Dr. Ben Cowen is no stranger to the life sciences scene. With more than 20 years of experience in big pharma, one could reasonably assume he'd be ready to slow down. Ben completed his National institute of Health post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 90s, and hasn't stopped since. He held multiple positions at Merck and Shire, and then he sharpened his saw with startups. With his experience, it's no wonder that he's a sought-after mentor and a natural leader in the JLABS @ TMC ecosystem.
再次，这是一个人职业生涯中的一个典型点，当你开始思考太阳落入一个舒适的退休度，但不是本。他嘲笑这个建议，并通过说他的生命中从未在加入免疫测量以来的生活中更加努力地削减了我;而且他很喜欢它的每一分钟。
“我来这里的原因是因为我们有潜在的机会可以节省数千个生命，”免疫素首席执行官的本哥伦说。“我们的毒品在肿瘤学空间中解决了巨大的未满足需求，数据非常有前途。我们在免疫测量中有可能产生真正的差异。”
据本，免疫测量是一家私人生物技术公司，利用细胞新陈代谢来发展抗肿瘤和免疫肿瘤学疗法。2015年7月成立于2015年7月，作为韩国制药公司的疏通，免疫测量，由创始首席执行官Sung-Wuk Kim作为肿瘤学激情项目，他的个人经验与癌症的个人经历推动了他的行动。根据金的领导下，汉尔划分肿瘤学发现，当该计划成功时，Hanall将资产旋入免疫测量。该公司第一年留在韩国，然后在德克萨斯州医疗中心休斯顿的Jlabs建立了美国存在。
That's when a recruiter found Ben, showed him the technology, and he jumped at the chance to take the helm in the U.S. Although he permanently resides in Philadelphia, Ben commutes to Houston twice a month to spend time with his team, which is made up of six full time researchers who relocated to Houston from Seoul.
本分享了，由于前往Jlabs免疫测量的自身措施后，在里程碑之后已经达到了里程碑。在过去的几个月里，公司began its first Phase 1 clinical trial studiesfor its lead candidate IM156 at Yonsei Medical Center (South Korea), a Sister Center of MD Anderson Cancer Center; it被任命为Ben担任其新首席执行官;将两个肿瘤重量称为其董事会;最近增加了一名首席医务官和首席财务官。
“一切始于良好的科学,然后你得到的the snowball effect," Cowen told me in a conference room at JLABS @ TMC. "Our growth is contributed to the foundation we've built upon solid science, and then we've worked to establish the infrastructure to prepare us to become a Phase 2 company."
在我们的谈话中，本分享了Immunomet目前正在处理两个方案。铅候选者是IM156，其靶向已复发到标准疗法的抗性肿瘤或肿瘤。IM156在许多实体肿瘤中显示了动物疗效数据的许可，包括胶质母细胞瘤（GBM），目前处于1阶段试验。
第二个程序是IM188，一种免疫肿瘤学疗法，其靶向肿瘤微环境中的免疫抑制细胞。IM188与抗PD-1（检查点抑制剂）组合开发，并且在具有更多响应者的动物中显示出增加的疗效。在历史上，在这些情况下，检查点抑制剂效果很好，但只有25-30％的患者。通过免疫测量的化合物，临床前响应率被证明得多。
“我们的显着因素是利用细胞新陈代谢，”本解释说。“大多数癌细胞使用糖酵解，但是一些抗性肿瘤使用毒物途径来产生能量。我们正在攻击癌细胞的能量产生，因此它停止复制，因此它不能再生长。”
When asked if being at JLABS has contributed to its success, Ben believes the JLABS model is a perfect fit. "Being in an incubator environment has allowed a very small team of people to progress the science because they can just focus on the science. Our rapid progression occurred because we were able to step into a preexisting infrastructure. The research team could focus on the science, and I could focus on building out our leadership team to get us to this phase."
Ben's passion and determination was obvious throughout our conversation, and when I asked him what advice he'd give to budding entrepreneurs he said:
“坚持不懈是生物技术成功的90％。我们在一个有失败的行业，并且继续前进的能力就是赢得的。你通过做智能实验，早点杀死生物技术和制药的能力，并枢转到新的机会。由于你可能会失败，所以要做的方式是快速失败，所以你可以到达获胜的东西。这不是成功比率，这是分母。“
如果你发现自己在休斯顿找到自己，那就停在jlabs @ tmc，并要求一段时间与本聊天。你不会后悔的。
有关Immunomet的更多信息，请访问www.immunomet.com。