Pathfinders in Biopharma
Episodes
No biotech bubble – but can the sector’s rally persist through 2026?
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Strong launches, positive sentiment, flowing capital, and favorable macro and policy indicators: the signals remain strong as the biotech sector enter...
MindMed: Rethinking brain health with psychedelic therapy
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last 18 months, MindMed has undergone an extraordinary transformation. It released compelling data for its LSD-based drug MM120, followed by ...
Funding the future of retinal health with Eyepoint
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Eyepoint CFO George Elston provides insights on the evolving space of retinal disease treatment, focusing on capital allocation, medical innovation, i...
How Blackstone Life Sciences is bridging the innovation gap
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Paris Panayiotopoulos, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Life Sciences, shares how the firm’s broad life sciences strategy has been advancing i...
Compass trials mark a milestone moment for the psychedelics sector
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Compass Pathways CEO Kabir Nath believes psilocybin-based therapy could be transformational for patients with treatment-resistant depression—and his...
Cidara’s pursuit of universal flu protection with a single dose
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, flu vaccine manufacturers have to guess what strains to target next season, with varying success. Cidara Therapeutics believes it may have...
Ocular Therapeutix’ bold vision to redefine retinal disease treatment
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pravin Dugel, CEO of Ocular Therapeutix provides insights into existing treatments and future product candidates for retinal diseases, underlining the...
PTC Therapeutics: Building a durable company to benefit patients
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A surgeon in burns reconstruction, Matt Klein swapped the operating room for the equally high-pressure environment of drug development. In this episod...
BioAge is translating insights from the science of aging into new medicines
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Neidhold, Director in RBC’s Life Sciences Investment Banking Practice, sits down with Kristen Fortney, CEO and Co-Founder of BioAge, for a dee...
Uncertainty reigns, but opportunity persists for biotech’s 2025
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Universal wisdom had it that a Republican sweep in the U.S. election would favor biotech. Appointments to the new administration’s healthcare leader...
Unlocking Biotech’s Potential: Strategies for Navigating Public and Private Market Investments
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Innovation is surging in the U.S biotechnology sector, so why are investors still fearful about committing? Noël Brown, Head of U.S. Biotechnology In...
Former Investor Who Chose Broadcasting Over Biotech ETFs
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Former biotech investor, Brad Loncar has pivoted his career from investing to reporting on the industry. Instead of serving the biotech bubble, he hop...
Can AI Solve Molecule Mysteries that will Unlock Simpler Drug Discovery?
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 capa...
Shots-on-Goal Licensing Company Aims for Breakthroughs
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A very special breed of animals is helping biotech and pharma companies in the quest for new human therapeutics. CFO Kurt Gustafson joins Pathfinders ...
Why Biopharma Needs to Tell Better Stories on Novel Drugs
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ronald Martell is a serial entrepreneur and biopharma veteran whose record includes the launch of Herceptin. He continues his mission to bring new dru...
Venture capital velocity: What’s driving renewed momentum in biotech?
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In biotech, a recovery is already well underway. Expected interest rate cuts and improving valuations across public and private markets are creating a...
Pharma Understands Phase One Data – But Does the Market?
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Public biotech Pyxis Oncology is taking forward its innovative work on ADCs. President and CEO, Lara Sullivan, explains the company’s journey to fin...
Davern Capital sees GLP-1 Opportunities Beyond Obesity
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Davern Capital’s founder, Elie Kobrin, approaches the biopharma market from a long/short perspective – but as a former doctor, he also speaks the ...
Betting on Healthcare’s Future Hits – and Misses
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a healthcare-focused, market-neutral investor, Vince Aita stays close to new product developments with a view to identifying future successes and f...
Innovation and an Aging Population Drive MedTech
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The MedTech sector continues to grow in the U.S. as innovation in patient treatments and delivery meets increased demand from an aging population. Med...
Biopharma Investors See Opportunities in Targeted Treatments and Gene Editing
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Personalized, targeted drugs and gene therapies are still at the forefront of medical innovation, as we discovered at RBC Capital Markets annual Docto...
Biotech with a Mission to Target Unmet Cancer Needs
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
IDEAYA’s drug development programs center around addressing unmet patient needs. Its founder tells Pathfinders in Biopharma why he believes there ha...
The M&A Pool Set to Accelerate Biotech Innovation
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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, includi...
How PIPEs finally unblocked biotech’s funding flows
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The first quarter of 2024 has seen biotech’s funding drought broken, largely through private investment in public equity (PIPE) deals. In this episo...
Disruptive Forces in Healthcare: Why HCIT is finally set to bounce back
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. healthcare desperately needs to cut costs and improve outcomes. There is no single solution, but three disruptive forces in the digital health sp...
Will the Biotech Rebound Run into Pricing Policy Obstacles?
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 Pathf...
Few IPOs but plenty of follow-on for biotech in 2023
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
U.S. Outlook: Will the US economy achieve a soft landing in 2024?
29 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the U.S. economy shows positive signs for growth, inflation, and interest rates in 2024, RBC Capital Markets’ RBC Capital Markets’ Michael Reid...
Raising Venture Capital: A New Playbook for A New Era in Biotech
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In an era characterized by macro headwinds and profound market volatility, the biotech industry continues to raise capital to fuel drug development, c...
ECM: Robust End to Year, Despite Previous Volatility
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Biotech Halftime Report: A Winding Road Ahead
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join Head of US Capital Markets Research, Mark Odendahl and biotech analysts Brian Abrahams and Gregory Renza, as they explore the dynamic biotech sec...
The Urgent Need to Address the Youth Mental Health Landscape
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. soccer legends and World Cup champions Briana Scurry and Dr. Sara Hess joined Andrew Callaway, Global Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at RB...
Website Traffic Reveals Biopharma Sales Trends
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A new RBC ElementsTM report, “Insights from the BioWeb,” looks at the predictive potential of website traffic as a means to uncover underappreciat...
When to Call it Quits: VCs Making Tough Decisions in a Tough Market
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While the public biotech markets remain volatile, VCs continue to raise new funds. Are we witnessing a renaissance in the private capital markets? The...
How Biotech M&A is Redefining the Strategic Landscape
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Given current macro and regulatory headwinds, determining the optimal time to sell a biotech company is a multifaceted decision that requires careful ...
Healthcare Should Get Ready for ‘Fast and Furious’ M&A
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Innovation and Growth: Key Ingredients to Healthcare M&A
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Compressed valuations, heightened CEO confidence, and the desire to accelerate top-line growth and scale innovation are the key factors driving health...
Biotech M&A Booms, But Have Buyouts Reached a Tipping Point?
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of Pathfinders, Senior Biotechnology Analyst Gregory Renza discusses what’s driving the latest spate of biotech M&A activi...
Global Blood Therapeutics Commitment to Sickle-Cell Innovation
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this rebroadcast episode, we flash back to a previous interview with Dr. Ted W. Love, President and CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT). Dr. Lov...
Is This the Breakthrough Moment for Genetic Medicine?
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Genetic medicine is poised to unlock more value for patients and investors due to disruptive technologies like mRNA, siRNA and gene editing. With an e...
The Hidden Revolution Set to Turn US Healthcare on its Head
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of Pathfinders, our Healthcare technology analyst Sean Dodge explores a quiet but accelerating revolution in the way US healthca...
The Big Picture for Biotech
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this latest episode, our head of biotech research Brian Abrahams shares a big picture analysis of the industry, outlining the long-term disruptions...
Why Biopharma Investment Requires a Different Mindset
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of Pathfinders, Noël Brown, Head of US Biotechnology Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets, reveals why he’s feeling opti...
The Optimism Behind the Biopharma Market
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dr. Chen Yu, Founder and Managing Partner at TCG X and Noël Brown, Head of U.S. Biotechnology Investment Banking at RBC Capital Mark...
Biotech Investors: How to Find Value in a Bear Market
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How are top investors navigating the longest biotech bear market in almost 20 years? RBC Capital Markets Healthcare Desk Sector Strategist Chris McCar...
A call to action: Global Blood Therapeutics on tackling orphan disease
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to tackle the most perplexing orphan diseases? Ted W. Love, M.D., President and CEO, Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), speaks with RB...
Ionis: Raising The Bar For ESG
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Pathfinders, Luca Issi, Senior Biotech Analyst at RBC Capital Markets, speaks with Beth Hougen, CFO of Ionis – a leading innovato...
Biotech and Big Pharma: Blueprint for Successful Partnership
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As biotech firms and large pharma companies find new synergies to bring new treatments to market together, Noël Brown, Managing Director and Head of ...
What’s Material in ESG for Biopharma Firms?
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For biopharma companies, ESG commitments can look considerably different from other sectors. We spoke with the team of ESG leads at Gilead Sciences to...
Inside Track: Behind the Scenes of a Major Biotech SPAC
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
RBC Capital Markets’ Noël Brown, Head of US Biotech Investment Banking, goes behind the scenes of one of the biggest biotech SPAC deals of the year...
Biotech SPACs: A new route to going public
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As more firms and investors look to SPACs as an IPO alternative, will this change the way biotech companies access public markets long-term? Our inves...
5AM Ventures: Fueling the Next Generation of Innovators
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Pathfinders, Brian Abrahams, Managing Director and Co-Head of Biotechnology Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets speaks with Andy...
Vida Ventures: Powering Breakthroughs in Biopharma
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Luca Issi, Senior Biotechnology Research Analyst at RBC Capital Markets, discusses the art of building biopharma breakthroughs with Arjun Goyal, Co-Fo...
Biotech IPOs: Navigating the New Landscape
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even in a boom, many biotech executives may be unprepared for the risks involved in undertaking an IPO. Noël Brown and Tim Papp, Managing Directors f...
Biotech IPOs: New Steps to Success on the Road to Going Public
02 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In our launch edition of Pathfinders, we look at the best practices to follow on the road to IPO and the new predictive factors for success in today’...