As multidisciplinary care extends survival and improves the quality of life for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), can a host of new ALS drugs vying to slow its progression make a difference? A surprise extension of the U.S. FDA review for Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s AMX-0035 to review new data, plus near-term readouts from a major ALS platform trial may soon provide answers. Join the BioWorld Insider podcast as we talk with executives from Amylyx and Clene Inc., and a key Penn State ALS expert on what the future of medicine may hold for ALS patients.

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Free, no-prescription-required access to naloxone has reduced deaths from opioid overdoses by 11% in some communities, but they only work if someone with the reversal agent is available when a person overdoses. Resilient Lifescience Inc. hopes to save those lives, too. The company is developing a wearable patch that monitors vital signs and automatically administers naloxone when needed. In this edition of the BioWorld Insider podcast, Brad Holden, CEO of Resilient Lifescience, explained how the device works for overdoses as well as other potential applications for the new technology.

It used to be a lot easier to find partners. After two years of strong dealmaking, the volume and value of partnerships slid in the first quarter of 2023. M&As also are down compared to prior years. But there are some reasons to be cheerful. Looking at first quarter numbers and surveying the big picture on this BioWorld Insider podcast are Karen Carey, BioWorld’s managing editor and senior data analyst, along with Tim Shannon, a general partner at Canaan. Carey just wrote about biopharma deals and completed M&As in the first quarter. Shannon, who’s been with Canaan since 2009, has a new fund sporting $850 million in new capital, including an oversubscribed $650 million fund for seed and series A financings. They both offer their insights into the first quarter’s numbers and what may lie ahead.

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It all goes to show how a good idea can’t be kept down. Madam Curie started radiopharmaceuticals in the late 1800s and now it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. BioWorld’s eight-part series on a new era of radiopharmaceuticals reveals how they have increasing importance as part of cancer treatments because they have fewer side effects and cause far less damage to tissue than previously. The big idea is taking the hallmarks of two cancer therapies – radiology and chemotherapy – and merging them. That’s what makes this evolving technology a disrupter. The series, led by BioWorld Staff Writer Tamra Sami, takes a close look at the different radiopharmaceutical moieties and the science behind them, the supply chain vulnerabilities, the regulatory landscape, the patient journey and therapies in the pipeline. Sami summarizes this special report in the latest edition of the BioWorld Insider Podcast.

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As James Peyer, the CEO of Cambrian Biopharma Inc., watched his grandfather fail every cancer treatment and pass away, he also saw the structure of his future company being born. Waiting until people became sick was the wrong way to treat disease, he found. Instead, Cambrian was created to develop anti-aging therapies, a unique business model that fits the new field of geroscience. To do that, Cambrian became a biotech business, a VC fund and an incubator. Peyer spoke to the BioWorld Insider Podcast about his pipeline and how he goes about fundraising in a little understood field.

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After many years of research and development, drug-induced weight loss has matured into a viable therapeutic option. But do the drugs directly help people become healthier or is it the weight loss? There are longstanding concerns that the health effects of weight might be overrated. And new studies show fitness improves health outside of weight. So, can a person still be considered healthy despite being over a “normal” weight? How will future medical science consider what is called the obesity epidemic? In this edition of the BioWorld Insider podcast, BioWorld Science Managing Editor Anette Breindl, discusses her new analysis of multiple studies related to weight loss, metabolic health and fitness which in many ways goes against the mainstream health care state of mind about obesity.

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We wrapped up 2022 and are preparing for 2023 on this BioWorld Insider podcast. Staff writer Lee Landenberger talked to four CEOs, visionaries of companies producing new science and drug development. The CEOs offered their insights into what happened this year and looked at the challenges and opportunities for next year.

• Karen Zaderej, CEO of Axogen Inc., detailed a successful phase III study of its peripheral nerve repair product, Advance Nerve Graft, despite staffing challenges at hospitals.
• Sean Bohen, CEO of Olema Oncology Inc., whose company is developing therapies to treat women's cancers, reflected on how Olema overcame financing challenges.
• Rob Ross, the CEO of Surface Oncology Inc., spoke about how equity funding has dried up and has forced Surface to be creative in order to keep moving forward with its antibody against IL-27 to treat non-small-cell lung cancer.
• Rob Etherington, the CEO of Clene Nanomedicine Inc., revealed how his company will be leaning into strategic M&A and licensing opportunities to keep its multiple sclerosis candidate, which can improve function on top of standard-of-care MS drugs, moving forward.

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