Becoming the CEO of a drug discovery company doesn’t just happen overnight. When it does occur, however, it requires a specific kind of person to steer the ship in the right direction. Ensuring that research and application of the findings are handled responsibly and in a way that will facilitate meaningful change is no easy feat. A recent episode of The Business of Biotech had BioProcess Online Chief Editor Matt Pillar sitting down with Gain Therapeutics CEO Matthias Alder to find out how all of that comes to be.
The interview involved an extensive Q&A in which Pillar asked Alder about his path towards becoming Gain’s current CEO. Alder recounted his days of starting out as a lawyer for pharma companies and the eventual transition to working in biotech. What began as a run-of-the-mill money-moving career became something more meaningful as Alder started to question the “why” of it all. What good would a multi-billion dollar deal be if it couldn’t actually benefit humanity on a large scale level?
By taking a people-oriented approach (interspersed with stints in Human Resources and Business Development), Alder found that he was able to effect meaningful change within the life sciences world. From a technological standpoint, he supported the Gain computational drug discovery team as they strategically applied machine learning and AI to develop drugs for neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease.
As with all technological developments, the operations at Gain encountered some pushback. Were we suddenly turning the future of Alzheimer’s over to AI? Not quite. Alder explained that the technology will never 100% replace the beauty of a thinking brain, but it can expedite certain processes to make drug discovery more tenable for the present and near future. Processes that used to take two plus years could now be accomplished in under three months without compromising quality. As Alder put it, “Gaining time is invaluable. If we can achieve the same or better results in less time with our drug development process, that’s major.”
Learn more when you listen to the interview or read the transcript here
Becoming the CEO of a drug discovery company doesn’t just happen overnight. When it does occur, however, it requires a specific kind of person to steer the ship in the right direction. Ensuring that research and application of the findings are handled responsibly and in a way that will facilitate meaningful change is no easy feat. A recent episode of The Business of Biotech had BioProcess Online Chief Editor Matt Pillar sitting down with Gain Therapeutics CEO Matthias Alder to find out how all of that comes to be.
The interview involved an extensive Q&A in which Pillar asked Alder about his path towards becoming Gain’s current CEO. Alder recounted his days of starting out as a lawyer for pharma companies and the eventual transition to working in biotech. What began as a run-of-the-mill money-moving career became something more meaningful as Alder started to question the “why” of it all. What good would a multi-billion dollar deal be if it couldn’t actually benefit humanity on a large scale level?
By taking a people-oriented approach (interspersed with stints in Human Resources and Business Development), Alder found that he was able to effect meaningful change within the life sciences world. From a technological standpoint, he supported the Gain computational drug discovery team as they strategically applied machine learning and AI to develop drugs for neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease.
As with all technological developments, the operations at Gain encountered some pushback. Were we suddenly turning the future of Alzheimer’s over to AI? Not quite. Alder explained that the technology will never 100% replace the beauty of a thinking brain, but it can expedite certain processes to make drug discovery more tenable for the present and near future. Processes that used to take two plus years could now be accomplished in under three months without compromising quality. As Alder put it, “Gaining time is invaluable. If we can achieve the same or better results in less time with our drug development process, that’s major.”
Learn more when you listen to the interview or read the transcript here
