"Some of the reasons that companies are less enthusiastic about doing that is because the risk is high when you're looking at a broad multi targeted approach. You don't know if it'll cause more side effects than benefit."
In this episode, I talked with Roger Waltzman, Chief Medical Officer at Indaptus Therapeutics, discussing his career, overview of Indaptus, the development of Indaptus’ lead candidate, and the challenges of cancer treatment. We explore the benefits of a multi-targeted approach in immunotherapy, the story, and the lessons he learned from the failed Phase 3 trial of Vadimezan. Roger also serves as a Board of a non-profit organization called GoDocGo which provides low-cost cervical cancer screening in low-middle-income countries and its impact.
Here's what you're in:
- What are other lessons from the Vadimezan Phase III failure?
- What is unique about Indaptus?
- Why are so few companies focused on multi-targets and instead focus mostly on targeted therapy?
- What is the hardest leadership lesson during his time at Novartis?
- What would be the importance of rigorous Phase 2 trials?
- What is GoDocGo focuses on?
- What can lead to premature Phase 3 trials?
Timestamps:
00:38 Introduction and Career Background
02:16 About Indaptus' Broad Immune Stimulant
05:08 Advantages of a Broad, Multi-Targeted Approach
10:08 Why Companies Don't Do Broad, Multi-Targeted Approach
13:44 Vadimezan and its Science
16:06 Learning Experiences from Clinical Trials of Vadimezan
21:58 Insights About Rushing the Trials into Phase III
26:53 GoDocGo: Inexpensive Cervical Cancer Screening
About Roger
- Roger Waltzman is a Chief Medical Officer at Indaptus Therapeutics, where he leads the Phase 1a/b immuno-oncology program.
- Indaptus' proprietary platform utilizes non-pathogenic bacteria and has patent protection in 32 countries.
- Before Indaptus, Dr. Waltzman held CMO roles at Molecular Templates and RegenX (now Inspirna), and he spent nine years at Novartis, where he led clinical development teams, including the Jakavi collaboration.
- Dr. Waltzman also holds an MD from Brown and an MBA from Columbia.
- He serves as a Board of a non-profit organization called GoDocGo which provides low-cost cervical cancer screening.
Connect with Roger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-waltzman-021bb91/
Organization: https://www.godocgo.org/
About Indaptus
- Indaptus develops anti-cancer and anti-viral immunotherapy products, with its lead candidate, Decoy20, currently in Phase 1 trials.
- Decoy20 is designed to produce single agent activity and/or combination therapy-based durable responses for various cancers and chronic viral infections.
- Decoy20 is composed of killed, non-pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria designed to activate both innate and adaptive immune responses.
- Decoy20 works by producing a "multi-targeted package of immune system activating signals". It acts as an agonist for multiple immune receptors, including Toll-like receptors (TLRs), NOD-like receptors (NLRs), and Stimulator of interferon genes (STING)
- Indaptus has patent protection in 32 countries for its Decoy immunotherapy platform.
Website: https://indaptusrx.com/
Pipeline: https://indaptusrx.com/science-pipeline/
About me
My name is Charles Spence and I lead Discera. After many years working in the life-science recruitment world, I decided to work for myself. Before doing recruitment I graduated with a biomedical degree, have worked in hospitals (including translation work in Seoul, South Korea), and also spent a year working in diabetes research in Stockholm. After doing research and travel, a career in business and science felt the most appropriate.
In 2023, I decided to launch his firm - Discera Search. A firm committed to solving the biggest talent needs of early clinical stage SME biotechs on the East Coast and DACH.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-spence-clinical/
Website: https://www.discera-search.com/
