YOU asked, and we answered. In this episode, we had our experts on standby to answer questions from you, our listeners. We discuss topics ranging from the safety of genetically modified foods (GMOs), to the new era of personalized medicine, feeding the world by 2050, and even what makes start-up companies attractive to investors.
YOU asked, and we answered. In this episode, we had our experts on standby to answer questions from you, our listeners. We discuss topics ranging from the safety of genetically modified foods (GMOs), to the new era of personalized medicine, feeding the world by 2050, and even what makes start-up companies attractive to investors.
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Theresa Brady (00:05):
You asked and we answered. In today's episode, we asked you, our listeners, to tell us your burning biotech questions, and we got some great ones ranging from the safety of genetically modified foods, or GMOs, to the new era of personalized medicine. We were even asked, "What makes startup companies attractive to investors?" We invited our experts to help us answer your questions, and we're excited to share what they have to say. I'm Theresa Brady, and you are listening to I am BIO.
(00:57):
Over the last five years, I am BIO has explored everything, including how AI has transformed biotech, a sickle cell breakthrough using CRISP technology, why bees are essential to our morning cup of coffee, and the importance of good public policy to ensuring biotech advancements benefit patients and the planet, and a whole lot more. But today, to round out our final episode of the Spring 2024 season, you are taking the reins.
(01:28):
Our first question comes from Nika, a listener in Germany.
Nike (01:32):
I'm calling from Cologne, Germany. Imagine 2050, will we be able to feed the world and overcome climate change by agrigenomics?
Theresa Brady (01:44):
To help us answer Nika's question, we brought in our expert on the ground, we reached out to a farmer. Who better to help us understand how agricultural technology is key to feeding the world.
Fred Yoder (01:56):
My name is Fred Yoder, I'm a farmer from West Central Ohio. We raise corn, soy beans, wheat and cover crops.
Theresa Brady (02:02):
Fred says agrigenomics plays a critical role in meeting the rapidly growing demand for food.
Fred Yoder (02:08):
Well, that's a large part of the answer, but not the total answer. The first thing we have to do is to adopt a, a different way of farming and growing our crops. One of the things that we've done for many years is churn the soil and expose it to the elements, and we lose a lotta topsoil, so we're gonna have to figure out ways to do a better job with the soil. We also need to embrace technology and innovation. We need to position agriculture as the solutions to hunger and not the culprit of everything bad. We've been accused a lot of not being resourceful enough or, or sustainable enough, but there's lots of ways we can change that and to be better at it. And I was also a big believer in the circular bio economy systems where we can take some waste streams and put them back on the farm and, and maybe work closer with our neighbors. You know, we've, we've always been very independent farmers, but now we need to be more interdependent of each other. It's a systems approach rather than an individual approach, so I think that's probably gonna get us to where we need to be to feed the world.
Theresa Brady (03:02):
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, by 2050, the world population is expected to reach nine billion, and global food demand is forecast to increase by about 35%. That's a whole lotta mouths to feed. How are we going to do it?
Fred Yoder (03:20):
The truth of the matter is, biotechnology has enabled a tremendous change toward soil health, so it's extremely important. The other thing we have now with biotech, with, as the seeds keep getting bigger, we have gene editing and the CRISPR technology that is tremendously, uh, valuable to us because even though we've had climate change and, and all those things that go with it, these new genetics have been tremendous to be able to keep up and, and not only keep our yields but, but increase yields. I've doubled my yields on my own farm in the last 20 years, doubled it. And I've done it without adding any more fertilizer to it as well. You hear a lot about agroecological or regenerative agriculture. The problem with that is defining what that actually is. It's gotta be a [inaudible 00:04:06] way to go and maybe understand that farms are all different, there's a different amount of rain, different amount of soil and fertility and things like that.
(04:14):
But when it comes back down to it, technology and innovation is gonna be a big part of it, but it also has to be size neutral. We have to have technology be affordable. And some of the smaller farmers should have access to affordable technology where we can make them profitable too. Uh, I see in the international world a lot of small farmers don't have access to this stuff. This stuff needs to be able to go on every farm, and we don't all have equal opportunity to do that.
Theresa Brady (04:45):
Now, let's turn our attention to how startups often navigate the journey from idea to the marketplace, and the role that corporate acquisition can play in delivering medicines to patients. Our next expert is BIO's Bernard Fallon, who will answer the question we received from a listener in Massachusetts.
Bernard Fallon (05:04):
I'm Bernard Fallon, Deputy Vice President of Industry Programs for BIO. I organize the programs of BIO's events as well as our educational resources and our outreach, uh, to the business development and investor communities to make sure that capital is flowing to where innovation needs it to be.
Theresa Brady (05:26):
Here's what Nicki from Massachusetts asked: "I am new to this side of the industry. What makes startup companies attractive to acquisition by larger pharmaceutical companies?"
Bernard Fallon (05:38):
For startups to be attractive for farm acquisition, there're are a few key components they, they need to have in place. One is they've gotta have detailed, impressive scientific data, not just the idea of what they'd like to do, but some evidence that they're on the right track in terms of their biomedical theory. They need to have strong intellectual property, and that they have sort of an independent ownership of either a molecule or some other element that would be needed by the large pharma company and only available through acquisition.
(06:15):
Typically, for this to rise to that level, it needs to be addressing a therapy that has the potential or evidence that it can be first in class or best in class, that the process of taking a startup drug through approvals to reach patients is s- so long and so capital intensive that the acquirer needs to be convinced it would be worthwhile if successful.
Theresa Brady (06:43):
One way startups begin the conversation is through networking. In just a couple of weeks, the biotech industry will converge at the 2024 BIO International Convention in San Diego. Bernard explains how attending these events and networking are significant for startup companies.
Bernard Fallon (07:01):
Networking is incredibly important, particularly for startups who need to know what they don't know and need to share what they do know with people who may not already be familiar with them. Particularly if they have this type of sort of innovative approach and new data, they need to share it with the companies who are searching in that terrain, usually because they've already identified a particular disease are or an indication of interest in their own pipelines and want to learn who might have a more efficient or more effective approach. So you wanna be networking with people who would have goals in alignment with yours, but more resources than yours. And BIO's events, particularly through our BIO one-on-one partnering system, makes this process highly efficient, automates a lot of the scheduling to enable as many of these conversations as can happen between parties who share that common goal of helping patients.
Theresa Brady (08:01):
A successful pitch deck can go a long way to convincing prospective partners that you have a winning technology. Bernard explains the art of the effective pitch deck.
Bernard Fallon (08:11):
The pitch deck is what you use to convey as compactly as possible what is it that sets your approach apart from anyone else working in the same terrain. It needs to be succinct, it needs to be data centric because the people you are most likely to partner with are already familiar with the disease space, they already know why it's either an attractive area for investment or a large unmet patient need. You want this to be under 20 slides. If you can get it under 10 slides, even better. But what is it that is unique about your data and approach? BIO provides opportunities at all of our events for company presentations, which is hearing a company tell their own story in their own words, usually by explaining their pitch deck. And BIO's made resources available for free on our website, giving the best practices for what are the components that should go into your pitch deck? You're only trying to get to the next meeting or convincing your prospect that this is worth a deeper explanation. That is what gets you towards a deal, towards an acquisition.
Theresa Brady (09:22):
Thank you, Bernard, for your expertise. We'll be right back.
(09:48):
In just one month, BIO will host the world's largest, most influential biotech meeting, the 2024 BIO International Convention. Held in San Diego from June 3rd through June 6th, the convention is where biotech breakthroughs converge with business, investors, patients, scientists and researchers to deliver hope for people and our planet. Join us to network, discuss and converge around the biggest issues and opportunities for biotech. Register at bio.org/events.
(10:35):
Now, we hear from Colton of Canada who has a question about personalized medicine.
Colton (10:40):
Hello, thank you for having me on the podcast. This is Colton calling in from Canada. While many might think that hockey is what excites us the most up here, I passionately believe that this is personalized medicine century. My question is, how is it reshaping how we approach patient care?
E’lissa Flores (10:59):
Hi, my name is E’lissa Flores, I'm a director here at BIO in the Science and Regulatory Affairs department.
Theresa Brady (11:04):
Our expert, E’lissa, explains what we mean by personalized medicine.
E’lissa Flores (11:09):
This is a great question, and one to break it down in some background first. So personalized medicine is also known as precision medicine, and it's a, a new emerging method to screen individuals' genes to help guide doctors decisions in treatment. However, it can also be utilized to improve diagnosis and prevention. So when you wanna understand a patient's genetic material, you can try to select which therapies are best with the most appropriate dose with the least side effects per patient. And while for certain disease, you know, the same treatment, the same dosing has been given to tons of patients, and that has show great efficacy and safety. However, for other disease, there's a potential to change that shift to more an individualized approach instead of a one size fits all, and you can utilize screening genomics or biomarkers to give further insight into respective disease risk factors.
Theresa Brady (12:04):
E’lissa explains where precision medicine is headed.
E’lissa Flores (12:08):
Particularly for rare disease, precision medicine is a wonderful tool because often they are misdiagnosed and can lead to symptoms exacerbating and progressing. In 2023 alone, there is 16 new precision medicines for rare disease. And so how do we get there? So precision medicine has advanced throughout these decades through data collected from the Human Genome Project, as well through advancements of the actual technologies that run these sequencings. So when the first Human Genome Project started in the '90s, it was a crazily expensive endeavor to sequence, it was about 1,000 dollars a day was projected to sequence the whole genome. But now, since technologies have greatly advanced for individual sequencing and it's become a more [inaudible 00:12:54] tool to use. For instance, with the invention of the next generation technology, or NSG. So NSG is a new technology used for DNA or RNA sequencing that can detect variants or mutations. So NSG can sequence hundreds and thousands of genes, or your whole genome, in a short period of time now versus, you know, (laughs) it would take days or years in the past.
(13:22):
Doctors and scientists can now use those results from an individual to see if there are any variants, and are they lined to specific disease, or even see if your normal genes that don't have any variants or mutations, are they being expressed at different or higher levels that they shouldn't be? And another PM tool used is to take a blood sample to see if there's any abnormal levels of a certain biomarker that's circulating in your blood. And that could also be an indicator of a certain disease. And so together, taking those sequencing and biomarker tools, they could help really inform the doctors for individual treatment. For example, if someone has colon cancer, and they all know their underlying causes, and they happen to all be different, a doctor could potentially prescribe three different types of therapies to be more effective based on their individual precision medicine results.
Theresa Brady (14:14):
Clearly, precision medicine provides hope for patients. However, challenges remain.
E’lissa Flores (14:20):
So what does the future hold for this? So certain disease have the potential to use precision medicine approaches to customize and treat more effectively and more safe, right, for these XYZ diseases. However, while technology has made many, many advancements since the inception of gene sequencing and biomarker diagnosis, the cost-effectiveness is still kind of unknown, so is it actually worth it? We don't know. But I cannot speak to healthcare pricing between PM and traditional approaches. However, since precision medicine does have a possibility to shit to prevention, right, so you can actually detect more early on if you're gonna have a disease or not, are you more susceptible and can you get diagnosis pre stage one versus stage four cancer? So all of these potentials, you could save so much cost in the longterm, reduced doctor and hospital visits. However, even if it is the most expensive route, if it leads to more effective and safer drugs that saves lives, it's the right choice for that patient, so there might be more advocacy in the future to push precision medicine for our first choice.
Theresa Brady (15:30):
Thank you, E’lissa, for helping us understand the future of precision medicine.
(15:40):
Our last question comes from Jolene in Iowa.
Jolene (15:43):
Hi, I'm Jolene, and I'm from Ida Grove, Iowa. My question is, when are some people going to believe that genetically modified crops are safe to eat? As a farmer, when talking with people about the safety of their food, I still get that cancer, even though GMOs have been around for almost 30 years. Help!
Theresa Brady (16:03):
We looked to an expert from BIO member company, Bayer Crop Science, to help answer Jolene's question.
Ray Dobert (16:09):
My name is Ray Dobert. I work with Bayer Crop Science, and I am in the Regulatory Scientific Affairs Organization where I work in regulatory policy issues, and I'm also a Bayer senior science fellow. You know that around the incredible safety record of GMO crops and food, the types of, of independent reviews that take place prior to the products reaching the market and the wealth of data and information that's been collected on the benefits of GMO crops, um, that are delivered to farmers and society at large. So you can't stop there, and you shouldn't really even start there. One of the things to do is to try and bring it back to a conversation. And again, one of the things that we tend to recommend is know how to sort of communicate effectively. Don't just sort of try and, again, answer the question with facts and figures, try and connect with the person. And there's a couple of key steps that one can use to sort of engage in a productive dialogue and conversation to potentially understand their concerns, and then try and address them head on.
Theresa Brady (17:09):
There are many reasons why the public is concerned about GMOs, but the main reason is misinformation.
Ray Dobert (17:16):
The science that drives innovations like GMOs can often be misunderstood and misrepresented in the media, especially in social media. And unfortunately, GMOs and the safety of GMOs and how they're produced have unfortunately become a meme. People can say that they dislike GMOs without even really understanding what GMOs are.
Theresa Brady (17:34):
Even though social media and the internet can provide some misinformation, it also allows us to make the correct information accessible to the public.
Ray Dobert (17:43):
It does become difficult when you're trying to translate complicated science on a topic which a lot of consumers of the public might not have a really good understanding of what goes into the development of these types of products and how we come about reaching the safety conclusions that we do on the products. So we have to sort of try and move into that space, find stories and analogies that broader audiences can understand so that they can relate to, not just the products and how they're generated, but to the people who use them.
Theresa Brady (18:12):
Ray gave us an example, the Hawaiian papaya.
Ray Dobert (18:15):
One of the things that is very common, especially for many of the products, the GMO products that have come to the marketplace, are in crops that wind up being what I call hidden ingredients, so especially in, in the major commodity crops. One of the places to point to a lotta times as a story to tell someone is about something like the virus resistant papaya, which essentially saved the papaya industry in Hawaii. And again, it was developed by public researchers, thoroughly evaluated and reviewed by regulators to assess the safety, and for literally over 20 years now has essentially been the backbone of the Hawaiian papaya industry. Again, most people don't even realize that most of the papayas that they consume, if they're eating papayas, 'cause it's a healthy food, are GMO product, it's a GMO crop, and it's been that way for over 20 years that that product has been in the market. GMO products are incredible well researched, incredibly well evaluated.
Theresa Brady (19:11):
Ray shares how we can start educating the public about GMOs and how important farmers like Jolene are in sharing this information.
Ray Dobert (19:20):
There's probably no one better than farmers to actually go about talking about the benefits, 'cause they have firsthand experience and knowledge. And again, there's so many people as consumers that are relatively disconnected from our food system and how food is actually produced, farmers can be some of the best spokespeople and some of the best voices that can engage in these conversations. It'll be a long process to sort of, to move the needle on overall public perception of the safety of GMO crops and how th- they lead to and they integrate into more sustainable agricultural systems.
Theresa Brady (19:58):
From sustainable agriculture and growing our bio economy to bringing innovative medical treatments to market, biotechnology is perhaps the most effective tool available to bring hope to patients and our planet. I wanna thank our experts, Fred, Bernard, E’lissa and Ray, and thank you, our listeners, for asking us your burning biotech questions. I'm Theresa Brady, and I produced this episode with help from Lynne Finnerty and Kourtney Gastinell.