Is this European biotech’s moment? — a BioCentury podcast

Plus: Deals by Biomarin, Boston Pharma & Novo Nordisk CEO’s departure

The turbulence that has come with the Trump administration’s policies related to the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry is creating an opening for Europe to enhance its life sciences industry. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors look at how Europe can capitalize on staffing cuts at FDA and NIH and an uncertain, but decidedly more America-first, policy environment to lure back talent to bolster regulatory agencies and biotech R&D engines and attract assets and partners from China.

The editors also discuss two biotech deals driven by former leaders of BD at Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY), James Sabry at  Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) and Sophie Kornowski at Boston Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Under the leadership of Sabry and President and CEO Alexander Hardy, Biomarin delivered its first takeout in a decade by acquiring  Inozyme Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:INZY) as it positions itself to take advantage of a regulatory and policy environment that they believe is favorable to their rare disease strategy. CEO Kornowski, meanwhile, executed on a plan to focus her company on a single liver disease asset that GSK plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) acquired for $1.2 billion up front, one of the largest such payments in biotech history.

Finally, BioCentury’s editors discuss the management shake-up at obesity company  Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NOVO B; NYSE:NVO), where Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, the leader who spearheaded Novo Nordisk’s transformation into a dominant player in obesity, is stepping down.