Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 96 - Jill Howe - CFO Lineage Cell Therapeutics

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Episode 96 - Jill Howe - CFO Lineage Cell Therapeutics · The BioHub - by Avetix

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  Welcome back to another episode of the Biohub and Avetics
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  podcast. Today, I'm joined by Jill Howe,
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  Chief Financial Officer at Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a
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  company developing groundbreaking allogeneic cell
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  therapies for conditions like dry AMD, spinal cord injury and
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  hearing loss. Jill's career spans more than 20
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  years across some of biotech's most successful companies,
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  helping take both receptors and Gossamer Bio public before
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  stepping into her current role. Today, we talk about what
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  inspired her to join the company, how she helps shape and
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  protect lineages culture, and what excites her most about
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  their pipeline. So let's get into it.
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  So how are you, first of all, Jill?
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  I'm wonderful. Thank you.
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  Thank you for including me on your podcast today.
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  Yeah, it's a, it is a pleasure to have you on.
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  Honestly. I want to start with your story
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  over 20 years in biotech helping companies like Receptos and
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  Gossamer Bio, now CFO at Lineage.
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  First of all, what what drew you into biotech and then what made
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  you make that next move to Lineage?
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  The biotech industry is pretty, pretty inspiring.
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  You know, this, it's really a culmination of people who get up
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  every day and want to make the lives better for patients.
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  And that's really inspiring to me.
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  I would say that as I entered into the biotech space pretty
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  early in my career, as I would say as a baby accountant, it was
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  very obvious very early on, but I was part of something bigger
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  than myself and, and I just really wanted to be able to do
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  what I could do. I'm not a scientist.
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  I, I don't, I'm not on the bench, I'm not creating amazing
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  medicines, but in my, in my role in operations and in financing
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  and supporting financing companies, I can bring money and
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  into the, into the company to give the funding to the
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  scientists that can do what they can do best, which is create
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  these ground breaking applications for patients.
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  So it's very inspiring and that's continued to, to really
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  be a cornerstone of what drives me in my, in my career and, and
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  really wanting to be part of this industry.
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  And I've met some amazing people along the way.
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  I've been very inspired all, all across the, the, the industry.
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  And it's just, it's, it's just incredible that if somebody's
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  sick, you give a call, if there's somebody that you know,
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  works on a specific modality, you can call and, and everybody
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  you know, activates and calls people they know to get friends
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  and family seen. And it's it's pretty
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  inspirational. What made you take that jump
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  into into lineage? What inspired you to join?
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  So many, many reasons. You know, I think my, my
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  training and background up to that point had the opportunity
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  to do a lot in public company. So I understand the, the rigor,
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  I understand the opportunity of being public.
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  And you know, I, I saw that as a, as an opportunity to step
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  into a company and join, join a fantastic team.
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  So the company's got an interesting history.
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  It's been around for several years, much longer than than
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  many of other biotechs that you see.
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  And you know, the, when Brian Coley joined the organization
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  about 7 years ago, I would say he really transformed the
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  organization into more of a startup type atmosphere.
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  And that's something that I'm really drawn to.
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  I like being able to wear multiple hats, really roll up
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  the sleeves and, and, and be part of decision making and
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  driving value and driving the organization into, into things
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  that in ways that I think most people wouldn't normally do.
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  It's, it's, it's sort of throwing out the playbook.
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  The playbook's important, but you throw it out and you, and
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  you reinvent and, and rebuild the road as you go in front of
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  you. And that was really inspiring to
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  me, understanding that that's how the management team really
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  like to work really drew me into it.
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  Obviously, the science is pretty impressive.
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  We do some pretty, pretty cool things.
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  So science certainly needs to be there, but the management team
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  needs to be there as well as I think it's really important
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  that, you know, we bring a lot of ourselves into our career,
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  into our day-to-day lives and surrounding yourselves with
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  people that you really respect and, and really, you know, know
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  that you can be in the trenches with and can solve problems.
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  It's amazing what you can solve with the right people around the
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  table together. Yeah, we, we talked about this a
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  little bit last time we spoke in terms of the unique culture
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  piece at Lineage. What what makes you stand out
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  culture wise and how is it different to to other
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  organisations you've been a part of?
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  Yeah, I think there's, there's a lot of clear communication
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  transparency for, you know, all the way around the organization.
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  I think that's key. You know, you hire smart people
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  and they, they want to do smart things and they can see things,
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  right. So we've all been in
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  organizations where, you know, I think there's been a, a
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  perspective to, you know, maybe not let everybody be aware of
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  what's going on. And but you know, again, you
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  hire smart people, they see things and they can figure that
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  out. And I think feeling like
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  everybody's on the same page, trying to solve the same problem
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  is, is, is really important. So I think the cultural part of
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  that, the other thing, Lineage in particular, we really look to
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  do is we're a small company. We, we need to compete with the
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  other big companies out there. And one of the ways we can do
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  that is culture and, and having a great place to come to work
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  every day. So that's really important.
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  We talk about that all the time. What, what are the type of
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  people we're bringing in? We want problem solvers, we want
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  smart people. We want folks that are really
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  feeling as though they're engaged and part of the whole
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  value creation that we're doing. It's very, it's, it's very
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  rewarding and, and you know, we all want to come to work
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  together and we all really enjoy each other.
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  And it's, it's funny, recently Brian Coley and I were on a, on
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  a work trip and you know, of course it's easy to talk about,
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  you know, folks, folks in the organization, we just sit there
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  and look at each other like everybody's amazing.
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  Like we have an amazing team. Like it's so awesome.
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  So that's inspiring too to come in and have that opportunity to
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  work with with people that are excited about what we're moving
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  forward and really feel like we're pioneering medicine that
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  that's impactful to the to the inpatient.
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  It's it's pretty exciting. Yeah, I love, I love that you
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  guys have got that. I mean, I always think there's a
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  there's an interesting part as well when new people are coming
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  into the business. How are you?
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  How do you approach the vetting of new people and preparing them
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  to succeed in in your culture? Yeah, that's a that's a great
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  question. A lot of it is based off of feel
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  obviously. But I do think it's it's about
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  setting the tone that there's a lot of opportunity in our
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  organization, although we're small.
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  So may not be a lot of title growth per SE, but there's a lot
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  of opportunity to learn a lot of different things and be a lot a
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  part of of a lot of conversations and decision
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  making and supportive decision making.
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  But I would characterize this as a more entrepreneurial type
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  culture. And that brings in a certain
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  phenotype of, of individual, right, folks that are really
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  wanting to, you know, not just come in, check the box and do
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  their job and, and, and go home. They want to be part of part of
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  the company, part of the family that we're, that we're building.
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  And it's, it's that those are things that I personally look
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  for when I'm, when I'm meeting with people.
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  We work really hard. You know, we, we, we spend a lot
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  of time, you know, thinking about what we're doing, working
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  on what we're doing, being a lead team.
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  But I think it's that engagement and just fully in on the
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  company. Yeah.
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  When you said earlier about the title growth part, is that just
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  because you guys aren't as title focused or how does that work?
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  Yeah, I mean, I think yes. So although we have all the the
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  regular titles etcetera that you have.
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  But oftentimes when you have a smaller company, you have
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  somebody that comes in and and you know wants to move through
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  levels like you would typically see in a large pharma company
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  where you're really groomed to certain levels.
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  We don't always have those opportunities.
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  So we look to make sure that we're level setting people
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  correctly, that we're giving them the right opportunities and
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  the right growth. But I think if an individual
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  comes in and they say, hey, I'm looking to, you know, be here
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  for, you know, 1520 years and, and, and, you know, every two
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  years, I want to have these, these growths, which is very,
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  it's a very smart path and I think a very smart thing for
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  people to think about when they think about their career
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  projections. That's not always the
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  opportunity we can provide in a smaller company.
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  And it's not just Lineage, it's many other companies of our size
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  don't have a lot of that, you know, explicit growth
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  opportunities. But there's a lot to learn,
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  there's a lot to be a part of. And I think that we do really
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  think really hard and work really hard to make sure we have
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  levelled people properly and that we're competitive and that
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  we bring all of those opportunities to individuals in
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  the organization. Yeah, yeah.
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  I mean, you guys obviously offer smaller companies in general
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  offer something a little bit different to the to the bigger
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  guys. And I think to your benefit
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  actually attracts a different kind of personality, which seems
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  to fit with what you guys are doing, which is awesome.
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  But just just generally, for those who who might not be
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  familiar, can you just give us a quick overview of Lineage and
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  what you're building and what makes your platform so unique?
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  Yeah, we do some really fun and cool stuff at Lineage.
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  So we're cell therapy as you mentioned before allogenic cell
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  therapy. And what that means is, is we
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  are developing more of a replacement part theories the
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  probably the best way I can describe it.
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  So let me let me explain that a little bit more.
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  So in our lead asset for dry AMD which we partnered with Roshan
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  Genentech back in 2021 for about 670 million, we received 50
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  million upfront. So it was a fairly large cell
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  deal, cell therapy deal done at the time.
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  And what we do is we go, we, we actually manufacture fresh
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  retina cells and we, we actually put them into the back of the
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  eye. So in the studies that that we
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  conducted as lineage prior to the deal with Russian Genentech,
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  we figured out that when you put the cells directly over the area
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  of wound or the atrophy where the patient is going blind,
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  we've actually restored vision, which is pretty incredible
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  because the human body doesn't restore regenerate tissue.
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  So it's pretty phenomenal. That was what led to the deal
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  with Roshan Genentech and it's pretty exciting that in their
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  hands they're going to be able to take it all the way to
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  commercialization. So we're working through the
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  that project with them. They, you know manage that
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  asset, they pay for all of it, which has been phenomenal.
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  The other program we work on which is spinal cord injury and
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  it's a similar idea where we put in replacement parts.
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  So in patients that have had break in their tissue bridge
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  within the spinal cord, we put in fresh OPC one or
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  oligodendrocyte progenitor cells which are myelinating cell.
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  They help rebuild that connective sheath over the
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  electrical current that goes to the brain.
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  And that is you know a study that we've recently put back
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  into the clinic. We adopted this, inherited this
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  program and we've had a lot that we've had to update and and
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  really get it ready to be back from the clinic.
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  But with patients under this program, we've seen them
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  ability, their ability to regain a mobility in their upper
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  extremities and for independence perspective.
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  That's that's just amazing. You know, you can now use your
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  phone, you can feed yourself, you can type the other so many
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  things you gain by by regaining that mobility.
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  It's pretty inspiring. The other program we're working
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  on, as you mentioned at the beginning of the podcast is
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  auditory neurons. This is fairly new to our
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  organization, but I do think is a great example of the power of
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  our platform. So what we sat around as a
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  management team and decided what what are the cell types we could
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  manufacture? This was one that came about and
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  within less than one year and less than $1,000,000, we had
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  this in animal model testing. So it's pretty remarkable to
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  think about small molecule and the years and the millions of
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  dollars it takes to get to the animal model testing.
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  It's pretty, pretty remarkable. So we, we, you know, we're very
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  proud of the manufacturing that we can do.
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  Well, you know, we again take, we don't put stem cells in the
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  human body. We take a stem cell, pluripotent
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  stem cell to create cells that are differentiated in the, in
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  the way of our PE cells for the retina, oligodendrocyte cells
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  for the spine and auditory neurons to help that signaling
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  to the to the brain for for for hearing.
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  We also just announced a, a Type 1 diabetes program that we're
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  launching into and what we're hoping to do with this is solve
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  the scale issue. So one of the challenges that
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  we've identified in the marketplaces around Type 1
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  diabetes, we understand that it can be cured.
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  So Vertex has figured out that you can cure it.
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  Sana has figured out that you can clone it, meaning that you
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  can mask the cells within the human body so that it does not
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  get attacked by your immune system.
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  But the challenge that for the cell to be effective in the
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  body, you need a lot of them. You need almost a billion dollar
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  billion, not dollars, excuse me, a billion cells per course.
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  And that takes a lot. And So what we're looking to
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  unlock, we might not be able to do it, but we're looking to see
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  if we can unlock scale with our manufacturing know how that
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  we've developed over the last 20 years of our history.
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  Wow, amazing. And then just in terms of
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  milestones you've got coming up in pipeline, what have you got
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  to look forward to over the next few years?
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  Well, you know, again continuing to to work through our project
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  with Roshan Genentech, we are still eligible for 620 million
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  milestones and and double digit royalties as that program goes
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  all the way through commercialization.
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  So that's very exciting funding for the organization.
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  And then we've recently signed a deal with DuMont, which is one
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  of the largest hearing aid companies in Europe and they are
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  actually pre funding the the not pre funding the entire auditory
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  neuron program that we have right now for preclinical to get
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  that ready for clinical, clinical testing.
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  So a lot of great milestones coming for the organization as
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  we think about all of the things we've been doing in support of
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  really unlocking the power of our platform and planting those
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  seeds and really, you know, getting folks excited about what
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  we're working on on the rest of the platform.
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  Yeah, it's awesome what you guys are doing.
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  And it's funny when when we first spoke and I said, look,
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  what would you want to talk about in the podcast, Jill, I
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  think the first thing you said was just being patient focused,
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  being a, a core part of of your leadership philosophy.
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  Could you just talk us through because you mentioned it a
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  little bit in in your previous answer, what that means to you
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  and how does it shape the way you lead as a, as a CFO as well?
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  Yeah, Thank you for bringing that back around because it is
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  very important in court of what I do and what motivates me and
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  drives me. I'm a patient myself.
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  I and I, so I think the, you know, being part of what folks
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  are getting up every day, the scientists all the way to the
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  accountants and everybody in between that are that are
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  getting up to, to go to work and solve these problems.
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  It's it's pretty transformational.
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  And so I bring that into my leadership because it's so easy
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  to get up in the morning and go through your To Do List and
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  gosh, there's I've got to do this, I've got to do that.
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  And you get overwhelmed with life.
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  But if there's moments you can take it doesn't need to be
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  daily, but it but but occasionally.
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  And you say what, you know, what are we doing this for?
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  What, what you know, why are we here?
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  And if you can re center that around the patients, I think it
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  makes a lot of the other crap that you deal with throughout
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  the day, maybe make, make it more worthy to move forward and,
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  and, and push yourself a little bit further to come up with
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  solutions and put your mind in the right space.
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  I think it takes you out of or takes me out of the center of,
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  of a lot of the universe and makes it not about me.
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  And I think that's very for me, I think that's powerful because
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  it allows, allows me to take that ego out and really Dr.
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  motivation to those around me and, and refocus what we're
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  doing and why we're doing, because we all get caught up in
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  drama and politics and the world and families and all of those
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  things. And, and you know, again, what,
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  what's the purpose of what we're doing around the patients?
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  And, and I look at, I look at, you know, patients we've treated
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  and it's, it can bring you to tears when you think about how
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  moving it is of patients, especially the spinal cord.
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  It's a very big passion project for us internally.
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  Passion, meaning that it drives us to be able to impact these
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  patient lives and figure out how to make their lives better.
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  When you've had fairly young individual whose life has just
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  been completely wrecked by an accident or an injury and, and
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  their world's completely going to be different than what they
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  thought it was going to be. If you can motivate yourself of
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  what we're doing, why we're doing, to make that person's
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  life better, it's it's pretty powerful in my mind.
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  Yeah, 100% couldn't agree more. Thank you.
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  And when you said, you said at the start of that that you're a
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  patient yourself. What do you mean by that?
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  Just for the for the listeners? Yeah, I mean, I'm very open
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  about I have an autoimmune disease.
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  I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2013 time
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  frame and something I struggled with.
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  And then, you know, you go to the doctor, you know what's
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  wrong, they tell you, Gee, you're stressed out and then you
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  have more symptoms that come about.
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  And, and I think having gone through that patient journey, I
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  had a lot of support and outreach, not only from my
• 17:31
  immediate community, but also in my work community of connecting
• 17:34
  me with specialist and, and, and paths and journey of patient
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  advocacy programs to really make me understand, you know, what
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  I'm living with And how do I, how do I manage through that and
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  manage the stress that just comes with that.
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  And that that again centers me to I'm not only outside, you
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  know, as a, as a corporate person trying to help, you know,
• 17:57
  Dr. funding and support to solve these problems.
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  I'm also a direct result of it. Yeah, I, I think that's really
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  important context for why you are really so patient focused
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  on, on top of like you usual reasons.
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  I, I want to move it on as well to, to the other piece that
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  you're just super passionate about, which is women in biotech
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  and leadership. But just just first of all,
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  generally like what, what progress have you seen and, and
• 18:30
  over the last 10-15 years and, and what still needs to change
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  in the industry? Yeah, I've seen a lot of
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  progress, to be quite honest. I mean, throughout my career,
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  I've been very fortunate to have fantastic leaders around me that
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  saw something in me and gave me a pathway, regardless of being
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  female or male. I think that that is very
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  important to state that out there that it's people of all
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  walks of life and creed can be an advocate for you and can
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  support you and can help lead. But you know, I think there's
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  been some fantastic organizations that have been
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  born over the last 10 years, 1015 years.
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  And one of them in particular that I really align with is
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  women in bio. And the reason is it's, it's a
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  very intentional group of women that have come together to be
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  supportive of other women. I think what's been really
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  unfortunate over, you know, as over history as women try to
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  ascend into these positions of, of, you know, executive
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  authority, etcetera. I do think there's a lot of
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  other women, unfortunately that can be very negative and and not
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  supportive. And I found the best
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  relationships through my career with with folks that are
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  supportive. So every year the there's a
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  program that the WIB sponsors that's the boardroom ready
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  program. I had the benefit of taking that
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  application before and now I work every year with that
• 19:50
  organization to screen the applicants that have come
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  through. Mostly what I'm screening are
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  folks that are more finance and accounting focused background
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  that I really want to go through this boardroom ready program and
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  I am. I pinch myself every year as I
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  see these women come through. It's very inspirational because
• 20:06
  if you think that the world's crashing and the world's coming
• 20:08
  to an end, I tell you, you just need to do a session where you
• 20:12
  go through these resumes and you know the world's going to be OK.
• 20:14
  These women are incredible. Their background, the intellect,
• 20:18
  the knowledge that they bring and it's, it's just really
• 20:20
  inspiring to be part of that. So what I like about this
• 20:23
  program, again, the intention of bringing women that want to be
• 20:26
  supportive of other women, but the, the power and the strength
• 20:29
  and the intellect and the network that it builds and the
• 20:31
  intention of the network that it that builds.
• 20:34
  You can, you can network with somebody that's a
• 20:37
  CEOACFOACMOACBO, whatever, whatever those levels are
• 20:42
  across, across applications across the industry.
• 20:46
  It could be gene therapy, cell therapy, you know, small
• 20:51
  molecule, whatever large molecule, whatever, whatever
• 20:53
  that application is. And because of that
• 20:56
  connectivity, women can help connect and bring those
• 20:59
  disciplines together. And I've seen the power of it.
• 21:03
  It's and I just really appreciate the opportunity to be
• 21:06
  a part of it because I think it's a pretty remarkable
• 21:08
  accomplishment to have been privileged enough to be in that
• 21:13
  group of women. They also have many applications
• 21:15
  where they go from not only at the top that I just mentioned
• 21:19
  for the boardroom ready program, but all the way from the start
• 21:21
  of careers for, for women to get involved and, and go through
• 21:24
  these local chapters and mentoring and, and really being
• 21:28
  able to talk to people across disciplines.
• 21:31
  So occasionally I'm asked to attend a mentoring session and
• 21:36
  most of them are scientists. And so they're asking me
• 21:38
  questions about financing. Gee, what does this mean?
• 21:40
  Or how do I talk to the finance person?
• 21:41
  Or, you know, and I try to take the scariness out of that,
• 21:44
  right? Because to be honest, the person
• 21:46
  sitting across the table with this big science brain is way
• 21:48
  bigger than my brain could ever be.
• 21:49
  And, and I try to try to let them know that so that the
• 21:52
  finance people don't seem scary to them anymore.
• 21:55
  And that what they're doing is very, very necessary and that
• 21:59
  they have an equal footing, I guess, in the conversation.
• 22:02
  Yeah, I love that. I love how it's all snowballing
• 22:06
  now as well, because Women in Bio isn't the isn't the only
• 22:10
  organization that are helping just women across the industry.
• 22:14
  You know, you put the sisterhoods and which I know
• 22:16
  you're part of as well on the CFO front and it's really nice.
• 22:20
  Like we've had massive advocates for, for just women across the
• 22:25
  industry and on the podcast. So it's it's so nice to talk
• 22:28
  about and see how it is progressing.
• 22:31
  Yeah. And I think I'll say one thing
• 22:32
  about the Sisterhood, you know, which is a fantastic
• 22:35
  organization. And one thing I think I love
• 22:37
  about that is that you, you're welcome in, you know, with the
• 22:41
  expectation that you're here to be supportive of other women and
• 22:43
  be part of a part of a culture. But some, not all women want to
• 22:47
  support of the women. And that's, that's totally OK
• 22:49
  too. There's no, not a lot of
• 22:50
  judgement on that. But this may just not be the
• 22:52
  group for you. And I really appreciate the
• 22:54
  transparency and the honesty around that as well.
• 22:58
  Yeah, yeah, definitely. And look, we're to the final
• 23:02
  question as well now, Jill, which is a question I ask every
• 23:05
  guest who comes on. So if you could have dinner with
• 23:09
  any scientist or innovator, past or present, who, who would it be
• 23:12
  and why? Great question.
• 23:14
  If I had to, if I had to just choose one, I would pick Isaac
• 23:17
  Newton and, and I the reason why is that as a great philosopher
• 23:21
  that came up with articulating observations in our and that we
• 23:26
  live with and see every day the laws of gravity, the the idea
• 23:30
  that body emotion stays in motion.
• 23:33
  These are things that we've accepted and we've really
• 23:35
  understood over the course of time.
• 23:37
  So that's an external observation and the and a court
• 23:40
  of scientists scientific insights.
• 23:44
  But that also translates over to the body.
• 23:46
  So if you think about how the marvelous human body works in
• 23:50
  the way that the electrical system and the cell system and
• 23:54
  everything interacts in our body, it's very similar to what
• 23:57
  we see on the external. And so to be able to take those
• 24:00
  observations from a mathematical and a physics perspective, I
• 24:04
  think we've done great work over the 400 + 500 years since he,
• 24:08
  since he had the grace to walk the earth and really use those
• 24:13
  principles and those applications that are still with
• 24:15
  us and still taught today into what what we were doing to
• 24:18
  continue to learn. There's just so much we don't
• 24:20
  know. And, and, and bring that into
• 24:23
  again, solving problems and, and, and serving patients.
• 24:27
  I would love to just sit down with them and have a drink with
• 24:29
  them and ask him, you know, if you could see where we were,
• 24:32
  where we are today, what his impression would be, what has
• 24:35
  transcended over over the time in which he lived and to see the
• 24:38
  modern world today and what's been created.
• 24:40
  Would he have guessed that? Could he imagine that?
• 24:43
  What would he think of a cell phone?
• 24:44
  You know, what would he do with this contraption that we're
• 24:46
  walking around with in our pocket every day?
• 24:48
  So I think it would just be fun to not only just have a
• 24:50
  conversation and, and see how his brain thinks and works
• 24:53
  because he's certainly looking at the world at a different at a
• 24:56
  different level. And then I think see how his
• 24:59
  work has really unlocked a pretty powerful insight and
• 25:04
  articulation into how we think about science today.
• 25:07
  Yeah, I think that's a great, great answer.
• 25:13
  Thank you so much for coming on, Jill.
• 25:14
  It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.
• 25:17
  I really appreciate the conversation with you today and
• 25:20
  thank you for the opportunity. And everyone please like and
• 25:23
  subscribe to the Bio Hub and and thanks so much again, Jill.
• 25:26
  Thank you. Appreciate it.