Transforming Cancer Care: The Fight Against Cachexia with Robin Bhattacherjee Artwork

The Big Experiment

Ever wondered how technology start-ups, well, start-up? For most founder entrepreneurs, it is the biggest experiment they'll ever run. Like most experiments, the result isn't known beforehand and it often doesn't work first time. On a bigger scale, how do big tech companies turn innovative science into profit?

Mark Davison interviews founder scientists, executives, investors, communicators, and others in the technology start-up and corporate science ecosystems.

Learn how great ideas turned into thriving businesses (or not) from those who made it happen (or didn't). Get business tips, lessons learned, and life lessons straight from the people who know.

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The Big Experiment

Transforming Cancer Care: The Fight Against Cachexia with Robin Bhattacherjee

December 02, 2024 • Mark Davison • Episode 17

Weight loss drugs are in the spotlight. Obesity is a huge and potentially profitable problem, attracting lots of scientific and medical resources.

But there are circumstances where avoiding weight loss is crucial and where it is beneficial to put weight on. Cachexia is a serious condition affecting cancer patients, which is characterised by significant weight loss and muscle wasting. Appetite is often suppressed, but just eating more doesn’t work anyway.

The resulting frailty and weakening of the body has debilitating effects on the daily lives of cancer patients. Cachexia can even affect the outcome of the cancer itself, both by weakening immune systems and by making it harder for patients to tolerate harsh cancer treatments.

Long thought to be just an inevitable side effect of cancer, the condition is now being studied separately with a view to fidnbing new treatments as adjuncts to cancer therapy.

One company at the clinical trial stage for treating cachexia is Actimed Therapeutics, and I am thrilled to be joined by their CEO, Robin Bhattacherjee.

We discuss the challenges of developing treatments to halt and reverse weight-loss when the mainstream drug industry is going the other way, the innovative approach of Actimed Therapeutics in working with the molecule S-pindolol, and the huge impacts this work can have for the survival rate of cancer patients.

Robin also shares insights from his extensive career in the biopharma industry, and gives excellent advice to people starting their career in this field.

“This could be transformational for cancer patients.” – Robin

You’ll hear about:

00:25 - An introduction to Robin

01:59 - Robin on his journey into science

06:41 - Advice for starting a career in pharmaceuticals

11:15 - What is cachexia?

17:01 - Treating cachexia to fight cancer

18:40 - S-pindolol the lead molecule explained

22:50 - Balancing catabolic and anabolic actions

25:31 - Other mechanisms that need targeting

26:32 - The progress of clinical trials

33:16 - The challenges raising money for anti-weight loss products