Founders Readers - Ep 36 - Dr Sharon Rogers of AmyriAD
The Founders Keepers podcast, podded
The Founders Readers pod-letter is not a transcript, but an accompaniment to the weekly podcast detailing key insights from that exact conversation.
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This week, we’re speaking with Dr Sharon Rogers and her company, AmyriAD: A clinical-stage biotech science company tackling the core symptoms of Alzheimer's disease: cognition and global function....
💬 Quote from the pod:
“I think any entrepreneur will tell you how they go into lots of things that they have no idea how to do, but there’s an overwhelming confidence that you can figure it out”
- Dr Sharon Rogers, CEO AmyriAD Therapeutics
🔑 Key insights from the episode:
On being a “true” entrepreneur: Sharon discusses how she would always visualise the “road” of how to get where she wanted to go, and to figure out what tools she would need to get there - from exploring her options for education in community college whilst self-supporting, and on through graduate school and into her first business as a restaurant owner.
Take every opportunity: Sharon would “sample” a lot of opportunities that intrigued her in college and beyond, namely the study of pharmacology and biology, and which led her to pursue studies into graduate school and into the career she now has fuelled by these interests. These interests also led her to take on a post in Japan as the sixth hire of the company she chose for her first post-graduate role, and where she later headed up the team that went on to develop donepezil for the management of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Doing scrappy things: Sharon never turned up an opportunity to hustle, and discusses how she both rented property from the Hare Krishna organisation to set up her first business, and delivered food from her restaurant personally to “half naked frat boys” on college campuses to keep the business alive.
Understand what you’re asking, and how it fits: Sharon stresses the importance of understanding as well as asking the “right” scientific questions in her scientific field of pharmaceutical R&D, and questioning whether and how what you’re doing “constantly” fits in with commercial goals to ensure you stay on the right path. She also advises to “look for the mistakes that you can make” and mitigate your risk as much as possible.
Raising capital for neurological disease research and drug development: For companies willing to believe in their product, Sharon argues it’s possible to “do good” both for patients and for commercial organisations - AmyriAD has an inexpensive path to market for its lead product, and has demonstrated efficacy in disease management. This data alone and her openness as well as cost structure she believes is the key to her success in securing funding and returning investment.
📖 Background:
Founded: 2019
Location: Los Angeles, United States
IPO status: Private
Industry: Biotechnology Research
Employees: 2-10 employees
Total funding to date: Unknown
Lead investor(s): Karuna Therapeutics
🔍 What:
A clinical-stage biotech company working to advance effective therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, bringing together decades of experience with the singular goal of easing the devastation it causes.
The Company's lead drug candidate, AD101, is a small molecule under development for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease and will be entering Phase 3 clinical trials later this year in 2023 following successful randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trials where it has been administered as an add-on to stable donepezil (Aricept®) therapy.
🔧 How:
Drug development; AD101 aims to complement already on-the-market treatment for AD by focusing on improving both cognition and global function through a unique pathway, neuroselective T-type calcium channels.
🏙 Company tagline:
“Memories are worth fighting for”
👉 Find out more:
Website: http://amyriadtherapeutics.com
LinkedIn:
Twitter:
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