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Episode 168 - Tom Frohlich - Jade Biosciences · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:06
  Welcome back to another episode of the Biohub Podcasts.
• 0:09
  Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Tom Frolic, who is the CEO of
• 0:13
  Jade Biosciences. In today's episode, we're going
• 0:16
  to dive into a little bit more detail around Tom's backgrounds
• 0:19
  and the work that the guys are doing over at Jade.
• 0:22
  Tom, thank you so much for coming on.
• 0:25
  Great. Yeah, thanks, George.
• 0:26
  I really appreciate the time and yeah, looking forward to the
• 0:29
  chat. Yeah, absolutely.
• 0:30
  Me too. I guess to start with, Tom, can
• 0:32
  you take us through your career journey, some of the experiences
• 0:36
  you've had, and ultimately, you know how you ended up coming to
• 0:40
  Jade? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 0:44
  So, so I started off my my career with a kind of a deep
• 0:47
  love of science, thinking I was going to be a PhD biochemist or
• 0:52
  professor. And so I started down that
• 0:55
  journey in undergrad and, and worked in labs and, and really
• 0:59
  loved it, but was actually terrible at actually bench
• 1:03
  science and actually ended up getting somewhat kicked out of
• 1:07
  the lab. So I kind of had to recalibrate
• 1:09
  and think like, what do I want to do for, for a living?
• 1:12
  And, and I knew I had this deep love of science, but, but also
• 1:15
  very much was interested in business and kind of felt like I
• 1:18
  had a bit of an entrepreneurial streak in me.
• 1:20
  And so it was very nicely pointed towards the
• 1:23
  Pharmaceutical industry. That was a really nice blend of
• 1:26
  those two things. It was really lucky right out of
• 1:29
  undergrad to, to get a job with Merck as a, as a sales Rep.
• 1:34
  And it was actually a phenomenal training ground for, for the
• 1:37
  industry to, to really be able to, to learn a lot about the
• 1:42
  products, but then engage with the customers sort of that whole
• 1:46
  face. And it was a fantastic start to
• 1:48
  the career. Ended up doing that for a couple
• 1:51
  of years, but then working my way up pretty quickly through
• 1:54
  the the sales and marketing organization and Merck.
• 1:57
  Spent almost 10 years there and then decided to have a small
• 2:01
  change and actually moved over to the UK to work for, for J and
• 2:06
  Ji know that's where you're based.
• 2:08
  Lived in London for almost 10 years and absolutely loved it,
• 2:12
  but ended up working with J&J and their strategic marketing
• 2:15
  group, really taking programs from phase two through launch,
• 2:20
  which was another excellent place to learn just a ton about
• 2:24
  about the industry. And did that job for, for, for,
• 2:27
  for a number of years, but ended up kind of moving earlier and
• 2:30
  earlier into the in in development.
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  So ended up actually providing commercial input into a lot of
• 2:37
  development programs across the J&J portfolio.
• 2:40
  And then actually ended up working in business development,
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  kind of trying to bring in early stage programs.
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  But then that kind of entrepreneurial streak that I
• 2:48
  always had kind of really kicked in.
• 2:50
  And also I wanted to move back to Vancouver where, where I'm
• 2:52
  based now and, and that's where I was originally from.
• 2:56
  And so I ended up moving back about 10 years ago to join a
• 2:59
  small biotech company to run their, their BD groups and, and
• 3:04
  ended up through that, just falling in love with the, the
• 3:06
  smaller biotech industry. Ended up with that meeting
• 3:09
  actually a venture capital firm that was based here in in
• 3:12
  Vancouver or had a managing director here and then ended up
• 3:16
  actually founding a company that eventually became Chinook
• 3:18
  Therapeutics. Love being part of that company
• 3:21
  was Chief Operating Officer. There was there right from the
• 3:24
  founding of the company right to the acquisition by Novartis and
• 3:28
  learned a lot about building and growing biotechs through through
• 3:30
  that process. But then after that was
• 3:33
  acquired, had a little bit of time off and then now ended up
• 3:36
  here at Jade. Yeah, fantastic.
• 3:37
  Thanks for that overview. To start with.
• 3:40
  What was it about Jade that drew you in and made it feel like it
• 3:44
  was the right next chapter for you at this point in your
• 3:46
  career? Yeah, it's, it's, that's like a
• 3:49
  great question because I actually had a bit of time off.
• 3:51
  So I got to think about that a lot and what I wanted to do kind
• 3:54
  of when I when I grew up. And, and I think there's there's
• 3:57
  kind of three main things that were driving me for, for
• 4:00
  selection of my next business or my my next role.
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  And number one was I had to absolutely have deep conviction
• 4:10
  that the science was going to benefit patients.
• 4:13
  And so deep conviction of the science was going to translate
• 4:16
  and and actually provide that clinical benefit that we wanted
• 4:19
  to and then do that in an area where there is a deep unmet need
• 4:24
  for for patients. And so JADE, the boxes on that.
• 4:27
  And I think we can talk about JADE in in more details next.
• 4:31
  The second opponent for me was really a strong team that I like
• 4:37
  working with. And actually JADE, it was
• 4:40
  founded by Andrew King, who's former Chief Scientific Officer
• 4:43
  at Chinook. So we'd worked really closely
• 4:44
  together. And then with the number of of
• 4:47
  people from the Chinook team that were joining Jade.
• 4:50
  So, so that was a key driver there.
• 4:52
  And then the third one was I, I wanted to pick somewhere where I
• 4:55
  knew I personally could make a big impact.
• 4:59
  And really knowing the team there, knowing the science,
• 5:02
  knowing the stage of the company, I, I knew that with my
• 5:05
  previous experience and skills, I could, I could benefit.
• 5:10
  So yeah, those three things really just all the boxes were
• 5:12
  checked with Jade and and yeah, very happily took the role in
• 5:16
  October of 2024. Fantastic.
• 5:19
  Yeah. And I guess for those who are
• 5:21
  maybe a little bit less familiar with Jade, how, how would you
• 5:23
  describe the company today? What's your main focus and
• 5:26
  mission for ultimately the the problem you're trying to?
• 5:29
  Solve, yeah. So, so we're a company that's
• 5:32
  focused on developing best in class therapeutics for auto
• 5:36
  immune disease. We have a pipeline of of three
• 5:39
  assets across a number of different autoimmune diseases
• 5:42
  that all have that capability or that capacity to be actually
• 5:47
  best in class or best in disease.
• 5:49
  Our lead program is a NASA called JADE one O 1 which is an
• 5:54
  anti April inhibitor, which is actually we're developing an IGA
• 5:58
  nephropathy. That asset is actually just in
• 6:01
  the clinic now. We anticipate getting our first
• 6:04
  in human readout in the first half of this year and that's
• 6:07
  going to be a very full data set that will then allow us to to
• 6:11
  move really quickly into to later stage development.
• 6:14
  We have a second program which is J2O1, which is a broad B cell
• 6:17
  depleter, which we believe can apply to a number of different
• 6:21
  autoimmune diseases. And that asset we're aiming to
• 6:24
  get into the clinic in the second quarter of this year.
• 6:27
  And the third asset J3O1 that we just nominated the development
• 6:33
  candidate, we anticipate getting into the clinic in the first
• 6:36
  half of of 2027. So really exciting pipeline
• 6:39
  across a number of different autoimmune diseases backed by a
• 6:43
  really strong team. We just heard of around 70
• 6:46
  people now we've grown pretty quickly.
• 6:48
  The company's founded in in mid 2024.
• 6:52
  We managed to grow quickly and have a really capable team.
• 6:55
  And it's all pinned by by a good financial status.
• 6:59
  We, we, we closed last year with over $300 million in cash, which
• 7:03
  gives us runway to the first half of 2028.
• 7:08
  So it's a really strong set up for the company that we just
• 7:11
  started recently, but we're growing really quickly and and
• 7:13
  very envious. Yeah, no, fantastic.
• 7:15
  And obviously, we'll touch on a little bit more around the
• 7:17
  company, the culture you've created in a bit more detail
• 7:21
  shortly. But to start with talking about
• 7:23
  the assets in a little bit more detail, obviously Jade was built
• 7:25
  around these assets that were in licence from Paragon.
• 7:27
  Can you just talk us through how that came about the strategic
• 7:31
  thinking behind bringing these assets into Jade and the sort of
• 7:34
  selection process for those as well?
• 7:36
  Yeah. So, so Paragon is is actually a
• 7:39
  very prolific antibody protein engineering company.
• 7:43
  We're actually the fourth company that's founded off of
• 7:46
  assets that are acquired from from Paragon.
• 7:50
  And, and really the, the appeal there was was very
• 7:53
  straightforward to, to us Jade. They are such talented protein
• 7:58
  engineers that they have this real capacity to develop
• 8:01
  extremely high quality, high affinity binding antibodies that
• 8:06
  can bind the the target as well as as anyone else can.
• 8:10
  They also have experience in, in expertise in half life extension
• 8:15
  technology. So really the concept is you
• 8:18
  have this really tight binding, but then you can do that for
• 8:21
  prolonged periods of time. And the benefit of that is, is
• 8:24
  pretty clear and it's twofold. One, you can get better levels
• 8:28
  of clinical activity because you have deeper and more prolonged
• 8:31
  binding through the entire dosing interval, which is really
• 8:34
  crucial for for clinical activity.
• 8:36
  And the second aspect is with a long duration of action, you can
• 8:39
  also minimize burden for patients by having very low
• 8:44
  levels of of of injection frequency.
• 8:47
  So you get these really long dosing intervals.
• 8:50
  So the appeal of partnering with Paradigm on the three targets
• 8:53
  that we wanted with them was was really clear and a really nice
• 8:57
  relationship. Yeah, fantastic.
• 9:00
  And then I know you touched on the the three assets that you
• 9:02
  have there in, in terms of Jade one O 1, then can you talk us a
• 9:05
  little bit more detail around like the science behind the
• 9:08
  assets and also the the phase one study?
• 9:11
  Absolutely so so Jade one O 1 it's it's a really exciting
• 9:14
  molecule. It's an anti April and April is
• 9:18
  actually a a target that hits plasma cells and plasma cells
• 9:23
  produce immunoglobulins. And IGA nephropathy is is the
• 9:28
  lead indication and that's a kidney disease that's actually
• 9:32
  formed by an apparently glycosylated IGA.
• 9:37
  So IGA is a type of antibody that everybody has in their
• 9:40
  mucosal tissues. But for some reason in these
• 9:43
  patients with IGA nephropathy, they get this mutation and this
• 9:49
  galactose deficient IGA that ends up being recognized as
• 9:52
  foreign. It binds to an auto antibody and
• 9:55
  then deposits on the kidney that that's what causes the damage.
• 9:59
  So the idea with Jade one O 1 is by blocking April, you block the
• 10:02
  production of that IGA and you can actually be disease
• 10:07
  modifying. So you're taking away that, that
• 10:09
  driver of disease. So, so very exciting because you
• 10:12
  lower IGA, you lower levels of proteinuria, then you can
• 10:14
  stabilize kidney function. And so what's our, our program
• 10:18
  is currently in a phase one healthy volunteer trial and what
• 10:23
  makes it so impactful for us as a business.
• 10:26
  I know a lot of CEOs don't get super excited by healthy
• 10:29
  volunteer data, but in IGA nephropathy, it's actually very
• 10:33
  directly translatable to what you expect to see in patients
• 10:38
  because you can measure the, the, the drop in IGA and healthy
• 10:41
  volunteers, which directly translates into what you
• 10:44
  anticipate seeing in patients. And that's a, a key biomarker
• 10:48
  correlated very closely with with clinical activity and
• 10:50
  efficacy. So we'll have that data in the
• 10:53
  first half of this year that will allow us to and are we
• 10:57
  hitting our product profile, which is like deep suppression
• 11:00
  of IGA, but also do that with a very long dosing interval.
• 11:04
  So allow patients to take it, you know, no more frequently
• 11:08
  than once every eight weeks is what we're targeting.
• 11:10
  So 6 injections or less a year, which for these patients who are
• 11:14
  diagnosed typically in their 20s and 3 is going to be extremely
• 11:18
  important. So we'll be able to characterize
• 11:20
  the drug, understand how it's acting, what's the dose and the
• 11:23
  dose interval and then move very quickly into patient trials.
• 11:26
  So really exciting time for us at at JADE.
• 11:29
  Yeah, exactly. And I guess it's, it's not too
• 11:31
  long until that data comes out as well now as well.
• 11:33
  It'll it'll fly by in terms of JADE 2O one, then how, how does
• 11:37
  that differ and what's the plan for that asset moving into the
• 11:41
  clinic? Yeah.
• 11:42
  So, so at JADE, we really believe that targeting the right
• 11:48
  component of the immune system for the right disease is, is
• 11:52
  crucial. So we think for IGA apathy,
• 11:54
  April is the key driver of disease.
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  So that's why we have JJ one O 1.
• 11:59
  But there's a whole host of other autoimmune diseases that
• 12:03
  are mediated by, by B cells. And so J2O one is, is really
• 12:08
  designed to, to deplete B cells and to do that very quickly in
• 12:14
  the, the circulation, but also do it in tissues as well, which
• 12:18
  is a key limitation of, of, of other B cell depleting agents
• 12:22
  like like rituximab. So J2O one is an A fucosylated
• 12:27
  anti bath R that has that dual mechanism of action that has
• 12:31
  rapid B cell depletion, but also stops B cell population by by
• 12:36
  starvation of that bath signal because you're, you're blocking
• 12:39
  the bath receptor. So has the ability to have very
• 12:42
  deep B cell depletion, which when you think about the utility
• 12:47
  there, rituximab is AB cell depleter that's used in over 25
• 12:52
  different autoimmune diseases. We believe will have an
• 12:54
  advantage over rituximab with better DP cell depletion, but
• 12:58
  then also better dosing convenience because you know
• 13:00
  it's engineered by by by Paragon.
• 13:03
  And so we think it has very broad utility across a number of
• 13:07
  different autoimmune populations.
• 13:10
  So that asset as I mentioned is just about to enter the clinic.
• 13:13
  We anticipate getting that first in human trial started in the
• 13:16
  first half or sorry in Q2, yeah, and then get the data in 2027.
• 13:21
  Fantastic. No thank.
• 13:23
  Thank you for that overview there.
• 13:25
  You've, you've given a really good detailed experience of
• 13:27
  where where you guys are at, at the moment and and the plan for
• 13:30
  the next sort of six months to the year.
• 13:32
  I know you touched on a little bit at the start as well.
• 13:35
  Obviously you had that really good fundraise.
• 13:37
  You've grown quickly with, obviously, this fantastic
• 13:40
  science that you have. Maintaining culture is something
• 13:44
  you've spoken about as being, you know, critically important.
• 13:48
  How do you describe? The culture.
• 13:49
  At Jade today and what are some of the core mantras that you go
• 13:52
  by? Yeah, I, I'm glad you brought
• 13:55
  that up because it's something we take really seriously.
• 13:58
  And actually we feel like we're in this privileged position
• 14:01
  where we're starting a new company and we're growing it.
• 14:04
  And every person that we add is, is very intentional.
• 14:08
  But we're, there's also a challenge there, right, because
• 14:10
  we have to create this new culture and also we're doing it
• 14:14
  largely virtually. Jade is based up and down the,
• 14:17
  the West Coast like in, in Vancouver as we're on base, we
• 14:20
  have a big population in Seattle and then a big population in, in
• 14:23
  the Bay Area as well. And so we need to be very
• 14:27
  intentional about culture. So we have gone through an
• 14:30
  exercise where we have defined our our core values and there
• 14:35
  are things really try to like instill through through the
• 14:38
  company and it's things like advance what matters.
• 14:42
  So we're really focused on work that delivers value to patients
• 14:46
  and and doesn't just bog us down in in process.
• 14:50
  We want to working together. So so teamwork is extremely key.
• 14:55
  So that's we go further together.
• 14:57
  Every voice shapes us, which is, you know, everyone needs to
• 15:00
  speak up and have a role in creating culture, but also, you
• 15:03
  know, value everyone's opinions. We want scientific bravery.
• 15:07
  So take really bold decisions. And then the last 1 is really
• 15:11
  fun, fuels the work because we spend so much time in the office
• 15:15
  at work. It's it's hard sometimes, but it
• 15:19
  also needs to be fun. So we want to take some pleasure
• 15:22
  in what we do too. Yeah, that's fantastic insight,
• 15:25
  right. You know, hearing directly from
• 15:26
  you the the mantras that you've set out for the company.
• 15:30
  It's funny because culture is a word that's thrown around.
• 15:33
  How how important was that exercise for you in coming
• 15:36
  together, putting these in place and really going by it,
• 15:39
  especially as you're growing in 2026?
• 15:43
  Yeah. So, so I think because we are
• 15:45
  virtual, it really helped us come together as a team.
• 15:49
  So I, I, I find at a lot of organizations you talk a lot
• 15:52
  about what you do, so about the program mechanics of things, but
• 15:57
  not so much of how you do things.
• 15:59
  So it really gave us that excuse to come together as a team.
• 16:02
  You know, we did it in person over a few sessions.
• 16:05
  Everybody in the company had a voice and, and really just
• 16:09
  define, OK, how do we want to work?
• 16:11
  How do we want to define the place where we spend most of our
• 16:14
  time? How do we want to interact with
• 16:15
  each other? And it's helped pull us
• 16:17
  together. But then also as we think about
• 16:19
  scaling quickly because we, we went from, you know, zero
• 16:22
  employees in, in early 2024 to now 70, probably have over 100
• 16:27
  by the end of this year. You know, as people come
• 16:30
  together, we we really need to make sure that everyone's
• 16:33
  aligned as we build processes, as we both built decision making
• 16:38
  that there is alignment on, on how we do that.
• 16:40
  So it's it's been really critical for us.
• 16:42
  Yeah, absolutely. Because I guess finding the
• 16:44
  balance between finding the people who not only can do the
• 16:47
  job for you, but also finding the people who are going to be
• 16:49
  the right cultural balance, especially in that, you know,
• 16:53
  remote environment are going to be super crystal.
• 16:55
  How how important would you say that is for you this year moving
• 16:58
  forward? Because obviously there's
• 16:59
  execution in terms of the science, but how important will
• 17:02
  it be for you looking back at the end of this year and looking
• 17:04
  at the team you've put together and saying that yes, everyone
• 17:07
  can can do the job, but also it's a great place to work?
• 17:12
  Yeah, well, well, I think you, you, you know, drug development
• 17:16
  is a, is a team sport, you know, no individual function can, can
• 17:20
  do it on their own or knew no one single contributor who's an
• 17:23
  excellent superstar in a technical area, but doesn't work
• 17:27
  well with others or, you know, value other people's opinions.
• 17:30
  It just it, it, it won't work. So it's absolutely critical that
• 17:35
  that as we bring people on that they're really aligned with the
• 17:38
  way that we work here, the way that we operate at JADE.
• 17:41
  And we, we definitely screen for that in the interviews.
• 17:44
  We make it very clear what we want our culture to be like and
• 17:47
  we want to people that are are drawn, drawn to that culture.
• 17:51
  Yeah, no, absolutely. And yeah, it's, it's, it's just
• 17:55
  as important as you said there. What what excites you the most
• 17:59
  for 2026 at Jade? It, it's a huge year for us.
• 18:03
  It, it really is transformational.
• 18:05
  Like we, we, we did just start the company in 2024, you know,
• 18:09
  with three preclinical assets. We got the first one into the
• 18:12
  clinic in a healthy volunteer study at the in the second-half
• 18:16
  of last year. But then this year we're, we're,
• 18:18
  we're totally changing. We're no longer just a
• 18:21
  preclinical company. We'll have clinical data on our
• 18:24
  lead asset and then get into patient trials.
• 18:27
  So that's a huge step for us. We'll become a, a multi clinic
• 18:31
  or multi product clinical company with, with J2O1 getting
• 18:35
  into the clinic and, and, and, and making progress on, on J3O1
• 18:40
  as well. So it's, it's a very
• 18:42
  transformational year. If you kind of Fast forward to a
• 18:45
  year's time, we'll be a completely different company
• 18:48
  than we are now. And it's just an exciting time
• 18:51
  to really bring that kind of growth and benefit to patients
• 18:55
  and other stakeholders as well. Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 18:59
  Yeah, Critical year for you guys and I think, you know, everyone
• 19:01
  listening to this is going to be really excited at what you've
• 19:04
  done over the last sort of two years, but looking forward to
• 19:07
  this year and seeing the results that you come out with.
• 19:09
  So thank you for giving us that overview originally into
• 19:12
  yourself as well, your career and also everything the the work
• 19:16
  you're doing at Jade Thomas. I think we've touched on before
• 19:19
  like a final episode, a final question we typically ask on
• 19:22
  this podcast is, you know, if you could sit down and have
• 19:25
  dinner with any scientists, innovative past or presence,
• 19:28
  who, who would it be and why? Yeah, I, I love this question,
• 19:31
  by the way, George. I think it's a really good one
• 19:33
  because, because there's so many to to draw from And it, it got
• 19:37
  me thinking about, you know, who, who are kind of my
• 19:39
  scientific heroes. And the, the one that I really
• 19:42
  landed on was was Doctor Paul Jansen.
• 19:47
  He was a Belgian scientist who actually started Jansen
• 19:50
  Pharmaceutica. So he, he was the the founder
• 19:53
  there. And he's probably the most
• 19:56
  legendary drug hunter that that I'm, I'm aware of.
• 20:01
  Jansen Pharmaceutical eventually sold to J&J and that's like the
• 20:04
  core foundation of J&J's pharmaceutical division.
• 20:09
  But Doctor Paul was, was legendary.
• 20:11
  I never he, he was gone before I, I joined J&J.
• 20:14
  But you know, I worked with a lot of people who had the
• 20:17
  fortune of working with him. And he was just legendary for
• 20:21
  his nose as a drug hunter. Over 80 molecules came out of
• 20:26
  his labs. That that got into development
• 20:29
  and, and, and many, many approved really changed the
• 20:33
  therapeutic landscape in a lot of different areas.
• 20:35
  So just as a drug hunter alone, it'd be cool to kind of pick his
• 20:39
  brain, but also from a perspective under his watch, the
• 20:43
  company grew to 20,000 people and he was just well known for
• 20:47
  wandering holes, kind of cornering people and saying, you
• 20:52
  know, what are you working on? What's new?
• 20:54
  And grilling them and just giving them that little boost of
• 20:57
  energy. And then he would end every
• 20:58
  conversation saying, great, but hurry up because the patients
• 21:02
  are out there and they're waiting.
• 21:04
  And I and it really motivated people to, to keep working in
• 21:07
  their job. And I think it's just a great
• 21:09
  mantra for all of us in the industry to follow.
• 21:11
  Like, because it's so true. Like all the patients are out
• 21:13
  there waiting for what we do. So it's great to keep going.
• 21:18
  Yeah, awesome answer. We've we've never had that
• 21:21
  response before as well. So that's that's great.
• 21:25
  But Tom, that kind of wraps everything up.
• 21:27
  Really appreciate you taking the time today to come onto the
• 21:30
  Biohop podcast. Thank you for the insight into
• 21:32
  your career, Jade, and we wish you all the best of luck for for
• 21:35
  this year and the critical year for you guys.
• 21:37
  Many thanks, George. Really appreciate the time.