Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 103 - Justin To - CEO of QED Therapeutics, a Bridge Bio Company

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Episode 103 - Justin To - CEO of QED Therapeutics, a Bridge Bio Company · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:05
  So welcome back to the episode of the Bio Hub.
• 0:07
  Today, we're thrilled to welcome just in tow, who serves as an
• 0:10
  executive at Bridge Biopharma, a company pioneering treatments
• 0:14
  for genetic diseases with a uniquely decentralized R&D
• 0:17
  model. Justin started his career at
• 0:19
  McKinsey and company and then to fly in health.
• 0:22
  And for the past eight years, he's been helping build and
• 0:24
  scale Bridge Bio from within. I have a trained chemist just
• 0:28
  just in combined scientific understanding with operational
• 0:31
  precision, making him a stand out leader in a sector where
• 0:34
  both are essential. So join us today as we'll talk
• 0:37
  through Justin's journey, the bridge bio model and what makes
• 0:40
  it unique, as well as the potential of genetic medicines.
• 0:44
  So Justin, thanks so much for coming on.
• 0:45
  How are you you're? Doing well.
• 0:47
  Thanks for having me on today. We're excited to chat today.
• 0:50
  Yeah, look, it's an absolute pleasure.
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  So look, let's let's start off start off with a little bit
• 0:55
  about you then. So can you talk us through your
• 0:57
  journey in the field and what inspired you to join the Bridge
• 1:00
  Bio group? Yeah, happy to.
• 1:02
  You know, I think I've known since probably freshman year in
• 1:05
  college that I want to be at the intersection of science and
• 1:09
  business. I actually started off as an
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  economics major before quickly moving into chemistry.
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  However, I realized pretty soon that I would really never make
• 1:18
  it in the lab. You know, I was breaking
• 1:20
  beakers. I was nearly causing a few lab
• 1:22
  accidents. Don't didn't think lab research
• 1:25
  was my thing. And so when I graduated from
• 1:27
  college, I did what many other science majors who couldn't make
• 1:31
  it, the lab did. I ended up joining McKenzie as a
• 1:33
  consultant to advise pharmaceutical companies.
• 1:36
  Fast forward a few years later, and when I was looking to
• 1:39
  transition from McKenzie, I saw an e-mail being passed around
• 1:42
  for Neil Kumar, who's the founder and CEO of Bridge Bio,
• 1:46
  who had just recently started the company.
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  And he pitched it in this e-mail flyer as kind of a new type of
• 1:51
  biotic company. And that was intruded.
• 1:53
  You know, we ended up speaking at and at the time he explained
• 1:56
  that the biotech sector and the biotech venture capital world
• 2:00
  was really only going for what we call home runs, right?
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  You know, these big platform companies who are focused on
• 2:05
  technologies, going after large indications or with new and
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  proven modalities. He came from Third Rock
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  Adventures where he saw all of this playing out.
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  And as a result of this focus of these home runs, there was a
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  significant neglect of all these great signs in academic labs
• 2:21
  that were going after smaller genetically targeted diseases
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  with a well described mechanism. So in baseball Parliament, you
• 2:29
  can think about these that were effectively singles or double,
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  double s, right, that were, you know, got you to where you need
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  it, but just were less kind of glamorous in these home runs.
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  And the model of Bridge Bio was to think about how do we
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  aggregate a number of these to create a large enough
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  opportunity, but also kind of have multiple shots, take
• 2:47
  multiple shots on goal to de risk anyone.
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  Anyways, the business model sounds really cool.
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  But despite all that, I made the really wise decision of actually
• 2:54
  turning down Neil on the offer and became the first person to
• 2:57
  turn down a role at Bridge bio because at that point, it was
• 3:00
  all just kind of theory and he didn't have any programs.
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  And so I ended up joining Flat Iron health for for a year.
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  But I had his voice in the back of my head about whether or not
• 3:09
  I made the wrong choice of, of not taking bet on this new
• 3:11
  company and on on Neil. And about a year later, I
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  reached out back to Neil on LinkedIn and the rest was
• 3:16
  history. So flash forward nearly eight
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  years now, and I'm still here today leading our Spells with
• 3:22
  Dysplasia franchise. Very good.
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  And just, and just looking at your background, you've had
• 3:27
  quite a unique path. So you went from chemistry at
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  Harvard to McKinsey to Flatiron, and now leading skeletal
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  dysplasia programs at Bridge Bio.
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  What inspired your shift from science to strategy and
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  operations? That's a, it's a great question.
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  You know, other than my inability to do great lab work,
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  you know, I, I think part of the reason why I shifted from
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  science to to Business Today and specifically think about how we
• 3:51
  lead new drug discovery at bridge pile is there's something
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  magical about taking great fundamental lab science from
• 4:01
  academic labs and translating it into clinical trials and
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  hopefully one day an approval. Almost every academic science
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  paper ends with a few paragraphs in the discussion section or the
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  conclusion section about the implications of the paper or the
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  discover this or discovery on, you know, how you drug a disease
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  or, or how you drug a target. And drug development is actually
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  what makes those hypothetical statements real.
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  You know, it's, it's a long process where often more can go
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  wrong than can go right. And often times it it does go
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  wrong. But I can't think of a
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  profession that's more rewarding given the potential impact on
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  patients and people. There's really nothing like it.
• 4:43
  Very good. And could you just give us a bit
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  of a breakdown of the Bridge Bio models?
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  It's very distinctive in the sense that there's centralizing
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  core functions while spinning out focus subsidiaries around
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  specific disease areas. Can you talk through from your
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  perspective, the model itself and what makes Bridge Bio so
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  unique? Yeah.
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  So bridge as you mentioned bridge battle was one of The
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  Pioneers of you know the now frequently emulated hub and
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  spoke model. Now for each program we have
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  built a dedicated affiliate or subsidiary company that is
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  solely dedicated and incentivized around that one
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  program. So that practically has two big
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  implications. One is that you have a senior
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  management team that is solely focused on driving a particular
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  program forward instead of constantly being on out on the
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  road trying to raise money or talk about the program.
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  So that's kind of implication #1 The second implication is that
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  you have the people who are closest to the program making
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  decisions. You know, we, we, we call that
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  decision play calling out on the field, right?
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  You don't have layers and layers of governance where decision
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  makers who are, are far removed from people who are closest to
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  the science and, and the medicine.
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  And that's really kind of the, the special sauce behind the
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  bridge battle model. And we have successfully
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  replicated this model at scale where in just over 8 years, we
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  have very close to 20 IM, DS and three approvals, which is
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  unprecedented for a a company of our age and size.
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  And really that's kind of what has allowed us to be quite
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  successful in not only discovering new medicines, but
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  also putting them into the clinic, running efficient
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  clinical trials and getting through the regulatory process
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  and a pretty expedited manner. And that's really kind of what's
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  been allowing us to kind of live what we consider as some of our
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  core values, which are, you know, patients first, but also
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  every minute counts. Very good.
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  And you guys Bridge Bio primarily focus on treating
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  genetic disease diseases with precision.
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  What excites you the most about the potential of genetic
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  medicines today? Yeah, it's a really timely
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  question. You know, it's the first answer
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  to. I want to compare genetic
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  conditions and genetic medicines to analogy I like to use, which
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  is that of a lock and a key, right Where the lock is often
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  times is the biology behind a genetic disease.
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  Now, what's the genetic mutation or the driver behind it?
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  And the key is the genetic medicine.
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  In the past, there often times was no key.
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  And the only time that opened these locked doors was
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  effectively kick the door down, right?
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  Not really targeted, but it got the job down in a little bit of
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  messy manner, often times with these medicines that aren't
• 7:26
  specific at all. Now that's changed in the era of
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  genetic medicines. We're in a unique era now,
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  driven by new, new AI technologies and lower cost
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  genetic sequencing that has allowed us to better, better map
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  out these locks effectively. And these technologies have also
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  allowed us to generate even more better keys for these locks,
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  ones that are more targeted. And a great example of the
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  success is that of a news article you probably saw in the
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  last few weeks of a baby, KJ, a baby with CPS deficiency that
• 7:58
  was treated via base editing just a few weeks ago.
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  That was a unique collaboration between academia and industry
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  that allowed for a very specific gene editing tool to treat this
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  baby's disease. Something like this would have
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  been unimaginable even a few years ago where we weren't able
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  to kind of deliver these very targeted treatments.
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  And so I think that's kind of why I'm so excited about genetic
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  medicines today is that, you know, the, the tool kit for how
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  we can treat these rare genetic conditions has dramatically
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  expanded over the last few years from just small molecules and
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  biologics to now AV gene therapies, L and PS base
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  editing, you know, CRISPR editing.
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  There's just so many more tools available to us, but also we
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  just understand these conditions a lot better now with the level
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  of genetic sequencing and data that we have access to.
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  OK, fine. I know, I know.
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  The red disease is a crowded one.
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  How does Bridge Bio differentiate itself with the
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  red disease space and what strategies are in place to
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  maintain a competitive edge as as that field particularly
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  evolves? Yeah.
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  For us, you know, we're very selective for the types of drugs
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  and programs that we choose to bring on and develop.
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  We often focus on what can we consider first in class or best
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  in class and and a few great examples of that.
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  So we have two programs that are going to be first in class in in
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  their particular area. So we have in calorie for a
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  condition called autosomal abdominant hypocalcemia type 1,
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  ADH type one that's for again a rare calcium disorder where
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  there is no current treatment targeted treatment available.
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  And we have another drug, Ribotol for limb girdle muscular
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  dystrophy, where again, there's no current treatment option
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  available. And on the other side of things,
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  we have, we developed 2 drugs, one which is approved.
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  We have a true B, which we consider a best in class
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  stabilizer for TTR cardiomyopathy, where that's
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  considered a best in class stabilizer.
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  And we and I'm personally working on a drug called
• 10:02
  infragratinib, which is a FG FR3 inhibitor for a condition called
• 10:06
  achondroplasia, where there is one approved drug today, but
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  it's a daily injection and we have the opportunity to be the
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  first oral. So for every program we have in
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  the portfolio, it's either going to be kind of first in class or
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  what we consider to be potentially best in class.
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  So I think that's kind of 1 core strategy for how we kind of set
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  the pipeline that defines our company.
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  I think another key aspect of of what makes bridge value unique
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  is, you know, our model as I described earlier, you know, we
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  empower people who are closest to the science and to the
• 10:36
  medicine to make the decisions, right?
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  By getting rid of the layers of bureaucracy that we see at other
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  bigger companies, you know, we're able to kind of move, kind
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  of move faster with every decision, right?
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  Kind of make make sure that those who are close to the
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  decision are the ones making it. And then ultimately thinking
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  about how we evolved from here. Ultimately our goal is to be
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  what we consider the next generational genetic disease
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  company, kind of the next Regeneron or, or Vertex.
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  It's not easy. You know, they're obviously
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  very, very few companies, you know, probably 1 I can name on
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  just one hand that have made that leap.
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  But we have a unique opportunity to do so as we have kind of two
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  key ingredients. We have a flagship approved
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  product in A true B that is off to an incredible launch.
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  But we also have a strong pipeline of three different
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  phase three programs all set to read out in the next 12 months
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  or so. And I think those two
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  ingredients together, again, one really strong product that's
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  approved and launched and a really strong pipeline is
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  something that's incredibly rare in the biotech space, which
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  makes I think Bridge Bio a really unique place to be.
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  Yeah, very good. And I think there's always
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  emerging or exciting news areas in the biotech field.
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  What areas are you most excited about right now?
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  Are there any particular therapies or technologies that
• 11:56
  you think of finding the radar that could potentially change
• 11:59
  the game in the next few years? Yeah, obviously I'm biased, but
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  I'm really excited about, you know, the upcoming three Phase 3
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  programmes in the Birch Bio portfolio.
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  And so in no particular order, I'd be happy to kind of talk
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  about each each of them. You know, first is a program
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  that's really kind of near and dear to me, which is the
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  Infragratnet program for Achondroplasia, which I'm, which
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  I'm deeply involved in for that program.
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  You know, achondroplasia is one of the most common genetic
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  causes of disproportionate short stature.
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  It's a condition that's not only about, you know, hype, though.
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  It's there's a lot of skeletal issues as well, where there's
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  spinal compression, leg bowing and pain and narrowing of the
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  base of the skull, which can lead to sudden infant death.
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  There's an improved therapy today called the sword type, but
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  that therapy is a daily injectable effectively.
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  And what we're doing with infragratinib is that it has the
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  potential to be the first daily oral if approved.
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  And so currently it's in phase three right now, but we're
• 12:58
  really excited from what we see in the phase two data.
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  And so that's kind of one of our phase three programs right now.
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  As I mentioned before, we have two other phase three programs
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  already out in the next 12 months as well, which is our in
• 13:10
  Calvert program for AutoZone dominant hypocalcemic type 1,
• 13:14
  which is a rare calcium sensing disorder, but there's potential
• 13:20
  for that drug to be applied to a broader range of conditions in
• 13:24
  hypoparathyroidism as well. And then lastly, we have a
• 13:27
  program called Ribotol for limb griddle muscular dystrophy type
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  2 I, which is a degenerative muscular dystrophy with no other
• 13:35
  treatment options where some patients can end up wheelchair
• 13:38
  bound. And again, you know we have a
• 13:41
  really promising drug here that targets the condition at its
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  source and we're excited to see that data in the next 12 months
• 13:47
  or so now. And again, I think, you know,
• 13:50
  the combination of having these best first in class drugs, but
• 13:52
  also best in class drugs are representative of what Bridge
• 13:56
  Valve is all about and what continues to excite me here even
• 14:00
  after being here for eight years or so.
• 14:03
  Very good. Well, look, I think we've given
• 14:05
  a really unique perspective on the bridge bio model.
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  As you mentioned earlier, there's there's a lot of
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  companies that are following a similar sort of model just given
• 14:12
  to the success that that you guys have had.
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  So it's I mean, it sounds super interesting the pipeline, the
• 14:18
  direction that you guys are going.
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  So look, thanks so much for coming on helping us out with
• 14:22
  it. It's been been an absolute
• 14:24
  pleasure. Yeah, been my pleasure as well.
• 14:27
  Thanks so much for taking the time.
• 14:28
  Thanks, Justin.