We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On this week&#x27;s episode of the Business of Biotech, Al Sandrock, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO at Voyager Therapeutics, talks about why tau is becoming a central target in Alzheimer’s drug development and how gene therapy delivery across the blood-brain barrier could change what treatment looks like at scale. Sandrock shares his current thinking on the amyloid vs. beta debate (it&#x27;s likely both) in Alzheimer&#x27;s disease treatment, the role of emerging tools like fluid biomarkers in diagnosis and prevention, and why small biotechs take bigger risks than big pharma. Access this and hundreds of episodes of the Business of Biotech videocast under the Business of Biotech tab at lifescienceleader.com. Subscribe to our monthly Business of Biotech newsletter. Get in touch with guest and topic suggestions: ben.comer@lifescienceleader.com Find Ben Comer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencomer/

Targeting Tau in Alzheimer's Disease With Voyager Therapeutics' Al Sandrock, M.D., Ph.D.

Business Of Biotech

Welcome back to the Business Of Biotech. I'm your host, Ben Comer, Chief Editor at Life Science Leader, and today I'm speaking with Al Sandrock, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO at Voyager Therapeutics, a company developing treatments for neurological disorders. Voyager's wholly owned pipeline is targeting Alzheimer's disease through the tau protein, one of the two primary culprits, along with amyloid beta associated with various dementias, including Alzheimer's.

Voyager is targeting tau with an antibody and a gene therapy in two early stage programs, in addition to other preclinical studies, as well as licensing and collaboration activities with other companies. Al is a Harvard-trained M.D. and Ph.D. and has worked in academic medicine as a professor at Mass General, and he spent more than 20 years moving up the ranks at Biogen.

Before joining Voyager as CEO in 2022, he was Biogen's Executive Vice President of R&D and was there for the FDA approval of the anti-amyloid drug Adjuhelm, the first disease-modifying drug approved for Alzheimer's. It was not a perfect drug, but it was an important stepping stone in a devastating disease.

And I'm excited to speak with Al about the switch to tau as a target, his professional journey in neurobiology and drug development, how a small biotech like Voyager competes in Alzheimer's disease against big pharma, and what the future holds for Alzheimer's patients. Thank you so much for being here, Al. Thank you for having me, Ben. Looking forward to the conversation. Me too. And I thought we could start off with your background, and we'll take it all the way back, if you're willing.

Targeting Tau in Alzheimer's Disease With Voyager Therapeutics' Al Sandrock, M.D., Ph.D.

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Targeting Tau in Alzheimer's Disease With Voyager Therapeutics' Al Sandrock, M.D., Ph.D.

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.