Nordic Life Science 1
T TF TO here are two things that are really new a
nd different that we’ve started to see in the last year or so. The first is, again, the GLP-1 drug class. These don’t just impact one disease. They impact a patient’s vulnerability to 20, maybe even 50 different diseases by controlling their obesity. The industry is realizing that there are certain types of drugs that can change underlying physiology in a more fundamental way. As opposed to being drugs for a specific organ system, they can be drugs aimed at a specific aspect of physiology, for example an anti-fibrotic drug. I think the interest in drugs that impact fundamental physiology is growing rapidly. The second comment I would make, and I call this ’going from treatments to cures’, is that suddenly there is less focus on drugs that entail taking this pill every day for the rest of your life, to drugs that will really change an individual in some fundamental way, quickly. That has really become the emphasis and I don’t mean gene therapies or gene edits, that sort of thing, but more like, let’s develop drugs so that this person is no longer obese. I agree with your assessment that a lot of money can be made in the larger indication areas. But as an investor in the early clinical stages, this often means that it’s hard to stay with the company long enough because you really require a lot of capital to do a good phase 2 efficacy study or even a phase 3 study if you want to try to bring something to market. Especially in the European context, it’s quite difficult to bring together large enough syndicates to be able to carry a company forward that far. What’s your view on the solution for that? I’m going to answer your question with an answer to a slightly different question, like a politician. The number one mistake that biotech CEOs make is that they confuse regulatory success with financial success. What I mean by that is for a company to be financially successful it must be able to raise money and demonstrate the efficacy of its drug to the market. What happens is that companies end up spenNORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG | 73 Ted Fjällman, CEO, Flerie ”ESPECIALLY IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT, IT’S QUITE DIFFICULT TO BRING TOGETHER LARGE ENOUGH SYNDICATES TO BE ABLE TO CARRY A COMPANY FORWARD THAT FAR.” TED FJÄLLMAN