June was a busy month for the Business of Biotech, which recorded its first-ever taping in front of a live audience during the BIO convention. Special thanks to Amber Salzman, Ph.D., CEO at Epicrispr Biotechnologies for an interesting and entertaining conversation, and for her willingness to try out the live recording format with us. It was fun, and I hope to do it again soon.
There were five Mondays in June, which means we squeezed in five new BoB episodes, ranging from a conversation about the state of psychedelic therapy development (and where MAPS/Lykos Therapeutics went wrong) with Srinivas Rao, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and CEO at atai Life Sciences (atai also acquired Beckley Psytech in June) to a conversation about strategic procurement with Tom Wells at 4C Associates, FDA and industry’s current relationship with Barry Quart, CEO at Connect Biopharma, and how to be a biotech policy advocate with NewYorkBIO’s Jennifer Hawks Bland.
In a slight departure from our typical guest list, I was thrilled to speak with Thomas Levinson, a science writer and MIT professor, about his new book So Very Small: How Humans Discovered The Microcosmos, Defeated Germs—And May Still Lose The War Against Infectious Disease. The book leans on original sources (often first-person accounts) going back to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s single lens microscopes in the 1670s, all the way through to measles and public health today – with a lot in between, and important future implications for public health and new drug development.
We’re expanding the aperture with guests on the Business of Biotech, so let me know what you like, what you don’t, and who you’d like to see next on the podcast. In the meantime, here are a few selected June articles from Life Science Leader, and a handful of standout quotes from the Business of Biotech’s guests in June. Thanks for watching!
Ben Comer, Business of Biotech host and chief editor, Life Science Leader |
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| | Biotech Beat | July 22, 2025 |
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| ![]() | | by BEN COMER | BIO was as usual chock-full of interesting sessions and activities, including an illuminating chat between FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and BIO CEO (and Life Science Leader Editorial Advisory Board Member) John Crowley. More coverage from the conference is in production, but here are a few conference highlights and initial thoughts. | READ NOW → |
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![]() | | by JAMES LU & DANIEL WEI | Research departments funded through grants from the federal government have taken a hit, leading many scientists and other researchers to consider dusting off their C.V.s and making a jump into entrepreneurial enterprise. Fortunately, James Lu and Daniel Wei at Sidley Austin put together a top ten “to do” list for academics headed for the drug industry. | READ NOW → |
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| ![]() | | by STEPHEN THAU & JEFF ZHANG | In case you haven’t heard, Chinese biotech is on a tear. Between January and May of 2025, Chinese biotech companies announced licensing or acquisition transactions with close to $1.8 billion in disclosed up-front payments, with almost $22 billion in potential milestones. Experts at Orrick provide insights on how to structure cross-border deals. | READ NOW → |
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![]() | | by STEPHEN BECKMAN | Is the decades-long “race to the bottom” in generic drug pricing finally ending? For generics companies, success no longer depends on having the most generic products, but instead requires having the right products — specialty medications, biosimilars, and branded generics, for example — at the right time, writes Yaral Pharma’s Stephen Beckman. | READ NOW → |
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| | "In Washington today, there’s a belief that there's been too much coziness between the FDA and industry, which I certainly have not seen. But that’s the perception, and in today's world, perception is 100% of reality. I'm afraid we're going to end up with more prohibitions on collaborating with the agency, which is not going to serve anybody's benefit." | ― Barry Quart, CEO, Connect Biopharma, episode 259 |
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| "The FDA has been very supportive of [psychedelic] compounds, with breakthrough designations and everything else. They recognize the need, and there's a known pathway to follow, to generate the data that’s required for approval." | ― Srinivas Rao, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder & CEO, atai Life Sciences, episode 256 |
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| "I think the phenomenon of infectious disease is something we have largely allowed ourselves to forget about, because of the extraordinary success of vaccines against all the common diseases of childhood — and many other diseases —and the power of antibiotics since the end of World War II." | ― Thomas Levenson, MIT professor and author, episode 257 |
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| | Created exclusively for the leaders of new and emerging biopharma firms, the Business of Biotech podcast tackles organizational, funding, HR, regulatory, production and CMC considerations with insight from peer founders who have taken biologic therapies from an idea to clinical success. Check out our episode archive. The Business of Biotech is produced in partnership with Ecolab Life Sciences. |
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