Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 136 - Philippe Chambon - CEO & Co-Founder EG427

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Episode 136 - Philippe Chambon - CEO & Co-Founder EG427 · The BioHub - by Avetix

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  Welcome back to another episode of the Bio Hub and Avetics
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  podcast. Today I'm joined by Doctor
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  Philippe Chambon, CEO and Co founder of EG427A, French
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  biotech pioneer in pinpoint DNA medicine, a new approach
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  designed for precise, durable delivery in neurological
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  diseases. Philippe spent over 30 years in
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  US pharma and venture capital, raising more than $1 billion to
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  back and build life science companies across the US and
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  Europe. Now he stepped into the CEO role
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  to lead himself. We we talk about his journey
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  from investor to operator, the inspiration behind EG 427, and
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  why he believes Europe and France in particular, are
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  entering a new era for biotech innovation.
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  So pleasure to have you Philippe, how are you?
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  Thank you for having me in that. It's good to see you again.
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  Glad to be here. Yeah, it's a.
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  Pleasure. Yeah, we we've been talking
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  about doing this podcast since JP Morgan in January.
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  So it's been a long time coming, right?
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  But it's it's only for the better.
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  Yeah, exactly, exactly. You guys have have, have done a
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  lot this year which we'll talk about.
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  First of all, I just want to start with with you and your
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  journey. Like I said in the introduction,
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  over 30 years in pharma and then in venture capital raised over a
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  billion dollars and back dozens of life science startups.
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  What what made you want to step out of investing and take on the
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  CEO role at EG 427? Well, you know, I always like
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  learning and doing different things in my career.
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  I started, as you pointed out, in the pharma industry, did that
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  for a reasonably short period of time, and then spent over 25
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  years doing venture capital in the US across biotech and
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  healthcare IT. And for me, it was a great way
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  of learning about different, different technology, different
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  disease setting and on the IT side, different way of using
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  software and intelligence to, to in particular to address the
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  need for faster and better development on the, on the
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  Pharmaceutical industry side of things.
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  So it was great to be able to learn that sit on board.
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  You know, I was, I was on the board of public private
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  companies. I was chairman of some of the
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  boards and so on. But you always have the the
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  perspective of the outside looking in when you're on the
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  board of a company and you don't have a great feel for what it
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  really takes to build the company, what are the day-to-day
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  shoes and so on. So for me, I had the opportunity
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  to meet a group of academic founders here in Paris in late
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  2018 and meeting them maybe if you know, maybe that's a project
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  that could after a new could open a new chapter in my
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  evolution. And I decided then to work with
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  them to do this startup and I did the startup, got seed
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  financing, continue to build it. And we are now a bit more than
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  five years later, we are doing our first clinical trial in
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  humans. So it's been a fantastic journey
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  so far. Yeah, it's a it's a cool
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  journey. You, you were one of the
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  company's 4 founders. Just talk me through what what
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  was the original inspiration behind EG 427?
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  Exactly the original inspiration there is the the three academic
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  founders were people that are focused on taking better care of
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  spinal cord injury patients. And one of the major problems
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  does those spinal cord injury patient have are is dysfunction
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  of their bladder. And that's that is in fact the
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  biggest issue for them besides their spinal cord injury.
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  So those guys wanted to resolve to give to those patient better
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  control of their bladder function and they thought about
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  several approach and one that particularly intrigued them is
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  to use really a gene therapy approach to silence part of the
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  neurological wiring of the bladder and that way avoid all
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  the abnormal contraction that leads to massive incontinence
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  potential kidney damage, urinary tract infection in those patient
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  patient population. So they started from the on
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  being focused on the narrow problem neurogenic bladder and
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  spinal cord injury patients with an approach that use a new
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  generation of vector for gene delivery, which are non
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  replicative herpes vector. And when I made them with them,
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  I thought it was interesting given the very nature of the of
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  non replicative herpes vector, which are the the ability to
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  specifically transfect neurons and then in those neuron express
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  genetic information for extended period of time.
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  And I thought that was fascinating.
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  And then there's there was a chance that it could work and
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  put it that way. And I got lucky because I found
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  the investors that I knew from prior time in my career that
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  also thought that the idea of interest was interesting.
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  And we started the the the company on that basis.
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  And then it become clear that besides this first application,
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  we in fact had a platform in front of us that we could
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  develop much more broadly across a broader set of application.
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  So we've continued the development of the first
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  product, which is the one that's currently in its initial
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  clinical trial in the US and at the same time broaden our
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  platform so that we can address very different type of diseases
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  in the peripheral nervous system as well as potentially the
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  central nervous system. We've always the common theme
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  here that we can design basically very specific apps for
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  the operating system that the genome of those neuron AIDS
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  represents. So we've been doing that and we
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  we have the first product in fact can go after multiplicity
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  of indication first in the bladder, but then also in the
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  size of pain settings. We have the second product
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  behind this that is focused on other type of pains as well as
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  potentially spasticity, which is abnormal muscle contraction that
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  you find in the series of neurological disease.
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  So we're continuing, continuing to expand the portfolio that
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  way. Yeah, it's, it's amazing.
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  And then and then you talk about your approach, I pinpoint DNA
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  medicine. Can you just explain a bit more
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  about it and and how it's different?
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  Yeah. What's 1 of the big challenge
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  when you treat disease of the nervous system with small
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  molecules is smaller molecules are can be very helpful of
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  course, but they are promiscuous agent.
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  And what what I mean by that is they tend to distribute in the
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  whole body and you never know what type of off target effect
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  you can have you so you don't you don't have an ideal focus on
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  the issue that you want to treat and very limited impact on the
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  rest of the human body. What pinpoint DNA medicine
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  enable us to do is to design those vectors or those app in a
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  way that makes them truly specific of the type of cell
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  that we want to influence. So, you know, in the jargon, our
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  first vector is specific of what are called CBRP positive
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  neurons, which are a subset of sensory neuron.
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  And within those, we focus on the type C sensory neuron of the
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  bladder. And what's fascinating with this
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  is if you think about your own bladder and the nerve, the
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  sensory nerve that extract information out of it to control
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  when you should void your, your, your bladder.
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  For example, those type C sensory neuron represent about
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  7000 neurons. So it's a very small number of
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  neurons that we need to target in order to have a therapeutic
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  effect. So we're starting with that.
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  But the other situation, you know, another disease I think
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  was the same thing. If you have local pain, for
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  example, linked to neuropathic pain because you had a branch of
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  the sciatic nerve being damaged, you want to only treat that
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  region with the appropriate medicine.
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  And that's what we could do with our pinpoint DNA medicine.
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  So it's a bit truly local. It's really interesting and like
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  you mentioned earlier, you guys are now entering the clinic,
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  which is amazing. Congratulations.
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  Can we just talk about the indication for your your lead
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  program that the neurogenic bladder dysfunction?
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  What why did you choose that indication as as the first proof
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  of concept? Well, we're doing, we have in
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  fact we choose the the spinal cord injury patient population
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  that have neurogenic bladder as the first patient population to
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  test our product because unfortunately spinal cord injury
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  patient have a stable disease, their spinal cord is cut.
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  So and it's not going to to reverse itself.
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  So the disease is stable, the neurogenic bladder symptoms are
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  stable also, which means there's a patient population where
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  there's a very low placebo effect.
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  Yes. So, no, yes, so those, those
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  spinal cord injury patient because they have this the
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  stable disease have very low placebo effect.
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  And so that's why we chose them as the initial population to
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  study neurogenic bladder. So we have a study ongoing in
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  the US it's in four centres. We have dosed our first sort of
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  patient which is the the lowest dose that was studying in this
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  first clinical study. And we had the very positive
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  surprise because in those in this, in this initial court, we
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  saw a very strong response to the therapeutic agent in the
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  sense that we saw in those patients a massive reduction in
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  their urinary incontinence episode as well an improvement
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  on, you know, series of other metrics because it was the low
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  dose. We're not expecting to
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  demonstrate anything but the safety of the product.
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  And we got very lucky because we demonstrated very high efficacy
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  in that initial group of a few patients, of course.
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  Yeah, that's so good. And then what, what's next for
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  the platform? Like how broad is the
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  opportunity beyond this and what what kind of diseases could you
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  eventually address? Well, this this first product
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  has several application. The first one is neurogenic
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  bladder. So we're going to continue the
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  development of it across spinal cord injury patient, but also
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  multiple sclerosis patient, which is an outpatient
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  population that has the same type of problems.
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  And then we're also probably also going to look in two other
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  indication with this that are also bladder dysfunction, severe
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  overactive bladder, which is something that is has a major
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  impact on the life of people. Because when you have a severe
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  overactive bladder, you do not know when you're going to have a
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  need to urinate. You do not know when you're
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  going to risk a urinary leak. And if you do that takes 10
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  times a day, you end up not going out of your home.
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  So those are patient that are become socially isolated with
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  all the problem that it creates. So that's one setting that we're
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  likely to study. Also, there's another indication
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  that different, which is called institutional cystitis.
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  That's a disease that affect predominantly woman and it's a
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  disease that they incredible pain of the bladder when it
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  fails. So and this is a disease with
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  for which there is no treatment at all and we believe that our
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  methods of action could be relevant to that disease
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  setting. So that's the initial
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  application of this product in the context of the bladder.
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  We can also look at the product in different pain situation, but
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  that's for longer term. Then we have a second product
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  that is doing something very different.
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  This one because it changed the really the balance between
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  different neurotransmitter at the local level.
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  And because of that, it also has application different type
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  setting, different type of pain setting such as neuropathic pain
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  for example, can also work in the context of potentially of
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  spasticity. And we're looking also at the
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  specific application in the central nervous system.
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  And beyond that we have other products at earlier stage of
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  development. So for me it's a fascinating
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  journey because we started from the narrow basis focusing on
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  just the issue of neurogenic bladder in spinal cord injury
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  patient. We now have a product that has a
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  much broader range of application.
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  We're building a whole pipeline. We have the opportunity to
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  develop the the the platform and now we're in the process of
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  building the company to sustain a much broader clinical
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  development effort than what we started with.
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  Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Like what you guys can go on to
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  do what? I don't know if you know the
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  answer to this because it's a bit ambiguous, but like what?
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  What's the big picture goal like?
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  Do do you see like an eventual exit or do you see like a bigger
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  goal where you could take this further or or do you not know?
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  You know, I think the only thing I can do in my leadership role
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  here at TG40 for 27 is to build the, the the the company and
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  continue to make progress. And whether it means that down
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  the road we go public or we get acquired and so on, that's not
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  something I can control. So for me what I want to do is
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  build the company the best way I can with the whole senior team
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  here at EG and hope that one of the series of potential scenario
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  will unfold. I think that's, yeah, surely the
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  best way, 100%. I mean, you, you spent decades
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  investing in in U.S. companies, but now you know, you're, you're
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  leading the biotech based in France.
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  How do you see the differences between US and and the European
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  biotech ecosystems? I think what we first just to
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  put some metrics on the table, we are in a Phase 1B2A study in
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  the US and we have so far raised a bit more than $50 million.
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  So we we have been very parsimonious in our usage of
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  fund. We've not raised two $200
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  million or anything like this to get there.
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  I think it's to the credit of the team, but it's also
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  something that basically reflects that the financing
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  environment in Europe and in general, which is also true in
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  one level in the US over the last few years, the financing
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  environment was not easy. So you try really to maximize
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  the output of every single dollar that that you use.
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  So we have we have this discipline.
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  I think it's a discipline that is more prevalent in Europe
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  because there's not as much, we don't have access to as many
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  large venture fund as exist in the US.
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  So you have to be much more careful with the way you spend
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  your resource. You also have to be nimble and
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  very focus on what you do in order to be able to get things
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  moving toward the clinic, which at the end of the day is our
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  goal. So I think to some extent the
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  advantage of being in Europe for us has been that we had to be
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  cleverer, smarter, with less people and less money than I
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  would have had in the US. Yeah, that makes sense.
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  But are there specific advantages as well to building
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  in France as opposed to US, for example?
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  You know, 1 observation I had because at the end of the day, I
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  did most of my career in the US and I came back to France.
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  So this is so I can look at it a bit, a bit as an outsider.
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  And what is great I would say about the team here in France is
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  the loyalty of the people. So we've people tend to stay
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  with their job, they're loyal to the companies.
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  So you we, we don't have, we don't see in, in French
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  companies the type of turnover that you expect in US based
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  firms. So I think you have a more loyal
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  workforce than what I was used to seeing in the US.
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  Yeah. Is that due to the just vast
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  concentration of biotech hubs in the US?
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  Like you look at Boston and you know, you, you walk out your
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  office door and there's, there's biochem there and then there's,
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  you know. It's, I think that's part of the
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  answer. Indeed, we don't have at all the
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  same strength of ecosystem. That's one part of the answer.
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  The other part of the answer, I think people are so more
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  committed to the idea that of what companies are or or about.
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  So they they join something, it's because they really want to
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  see that progress. Yeah, I agree.
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  I mean, personally, and I don't know if you agree, I've seen a
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  real surge of success stories coming out of Europe lately.
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  I don't know if you if you thought the same, but if so,
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  like what? What do you think is driving
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  that kind of momentum? I think it's this that we have
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  not we, we have to be faster, better, you know, use less
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  resources in in in order to get to good to good value creation
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  points. And and it's true that if you
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  look, you know, France, just looking at France, you know,
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  there was the sale of Amolit last year.
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  That was the first great success, the sale of insect.
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  More recently, the positive result out of the Adidas and the
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  fundraising that we need to involve them to do so you see an
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  ecosystem that is, I hope, finally gathering some steam.
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  I think so. And I think what you're talking
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  about in terms of European biotechs having to be more cost
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  frugal, nimble, but I think investors are seeing that as an
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  opportunity as well where you know you get more return on your
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  book because of that mindset in Europe that they have to be that
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  way. Yeah, I hope so.
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  I think so, yeah. Yeah.
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  And finally, this this is a question I ask every one of my
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  guests, Philippe, and it's the one I always finish on.
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  And so, if you could have dinner with any scientist or innovator,
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  past or present, who would it be and why?
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  Can I focus the answer on innovator broadly Speaking of?
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  Course, Yeah, OK. So the person I would really
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  like to have lunch or dinner with is Johann Sebastian Bach.
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  And and that's because I'm, I'm fascinated by this guy that live
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  a long life, was incredibly creative during his own life and
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  had a perfectly normal life, you know, to the point of almost
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  being boring because he lived his life, He was married, he has
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  all those kids and so on. And the guy was incredible,
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  incredibly creative as a, as a, as a musician.
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  So for me, trying to understand what made him on one level so
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  normal and so creative, and I find this fascinating.
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  He's not in the he's not on the side of the mad genius, to put
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  it this way. No, but I love that answer and
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  it's different to like what I've heard before and I completely
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  get that as well. Really interesting.
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  So I'm kind of, I'm fascinated by that.
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  Yeah, look, thank you so much for coming on, Philippe.
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  It's been an absolute. Pleasure, pleasure.
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  Thank you for having me and. Everyone please like and
• 23:04
  subscribe to the Bio Hub and thank you so much again
• 23:07
  Philippe. My pleasure.