Pravin Dugel, CEO of Ocular Therapeutix provides insights into existing treatments and future product candidates for retinal diseases, underlining the unique challenges, opportunities and innovations in this evolving landscape. www.ocutx.com Pravin U. Dugel, MD Biography
Jul 03, 2025•25 min•Season 2Ep. 36
A surgeon in burns reconstruction, Matt Klein swapped the operating room for the equally high-pressure environment of drug development. In this episode of Pathfinders in Biopharma, he sets out the vision for the company he now leads, PTC Therapeutics – a pioneer in the field of RNA therapies, now powering towards profitability with treatment candidates for a host of rare diseases.
Jun 27, 2025•14 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Scott Neidhold, Director in RBC’s Life Sciences Investment Banking Practice, sits down with Kristen Fortney, CEO and Co-Founder of BioAge, for a deep dive into how her company is turning cutting-edge aging science into real therapeutic breakthroughs — and what it means for the future of biopharma.
May 29, 2025•20 min•Season 2Ep. 31
Universal wisdom had it that a Republican sweep in the U.S. election would favor biotech. Appointments to the new administration’s healthcare leadership make that far less certain. What effect will this and other factors have on the industry in 2025, and where are the breakthroughs likely to be found? Brian Abrahams, Head of Global Healthcare Research at RBC Capital Markets, looks ahead with in this episode of Pathfinders in Biotech.
Feb 07, 2025•9 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Innovation is surging in the U.S biotechnology sector, so why are investors still fearful about committing? Noël Brown, Head of U.S. Biotechnology Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets, is joined by fund founders Craig Gordon, MD, CEO and CIO at GordonMD® Global Investments LP and Srini Akkaraju, MD, PhD, Managing Partner at Samsara BioCapital, to analyze the prospects for a full return of capital to the sector.
Nov 22, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Former biotech investor, Brad Loncar has pivoted his career from investing to reporting on the industry. Instead of serving the biotech bubble, he hopes to reach a wide audience with interest in science. Loncar explains why he switched careers and sets out his ambitions for his channel, Biotech TV.
Sep 30, 2024•12 min•Season 2Ep. 28
The hardest parts of drug discovery will be vastly simplified if the mysteries of molecules and proteins can be cracked. That may be beyond human capabilities – but AI is working hard on it. In this episode of RBC’s Pathfinders in Biopharma, Noël Brown is joined by Clarissa Desjardins, CEO of Congruence, and Laksh Aithani, CEO and Co-founder of Charm Therapeutics, to discuss how far the tech can take us.
Aug 29, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 29
A very special breed of animals is helping biotech and pharma companies in the quest for new human therapeutics. CFO Kurt Gustafson joins Pathfinders in Biopharma to explain the technologies behind OmniAb’s business model.
Jul 19, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Ronald Martell is a serial entrepreneur and biopharma veteran whose record includes the launch of Herceptin. He continues his mission to bring new drugs to patients with unmet medical needs. The CEO of Jasper Therapeutics explains his ambitions for his company’s new antibody therapy and for the future of the industry.
Jul 11, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 28
In biotech, a recovery is already well underway. Expected interest rate cuts and improving valuations across public and private markets are creating a compelling environment for deals, entrances, exits, and trades to take shape. In this episode, biotech venture capital experts assess the sector’s sharper focus on funding fundamental science, evolving deal structures, including the return of reverse mergers and dual-track processes, and the key therapeutic modalities that are driving momentum in ...
Jul 08, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Public biotech Pyxis Oncology is taking forward its innovative work on ADCs. President and CEO, Lara Sullivan, explains the company’s journey to find the right investors, and why she believes the markets still have some learning to do when analyzing data from early-stage studies.
Jun 21, 2024•26 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Davern Capital’s founder, Elie Kobrin, approaches the biopharma market from a long/short perspective – but as a former doctor, he also speaks the language of medicine. He explains the fund’s approach and offers insights on hot topics in the current market.
Jun 14, 2024•10 min•Season 2Ep. 26
As a healthcare-focused, market-neutral investor, Vince Aita stays close to new product developments with a view to identifying future successes and failures. At RBC’s Global Healthcare Conference, he offered his insights on everything from the future of obesity innovation to the impact of the IRA.
Jun 10, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 27
The MedTech sector continues to grow in the U.S. as innovation in patient treatments and delivery meets increased demand from an aging population. Medical technology analyst Shagun Singh assesses key data points from the RBC Capital Markets’ Doctor Days events, looking at how the healthcare sector can empower investors to position themselves for future growth.
Jun 05, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Personalized, targeted drugs and gene therapies are still at the forefront of medical innovation, as we discovered at RBC Capital Markets annual Doctor Days meetings. These insightful forums bring together key opinion leader clinicians and researchers from various therapeutic fields with institutional investors to discuss where opportunities lie, the next big breakthroughs, and the most novel drug therapies. Brian Abrahams, Gregory Renza, and Luca Issi join the podcast to discuss findings from t...
Jun 03, 2024•21 min•Season 2Ep. 24
IDEAYA’s drug development programs center around addressing unmet patient needs. Its founder tells Pathfinders in Biopharma why he believes there has never been more opportunity for breakthroughs in the fight against cancer.
May 31, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Q1 2024 saw a handful of IPOs in the biotech sector, and mounting excitement over novel treatments. But there are less obvious trends in play, including a shift in focus by potential buyers in pharma. RBC’s biotech investment banking team analyzes deal activity in the year to date and what it signals for the sector’s future.
Apr 03, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 23
The first quarter of 2024 has seen biotech’s funding drought broken, largely through private investment in public equity (PIPE) deals. In this episode of Pathfinders in Biopharma, three members of RBC’s biotech investment banking team look at the impact of PIPEs’ success on the sector and consider how long it can last – and why it has not been universally welcomed.
Mar 29, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 22
U.S. healthcare desperately needs to cut costs and improve outcomes. There is no single solution, but three disruptive forces in the digital health space are speeding change – and adding up to a healthy outlook for HCIT. Sean Dodge, Healthcare Technology Analyst, joins the podcast to unpack some of his predictions on the most impactful forces affecting healthcare.
Mar 07, 2024•13 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Drug pricing is already an issue in the U.S. election campaign. Brian Abrahams, MD and Head of Biotech Research at RBC Capital Markets joins the Pathfinders in Biopharma podcast to consider how this, together with other policy developments in the U.S. and worldwide, might affect a resurgent biotech sector.
Feb 27, 2024•13 min•Season 2Ep. 20
After a year of stark contrasts in the public and private equity markets for healthcare, 2024 is shaping up to be another mixed outlook. While biotech continues to bolster the market, albeit more in follow-on offerings than IPOs, and HCIT and healthcare services have tailwinds, the medtech and value-based care subsectors have challenges as well as opportunities. Join our Co-Heads of Healthcare Equity Markets for their insights into the year ahead.
Jan 22, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 19
As the U.S. economy shows positive signs for growth, inflation, and interest rates in 2024, RBC Capital Markets’ RBC Capital Markets’ Michael Reid, Blake Gwinn, Vito Sperduto and Larry Grafstein analyze the challenges posed by consumer spending, political gridlock, and quantitative tightening. This episode was originally published on RBC's Strategic Alternatives podcast.
Dec 29, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 18
In an era characterized by macro headwinds and profound market volatility, the biotech industry continues to raise capital to fuel drug development, clinical trials, and innovation. Capital raising in challenging markets comes with additional risks, leading venture capital firms and crossover investors to identify creative, unconventional deal structures and strategies that are redefining the biotech investment landscape. Join Chen Yu, Founder & Managing Partner at TCGX, Matthew Young, Manag...
Nov 22, 2023•36 min•Season 2Ep. 17
As RBC Capital Markets looks forward to a robust end to the year, John Hoffman and Jason Levitz, Co-Heads of Healthcare Equity Capital Markets explore how the firms who succeed in an especially dynamic market will be those willing to embrace new ways of thinking about unlocking value.
Oct 31, 2023•31 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Join Head of US Capital Markets Research, Mark Odendahl and biotech analysts Brian Abrahams and Gregory Renza, as they explore the dynamic biotech sector landscape in H2 2023. This episode was originally broadcast on Industries in Motion, the RBC podcast.
Sep 26, 2023•17 min•Season 2Ep. 15
U.S. soccer legends and World Cup champions Briana Scurry and Dr. Sara Hess joined Andrew Callaway, Global Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets, at this year’s RBC Global Healthcare Conference.
Aug 17, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 14
A new RBC ElementsTM report, “Insights from the BioWeb,” looks at the predictive potential of website traffic as a means to uncover underappreciated market trends and sales insights. Mark Odendahl, Head of US Capital Markets Research, is joined by Brian Abrahams, Head of Biotechnology at RBC Capital Markets, to discuss the report’s findings.
Aug 07, 2023•11 min•Season 2Ep. 13
While the public biotech markets remain volatile, VCs continue to raise new funds. Are we witnessing a renaissance in the private capital markets? The bankruptcy rate of biotechs is historically among the lowest of US publicly traded companies, however, companies are failing and there is still a widely held belief that too many biotech companies are in existence today. What are the hallmarks of companies that will not make it, and when does it make sense to ‘call it’ or divest? In this episode o...
Jul 13, 2023•32 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Given current macro and regulatory headwinds, determining the optimal time to sell a biotech company is a multifaceted decision that requires careful consideration of several key factors. Hear from industry veterans Ted Love, Marc de Garidel, and Abbas Kazimi who share their insights on a new era of M&A in a panel moderated by RBC Capital Markets Analysts Dr. Brian Abrahams, Dr. Luca Issi and Dr. Gregory Renza.
Jun 23, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Hear from Vito Sperduto, RBC’s Co-Head of Global M&A, and his panel of RBC Capital Markets’ expert bankers on how large healthcare firms with strong balance sheets are putting cash to work — driving a ‘fast and furious’ surge of M&A activity in the second half of the year and into 2024. Learn why healthcare momentum is building and how smaller deals are shaping M&A across the sector in the latest episode of Pathfinders in Biopharma. This podcast also features insights from Andrew ‘Ca...
Jun 08, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 10