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This week on Making It In Manufacturing, Thomas McMann sat down with Dr Amy Walker, CEO of 4basebio. In this episode, Amy covers:
• Why DNA has been made the same way for 50 years, and what changes when you take the bacteria out of the process entirely.
• How 4basebio's enzymatic platform works, and why it cuts GMP grade DNA from a 6 to 9 month wait down to under 12 weeks.
• What it was actually like joining as the company's first employee, when 4basebio was an empty building on an industrial estate outside Cambridge.
• The funding headwinds of the last two years, what happens when a client loses their NIH funding overnight, and how they diversified the client base around it.
• Why she believes synthetic DNA disrupting plasmid is a question of when rather than if, and what she wants regulators saying about it in ten years' time.
Worth watching if you work anywhere near cell and gene therapy, mRNA, viral vectors or DNA supply. Even if plasmid isn't your day to day, it's a clear look at how an established manufacturing process gets displaced, and what it takes to get conservative buyers to switch.
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Dr Amy Walker LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-walker-4a9785154/
Thomas McMann LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-mcmann-05540a10b
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:35 What 4basebio does
02:10 Operating as a CDMO
02:48 Why plasmid DNA hasn't changed in 50 years
04:09 The safety benefits of removing bacteria
04:49 Lowering the dose required
05:23 From 6 to 9 months down to under 12 weeks
05:36 Personalised cancer vaccines
05:53 Touchlight and why there is so little competition
06:25 How mRNA vaccines changed the conversation
07:36 TruePrime and opDNA explained
08:44 Clean rooms no bigger than a podcast booth
09:46 Why cell free is the real difference
10:48 Joining 4basebio as its first employee
12:01 Head of Discovery to COO to CEO
13:09 Balancing the science and the commercial
14:14 The funding headwinds of the last two years
15:37 GMP certification and getting into the clinic
17:00 Persuading big pharma to switch
17:47 The regulatory objection
19:54 The Genezen partnership
20:32 "There was nothing to see. It was an empty building"
23:31 The advantage of having worn every hat
24:41 Where the strongest growth is coming from
26:41 The case for vertical integration
28:46 Sustainability
29:44 Where 4basebio is in ten years
30:49 Quickfire questions
#MakingItInManufacturing #ARTOTalent #4basebio #SyntheticDNA #PlasmidDNA #CellAndGeneTherapy #mRNA #ViralVectors #CDMO #Biomanufacturing
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