Business of Biotech Shorts

  1. Ep. 263, Chapter 1: Introducing Hernan Bazan, M.D., Who Combines Surgery And Biotech Toward Pain Relief 9/2/2025

    Life Science Leader Chief Editor Ben Comer interviews Hernan Bazan, M.D., a practicing vascular surgeon at Ochsner Health, as well as co-founder and CEO of South Rampart Pharma. The company is focused on developing SRP-001 — a novel, non-opioid pain treatment.

  2. Ep. 262, Chapter 6: Addressing Unmet Needs In Obesity Treatment With Roger Cone, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Current GLP-1 therapies have been highly successful, but significant unmet needs in obesity treatment remain, including a substantial number of patients who cannot tolerate the side effects. Additionally, the weight loss achieved with GLP-1s varies widely, so improving the efficacy of these drugs to achieve greater weight loss is still a major goal.

  3. Ep. 262, Chapter 5: Courage Therapeutics' Development Pipeline With Roger Cone, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Courage Therapeutics is developing next-gen MC3 and MC4 agonists for obesity and anorexia nervosa. The company's goal is to create compounds with better potency and specificity than existing treatments like setmelanotide. They are currently conducting safety and efficacy studies and aim to begin clinical trials in 6-18 months.

  4. Ep. 262, Chapter 4: The Founding And Operation Of Courage Therapeutics With Roger Cone, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Courage Therapeutics was born out of a collaboration between Dr. Roger Cone and entrepreneur Dan Hausman to develop next-generation melanocortin compounds. Hausman handles business aspects while Dr. Cone serves as the scientific founder. The company's strategy involved the University of Michigan granting Courage Therapeutics an option agreement for specific IP from Dr. Cone's lab.

  5. Ep. 262, Chapter 3: Early Ventures In Biotech With Roger Cone, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Dr. Cone founded two biotech companies prior to Courage Therapeutics: Northwest Neurologic and Xenomics. He credits those companies’ successes to partners who handled the business and financial aspects, allowing him to focus on the scientific side.

  6. Foundational Obesity Research Enables Therapeutic Breakthroughs 9/2/2025

    Fundamental research into the body's hunger mechanisms, including GLP-1 and the central melanocortin system, laid the groundwork for today's two major obesity treatment breakthroughs.

  7. Ep. 262, Chapter 1: Introducing Roger Cone, Ph.D., and Bases of Courage Therapeutics' Research 9/2/2025

    Life Science Leader Chief Editor Ben Comer introduces Roger Cone, Ph.D., Founder Of Courage Therapeutics, a preclinical company focused on obesity and eating disorders. The company's intellectual property is based on Dr. Cone's decades of research into the melanocortin system, a pathway crucial to regulating eating behaviors and energy homeostasis.

  8. Ep. 261, Chapter 7: Epic Bio's Strategic Priorities and Capabilities With Amber Salzman, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Salzman confirms Epic Bio’s epigenetic editing therapy can safely perform multiplexing, meaning a single construct can be designed to make more than one genetic change, such as upregulating one gene while downregulating another. This approach is considered safer than traditional gene-cutting methods, although delivering the therapy to different cell types within the body presents a logistical challenge.

  9. Ep. 261, Chapter 6: Regulatory Engagement For Biotechs With Amber Salzman, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Salzman suggests that biotechs hoping to effectively engage with regulators, especially for novel drug modalities, "follow the science and the data" and trust their scientific instincts. She recounts an example where a consultant recommended a questionable animal model for a safety study, but her team chose to present their scientifically sound proposal directly to the FDA. She emphasizes that regulators care about patients and are willing to listen to well-defended, logical arguments.

  10. Ep. 261, Chapter 5: Nurturing A CDMO Relationship And Scaling Up With Amber Salzman, Ph.D. 9/2/2025

    Salzman highlights the crucial role a strong CDMO partnership had in Epic Bio’s manufacturing process, particularly for its lead candidate. The company's small team necessitated close collaboration with the CDMO, which Salzman credits to Epic Bio’s CMC lead, who fostered a strong partnership by treating the CDMO as an integral part of the team and showing mutual respect.