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This week on Leading Beyond The Lab, Lawrence Rose sat down with Megan McGill, CEO of Brenig Therapeutics, with years of experience spanning biotech leadership, strategy, clinical medicine, management consulting and neuroscience research.
In this episode, Megan covers:
• Why Brenig Therapeutics is targeting neuroinflammation and Parkinson’s disease through LRRK2 and NLRP3 inhibitors, and how the company is positioning itself within the rapidly evolving neurodegenerative disease landscape.
• How AI and machine learning are being used across medicinal chemistry and drug development at Brenig through investment from Torrey Pines, OrbiMed, New Enterprise Associates, BioGeneration Ventures, to optimise brain penetration, selectivity and safety profiles simultaneously.
• Why Megan believes an MD and PhD background is critical in biotech leadership, combining a deep understanding of disease biology with a real-world understanding of patients and unmet medical needs.
• The realities of building a career in medicine, biotech and leadership while raising children as a single mother, and the leadership lessons around empathy, patience and resilience that came from that experience.
• Why neuroscience investment remains significantly underfunded despite the growing global burden of neurodegenerative disease, and what needs to change across biotech, pharma and venture capital to accelerate progress in CNS innovation.
• Lawrence and Megan also discuss organisations and companies including Eli Lilly and Company, McKinsey & Company, BridgeBio Pharma and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Be sure to check out the full episode to hear Megan’s perspective on the future of neuroscience, biotech leadership and the evolving role of AI across drug development.
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Megan McGill
CEO at Brenig Therapeutics
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcgillmegan/
Lawrence Rose
Consulting Director at ARTO
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencerose/
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:21 Megan’s background across medicine, biotech and neuroscience
03:03 Joining Brenig Therapeutics and the company’s pipeline
04:16 LRRK2 and NLRP3 inhibitors in Parkinson’s disease
05:23 The growing neuroinflammation landscape
06:51 Phase 1 clinical trial milestones and biomarkers
07:23 Why Brenig chose Parkinson’s disease
10:14 AI medicinal chemistry and machine learning in drug discovery
12:08 How AI is changing biotech operations and strategy
14:20 Brenig’s Series B strategy and upcoming milestones
15:57 Building efficient biotech teams and scaling operations
17:30 Leadership inspiration and high-performing teams
18:46 The advantages of being an MD and PhD in biotech leadership
21:16 Commercial partnerships and pharma collaboration strategy
23:08 Digital biomarkers, diagnostics and wearable technology
28:06 Balancing medicine, biotech leadership and motherhood
33:30 Mentorship, McKinsey and learning commercial strategy
37:00 Leadership communication and simplifying complexity
38:23 What defines elite biotech teams and company culture
40:40 Brenig’s board, investors and strategic support
43:16 Building a culture of excellence in a virtual biotech company
46:13 The future of neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease
50:25 Clinical trial recruitment and patient engagement
52:34 The Biotech CEO Sisterhood and women in biotech leadership
56:17 Diversity, leadership and representation in biotech
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