Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 211 - Meredith Kaya - Corsera Health

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Episode 211 - Meredith Kaya - Corsera Health · The BioHub - by Avetix

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  Welcome back to another episode of the Bio Hub podcast.
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  Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Meredith Kaya, who is the CFO
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  at Coursera Health. In today's episode, we're going
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  to talk a little bit about Meredith's career and the work
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  that Coursera Health are doing today.
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  Meredith, thank you so much for coming on.
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  Thanks for having me, it's really great to be here.
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  Fantastic to start with, can you talk us through your career
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  journey and how you ultimately ended up at Coursera?
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  Yeah, happy to. So my career journey I think
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  maybe not surprisingly started at El Nylam, which is How I Met
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  John Maragonori, one of our Co CE OS and others that are at
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  Coursera now as well. So I worked at El Nylam back
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  when RNII was still sort of being developed.
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  It was yet to come to the market.
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  We were in the earlier stages. It was just high energy, a lot
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  of fun working with the team. I was in an investor relations
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  role there and helping to support in some financial roles
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  as well. I stayed at Al Nylam for about 5
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  years and then moved to another company called Ironwood where I
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  held a number of roles within finance and corporate strategy
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  and investor relations. So there's sort of a theme
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  across my career where I've spent a lot of time within
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  finance and strategy in particular, because I think
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  those are very interconnected and really necessary to be
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  interconnected. After about 10 years at
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  Ironwood, I moved to a company called The Palace, again in
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  strategy and finance roles in investor relations.
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  Had a great journey there for several years.
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  But it was, you know, a little over a year ago now where I ran
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  into John and Toreena Doncourt, our Chief Operating Officer at
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  the JP Morgan conference. We caught up about a month
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  later. I sat down with Rena and she
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  said let me tell you about this company, Coursera.
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  And by the end of the conversation I was in, it was a
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  no brainer for me. I mean, you combine an
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  incredible team, an incredibly experienced team with great
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  science and validated science and the opportunity to redefine
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  an entire category. I mean, it's an it's a rare
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  opportunity to get to be part of something like that.
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  So it took me about 30 seconds to make the decision to make the
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  move to Coursera. And it's now been almost a year
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  and it's been a blast so far. Awesome.
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  And for those listeners who are perhaps a little bit less
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  familiar with Coursera, you just give us an intro.
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  Sure, absolutely. So at Coursera, we're building a
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  company focused on extending health span and that's through
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  the prediction and prevention of cardiovascular disease.
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  So Coursera was founded a few years ago by John Mariganori and
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  Clive meanwhile, as I'm sure all of you listeners know who both
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  of those those individuals are as they are legends in our
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  industry. And it's really about
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  transforming cardiovascular care.
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  And you know John and Clive have tremendous experience not only
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  in developing our NAI therapeutics, but also in
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  thinking about cardiovascular care.
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  And so our our strategy at Coursera is twofold.
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  The first part is on prediction and then the second part is on
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  prevention. And from a prediction
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  perspective, we are developing what we call Klotho, which is a
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  deep causal AI tool that can predict an individual's lifetime
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  risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
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  Today, the tools that exist today, they'll tell you your 10
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  year risk, but if you're in your 30s or 40s, if you're, if you're
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  not yet at high risk of or have cardiovascular disease, it's not
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  going to tell you much. It's going to be helpful in how
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  you manage your cardiovascular health.
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  So what this tool does is it predicts your lifetime risk and
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  it's based on, you know, very simple inputs from you height,
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  weights, your LDL, your blood pressure, things that you can
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  get, you can information you can get from a simple blood test.
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  And then it'll predict your lifetime trajectory, but not
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  only will it predict it, but it will also help to quantify the
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  benefit you would gain by intervening early.
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  So whether it's through our RNAI therapeutic or other
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  interventions, it will help tell you how your cardiovascular risk
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  risk will will change if you were to intervene today versus
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  waiting until you have elevated blood pressure or cholesterol.
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  The prevention side of the business, it's focused on the
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  two key drivers of ASCBD in particular, which are blood
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  pressure and cholesterol. So our lead program is a mixture
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  of two srnas, 1 targeting PCSK, 9 for cholesterol and one
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  targeting angiotensinogen for blood pressure in a once annual
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  subcutaneous injection that would be given prior to
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  developing elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol
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  while you're still healthy to then protect, protect your blood
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  vessels and protect you from developing cardiovascular
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  disease over your lifetime. And so we are making a lot of
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  progress on both ends. Our RNA I program is in the
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  clinic now. We have a phase one with our PCs
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  K9 srna ongoing. Right now.
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  We're about to initiate the phase one with our
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  Angiotensinogen Srna Clotho. Our AI tool is well in
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  development and and so we're we're in the advanced prototype
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  stage and hoping to get to a more commercial ready
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  application here within the near future.
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  So we're, we really have a lot of momentum.
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  We're excited and yeah, it's it's really paradigm shifting,
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  something that the model that's very big and bold and very
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  different from, you know, anything I've certainly been
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  involved in in my career. Yeah, absolutely.
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  And obviously we know how devastating cardiovascular
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  diseases are. What's your perspective on the
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  scale and ongoing impact? For.
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  Cardiovascular disease across the US at the moment.
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  I mean, the US and globally, cardiovascular disease remains
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  the number one killer worldwide. So about 20 million people die
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  every single year from cardiovascular disease and that
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  represents about 30% of all global deaths.
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  So it's still a massive problem. And it's not just the deaths.
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  Cardiovascular disease results in years of reduced health span.
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  So it's impacts people's everyday life, there's an
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  economic burden and impacts productivity.
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  So there's just, it continues to be a massive global problem
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  despite all the innovations that we've seen in treatments.
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  And a big part of is that we're currently treating people after
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  they've already started to see elevated levels of these
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  biomarkers, right. And so the damage is already
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  done. And so well, certainly you can
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  help slow that progression. The damage is there.
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  And so there's still a very high risk of having a cardiovascular
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  event. What we're trying to do is very
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  different, which is trying to get to individuals before they
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  have those elevated biomarkers, before they have have the, the
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  symptoms appear so that we can prevent the disease from ever
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  occurring in the 1st place. But this is, I mean, this it, it
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  continues to be such a huge problem.
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  And I think in the US alone, I mean, there's there's hundreds
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  of millions of people who are probably at risk today of
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  developing or have already developed cardiovascular disease
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  in their life. Yeah, absolutely.
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  And obviously, as you touched on that earlier prediction and
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  prevention, it is going to be really important Why, why only
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  now is this starting to come to fruition in terms of looking at
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  a, you know, whole life cycle rather than sort of 10 years?
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  Yeah. I mean, historically, I think we
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  didn't have the AI expertise in technology and, you know, the
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  RNAI medicines. I mean, this is a new area of
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  medicine that we're really able to bring to the market that
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  shows efficacy and safety and durability.
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  So I think there's an opportunity today where, you
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  know, we may not have had this 10 years ago.
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  We have the data that we need, the longitudinal data.
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  You have things like the UK Biobank, for example, that can
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  really inform lifetime time prediction of cardiovascular
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  disease. And then you can leverage these
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  new modalities like RNAI to build something that can, it has
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  to be low disutility. So for for people who are still
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  healthy, it needs to be something that is simple and
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  easy to use and accessible from a cost perspective.
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  So like I was saying earlier, this is once annual injection.
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  And so from that perspective it's very convenient compared to
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  taking a daily pill for example. And we are thinking about
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  pricing it in the hundreds of dollars per year, which is very
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  different from how you know, we know, you know the treatment
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  options are, are a much price point.
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  Yeah. And as CFO, what's your
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  perspective on building the company at the intersection of
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  this cardiovascular science, the data and the prevention?
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  Yeah. I mean, there's always has to be
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  a really critical balance of investment into the business and
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  scientific ambition. And so that's a lot of what we
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  talk about internally is where we can invest our dollars, our
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  shareholders dollars in ensuring that it's in the highest value
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  creating opportunities. And this isn't just your
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  traditional biotech company. It's not just about developing a
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  drug and testing to see whether it works.
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  It's really a paradigm shift. We have to invest in changing
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  the behavior and the understanding of how people can
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  manage their cardiovascular health and intervene early.
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  So we take a lot of time to think about how do we best do
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  that and then how do we best allocate our capital to ensure
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  we get to the the outcomes that we're looking for to make the
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  largest impact on the population.
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  Yeah. And how does that finance and
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  strategy and science all come together when building out
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  Coursera Health? Yeah.
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  I mean, I think there's three core decisions that we have to
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  make at the company, right? There's scientific probability
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  of success that we always have to evaluate.
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  There's the time and resources it'll take to get there and it's
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  the impact on patients. And we have to balance all three
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  of those. You know, we have a finite
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  amount of capital. So we're very thoughtful and
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  intentional about where we put every dollar.
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  We're a lean team. There's nine of us that work at
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  Coursera today. And like I was saying earlier,
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  we're already in phase one and about to start a second phase
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  one and building out close those.
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  So we're doing a lot with, you know, a small but very mighty
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  team. But again, it's it's being able
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  to identify where we can leverage resources to ensure
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  that we're able to put the most, most of those resources in the
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  highest, highest priority investment opportunities.
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  And so we're having those conversations constantly around,
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  you know, how do we think we're going to be investing?
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  At what point in time do we need to put those dollars into that
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  activity? And are there other ways, other
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  trade-offs that we can make to ensure that we're we're able to
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  do that in the way that will again result in the best outcome
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  for patients? Yeah.
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  What do you think perhaps changed in your perception
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  around cardiovascular risk, the prediction and also the
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  prevention side of things? I mean, I think it comes back to
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  historically cardiovascular disease has been, has been
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  managed very reactively. So not until patients show these
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  high level of, of either cholesterol or blood pressure or
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  what have you, they weren't treated or weren't really
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  managed. And before that it's really diet
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  and exercise, which is incredibly important, but it's
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  not always enough as we're seeing it.
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  It clearly isn't enough. And so I think now the medical
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  community is really shifting to more of a prevention model and
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  recognizing based on emerging data that's come out that that
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  shows that early intervention is really important because this is
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  a cumulative disease. The cumulative exposure of blood
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  pressure and cholesterol over 1's lifetime is what ultimately
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  causes disease. It's not a single moment in
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  time. It's not a flip of a switch.
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  It's that decades of exposure that you're seeing.
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  So if you can get in there before that starts to cause the
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  damage, then you can really make a difference.
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  And that data is now becoming more and more recognized by the
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  medical community. And there's been a lot of
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  excitement, enthusiasm, and thinking about prevention as the
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  next, the next paradigm to to to hopefully eliminate this
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  disease. Yeah, no, it it makes total
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  sense when you, when you spell it out like that.
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  What what are the plans for Coursera in 2026?
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  2026 is a year of execution for us.
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  So we are you know have have we're on track with our phase
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  one with the PCSK 9 srna. So we're looking forward to
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  having some initial proof of concept data from that program
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  mid this year. Like I said, we're also about to
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  initiate the phase one study with the angiotensinogen program
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  and so that will start mid this year as well.
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  So we'll be well underway by the end of the year.
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  You know the plan is that we would initiate the phase two
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  program, which would be the mixture of the two srnas in
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  2027. So this year is really about
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  understanding both SIRNAS, understanding how we mix them in
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  the most optimal ratio to ensure that they have the benefit to
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  patients that we're seeking. Yeah.
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  And I know you touched on it a little bit at the start.
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  When you're talking us through your career journey as to why
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  you why you joined Coursera around the team that you've
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  built there, How important do you think the team that you've
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  got is going to be for the rest of this year in in terms of
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  execution? I don't know that there's
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  anything more important, frankly.
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  To do something this big, you need a team that's not only good
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  at what they do, but they're passionate about what we're
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  trying to achieve at Coursera. And the vision is a world
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  without cardiovascular disease. It's big, it's very bold, and
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  it's going to be challenging. And so we take a lot of time and
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  feel that it's incredibly important to find individuals
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  that are invested in that vision.
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  They're not just invested in the in the role itself.
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  We've got a great team of nine, as I mentioned earlier.
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  So a lot of really passionate people who are excited to show
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  up to work every day. We work very closely together
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  all the time. But I think as a team grows,
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  that particular part of the culture has got to be front and
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  center and in in making this work, making this a reality.
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  Of course. And people do always talk about
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  culture as well in terms of the business.
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  Would you say you're one of the main key important cultures that
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  you have is is around the execution?
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  It is around the execution, but it's around it's one of our core
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  values is it's bigger than us. And that all really resonates
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  very deeply with with each of us at the company because this is
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  something so much bigger than us.
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  So I think from a culture perspective, yeah, it's about
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  execution, but it's about doing something bigger than any one of
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  us can do on our own. We have to do it together.
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  And I think that's been a really core part of how we operate and
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  how we're building the culture. The culture will evolve, of
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  course, but that piece of it is going to be really, really
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  important in terms of ensuring that not only that we make this
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  a reality, but we make it a reality as soon as possible.
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  Because as I said earlier on, this 20 million people are dying
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  every year. So there's an urgency to figure
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  out a way to to stop that from happening.
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  Yeah. Was that one of the biggest
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  drivers in in you rejoining John and the team at Coursera?
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  I mean, yeah, of course, but it's, it's the combination.
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  I mean, it's John and the team who I just have such incredible
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  respect for. I didn't know Clive Prior to
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  joining the company, but I've been so fortunate in getting to
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  know him over the past several months.
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  He's also, he's just an an incredible leader.
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  So, you know, I think joining them, I think understanding,
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  having worked at Onylam, understanding RNAI and really
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  believing in that science and knowing that can it can do some
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  pretty transformational things in medicine.
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  And then of course division. I mean, it's pretty special to
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  get to be part of this. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Awesome. Well, thank you so much for
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  coming on to the podcast. And it was really interesting to
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  learn a little bit more about obviously your career to start
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  with, but also around the prediction piece that Coursera
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  are targeting. So thank you so much for coming
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  on and and talking us through it.
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  Thank you. It's great.
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  Great to be here. A lot of fun.
• 16:35
  Brilliant. Thank you so much.