CMO at Indaptus, Roger Waltzman, on Dangers of Pushing Uncertain Data into Phase III

In this episode, I talked with Roger Waltzman, Chief Medical Officer at Indaptus Therapeutics, discussing his career, overview of Indaptus, the development of Indaptus’ lead candidate, and the challenges of cancer treatment. We explore the benefits of a multi-targeted approach in immunotherapy, the story, and the lessons he learned from the failed Phase 3 trial of Vadimezan. Roger also serves as a Board of a non-profit organization called GoDocGo which provides low-cost cervical cancer screening in low-middle income countries and its impact.

Here's what you're in:

• What are other lessons from the Vadimezan Phase III failure?
• What is unique about Indaptus? 
• Why are so few companies focused on multi-targets and instead focus mostly on targeted therapy? 

Timestamps:

00:38 Introduction and Career Background 

02:16 About Indaptus' Broad Immune Stimulant 

05:08 Advantages of a Broad, Multi-Targeted Approach

10:08 Why Companies Don't Do Broad, Multi-Targeted Approach

13:44 Vadimezan and its Science

16:06 Learning Experiences from Clinical Trials of Vadimezan 

21:58 Insights About Rushing the Trials into Phase III

26:53 GoDocGo: Inexpensive Cervical Cancer Screening

About Roger

Roger Waltzman is a Chief Medical Officer at Indaptus Therapeutics, where he leads the Phase 1a/b immuno-oncology program. Indaptus develops anti-cancer and anti-viral immunotherapy products, with its lead candidate, Decoy20, currently in Phase 1 trials. Indaptus' proprietary platform utilizes non-pathogenic bacteria and has patent protection in 32 countries. Before Indaptus, Dr. Waltzman held CMO roles at Molecular Templates and RegenX (now Inspirna), and he spent nine years at Novartis, where he led clinical development teams, including the Jakavi collaboration. Dr. Waltzman also holds an MD from Brown and an MBA from Columbia. He serves as a Board of a non-profit organization called GoDocGo which provides low-cost cervical cancer screening.

Connect with Roger

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-waltzman-021bb91/ 

Company Website: https://indaptusrx.com/ 

Organization: https://www.godocgo.org/ 

About me

My name is Charles Spence and I lead Discera. After many years working in the life-science recruitment world, I decided to work for myself. Before doing recruitment I graduated with a biomedical degree, have worked in hospitals (including translation work in Seoul, South Korea), and also spent a year working in diabetes research in Stockholm. After doing research and travel, a career in business and science felt the most appropriate.

In 2023, I decided to launch my firm - Discera Search. A firm committed to solving the biggest talent needs of early clinical stage SME biotechs on the East Coast and DACH.

Connect with me:

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-spence-clinical/

Website: https://www.discera-search.com/

Opinions and comments expressed by the guest do not represent the company and are fully their own.