September 10, 2024 | In this episode of The Chain, host Nimish Gera speaks with Tariq Ghayur, founder of FairJourney Biologics (and a fellow host of the podcast), about the current renaissance of bispecifics and ADCs, the impact of AI in pharmaceuticals, and what to watch out for in the biopharma space in the next few years. Ghayur also shares his journey from BASF Pharma to AbbVie, what it was like when the industry shifted its focus from small molecules to biologics, and the major differences between doing a postdoc in academia versus in the industry.

GUEST BIO

Tariq Ghayur, PhD, Tariq Ghayur Consulting, LLC and Entrepreneur in Residence, FairJourney Biologics
Dr. Ghayur retired from AbbVie (July 2021) and works as an independent consultant. He has 30+ years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary and cross-therapeutic area Biologics discovery programs and developing novel Biologics platforms. Several biologics programs resulted in clinical development candidates. Dr. Ghayur led the team that pioneered the discovery and development of the Dual – variable – Domain -Ig (DVD-Ig) and other multi-specific platforms. Dr. Ghayur also led the team that defined the uptake, intracellular trafficking, and lysosomal degradation of anti-TNF mAbs/DVD-Ig, resulting in the concept of anti-TNF-ADC (next-Gen anti-TNF). In addition, Dr. Ghayur proposed and helped implement several corporate-wide (Abbott & AbbVie) initiatives to foster cross-functional/cross-TA collaborations to bring forward innovative concepts/programs.

MODERATOR BIO

Nimish Gera, Ph.D., Vice President of Biologics, Mythic Therapeutics 
Nimish Gera is the Vice President of Biologics at Mythic Therapeutics leading multiple projects to engineer and develop novel antibody and antibody-based drugs in oncology and immuno-oncology. Prior to Mythic, Nimish has over fifteen years of experience in antibody and protein engineering with five years leading bispecific antibody programs in several disease areas such as rare diseases, oncology, and immunology at Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Oncobiologics. Nimish received his PhD degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.