The Bio Report

Antibody-drug conjugates have established themselves as an important cancer-treatment modality, but their effectiveness and tolerability in solid tumors can be constrained by inadequate tumor delivery, incomplete internalization, and off-target toxicity. NEOK Bio is seeking to overcome those challenges with its bispecific ADC platform that uses dual-antigen targeting, engineered antibodies, and next-generation linker technology. Mayank Gandhi, co-founder and CEO of NEOK Bio, discusses the company’s bispecific ADC platform, its two clinical programs, and its strategy to develop more selective therapies for patients with advanced solid tumors.

Alzheimer’s disease remains one of medicine’s most intractable challenges. While existing therapies may address individual features of the disease, such as amyloid or tau, they have yet to reverse the progressive cognitive decline, inflammation, and neurodegeneration that characterize it. Evinco Therapeutics is developing nanoscale, natural killer cell-derived particles that carry proteins and microRNAs to target the neuroinflammation underlying Alzheimer’s. Alan Trounson, founder and CEO of Evinco Therapeutics, discusses the company’s multifaceted therapeutic approach, how these particles are designed to cross the blood-brain barrier, and their potential to modulate neuroinflammation, support the brain’s immune cells, and promote amyloid clearance.

Gilead today stands at an inflection point. Its HIV and broader virology business still account for roughly two-thirds of total revenue, even as oncology has grown into a mid–single-digit billion-dollar franchise and inflammation and immunology remain earlier-stage bets. The company is tackling the strategic challenge of diversifying beyond HIV while preserving its leadership in virology. Chief Medical Officer Dietmar Berger discusses how the company is raising the bar for mechanistic understanding before making major investments, using targeted acquisitions to build platform-based franchises, and bringing in differentiated therapies and platforms that can be applied across solid tumors, autoimmune diseases, and even future viral threats.

Ischemic stroke remains one of the most devastating and resource‑intensive emergencies in medicine, with the physical removal of a clot, the current gold-standard care, still leaving more than half of patients with poor outcomes at 90 days. Revalesio is developing a next‑generation, oxygenated saline infusion designed to protect the brain during and after clot removal by stimulating mitochondrial function, reducing reperfusion injury, and limiting the spread of damage to surrounding tissue. Revalesio president Greg Archambeau discusses how the company’s experimental therapy may reshape the trajectory of stroke recovery, shorten hospital stays, and change the economics of stroke centers.

Type 1 diabetes is still a disease we manage day‑to‑day rather than prevent, and today’s approaches do little to stop the immune system from attacking beta cells in the first place. Zag Bio is trying to change that by turning the thymus, the body’s training ground for T cells, into a therapeutic engine for immune tolerance, using thymus‑homing antibodies to program long‑lived, antigen‑specific Tregs against type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Zag Bio CEO Jason Cole discusses type 1 diabetes, how the company’s thymic training platform fits into the emerging tolerance landscape alongside cell therapies and nanoparticle approaches, and the potential to extend this strategy to a broader set of autoimmune diseases.