Axios Event: Biopharma must pivot on funding sources amid federal research cuts, experts say

LOS ANGELES – Upheaval in Washington is creating an unpredictable path forward for innovation and investment in the biopharmaceutical industry, attendees said at a roundtable discussion on May 4.

Axios' Adriel Bettelheim and Claire Rychlewski moderated the discussion, which was sponsored by Amgen.

What they're saying: "It has never been as bad as this ever," said Flagship Pioneering CEO Noubar Afeyan.

• "Due to a number of coincident events post-pandemic – some financial, some macro, some specific to biotech – we find ourselves in a very uncertain period. And the last thing that this industry needs is financial uncertainty on top of the inherent scientific uncertainty, product uncertainty, market uncertainty, political uncertainty."

Zoom in: "I think perhaps my biggest concern of what I'm seeing in the U.S. is around the evisceration of the FDA," said Protas CEO Martin Landray.

• That has created a gap between those who create innovative products and those who need them, like patient groups, he said. This raises questions about what the regulatory pathway for new products looks like.

Zoom out: If the government is not going to fund research and development, it could be left to the free market, said Paul Parker, Flagship Pioneering's managing partner of capital solutions and value realization.

• "What has to be true is we have to bend the time and cost curve for the industry entirely," Parker said.
• "The industry has got to find a way to fund itself in a way that's not going to be able to rely on government, so I think the entire industry has to figure out a new model for capital raising and capital funding and capital deployment."

Yes, but: The biotech industry has also made significant scientific advancements in recent years, with the global rollout of COVID vaccines and strides in artificial intelligence.

• "So the irony is extreme, in terms of what the investment in the basic science in this industry has produced as a societal impact," Afeyan said.

What's next: AI adoption could help speed up processes at the FDA, The Kennedy Forum CEO Rebecca Bagley, said.

• "One of the opportunities with AI is that you have access to so much data," Qure.ai CEO Prashant Warier said.
• While access to that data can bolster drug discoveries and clinical trials, it is also expensive.
• "I think one of the big challenges for AI in the drug discovery space is that we pay for our large datasets, data point by data point," Terray Therapeutics CEO Jacob Berlin said.

What we're watching: The industry must continue its critical work while pursuing new funding sources for its innovation and drug discoveries.