Asia Healthcare Podcast JChanPharma

Simone Song was happily leading Goldman Sachs's healthcare investment banking for Greater China when the results of a health check changed her outlook in life. Wanting to dedicate the rest of her career to support innovative healthcare companies that are addressing the world's biggest diseases, she established ORI Capital, a venture capital firm focused on investing in innovative companies in the healthcare industry globally.

Simone joins me this week to share about her journey, and ORI's investing philosophies. 

And also artificial intelligence.



Topics we explored:

- How Simone’s health scare led her to leave banking to launch her own fund

- What is ORI’s investment approach?

- How does venture capital investing contribute to grooming young healthcare/biotech companies?

- How does ORI Capital use AI to find healthcare companies with a lot of potential?

- Simone’s advice for young startups



Follow ORI Capital:

Website – https://ori-capital.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/oricapital/about/



Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

Twitter: @jchanpharma



Music from https://www.jeffcaylor.com/

Who wants to be a biotech journalist?

Amber Tong, Senior Editor of Endpoints News, joins the Asia Healthcare Podcast to share her origin story and what it’s like covering China healthcare.



Topics we explored:

- How did Amber get her start in journalism

- First impressions of biotech reporting

- What's fun versus not so fun about China biotech reporting

- Our favorite reading material / source of biotech news and analysis for Asia

- Comparing the interview styles of China vs US/Europe biotech executives

- Advice for future journalists writing about healthcare



Amber's latest special reports:

Researchers in biotech, academia and Big Pharma are offering puzzle pieces to crack CAR-T for solid tumors. Will they ever snap together?

Special report: Twenty extraordinary women blazing trails in biopharma R&D — Covid-19 and beyond



Follow Endpoints News -

https://endpts.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/endpoints/



Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

Website: https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

Twitter: @jchanpharma

Email: asiahealthcarepodcast@gmail.com





Music from https://www.jeffcaylor.com/

A serious heart infection caused by a supposedly rare non-pathogenic bacteria landed me in the hospital for a month. This is my story of how I survived a critical illness.



Topics explored:

- What is Infective Endocarditis (IE)?

- What are the odds of getting IE?

- What diagnostic tests did I undergo?

- Why you should go to a private hospital for acute events

- General tips for protecting yourself and staying healthy



Useful links:

Infective Endocarditis – National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)

https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/endocarditis-infective/

Heart Valves and Infective Endocarditis – Heart.org

https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-valve-problems-and-disease/heart-valve-problems-and-causes/heart-valves-and-infective-endocarditis



Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

Website: https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

Twitter: @jchanpharma

Email: asiahealthcarepodcast@gmail.com

Did you know that roughly only 2% of healthcare spending goes into diagnostic testing? And yet it informs the majority of our clinical decisions.

Lance Little, managing director of Roche Diagnostics APAC and board member of APACMed joins me this week to discuss the pandemic preparedness of Asia’s healthcare systems, and the role of diagnostics in the future of healthcare.



Topics we explored:

- How has Asia responded to the pandemic so far?

- What factors can really impact how well a country contain an outbreak?

- Is our current healthcare system setup vulnerable to sudden shocks like pandemics?

- Are we spending too little on healthcare diagnostics?

- How can we build the healthcare systems that can withstand ‘shock events’ for the future?

- Are we poised for a digital revolution in healthcare?



Useful links:

Building Regulatory Agility for Adequate Access to Quality SARS-CoV-2 Test Kits During the Global Pandemic

The Critical Role of Diagnostics in COVID-19 Management



Follow Roche Diagnostics APAC -

https://www.roche.com.sg/

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/rochediagnosticsasiapacific/



Follow Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed):

https://apacmed.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/asia-pacific-medical-technology-association/



Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

Website: https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

Twitter: @jchanpharma

Email: asiahealthcarepodcast@gmail.com



Music from https://www.jeffcaylor.com/

In 2015, Piers Ingram co-founded Hummingbird Bioscience, a clinical-stage biotech company in Singapore. Leading a team of interdisciplinary scientists, the company believes that there is a better way to deliver a new generation of transformative medicine: by harnessing powerful modern approaches to systems biology and data science to better understand disease mechanisms and how to treat these, through the development of rationally engineered bio-therapeutics.

Piers joins us to talk about his experience in Asia and starting Hummingbird to develop drugs that go after 'hard targets' in cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Topics we explored:

- How Piers and Jerome met in Shanghai at an alumni event

- Why start Hummingbird Bioscience?

- Why target HER3 and VISTA in cancer drug development?

- How competition and collaboration can both coexist in the biotech industry



Follow Hummingbird Bioscience:

Website – https://hummingbirdbioscience.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/hummingbird-bioscience/



Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

Twitter: @jchanpharma

Email: asiahealthcarepodcast@gmail.com



Music used with permission from https://www.jeffcaylor.com/

Ying Huang spent 9 years in drug R&D and 12 years as a biotech analyst. He signed up to be Legend Biotech's CFO, but 17 months later he was named CEO. In this episode, I catch up with Ying about his transition into CEO at Legend. We also talk about cilta-cel and the new clinical trial data the company will be presenting at this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting, and his reflections on 2020.

* Cilta-cel is an investigational chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, formerly identified as JNJ-4528 in the U.S. and Europe and LCAR-B38M in China, that is being studied in a comprehensive clinical development program for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and in earlier lines of treatment.



Topics we explored:

- Ying’s first impression of Legend Biotech at ASCO 2017

- Why Ying decided to join Legend

- How has Frank’s departure impacted Legend and his transition as CEO

- Cilta-cel’s (LCAR-B38M/JNJ-4528) development and expectations for ASH 2020

- Lessons from 2020 and his advice for future scientists



Useful links:

Legend Biotech Announces Leadership Transition

Legend Biotech CEO detained in China as part of investigation

177 CARTITUDE-1: Phase 1b/2 Study of Ciltacabtagene Autoleucel, a B-Cell Maturation Antigen–Directed Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy, in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma



Follow Legend Biotech:

Website – https://www.legendbiotech.com/index.php

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/legendbiotechco./



Follow the Asia Healthcare Podcast!

https://anchor.fm/asiahealthcare

Twitter: @jchanpharma

Music from https://www.jeffcaylor.com/