The traditional approach to treating autoimmune disease has relied on ways to suppress the immune system. COUR Pharmaceuticals is developing first-in-class therapies that instead seek to reprogram the immune system to create antigen-specific tolerance. We spoke to COUR CEO John Puisis and COUR Vice President of Research Adam Elhofy, about how the company’s immune-modifying nanoparticles work, how the approach preserves the immune response, and its partnership with Takeda focused on celiac disease.

Zandy Forbes, Founder, President, and CEO of MeiraGTx, joins host Rahul Chaturvedi in this compelling episode. Zandy shares her inspiring journey from academia, where she developed a deep interest in molecular biology and genetics, to her significant role in biotech investing, and eventually leading a groundbreaking gene therapy company

“It’s an encouraging and exciting time to be in psychiatry because we now have tools available, even in clinic, that show a rapid and robust clinical response, and there are more to come,”

CEO Clarke Atwell acknowledges that it’s not the first to bring topically-administered biologic therapies to the front of the eye

Claris Bio is seeking to address the need for therapies to treat corneal disease by developing recombinant human deleted hepatocyte growth factor to improve and accelerate corneal healing.

Meanwhile, Calliditas Therapeutics announced data from the proof-of-concept Phase II trial evaluating setanaxib, its lead NOX enzyme inhibitor, in combination with pembrolizumab, in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Dr. Steffen-Sebastian Bolz, Chief Scientific Officer of Swiss-based Aphaia Pharma, shines a light on the excitement around weight loss drugs due to the discovery that GLP-1 agonists and points out the shift in the perception of obesity as a root cause of various health issues.

With the stakes raised, enter Kaan Certel, Omega’s new chief business officer who joined the team at the end of May, and is focused on forging new partnerships for the company.