Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 82 - Heather Turner - CEO LB Pharmaceuticals

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Episode 82 - Heather Turner - CEO LB Pharmaceuticals · The BioHub - by Avetix

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Of the Bio Hub, today we have the pleasure of hosting Heather
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Turner, who's the CEO of LB Pharmaceuticals, who are
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developing transformative therapies for schizophrenia and
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other neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Heather brings over 25 years of leadership experience across
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biotech and law with some key roles at Lyell Immunopharma,
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Atara Bio Therapeutics and Karma Therapeutics, where she LED a
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2.7 early acquisition by Roche. Now at the helm of LB Farmer,
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she's leading efforts to transform mental health
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treatment. So join us today as we'll
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discuss how LB pulled off an incredible IPO in the current
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market and the challenges that came with it and insight into L
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BS lead asset and Heather switch from a lawyer to CEO.
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So Heather, thanks so much for coming on.
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How are you? I'm good.
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Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.
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Yeah. Look, it's a pleasure to have
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you on. So look, let's just start off
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with your journey through the field.
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So talk us through how you got to where you are today and were
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there any key mentors or experiences that significantly,
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significantly influence your path to becoming ACEO?
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Yeah, my, my journey started as a corporate securities attorney.
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That's a fairly unconventional start for ACEO.
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My, my path to CEO really took off when I spent over 20 years
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as a general counsel in both public and, and private biotech
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companies, you know, in all different stages of development.
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And, and that role really gave me an opportunity to see the
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entire organization, you know, the interactions of all the
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functions and leadership styles and, and how, you know, the ups
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and downs of companies in the biotech space.
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It wasn't really until a moment that I had with a couple of
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colleagues at one of my prior companies where they said to me
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sort of out of the blue, you know, we'd be happy to work for
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you when you're CEO. And that whole kind of concept
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of CEO had never really even occurred to me.
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And it wasn't until these colleagues said that that it
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even planted a seed. Like it wasn't even a a part of
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my thinking in terms of my career development.
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And I actually think it's quite common for women to really think
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that we need more and more and more experience before we put
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ourselves up for that next level role, whether it's CEO or, you
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know, a member of the C-Suite. And I think I was very similar
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in that way, thinking that I just constantly had to get more
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cross functional experience or operational experience or, you
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know, all of these other things. And it really wasn't until those
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colleagues even mentioned the idea that they would be happy to
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work for me as CEO that I even contemplated it.
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And I'm grateful for that. And I'm also grateful that they
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actually watered it and like kept talking about that because
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it really, I think then took took on a life of its own and it
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actually became something that I was thinking about.
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Nice. And what what inspired you to
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join LB Pharmaceuticals as CEO? I can imagine after the
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acquisition of Karma you had a lot of different options
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available. What aspects of the company's
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vision really resonated with you and made you think that this was
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the right company for you? Yeah, I really wanted to join an
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asset focused company. I had been a part of some
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platform companies and I knew that they were challenging in
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biotech to try to manage both research and development,
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especially in a constrained research resource environment.
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And so I really wanted to be a part of a clinical stage asset
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company. I also think that that's really
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where I could add a lot of value based on my experience set.
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And I also wanted an opportunity to build a company.
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I really enjoy that aspect. I really enjoy bringing teams
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together. I grew up playing team sports.
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I played soccer, so I really enjoy being a part of a team and
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building a team. And so that was something that I
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was, you know, really interested in and I also wanted to do
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something difficult. You know, I know CNS is a very
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difficult space to develop drugs and I liked that challenge.
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I liked the opportunity to do something hard and, and you
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know, high risk because, you know, I, I think that there
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comes quite a bit of reward when you take on those kinds of, of
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things. So doing something in CNS was
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also really, really appealing. Can you provide just a general
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overview of LB Pharmaceuticals and its mission in the field of
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schizophrenia treatment? Yeah.
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LB Pharma is intent on building a fully integrated CNS company,
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one that is focused on bringing clinically meaningful
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therapeutics to patients. Our asset LB1O2 is a phase three
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ready asset in schizophrenia. We announced positive phase two
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data in schizophrenia earlier this year and we showed highly
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statistically significant effects over placebo and A and a
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generally safe profile. It also this asset also has the
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mechanism to support moving into depression related indications.
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And so we're also pursuing a phase two clinical trial in
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bipolar depression as well. LB farmers lead asset, you
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mentioned it then LB1O2 is a blood brain barrier optimized
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analogue for a misal pride. Can you explain the significance
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of this development in treating schizophrenia?
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And how does LB1O2 aim to address both the positive and
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negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
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And what do you think makes it a promising candidate in this in
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this space? Yeah.
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Amisulpride was never brought to the United States.
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So this is an antipsychotic that has a very highly favorable
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efficacy and safety profile. And physicians in the United
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States have never had an opportunity to prescribe it.
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And so the fact that we could improve upon it and have the
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potential to bring it to the United States, I think is
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particularly exciting. The the improvement in
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permeability of LB1O2 results in a more potent molecule.
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It also results in once daily dosing.
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So amisulpritis generally dosed twice daily, which can be a
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challenge for patients in terms of compliance.
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And so this improved permeability into the brain
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resulted in better potency as well as once daily dosing.
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And this is important, right? Obviously improved potency means
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that you might be able to dose lower, which we are, and that we
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also can dose once daily, which I said, you know, as I said
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before, is actually important for patients with schizophrenia
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because compliance is really, really important for these
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patients. They really need to avoid
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relapse of schizophrenia. Nice.
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Who are like the main competitors in the space that
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you guys are in? Who who else are you sort of
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competing against? You know, I think the one that
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comes to mind frequently is a new mechanism of action, which
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is the muscarinics. So Kabemthi is a recently
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approved muscarinic that is being used to treat
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schizophrenia. It's a different mechanism than
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than our drug it off. It comes with its own pros and
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cons. We think that LB One O 2 is
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going to be uniquely situated in that I believe it'll offer both
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a highly efficacious antipsychotic for for patients,
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but also an opportunity to have a nice safety and tolerability
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profile, which would enable these patients to stay on the
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drug. We also have very simple
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compliant dosing. Ours is once daily.
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The muscarinic is actually twice daily and there's also a food
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effect with it. So, so we think we also have a
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very simple dosing profile. So the other aspect of LB1O2
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that I think could be unique. In our phase two clinical trial,
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we did show a robust treatment effect on cognition.
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Cognition is a an area of significant unmet need in both
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schizophrenia as well as mood disorders.
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And so we think we might have an opportunity to have a
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differentiating benefit on cognition.
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And also amisulpride has is one of the few antipsychotics that
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has shown in three randomized placebo-controlled trials, a
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statistically significant benefit over placebo in treating
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patients with predominantly negative symptoms.
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It's actually known to be an antipsychotic that is beneficial
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for patients with negative symptoms.
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And so we think there's an opportunity here for LB1O2 as
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well to show a benefit in that patient population as well.
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Nice, exciting. And then obviously, you raised a
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very successful 285,000,000 IPO, which is incredible.
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So congratulations on that and one of the very few IP OS we've
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seen not just this year, but in recent times as well.
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Can you walk us through the journey of preparing and
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executing the IPO? After we announced the positive
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phase two clinical trial results, we started to embark on
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the fundraising process. We needed to raise capital to
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support the next stage of development and during that
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process we had to change directions a couple of times
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just based on the macro environment and the challenges
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with fundraising. You know, early in the year the
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the IPO market pretty much disappeared and so we had to
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really think about how to navigate that.
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We did receive some good news from FDA which gave us gave us
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an opportunity to potentially pursue approval in schizophrenia
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with just a single phase three clinical trial.
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And with that we thought, well, maybe there's an opportunity to
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raise capital that could support both schizophrenia and bipolar
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depression. We do think pursuing both at the
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same time is, is, is the right thing to do and we think can
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really create value for the company.
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And we then spoke at length with our board about how we might
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approach that. And it was there that we decided
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we would try a market driven approach to the IPO.
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Traditionally over the last number of years the IP OS have
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been covered by the insiders when you start that process.
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And so the insiders have the leverage to dictate the
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valuation. You know the pre IPO valuation.
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And in our situation we thought well, why don't we let the
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market Dr. the valuation. We knew that we had catalysts
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that would come, you know a ways out.
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Our data isn't expected until the second-half of 27.
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And so we knew that for some investors that might be
11:26
challenging. And so we decided as a board and
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a company to really allow the market to dictate the valuation
11:34
of the company. And that really is ultimately
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what what proved to be successful in this process.
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Yeah. I mean, hopefully after seeing
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the successful IPO that you guys have had, that opens up a window
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for for other companies. We've obviously seen Matt Plight
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who look like they're going to go through that process as well
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and hopefully it opens it up for other companies and and maybe
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going into the public markets versus doing another private
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round. So yeah.
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Fingers crossed it'd be good for the whole industry.
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Yeah. What were some of the key
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challenges that you faced during that process, especially given
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what the IPO conditions were like?
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And what factors gave you confidence to move forward with
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an IPO versus perhaps another private round just given that
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it's been a really dry market? One of the thing, one of the big
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challenges in this IPO was frankly convincing investors
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that we really were going to do a market driven IPOI don't think
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many believed us until we got to the point where we flipped
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public and could have, you know, more detailed conversations
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about valuation. And it was at that point that
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investors were like, oh, wow, you're, you're really doing
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this. You you were serious.
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We better start, you know, doing some work.
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So it I think took a bit to convince investors that we
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really were seriously going to be doing a market driven IPO and
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that there was an opportunity for investors to you know
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dictate the valuation. So that part I think was a bit
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challenging, surprisingly so, but it was a bit challenging in
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terms of just keeping the conviction.
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We fundamentally knew that this was the best path forward for
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the company, for patients, for investors, you know, to really
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raise the capital that we needed to do both indications, we knew
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it was the right thing to do. So our conviction didn't waver
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that this was the right thing to do and we would just persevere
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and overcome whatever challenges came in our way.
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But we had this conviction, this North Star, that this was
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actually the right thing to do. Yeah.
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And what was that? I assume there was probably a
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lot of talk around going for another private round initially
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and then maybe go and put. At what point did did you decide
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right to go for the IPO instead? You know, from the very
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beginning when we embarked on the IPO process, that was the
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process that was what we were moving towards that what we that
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is what we were executing towards.
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There was some twists and turns along the way, but at the point
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at which we decided this is what we're doing, we were 100%
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focused on doing the IPO. Yeah.
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Was there any talk from maybe people on the outside saying
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like look at we don't think this is a particularly good idea
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given how the market is or the moment or was there full support
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from from from everyone around? There was a lot of people who
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doubted this process. A lot of people asked us whether
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we were crazy. You know, why are you guys
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considering this? This is, you know, crazy.
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We fundamentally believed that by doing it as a market driven
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process, we thought that we could really create a situation
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where it's a win, win for everybody.
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Investors get in at a really nice valuation, the company gets
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the capital that it needs in order to pursue the development
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and patients ultimately would win by continuing the
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development of this asset because fundamentally we believe
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that it'll help patients. So, so it was absolutely a
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situation where there were a lot of doubters and we had a lot of
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conviction in that the fact that this is a situation that could
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really benefit all different stakeholders.
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Yeah. For other biotech executives who
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are considering going IPO in the not so distant future, what
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advice would you offer based on your your your experience with
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LB Farmer and and having been through that successful process?
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I have two key pieces of advice. The first would be prepare.
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Do the work in advance. Even if it's a low probability
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that you might go public, do the work.
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The fact that we had done work on our S1 early in the year,
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even when we didn't have line of sight to an IPO, facilitated the
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opportunity to do the IPO later in the year because we were
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ready, we could do it quickly. We knew that we had a very
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narrow window of opportunity. We wanted to come out in early
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September. We really wanted to be the first
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out. We thought that there was a
16:22
benefit to try to be the first out.
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And so having done all that work early in the year paid off
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because we now had and could credibly do this IPO very
16:35
quickly cause all the work had been done.
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So I would say the most that you can prepare, I would prepare.
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And you know, putting together the S1 really is a nice
16:44
opportunity to crystallize your story and to really think about
16:48
the value proposition, which can help all of your other
16:51
activities. The other thing I would say is
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to really have an aligned understanding on valuation with
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your board. And to the extent that you can
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be realistic in that valuation is really going to serve you
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well. If you go into an IPO process
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with unrealistic expectations on valuation, I think it's going to
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make completing that IPO challenging.
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And so I think having that conversation early on, aligning
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with your board early on, I think is going to be very
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helpful. Yeah.
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Do you, do you think the public markets will now open up and IPO
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process will open up now having seen these obviously you guys
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and and maybe the likes of Map Light, do you think there'll be
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a shift in how execs will think about IPO now?
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I really hope it opens up. I do think that there is still
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valuation sensitivity and so I do think that companies need to
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be realistic about that. But I hope that it opens up.
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I hope that these acquisitions that we're seeing continue to I
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think build momentum in the the biotechnology space.
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I think those acquisitions are helpful.
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And so hopefully now we're starting to see this domino
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effect where hopefully we do now have more IPOs.
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We see a lot of public offerings, we see a lot of
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follow ONS and I think those have been nice and positive.
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Now let's hopefully start to see more on the IPO side.
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Yeah, for sure. In terms of your background,
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just to go back to it. So you're, you're a legal
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counsel by trade, but making a shift to CEO is a is a big shift
18:29
for sure. I think often when you see
18:32
typical CEO journeys, there may be like an ex chief business
18:35
officer or chief commercial commercial officer.
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How did your legal background prepare for the challenges of of
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leading a biotech company? I think because I was a
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corporate securities attorney and I worked a lot with life
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science companies, I have a lot of experience and I gained a lot
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of experience with transactions, whether it was licensing deals
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or acquisitions or even financings, public and private
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IP OS in particular. I knew exactly how to get this
19:08
company ready for an IPO. I knew exactly what we needed to
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do. I knew exactly where the push
19:15
points might be. And so from from that
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perspective, I felt highly confident in our ability to
19:22
execute on the IPO process, putting aside kind of the macro
19:27
environment, which had its own challenge, but it also gave me a
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unique opportunity as a general counsel.
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It's one of the few roles in a company where you see every
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single function, you engage with every single function, and you
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see a lot of connections between functions that a lot of people
19:45
don't see. It allows you to anticipate and
19:49
to highlight disconnects in an organization.
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And I think that's highly useful as ACEO to see exactly how all
19:56
these connect, how all these functions kind of connect and
19:59
where there might be disconnects.
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It also gives you, I think, a very nice ability to anticipate
20:05
risk and to then mitigate that risk.
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As a general counsel, you think about that all the time and as a
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a business minded general counsel.
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You think about it from the perspective of I can't eliminate
20:17
risk, so we have to decide what risk we're going to accept and
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then how do we do that in and then what way is that done in
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the best interest of the company and stockholders and patients.
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So I think it uniquely situates me to not only manage projects,
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but to also think through the risks and the opportunities,
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frankly, that come around the corner.
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Nice. And you I guess having done this
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successful IPO now like what what's next for you guys, what's
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next for LB Pharma? What are the next sort of
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milestones and and advancements that you guys are looking to
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achieve? Yeah.
20:54
I mentioned when we first started this that it's so nice
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to just be able to focus on executing the company right now,
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you know, to actually get back to the day-to-day work and to
21:06
really now build this company and hire the team.
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So that's obviously an area of focus and of course we are
21:15
intent on getting these clinical trials started.
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So we'll hope to start the the phase three clinical trial and
21:23
schizophrenia next year, as well as the phase two clinical trial
21:26
bipolar depression. And so those are, you know, in
21:31
prioritized areas right now is really just getting those trials
21:34
started. But it is such a relief and it
21:37
is just so nice to actually focus on the day-to-day.
21:42
You know, I, it's, it's, it's, it's hard to put it into words,
21:46
but it's quite nice to just get back to the day job.
21:50
Yeah, for sure. I can imagine.
21:53
And this, this is a question we always finish with from the bio
21:56
hub. I know I wanted to give you a
21:57
bit of a heads up on this as well, but if you'd have dinner
22:00
with any free people, past or present, who would it be and
22:02
why? It doesn't necessarily need to
22:04
be biotech innovators, although it can be if you like.
22:07
But yeah, free people you'd have for dinner.
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Yeah, I think some of mine are a little cliche, but I'm going to
22:14
go with them anyway. I would love to have dinner with
22:19
Barack Obama. I think he's one of the better
22:21
leaders that we've seen in a very long time.
22:24
And I appreciate how he frames a lot of issues.
22:29
And so he is absolutely somebody that I would really enjoy having
22:33
dinner with. I couldn't really call myself a
22:36
female attorney without including Ruth Bader Ginsburg in
22:40
in that as well. Her resilience, her persistence
22:44
in getting to where she got in her career, I think is something
22:48
that is impressive and inspiring.
22:52
And the last one is Ellen Sacks, and she's a person who has
22:56
schizophrenia, wrote a book about schizophrenia and detailed
23:00
the patient journey of schizophrenia.
23:03
And I think it really provided a, an amazing understanding of
23:08
the disease. And for somebody who's in the
23:10
business of developing drugs to treat these neuropsychiatric
23:14
disorders, having a sense for what it's like to live with this
23:17
disease, I believe really instills a sense of urgency to
23:23
do what you can to try to bring some sort of treatment to these
23:27
patients. It's a really, really horrible
23:30
disease. And so to to really be a part of
23:35
a potential benefit to these patients is something that is
23:39
inspiring. Yeah, look, well, I love all of
23:42
those answers and thank you again for coming on and helping
23:45
us out with this. Congratulations on on everything
23:48
you've done with LB and for sure, I'm looking forward to
23:51
following the continued success that you guys will be having.
23:54
So yeah, it was a pleasure, Heather, and thanks for thanks
23:58
for coming up. Yeah, thank you so much for
24:00
having me and I really enjoyed it.