Empowered Patient Podcast

Jens Hennecke, Chief Business Officer, SOTIO explains how this biotech company is developing the next generation of immunotherapies with a focus on a new compound called SO-C101 based on the cytokine IL-15, the key cytokine that activates T-cells and NK cells. In clinical trials, this drug, a modified IL-15 does not cause unwanted side effects like similar products to treat solid tumors and is a superagonist with a much better potency to activate memory T-cells, cytotoxic T-cells and NK cells. #SOTIO #immunotherapies #IL15 SOTIO.com Download the transcript here  

Steven M. Fruchtman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Onconova Therapeutics discusses Rigosertib, a drug that has the potential to downregulate the RAS pathway, the most commonly mutated gene in cancer. Rigosertib is a proprietary phase 3 small molecule, currently being evaluated in second-line treatment of patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and refractory higher-risk MDS patients. Also known as pre-leukemia, MDS is a cancer of the bone marrow stem cell and the mission of Onconova is to prolong the lives of those suffering from this disease. @Onconova_ONTX #cancer #oncology #RAS #MDS #PreLeukemia #Leukemia $ONTX Onconova.com Download the transcript here

Elizabeth Jeffords, Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer and Eva Czirr, Associate Director, Alkahest talk about how they are applying their expertise in age-related and neurodegenerative and cognitive diseases to treating chronic kidney disease particularly end stage renal disease. With a focus on cognitive impairment related to inefficient dialysis, Alkahest is decoding the protein beta-2 microglobulin to determine if alleviation of a massive overload of the protein can benefit patients. @alkahestinc #CKD #ESRD #B2M Alkahest.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Jordan Dubow, Chief Medical Officer, Avadel Pharmaceuticals, intent on improving drug delivery technology, is focusing on narcolepsy, a disease that causes severe excessive sleepiness and in many cases cataplexy.  While there seems to be a genetic predisposition for narcolepsy, like many neurological diseases, this rare disease is difficult to diagnose with medicines that treat daytime sleepiness and cataplexy episodes presenting significant limitations.  Avadel's once-nightly FT218 is an extended release long acting version of sodium oxybate that treats both features of the disease and allows patients to get a full night sleep without need for middle of the night dosing. @AvadelPharma #narcolepsy #SleepDisorder #EDS #cataplexy Avadel.com Download the transcript here.

Mary Millard, Infection Prevention Advocate, became a patient advocate after suffering acute septic shock from a hospital procedure where she was infected with pseudomonas, a very powerful Gram negative bug, a bacteria that remains in her body. Mary talks about why she is intent on educating healthcare providers about the prevention of hospital acquired infections through better procedures and innovative surfaces. She also describes her work speaking at microbiology and infectious diseases conferences to inform pharmaceutical companies and infectious disease doctors about the need to continue development of antibiotics to treat sepsis infections. @HAISurvivor #Sepsis #antibioticresistance #infections #superbugs MaryMillard.org Download the transcript here

Michele Dilizia, Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs and Microbiology, Recce Pharmaceuticals discusses why Recce is focused on developing a new class of broad spectrum synthetic polymer-antibiotics that can be used repeatedly against a wide range of bacteria without contributing to antibiotic resistance.  Michele also speaks to how Recce® 327, Recce's lead asset, is designed to empower doctors with a near universal treatment that can kill multiple types of bacteria in the blood, even superbugs, that can cause sepsis. @ReccePharma #antibioticresistance #syntheticantibodies #infections #superbugs #sepsis Recce.com.au Download the transcript here.

Seth Lederman, MD, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Tonix Pharmaceuticals brings us up to speed on the work at Tonix in developing new COVID-19 vaccines based on their live, synthetic horsepox vector system with a focus on vaccinating the subgroup of healthy people who are not pregnant and have a working immune system. Seth talks about the advantages of using live replicating virus vaccines as well as how immuno-oncology is informing their approach to stimulating T-cells to fight infectious diseases. In addition, new medicines are being developed to treat fibromyalgia and PTSD. @TonixPharma #COVID19 #vaccines #PTSD #fibromyalgia #pain TonixPharma.com Download the transcript here

Thierry Abribat, Founder and CEO, Amolyt Pharma is developing a portfolio of products of peptides for rare endocrine and metabolic disorders.  Their first project is a peptide hormone that is a parathyroid hormone being developed to treat hypoparathyroidism, a condition most often suffered by middle aged women and likely caused by thyroid surgery when the parathyroid glands are also removed.  The alternate treatment being developed will address the current short term and long term burden these patients are facing with conventional therapy by better managing blood calcium, decreasing elimination of calcium through the kidneys and maintaining bone integrity. @AmolytPharma #TherapeuticPeptides #RareDiseases #EndocrineDisease #MetabolicDisease #Endocrinology #Hypoparathyroidism #Hypopara AmolytPharma.com Download the transcript here.    

Dr. Edith Perez, Chief Medical Officer, Bolt Biotherapeutics discusses an innovative new platform for the treatment of patients with cancer.  The Boltbody™ platform uses a combination of tumor targeting antibodies and localized stimulation of the immune system, or immune stimulating antibody conjugates, to fight cancer.  Bolt's preclinical data show that in addition to killing the tumor, there is an immunological memory which helps to prevent tumors from growing back.  Dr. Perez also discusses Bolt's first target HER2-expressing cancers, how the Boltbody™ platform is overcoming challenges treating this cancer and Bolt's current Phase 1 clinical trial. @BoltBio  #HER2  #Cancer  #Boltbody BoltBio.com Download the transcript here.

Mike Clayman, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Flexion Therapeutics brings us up to speed on the work at Flexion developing and commercializing new treatments for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) including osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain. Mike also talks about how the company has been adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic to get their drug Zilretta out to patients in need. @FlexionInc #musculoskeletaldisorder #OAK #kneepain #osteoarthritisofknee #MSD #COVID19 FlexionTherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Lucia Faccio, Partner for the Sofinnova Telethon Fund at Sofinnova Partners talks about the recent creation of the Sofinnova Telethon Fund in Italy dedicated to early-stage investments in biotechnology companies that are addressing unmet medical needs of those suffering from rare and genetic diseases.  Lucia is particularly enthusiastic about a recent investment in Genespire, company with a game changing technology providing a platform that is a lentiviral gene therapy for treatment of metabolic diseases and another gene editing platform with a focus on treating primary immunodeficiencies. #SofinnovaPartners #Biotech #geneticdiseases #Funding SofinnovaPartners.com Download the transcript here

Myron Kowal, Owner and CEO, and Nick Garofoli, Director of Operations and Technology, RCare have developed wireless advanced nurse call systems that have been in use in a wide variety of hospital and assisted care settings. As a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Myron and Nick describe the work they have done to deploy a rapid response solution to field hospitals allowing them to set up a 40-bed hospital in 15 minutes with the ability to track patients and beds using mobile technology with a user-friendly interface. @ResponseCare #Nurses #COVID19 #RapidResponse RCareInc.com Download the transcript here  

Arya Massarat, Harvey Mudd College Class of 2020 graduated with Bachelor of Science degree in mathematical and computational biology and is continuing his studies at the University of California San Diego in the PhD program in bioinformatics and system biology.  Arya talks about the reasons he has chosen to become a scientist, the value of his internship at the Salk Institute, and the need for an interdisciplinary approach combining math, computer science and biology to manage and make sense of the vast amount of biological data that is being generated. @HarveyMudd @SalkInstitute @UCSDBiosciences Download the transcript here

Rhonda Collins, DNP, RN, FAAN and Chief Nursing Officer, Vocera is deeply concerned about the mental anguish and physical burdens that COVID-19 has placed on nurses and other front-line healthcare workers.  She talks about ways in which hospitals can ease the stress by providing contextual information that the healthcare worker can immediately act on, the need to use technology to help mitigate cognitive overload, and ways in which healthcare workers can build their own resilience to the additional challenges that COVID-19 has added to their daily lives. @RhondaCNO @VoceraComm #cognitiveoverload #COVID19 Vocera.com Download the transcript here

Sonny Hsiao, CEO, President, and Co-Founder Acepodia Biotech discusses how Acepodia is transforming the cell therapy landscape through a flexible and cost-effective platform that can be used to develop potent treatments for a broad range of indications. Sonny describes how they are applying this technology to enhance and energize immune cells with antibodies so that the immune cells can bind to tumor cells and overcome the challenges of treating solid tumors. @acepodiainc #CellTherapy #Antibody #AntibodyCellConjugation #CancerTherapy #CancerTreatment #oncology Acepodia.com Download the transcript here  

Eddie Sullivan, President, CEO, Co-Founder, SAb Biotherapeutics talks about their innovative technology to generate targeted highly potent immunotherapies on a large scale.  SAb is producing fully human polyclonal antibodies targeted to COVID-19 without the need for convalescent plasma blood donations by using genetically engineered cattle which produce the fully human antibodies. @SABBantibody  #COVID19 #immunotherapies #antibodies SAbbiotherapeutics.com/covid-19 Download the transcript here

Dr. Laurence Cooper, CEO, Ziopharm Oncology points to earlier work in immunotherapy to explain the advances in cancer treatment that revolve around the genetic engineering of cells to control gene expression and manipulation of the DNA of cells such as T-cells to go after cancer cells. The next generation immunotherapy will allow cells and agents to adapt in real time to overcome resistance and empower T-cells to go after the cancer weak spots. @ziopharm #cancer #CancerResearch #Immunotherapy #oncology Ziopharm.com Download the transcript here

Laura Mitchell, CEO, GrandCare has been working for many years to bring digital technology to the aging population and those facilities that are supporting senior housing communities. While remote sensing and telehealth have seen significant growth, COVID-19 has accelerated the need for family members, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to have remote access to seniors as well as the disabled.  While necessity is the mother of invention, crisis may be the father of adoption. @LauraHMitchell @GrandCare #GrandCare #COVID19 #telemedicine #telehealth #digitalhealth GrandCare.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. George Shapiro, Chief Medical Officer, Organicell describes the regenerative medicine challenges to regenerate tissue and avoid surgery in patients.  Organicall is using extracellular vesicles and perinatal derived nano-particles from amniotic fluid taken in the operating room from planned C-section US births. Their technology has strong anti-inflammatory benefits and keeps the cytokine release syndrome from a virus or other causes to a minimum.  George also describes the origins of the discovery of the power of the nano-particles found in the amniotic fluid. @OrganicellTM #organicell #COVID19 #exosome #SARS #biotechnology Organicell.com Download the transcript here    

Dr. Mark Erlander, CEO, Cardiff Oncology identifies the unmet needs of those suffering from metastatic colorectal cancer who have the oncogene KRAS mutation that hyper-drives the tumor growth.  Mark talks about the company's investigational drug, onvansertib that is being evaluated in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).  Onvansertib is a first-in-class, third-generation, oral and highly-selective inhibitor of PLK1, an enzyme that is over-expressed in most types of cancers. Onvansertib works synergistically in combination with approved chemotherapies and targeted therapeutics. @CardiffOncology #onvansertib #cancer #oncology #drugdevelopment #colorectalcancer #KRAS Cardiffoncology.com Download the transcript here