Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 99 - Lance Baldo - CEO of Beacon Therapeutics

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Episode 99 - Lance Baldo - CEO of Beacon Therapeutics · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:04
  So we're here at London Live Sciences Week.
• 0:07
  We're joined by Lance Baldo, CEO of Beacon Therapeutics, for a
• 0:11
  live episode of the Biohub podcast.
• 0:13
  Hans, great to have. You now thanks, great to be
• 0:15
  here. Just arrived in London a short
• 0:17
  three hours ago. Lance is fresh off the plane, so
• 0:21
  feeling ready to go. Yeah, it's been busy week as
• 0:24
  well. Yeah, very much.
• 0:25
  It's going to be a very busy week.
• 0:26
  It's actually great to see, you know, all the energy and all the
• 0:29
  enthusiasm around biotech in Europe right now.
• 0:32
  And so I'm just thankful to be part of it.
• 0:33
  Yeah, for sure. It's like a mini JPM or like.
• 0:36
  So sad. It's becoming that way.
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  It's becoming that way. It's like the place to be in
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  Europe when it comes to kind of that confluence of finance and
• 0:42
  biotech and pharmaceuticals. So yeah.
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  And sure. And all spilling out onto the
• 0:46
  street as well. Very good.
• 0:48
  Awesome. Tell us a bit about your story
• 0:51
  then, because obviously you've you've come in to Beacon a few
• 0:55
  years back now, but obviously starting many moons ago, you've
• 0:58
  been around a little bit, you've been jet setting around the
• 1:01
  globe as well. Tell us a little bit about
• 1:03
  yours. I won't be offended by by saying
• 1:05
  I've been around a little bit of us.
• 1:08
  Yeah, No, no, thanks for asking. I feel very blessed with the
• 1:11
  journey that I've been able to have in my life, both personal
• 1:14
  and professional. But I sometimes will joke that
• 1:16
  I'm a funky orthopedic surgeon. I had trained or I wasn't
• 1:20
  training to become an orthopedic surgeon, never finished and kind
• 1:24
  of got the business bug. And I originally wrote a
• 1:27
  business clan and I started a medical software company where
• 1:30
  we raised some venture capital and my business partner and I
• 1:33
  built that company for a number of years.
• 1:35
  And then eventually I had this inflection point which was going
• 1:37
  to be like, do you go back and finish the training and go on to
• 1:40
  be an ortholegic surgeon like you were planning?
• 1:42
  Or do you stay in business? And I just decided to stay in
• 1:45
  business. All at that point I shifted and
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  I moved into pharmaceuticals at a kind of a growth
• 1:50
  pharmaceutical called the Medicines Company, which was led
• 1:53
  by Clyde. Meanwhile, who's, you know, been
• 1:56
  in the news quite a bit recently because he's the founder and
• 1:58
  chairman of Mestera as well. Yes, I was still very fortunate
• 2:01
  to consider Clive as one of my mentors, particularly in my
• 2:05
  career. So.
• 2:06
  Yeah, nice. And you, obviously he's came
• 2:09
  into Beacon a few years, but why did you choose Beacon?
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  I guess that's always a good question to ask, but what
• 2:15
  brought you to the company? Was it the people technology
• 2:18
  platform? Yeah.
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  And that's, it's a great question and, and it probably
• 2:22
  I'd have to go back to I spent 10 years at at Roche Genentech
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  or just about 10 years at Roche Genentech.
• 2:28
  And the role at Genentech that brought me back to the US
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  because I should point it out, we can talk more about my
• 2:33
  experiences abroad. Roche had had brought me to
• 2:36
  Europe and a little bit around the world.
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  But Genentech brought me back to the US And the first job was to
• 2:40
  run ophthalmology, the ophthalmology process for
• 2:42
  Genentech, which was a huge responsibility.
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  And I not only learned a lot, but it was one of the best roles
• 2:50
  that I've had in my entire life. Working with the retina
• 2:53
  community, working blinding diseases is just incredibly
• 2:56
  gratifying. I mean, it's, it's, you know,
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  biblical improvements and, and, and how people can actually live
• 3:03
  their lives. And so I did that for a number
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  of years. And even though I moved on and
• 3:07
  was promoted to a role that was across the whole portfolio,
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  always in the back of my mind, I thought I'd love for a way to
• 3:12
  get back in into ophthalmology. And then when I felt like I was
• 3:18
  ready to be a CEO, and I don't know if anyone's ever really
• 3:20
  ready to be a CEO, but I had a couple of of opportunities that
• 3:24
  were in front of me and one of them turned out to be Beacon.
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  And it was a great investment syndicate.
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  There were a number of people that were associated with the
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  company that I knew from my past.
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  And I got a peek at some of the clinical data when I was under
• 3:38
  confidentiality with them as well.
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  Sure. I thought, wow, this drug is
• 3:40
  really working and can have an amazing impact on patients.
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  It helped that it was phase three.
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  Kellum. I'm consider myself like a late
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  stage drug developer slash commercialization person.
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  And so why I'm not, well, I'm not scared of something that's
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  very early stage. I could like my sweet spot is
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  kind of that phase three registration commercialization
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  and when it's. First on CEO, right?
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  You want to step into something banging in the sweet spot,
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  ideally. Agreed.
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  Yeah, great and great. So nice, Awesome.
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  You mentioned a bit about stepping in when it was phase
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  three ready. The program was was a program
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  currently I guess it's her one. Don't say so.
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  The, the, the LEAP program is for product called Larazova,
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  which is a subretinally delivered gene therapy that's
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  intended to degree a hereditary type of blindness called
• 4:30
  excellent retinitis pigmentosa. And while let's say rare disease
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  is not an alter rare disease, so around Europe and the UK, you
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  know there's probably about 10 or 12,000 patients that are
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  suffering from this devastating condition.
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  And the main study, the phase three study that's going to
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  prove hopefully to what level that this drug actually works is
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  called Vista. And fortunately, we finished
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  enrolling that study and, and administered the final drug
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  product in July. And it's a 12 month primary
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  endpoint. So ±12 months from right about
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  now and definitely before the end of next year, we're going to
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  have an answer. And we're going to know, I like
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  to say how well the drug works. To me, it's not if the drug
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  works because I feel so passionate that that it's going
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  to work. But really that's going to be
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  the test, the hypothesis. And that study is looking at two
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  different dose groups, high dose group and a low dose group and
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  then an untreated control. And the main thing we're looking
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  at, their Callum, is how much can we improve measures of
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  visual function, including one really important one called low
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  luminance facial acuity, because of how many more letters or
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  lines can you see on a line chart and low light conditions.
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  And another really important one is called micro perimetry, where
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  we basically assess the sensitivity of the back of the
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  eye, the retina, to different light stimuli.
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  And we're going to have a readout before the end of next
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  year, Callum says. I'm excited.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  And a nervous. Thank you, guys.
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  Bill. Yeah, yeah, sure.
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  And tell us a bit about XLRP because it's obviously pretty
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  devastating condition, what's out there currently for the
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  diseases that are in it? Yeah, unfortunately there's
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  nothing for these unfortunate people that are suffering from
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  XLRP. And because it's X linked, it's
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  mostly, but not exclusively males that are affected by the
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  disease. There's also women that can be
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  affected as well. And the, the, this particular
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  type, it's, it belongs to a class of, of diseases called
• 6:23
  retinitis pigmentosa. In this particular type of
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  retinitis pigmentosa, the onset tends to be a little bit earlier
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  and the onset tends to be a little bit more rapid.
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  And so by the time these unfortunate people are in their
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  40s, about half of the time they're legally blind.
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  And often the symptoms can start before they're even in grade
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  school or about the time they're in grade school because they
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  start bumping into things because they having a harder
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  talk seeing. And it's just progressive.
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  And there's absolutely nothing that can be done for these
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  patients today, which is why a therapy like Larisova could
• 6:55
  potentially be so life changing for these patients and for their
• 6:58
  families, right? Because the amount of care that
• 7:00
  can often be required for patients that are slowly,
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  progressively going blind can be a burden burden on families, a
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  burden burden on society. Understood.
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  And now it's over, it's gene therapy, right.
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  But do you want to walk us through a little bit of the high
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  level of the mode of action? Obviously not too deep into the
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  science lines for me, but I know it's.
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  One of the things I enjoy doing, I think as a good physician,
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  scientist, you also have to be able to to educate and the this
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  type of gene therapy is using a vector called AAV source said
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  adenovirus vector, the the so-called trans gene.
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  So the gene that's then coding for something coach for the
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  protein RPGR, which is the protein that's aberrant within
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  the disease itself. So the theory is that you put
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  this viral vector in the back of the eye, it transects the
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  photoreceptor cells of the eye. So the rods and cones and then
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  they start producing this protein called RPGR protein.
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  And then that protein localizes to something called.
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  Now we're going to get a little bit technical that connecting
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  psyllium where is actually this protein has most of its effect.
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  And then you start to restore the functions of those rods and
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  cones. And one really great thing about
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  gene therapy in the eye is that it's an encapsulated organ and
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  has so-called immune privilege. And so unlike systemic gene
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  therapies where you have to worry about more off target
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  effects, especially things like hepatotoxicity in the eye, while
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  you still have to consider it and in the development and the
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  safety assessment, it's much less likely to happen in the
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  back of the eye. Yeah.
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  Sure. I mean, that was going to be my
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  next question actually, because obviously over the course of
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  this year's gene therapies being in the spotlight a bit for maybe
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  not always the most positive of reasons related to that
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  toxicity. But you feel ophthalmology is a
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  little bit not safe and not entirely, but obviously it's got
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  its its benefits, right? I think there's multiple
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  benefits and obviously I've spoken with my feet because I've
• 8:54
  chosen to join an ophthalmologic gene therapy company, but we
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  already described the fact that it's a mean privilege to work
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  in. So that helps.
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  And, and then also the assessments that we can do to
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  see whether drugs are working are pretty well described.
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  We talked about BCVALLVA, different ways of looking at the
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  back of the eye using, using special types of CTS as well as
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  photography. All that stuff exists, we can
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  see are these drugs actually doing anything as well, which is
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  which is really important. And there's no shortage of
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  patients across these different types of diseases, including the
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  large class called retinitis pigmentosa.
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  And many of them have well described genetic, you know,
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  underlying causes that we can then target with, with these
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  gene therapies as well. And I guess one final comment
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  I'd make is that I'd like to think that ocular gene therapy,
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  it can be a great proving ground so that we could learn more
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  about gene therapies and then expand it to other organs or
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  even to systemic gene therapy as well.
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  And I know it's already there, but can we take some of the
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  learnings from what we're learning, Jill, and then apply
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  it to these other organs of these other body systems as
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  well? Nice.
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  Yeah, that'll be good learnings to take for sure.
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  I know we touched a lot on Beacon there.
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  Just to bring it back to yourself as well.
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  Beacon has grown quite a lot over the past 18 months even,
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  and you've got an international focus.
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  You've got people in France, the UK, Switzerland as well and
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  obviously the US Like how have you drawn on your own
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  experience? You touched on it before,
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  obviously working in Switzerland, mostly with Welsh,
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  right, but also New Zealand as well.
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  So you've had a really broad international experience company
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  building wise. What have you drawn on from that
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  tire? And I'll be implemented it.
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  I think 2 areas that it perhaps helps me the most, 1 is that you
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  working across the world, you develop an ability to kind of
• 10:45
  not just work across time zones, but also work across cultures.
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  Because culture in any organization is incredibly
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  important. And while, you know, we don't
• 10:54
  want to have a one-size-fits-all type culture, we want to make
• 10:56
  sure that ever whatever culture we're developing across these
• 10:59
  multiple different geographies is going to be one that's going
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  to allow people to be their best selves and be as productive as
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  they possibly can be. And I do think that my
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  experiences in Switzerland and my experience in New Zealand
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  have made me a better person for that, as well as my family, by
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  the way, I had a young family and, and, and a wonderful wife
• 11:14
  as well, who was, who was supporting me through that
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  process. So that's amazing, incredibly
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  important. The hard part is probably the
• 11:20
  time zones we did, as I mentioned I'm at, I was at
• 11:23
  Genentech. I haven't relocated.
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  I mean, we have people as you mentioned in France and the UK,
• 11:30
  in Boston and then in most of the time zones across the US And
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  so my days tend to start very, very early because they are
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  very, very early. Fortunately, they tend to wind
• 11:41
  down a little bit later in the day.
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  So I could get my family time or get my exercise in or you know,
• 11:46
  do this, do the errands that are requested of me as well.
• 11:50
  So. Yeah, for sure.
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  I mean, as a CEO, you've got to prioritize that time, right?
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  Because if you're not prioritizing your health and
• 11:57
  well-being and family time outside of work, you're not
• 11:59
  being your best self for the organization and for the team
• 12:03
  that you've built, right? Surely.
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  I agree with that completely. And, and it may seem obvious
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  what you just said, but I think to to actually do that in
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  practice and make sure you're carving out the time for
• 12:13
  yourself and for your family. And I practice something which
• 12:19
  this was a term that was used by an HR professional that I worked
• 12:22
  with and around. I call it work life.
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  Integration speaks like work life balance.
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  And what does balance actually mean?
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  So I've tried to learn how to integrate work into my life.
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  And so like, I'll give it an example, like we'll go away as a
• 12:34
  family for Thanksgiving. I tend to be an early riser
• 12:37
  anyway. I'll wake up most mornings and
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  I'll just get on my computer for an hour, hour and a half, two
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  hours, you know, clean out whatever needs cleaning out.
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  And then by the time my family's up and around the house, I can
• 12:47
  make them breakfast and spend the entire day with them.
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  And so. And people obviously, well, you
• 12:52
  know, that's your holiday and you shouldn't need to work.
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  And it's like, this works for me.
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  And I've realized throughout my career this what works for me.
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  And while that is work technically, it just doesn't
• 13:01
  feel like work as much because I know that two hours from now, my
• 13:04
  family is going to be there waiting for me or I could make
• 13:06
  the breakfast or whatever it is. So yeah.
• 13:08
  Sure. No, it's a it's a good tactic.
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  I think the other one is that we meet with a lot of people who
• 13:13
  sort of blend or blur the lines between work in that they know
• 13:17
  so many people so well from the industry, but it doesn't ever
• 13:20
  really feel like work when they're catching up with them.
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  So have folks we're going for like a surf trip together or
• 13:27
  yeah, just just sending, you know, each of a picture, a steak
• 13:30
  they've done on the on the grills.
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  So yeah, that's one way around it for sure.
• 13:35
  Awesome. Cool.
• 13:36
  So looking forward to a big year next year then.
• 13:39
  When's the expected reader did you say?
• 13:41
  We've been guiding, it's going to be before the end of next
• 13:43
  year. We're doing everything in our
• 13:45
  power to try to put in as much as we can, as much for patients
• 13:50
  and for the medical community. And I'm sure our investors would
• 13:53
  also appreciate that to be as as there as we can.
• 13:56
  So it's also. No idea.
• 13:59
  Well, keep your eyes and ears peeled for 2026, I guess.
• 14:03
  And then we'll finish with the biohop question, the standard
• 14:05
  one that we always do, which I think we spoke about briefly on
• 14:08
  the prep call, but I think it gives a really nice insight as
• 14:11
  to how people approach work and just interest in the set.
• 14:16
  It's a basically, but that's if you were to have dinner with one
• 14:19
  scientist or entrepreneur, past or present, who would it be and
• 14:23
  why? Yeah.
• 14:24
  It's probably an over used example, but it's them I've
• 14:27
  always just been so interested in.
• 14:29
  That would be Leonardo da Vinci for me.
• 14:32
  But you can say DiCaprio though. I know the the contributions
• 14:42
  that he made across so many different disciplines, they're
• 14:44
  just absolutely remarkable, whether it's engineering or
• 14:47
  biology or astronomy. And I think it would be just
• 14:50
  really intriguing to kind of speak to someone who had a mind
• 14:53
  like that. Yeah.
• 14:55
  That time in history as well, right?
• 14:56
  Really pioneering. Sense so we think about the
• 15:00
  tools he had at that there were almost no tools and the
• 15:04
  information and everything was was challenging you know we're
• 15:08
  at this precipice now and I know this is not about AI but all the
• 15:11
  tools that we have available to us to actually you know learn
• 15:14
  and to do things better and faster hopefully more effective
• 15:17
  ways and none of that was available to someone like
• 15:20
  Leonardo but still he was able to make credible progress and.
• 15:23
  It makes you wonder just how much, like information his brain
• 15:27
  was processed in their access. Like I'm crazy.
• 15:31
  It's a good answer. I don't think you've had that
• 15:33
  one before. So.
• 15:35
  Yeah. So also.
• 15:36
  All right. Well, good to see.
• 15:38
  Yeah. I'm coming on.
• 15:39
  Appreciate it.