🧬 Barry Ticho - Part 4 | Founding Verve Therapeutics Over Breakfast | Gene Editing for Cardiovascular Disease | Leadership Lessons From a First-Time Founder | Stoke’s Vision for RNA-Based Medicines

The Biotech Startups Podcast

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Part 4 of 4: Jon Chee hosts Barry Ticho, Founder of Verve Therapeutics and Chief Medical Officer at Stoke Therapeutics, a biotech company addressing the underlying cause of severe diseases by upregulating protein expression with RNA-based medicines.

With an MD PhD from the University of Chicago and extensive experience across academia and industry, Barry brings over two decades of expertise in clinical development. His journey includes roles as Head of Development at Moderna, Head of External R&D Innovation at Pfizer, and VP of Clinical Development at Biogen, where he's been instrumental in advancing numerous therapeutic programs across multiple disease areas.

Barry's unique perspective spanning academic medicine and biotechnology innovation makes his insights invaluable for aspiring leaders in the field.

Join us this week to hear about:

• Founding Verve Therapeutics and pioneering gene editing for cardiovascular disease
• Tackling medicine adherence with one-and-done gene therapies
• Leadership lessons from starting and scaling biotech startups
• How patient stories inspire innovation in genetic medicine
• Stoke’s vision for genetic medicine and transformative treatments for diseases like Dravet syndrome

Please enjoy Jon’s conversation with Barry Ticho.

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Find Our Guest, Barry Ticho, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryticho/

https://www.stoketherapeutics.com/

https://www.vervetherapeutics.com/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

https://www.excedr.com

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Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

Verve Therapeutics: https://www.vervetx.com/

Stoke Therapeutics: https://www.stoketherapeutics.com/

Google Ventures: https://www.gv.com/

Mass General Hospital: https://www.massgeneral.org/

Brigham and Women’s Hospital: https://www.brighamandwomens.org/

Biogen: https://www.biogen.com/

University of Pennsylvania: https://www.upenn.edu/

Gene Editing and Its Impact on Cardiovascular Disease: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/gene-therapy-for-cardiovascular-disease

RNA-Based Medicines for Rare Disease Treatment: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41419-022-05075-2

Biotech Partnerships With Big Pharma: https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-biotech-partnerships-support-research

Business Development in Biotech: https://www.excedr.com/resources/business-development-in-the-life-sciences

Biotech Funding Options: https://www.excedr.com/resources/biotech-startup-funding-options

Scaling Biotechs to Meet Key Milestones with Leasing: https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-leasing-helps-biotechs-scale-efficiently

People Mentioned:

Sekar Kathiresan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sekar-sek-kathiresan-3501846/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:15 Founding Verve Therapeutics over breakfast

05:31 Gene editing for cardiovascular disease: The PCSK9 story

07:49 Barry’s experience as a first-time CEO

12:01 Joining Stoke Therapeutics and exploring RNA-based medicines

16:56 Building strong networks and the value of professional connections

22:09 Transitioning Stoke from private to public company

26:29 Hiring wisely and making difficult decisions quickly

30:09 Chief medical officer lessons: patient focus and team amplification

33:25 Stoke’s future: Dravet syndrome trials and pipeline expansion

35:12 Shouts and advice to younger self

37:23 Outro

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