Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 147 - Dan Gil - Pelage Pharma

Transcript

Episode 147 - Dan Gil - Pelage Pharma · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:06
  Welcome back to another episode of the Biohub Podcasts.
• 0:09
  It's now thrilled to be joined by Dan Gill, who is the CEO of
• 0:12
  Palage Pharmaceuticals. In today's episodes, we're going
• 0:16
  to dive into Dan's early career, what ultimately led him to
• 0:19
  Palage and touched on the work that the guys are doing over
• 0:22
  there. And to start with, Dan, thank
• 0:24
  you very much for coming on the podcast.
• 0:26
  Yeah, happy to do it. Brilliant look to start with,
• 0:31
  Dan, can you just talk us through your career journey
• 0:33
  going back and then ultimately what led you to joining Palaj?
• 0:39
  Yeah. So I, my career started at
• 0:44
  Allergan. I was, I was there for 30 years
• 0:51
  and started, I'm trained originally as a, as a molecular
• 0:56
  pharmacologist. So really joined the company as
• 0:59
  a research scientist with a, with a small lab and my, and,
• 1:08
  and it really was working. My, my expertise was around
• 1:14
  developing assays to test the drugs that the chemists were
• 1:20
  making using cloned bone receptors.
• 1:24
  And so that's really where I got my start.
• 1:27
  One of the unique things about Allergan, I think that was
• 1:31
  really instrumental in the development of my career was it
• 1:35
  was a very entrepreneurial company that that really avoided
• 1:43
  creating silos. And so I had the opportunity as
• 1:49
  as drug candidates came out of my labs to follow them into
• 1:56
  clinical trials and to the point that I was given the opportunity
• 2:02
  to be a global team leader for some of the clinical promoting
• 2:06
  and from AI mean both from a personal level of of
• 2:14
  gratification. There's just in this amazing
• 2:17
  feeling of, you know, here with the I was remember the first
• 2:21
  time that molecule that I had originally tested in the lab
• 2:29
  ended up I was there at the clinical phase one site when
• 2:33
  they tested it. I'm in a person.
• 2:36
  And so that was a highly nerve racking, but also exhilarating.
• 2:43
  But it also, I think it, it also really helped my ability as a
• 2:48
  pharmaceutical researcher to understand was going on in
• 2:52
  clinical trials and vice versa, understanding the science really
• 2:59
  do a better job of designing the files.
• 3:02
  So I think that was really important in my career.
• 3:06
  I think the other, the really important aspect for me as I
• 3:12
  went up, kind of went up the ladder at that hour again.
• 3:15
  And ultimately I was a vice president of research was my
• 3:22
  career basically followed the growth of Botox that was allergy
• 3:28
  big product. And I got to see if, I mean,
• 3:33
  First off, it's not always appreciated that that's a very,
• 3:37
  there's a very science mechanism for that for Botox and and now
• 3:45
  again, basically became really good at building new therapeutic
• 3:50
  areas and growing and basically created the whole aesthetic.
• 3:54
  Space, that was. Really morning to sleep and so
• 3:58
  when I, when I, I got to a point at Allergan where unfortunately,
• 4:02
  like a lot of farmers, it growing and I actually spending
• 4:09
  time cutting budgets and having the staff as well inside that
• 4:17
  wasn't views though. Then I really wanted to get back
• 4:23
  to more of that entrepreneurial feel and I would apply job not
• 4:28
  small I I jump to that. Yeah, fantastic.
• 4:36
  And I guess for those who are like new to the story, talk us
• 4:40
  about Plage, the problem resolving science is built on
• 4:44
  and ultimately what you what you're doing differently.
• 4:48
  Yeah, so, so Palaj is really focused on bringing a science
• 4:54
  based solution to hair loss. And and you know, really this is
• 5:01
  something that affects a large portion of the people on the
• 5:05
  planet. But the only, there's only two
• 5:10
  in the in the in the US only two FDA approved treatment, there's
• 5:15
  minoxidil and finasteride. And if you think about it, both
• 5:19
  of those were approved in the last century.
• 5:22
  So there's really been very little innovation in this space.
• 5:25
  And so we're really built on the idea of let's really bring some
• 5:29
  innovation to this area. And the, the key, there were
• 5:36
  kind of two key scientific discoveries that that are the
• 5:41
  basis of what we're doing. 1 was it was work that came out of
• 5:46
  George Kocherella's lab at University of Pennsylvania about
• 5:50
  a decade ago that demonstrated that even when your hair falls
• 5:54
  out, your hair follicle is still there and it, and there are stem
• 5:59
  cells that are sitting within that hair follicle.
• 6:04
  Normally your when your hair falls out, those stem cells just
• 6:09
  reactivate and start a new hair cycle.
• 6:12
  But as, for whatever reason, as people get older as they are, if
• 6:18
  they have stress hormonal changes, those, those stem cells
• 6:23
  become in essence and aren't, aren't triggering a new hair
• 6:27
  cycle. And so then the the scientific
• 6:32
  founders of Plage figured out that there was a metabolic
• 6:38
  switch that was necessary that for those stem cells to trigger
• 6:44
  a new cycle and basically figured out how to how to
• 6:51
  trigger that switch using a a small molecule.
• 6:57
  Yeah, fantastic. And in terms of where you guys
• 7:01
  are, I know you had a really successful back end to last year
• 7:04
  to start with. Can you talk us a little bit
• 7:07
  around the the Phase 2A data that came out?
• 7:11
  What signal gave you the strongest cultures that this is?
• 7:14
  You're going to be a real treatment option for patients
• 7:16
  moving forward. Yeah.
• 7:18
  So what's what's, you know, really exciting is right, we
• 7:23
  are. And what appealed to me and when
• 7:26
  I first joined the company was this idea that you have this
• 7:32
  natural process in your body. And what we're trying to do is
• 7:35
  let's just, let's just get that going again, right?
• 7:39
  And, and if you think about it, what, what that means is we
• 7:44
  should be able to unlike current treatments that primarily are
• 7:49
  slowing hair loss or maybe growing, growing new hair in
• 7:55
  already active follicles. Our mechanism really is designed
• 7:59
  to get hair to grow where you no longer have hair grow.
• 8:04
  And so that's what really what we were looking for and what
• 8:07
  really excited us in the phase today that is that we're seeing,
• 8:13
  we're seeing that hair is, is coming out of what previously
• 8:20
  were dormant follicles. That was exciting.
• 8:22
  I think the other key thing for us and from the very beginning
• 8:27
  we were, we've been focused on identifying A molecule that has
• 8:33
  the right physic chemical properties as well as the
• 8:36
  formulation that delivers the molecule PP45 into the hair fog.
• 8:42
  But we don't want it to get into the bloodstream.
• 8:46
  And so the clinical data also shows that that was the case.
• 8:49
  So that means we're comfortable unlike, unlike a lot of the
• 8:54
  current treatments that we don't, that's the physician and
• 8:58
  the patients don't have to worry about a risk of systemic side
• 9:02
  effects. Fantastic.
• 9:04
  And off the back of that I know you obviously closed the the
• 9:08
  large fundraising amount of 120 million.
• 9:12
  I know when you and I have spoken as well, you touched on
• 9:14
  the fact that you know it only took three weeks and closed,
• 9:17
  which is pretty extraordinary in the current biotech climate.
• 9:20
  Talk us through that process and yeah, how that evolved.
• 9:25
  Yeah, I mean, you know, I did there, there were a lot of
• 9:30
  things that had to go right. And we had some, we had some
• 9:33
  great headwinds. I don't, I don't want to come
• 9:36
  across as sounding like I have the, the, the magic elixir for
• 9:41
  raising money for cause each company is different.
• 9:45
  You know, I think they were, they were, you know, we had,
• 9:48
  we're obviously working in a, in a huge market with an area with
• 9:54
  huge market potential. We had some positive clinical
• 9:59
  signals. I think the, the, there was this
• 10:07
  whole social media buzz that had developed around us that then
• 10:12
  spilled over into mainstream media.
• 10:16
  And in fact, like the week we launched our Waze CNN in the US
• 10:24
  had a segment on us on prime time with Anderson Cooper.
• 10:28
  So there was a lot favorable factors.
• 10:32
  But you know, if I think about the preparation we did, maybe
• 10:37
  one of the, one of the key things that we we spent a lot of
• 10:41
  time on was really doing the doing the work to nail down what
• 10:49
  the market opportunity is and what we believe was a fair
• 10:56
  valuation for collage. And that's about doing physician
• 11:01
  surveys, consumer surveys, you know, beating up our valuation
• 11:08
  analysis with anchors. And there are a couple of
• 11:13
  reasons why I think that that is important.
• 11:16
  And you know, 1 is even for a smaller company earlier stage
• 11:20
  company venture funds now are recognizing the the the cash
• 11:27
  outs, the are not happening as quickly.
• 11:30
  So they may have to be committing to a company all the
• 11:33
  way to commercialization. So they want to know the company
• 11:36
  has done its homework in this area.
• 11:40
  I think it to what gives a lot of credibility if we can present
• 11:46
  a logical and real assessment or evaluation and it and it gave me
• 11:53
  the comfort that when we did go into term sheet negotiations, I
• 12:00
  wasn't just a bystander that we had some solid numbers that we
• 12:04
  could we could go on in terms of negotiating for what we believed
• 12:09
  was a fair evaluation. So I think all of that.
• 12:15
  Yeah, Yeah. Because I know you touched on
• 12:17
  like the social media side of things there as well.
• 12:19
  And one of the things that's come out since JPM and I know
• 12:22
  you've been involved in the couple of the articles is almost
• 12:25
  around the rise of GLP one drugs which has brought metabolism
• 12:29
  into mainstream conversation. Has that brought a validation of
• 12:33
  like metabolic pathways tangibly helped Palaj what?
• 12:37
  What are your thoughts towards GLP ones and that space and and
• 12:42
  how that has helped you? Yeah.
• 12:44
  I mean, I think, I think it has mainstreamed the area of
• 12:52
  aesthetics both within the both from the patient or consumer
• 12:59
  point of view. This is now acceptable to be
• 13:03
  focused on it. It's not, it's no longer just
• 13:07
  the a niche indication. And I think from it's also in
• 13:14
  the eyes of the, of the, of big farmers that traditionally
• 13:19
  didn't want to be in the aesthetic space.
• 13:22
  I think now that's all of a sudden they make companies
• 13:26
  realize, Oh yeah, this is a this is an area we want to be in.
• 13:29
  And it's pointed out that if you bring it, bring really strong
• 13:35
  science to it, to the area, it will be rewarded.
• 13:40
  I think those were all important.
• 13:41
  I think other, other factors in the growth of the aesthetics is
• 13:50
  the fact we've all, you know, in the last 6-7 years, all of a
• 13:55
  sudden become, we have all these meetings that are Zooms and, and
• 14:02
  Google meets then and we're staring at ourselves and we see
• 14:08
  what we look like, which, which you didn't always, which you
• 14:11
  didn't always do before. And so I think that's become
• 14:14
  important. And I think, you know, it's hair
• 14:17
  loss is also effects people's mental health.
• 14:21
  And and you know, people are now being more open and, and
• 14:30
  thoughtful about yeah, this that how do you know that mental
• 14:33
  health is is real and that we have to have solutions for that.
• 14:37
  So I think all of those factors have equally contributed.
• 14:40
  And maybe the last one I'll say is, is that our farmers are also
• 14:49
  realizing and seeing and this was something allergen always
• 14:53
  was. It's nice to have cash pay
• 14:57
  business as part of your portfolio.
• 15:01
  You know, it is more and more as there's pricing pressures on on
• 15:06
  prescription drugs. Having having a cash cave part
• 15:10
  businesses is very nice. Yeah.
• 15:15
  Do you think those like social factors and like public
• 15:18
  perception of appearance and things have massively helped not
• 15:23
  only obviously consumer interest but interest from VCs and the
• 15:27
  wider pharma? Absolutely.
• 15:31
  Yeah, I, I think, I think this is exactly that the VCs get it.
• 15:39
  They, they see the opportunity. They see.
• 15:45
  Yeah, it it just sort of you when looks you, you look at
• 15:48
  what's happening with GOP ones, right.
• 15:51
  And how fast that has just exploded.
• 15:54
  And then I think, I think that an aesthetic space and
• 15:59
  particularly the hair loss space is, is ripe, ripe for that kind
• 16:04
  of. Real sexual.
• 16:08
  Do you think there's potential to see that kind of boom that
• 16:11
  there was with the GLP ones in other aesthetics areas as well?
• 16:19
  In in addition to in addition to hair loss, you're saying well.
• 16:23
  And and hair loss and yeah, elders.
• 16:26
  Yeah, no, I think hair loss is ripe for that, right.
• 16:28
  It's got all the right. It's, it's it like like obesity,
• 16:34
  it's a, it's a huge area. There's, you know, people
• 16:42
  testifiably are, are willing and want to try all sorts of
• 16:46
  remedies, but many of them not not clinically tested or proven.
• 16:54
  This shows you this total large pent up demand.
• 17:00
  We certainly see that in terms of the the the interest in what
• 17:09
  we and others in hair loss face are doing.
• 17:12
  And so, yeah, it's totally Gary, it's totally right for, for, for
• 17:17
  new innovative products, Yeah. And just going back to Plage,
• 17:21
  before we talk about, you know, the future, can you just talk us
• 17:24
  through a little bit more detail around like the biological
• 17:26
  hypothesis in more detail or why you believe, you know, metabolic
• 17:31
  reprogramming is the key lever for your higher regeneration?
• 17:36
  So, so this, yeah, there's, you know, the key.
• 17:42
  One of the nice things is that the original drugs in the area
• 17:48
  weren't really developed with hair loss in mind.
• 17:51
  They kind of by serendipity with what it was discovered.
• 17:55
  And so they don't really target the actual deficit, right.
• 18:01
  And so I think one of the things that that's exciting around what
• 18:06
  we're doing is it's really getting at the, at the root of
• 18:09
  the problem. And, and there was an elegant
• 18:12
  experiment that was done in in the UCLA labs that showed they,
• 18:20
  they did a very simple experiment where they asked
• 18:22
  what's different between the metabolism and a stem cell in a
• 18:26
  dormant hair follicle compared to an hair follicle that's
• 18:32
  growing hair. And they identified some
• 18:35
  metabolic difference. So that's that showed us, OK,
• 18:39
  that's just the problem, which is what we have to do.
• 18:42
  And they carried out some elegant genetic experiments then
• 18:46
  as well as original studies with with early benchmark molecules
• 18:53
  that show that you can in fact get the cells that are dormant
• 18:58
  to start like the active cells. And so I think we're so and that
• 19:07
  and basically by shifting the cells and metabolism and getting
• 19:11
  stem cells. So that's a trigger then for a
• 19:17
  new hair follicle to form and to send out a new, a new hair
• 19:22
  shaft. And so what's exciting is you
• 19:26
  can, you can watch that, show that in that, in that in a, even
• 19:31
  in a, in a Gucci dish with a piece of human skin.
• 19:35
  And now we're showing we're seeing the same process now skin
• 19:41
  biopsies, scalp biopsies from patients so that that same
• 19:48
  metabolic occurring and has two studies back seeing the hair
• 19:56
  growing. So that I, I think that's what's
• 19:59
  very compelling and extending for us.
• 20:02
  Yeah. And I guess looking at, you
• 20:04
  know, what we've touched on here, the company's built off
• 20:07
  great scientific read or you've had some fantastic data come
• 20:11
  out, you know, as you touched on potentially some social elements
• 20:14
  really helping, helping you out. Now what's the what's the plan
• 20:17
  as we move into 2026 more broadly?
• 20:21
  Yeah. So we're, we're having
• 20:24
  conversations with the regulatory agencies getting
• 20:27
  ready for the late stage clinical program.
• 20:32
  The you know, that that requires aligning on with the agencies
• 20:38
  and what our clinical endpoints are.
• 20:41
  And so that's all that's all happening now.
• 20:47
  And you know, it, it's, it's a, it's a little bit of there's a
• 20:57
  lot of excitement. You're kind of there's a lot of
• 20:59
  hurry up, but unfortunately we want to do this right and we
• 21:03
  want to have strong clinical evidence.
• 21:06
  It just takes some time. Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:10
  I think everyone's everyone's really looking forwards to, to
• 21:13
  seeing how everything goes over the next year.
• 21:17
  And I think, yeah, like this has been a great episode.
• 21:19
  People will learn a lot more detail about Palaj.
• 21:22
  And like you said, obviously the the social factors and
• 21:25
  everything that's come into play there, there's going to be a lot
• 21:27
  of interest there. So, Dan, thank you so much for
• 21:30
  coming onto the podcast. It's a real pleasure to have you
• 21:33
  on and it was great to learn more about your career.
• 21:35
  And yeah, we wish you all the best of luck with Palaj for the
• 21:37
  rest of 2026. Well, thanks, George.
• 21:41
  It's great to talk with you.