramarketing. An international content, design and digital agency that helps companies in life sciences, get noticed.