Joe Coletti
Welcome to Pathfinders, a podcast series from RBC Capital Markets, where we uncover the key trends and catalysts shaping the fast moving world of biotech and pharma. I'm your host, Joe Coletti. We're here at RBCs Global Healthcare conference in New York, doing live interviews. And today our special guest is Yujiro Hata, founder and CEO of IDEAYA Biosciences. IDEAYA Biosciences is a clinical stage precision medicine oncology company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using molecular diagnostics. Yujiro thanks for being on the podcast.
Yujiro Hata
Great, thanks so much, Joe. Really looking forward to the conversation today.
Joe Coletti
Yujiro, let's start by talking a little bit more about IDEAYA. Can you speak about what the company does, and a little bit more about your founding thesis, that synthetic lethality would emerge as a central focus of precision medicine oncology?
Yujiro Hata
So IDEAYA Biosciences was founded about nine years ago. We're today a leading precision medicine oncology company, we have four first-in-class programs in the clinic, we have several more candidates that we're targeting to deliver by the end of this year. The companies starting premise when we were founded, was to focus in an emerging new area of precision oncology called synthetic lethality. And really, in a nutshell, there are several key advances in technology that we believe enabled companies like us to form. One is on CRISPR gene editing. So people know CRISPR gene editing in terms of therapeutics, we use CRISPR technology in the lab to identify new biomarkers as well as targets. Within that most of targets and the precision medicine oncology space over the last 30-40 years has been on genetic mutations that cause what's called Gain-of-function genetic alterations. We actually work on the exact flip, which is genetic alterations that caused the loss of a pathway. And those classes of targets in the past have been viewed as undruggable. However, synthetic lethality is a novel approach that basically enables to pursue those genetic alterations. And unfortunately, for patients, over half of genetic alterations that are known to cause cancer are loss-of-function alterations. So that means the large majority of these patients we have not been able to best provide important therapies for. And so we hope to fill that gap. We believe we are one of the pioneers in this very important area moving forward hopefully in the next decade and beyond.
Joe Coletti
Can you tell us more about your functional genomics and synthetic lethality platform in the market? And how it differentiates your approach to precision medicine oncology?
Yujiro Hata
Yeah. So there are several key technologies that we believe differentiate IDEAYA from the competition, various groups are in this general arena. First, I would say, through the nine years that we've been working in the area of synthetic lethality, we have built significant know-how, so as you can imagine, there is a long bridge to gap between first discovery of a target, to getting an asset all the way into the clinic. And I'll sort of walk briefly through that journey. But first is really trying to identify targets that you have high conviction on. So one is, if you identify a synthetic lethal target of which there's a fairly large number, there's several key pieces for us that become critical. And this is really where our translational research capabilities come into play. We'd mentioned CRISPR, gene editing, we also use novel approaches related to dual CRISPR, which we believe is unique to IDEAYA. We also use para block streaming data as well, which we believe is also an integrated approach, which is unique to the company. And I would sort of highlight one of the most important components is around what's called the robustness of a synthetic lethal interaction, which means that synthetic lethal interaction is broadly intact across cell lines of interests in particular, and the genetic mutation of interest. The second is around the drug discovery component. So when you look at precision oncology, oncology in the past, a lot of the target classes we focused on were, in particular, in the general sphere of what's called kinases. And that's been the predominance of a lot of the precision oncology drugs that we know today that were small molecules. It turns out, when you uncover the target classes that we've been working on synthetic lethality, they are not kinases. So they are unique classes such as polymerases, hilacases’and a nucleuses. And what that means what we realized early at our inception is that we need to have different and better tools to basically drug these targets. But clear importance of areas such as computational chemistry, advanced capabilities around structural biology. We've also integrated important capabilities around AI machine learning as well to hopefully accelerate their drug discovery. And I would say highlight in particular hilacases are notoriously difficult to drug. So we believe idea is perhaps the first company whether biotech or pharma, has delivered back to back hill a case development candidates. We believe no other company has ever done that. And each of these programs independently, PRiA Hilacase, Werner helicase, we've been working on both of these programs for over six years.
Joe Coletti
It's quite groundbreaking. And you mentioned, you mentioned AI and machine learning, which I want to turn to right now. So you've created a leading platform with fully integrated target biomarker, drug discovery and translational capabilities. How important has advanced AI and machine learning been to powering those capabilities for you?
Yujiro Hata
Yeah, I would say they've been very important. So AI machine learning today, and the life sciences arena, is being applied in several different areas from target biology, guiding clinical developments, even from even from assembling regulatory documents. Where IDEAYA is singularly focused, at least at this time for AI, machine learning is specifically in the area of drug discovery. And particularly within drug discovery, we're very focused in the area of chemistry. So we believe that AI machine learning is an extremely valuable tool to hopefully enhance our efficiency. So that is, a lot of what we're focused on, or myself, at least for the organization, is what areas can we do to enhance timelines, and increase probability of success, and we believe AI and machine learning is going to be absolutely a very important tool moving forward. The one piece here, Joe, I would just highlight, I think, what differentiates idea in the drug discovery arena of AI, AI machine learning where we believe the predominance of the work that has been applied to targets that have already people have drugged before. So although that's interesting, we think it's really not a breakthrough, I think we're really the opportunity to hopefully it will surface over the next couple of years, as applying the technology of AI, machine learning drug discovery to targets we have not drugged before, right targets that have been viewed as undruggable. And that's going to require really pioneering work, not just an understanding of AI, machine learning, but really significant sophistication around cancer biology, as well as basic medicine or chemistry.
Joe Coletti
So I want to get your perspective on the importance and the value of strategic partnerships that you've had with Big Pharma. So along with your platform and programs, you've developed these kinds of partnerships with Pfizer Amgen, Gilead Merck and GSK. How important have they been to achieving your milestones, but also sort of validating you as a leader in the space?
Yujiro Hata
Yeah, so pharmaceutical partnerships, since our earliest days. So if you actually even look at our origin, and our early investors included several pharmaceutical companies, including companies like Celgene, which is now part of BMS today, as well as Novartis. And so it's been central since our earliest days. And the reason for that is several components. First, we appreciate that a lot of what we do is highly technical. And so if we're able to bring knowledge and capabilities to the table, we believe it's going to improve our chances to get something, a drug candidate and ultimately in the clinic, and ultimately to advance that asset for the clinical trials. Second is more from a business, sort of, I would say thesis and our view is more, I would say smart partnerships would put in place enable the company to have scale, right? One of the things we know about what we do in biotechnology, it has significant costs associated with it. So by having several key partnerships, we're also able to share the risk and the cause. So instead of advancing, let's say, two molecules in the clinic, it enables us to do four or six or eight. And ultimately, that's our vision. We think through pharma partnerships, of which we have several, including Pfizer, Amgen, Gilead, GSK, Merck, we think that list will be growing, is going to allow us to really scale the organization. So we can, you know, watch us to continue to do that moving forward.
Joe Coletti
Excellent. I want to zoom out for a second a little bit more, and maybe look at the sector at large and your particular space? And, you know, think maybe about the macro environment a little bit, especially over the medium to long term? How does that factor into your decision making? Are there headwinds, tailwinds that that you guys see are affecting… or is it less of an issue in terms of how you manage and grow your business?
Yujiro Hata
Yeah, great question. You know, so obviously, there's a lot of different factors that can impact especially a publicly traded company from, you know, geopolitics, inflation, interest rates, and so on and so forth. I think for us, you know, what we try to do is really focus on the key areas that A) we can control, and B) that specifically impact us and what we do in precision medicine oncology. So maybe we'll quickly go through some of those key pieces. First, you know, for me, when I think about it, when you take sort of 10 steps back, I've never been more excited than I am today about being in the arena of precision medicine oncology, as a publicly traded company. And first and foremost, in terms of macro factors. I think it's really about innovation, innovation, innovation. So when you look at a lot of, you know, the last sort of 50-60 years of what we've been doing, especially in the technology or biotechnology arena, it's often where the greatest advancements happen is when you have these intersections of technology revolutions. And that's exactly in the period we are today, you look at the amount of genetic sequencing data we have today. What do you look at our much greater vast understanding of what causes cancer both from a genetics standpoint, from an immunology standpoint, we just talked about the advancements that we've had in the area of computer science and AI machine learning, those intersections, ultimately, will create new therapies and tremendous breakthroughs. So that's what's right in front of us. Obviously, you have to have the ability to hopefully navigate what's sometimes a complicated public markets. But I think if you have, hopefully the best team in the world, you're can continue to committed to do great science. And ultimately, if you focus on the patient and focus on a medical needs, I think you're going to create a lot of value.
Joe Coletti
One final question. Are there any other themes or trends that you think the capital markets audience in particular investors should be watching more closely in the biotech space?
Yujiro Hata
Yeah look, I think we're fortunate, we've had, you know, great partnerships, through the years with a lot of our key shareholders. And, you know, I think for us the really the central piece is really around what we talked about, which is really hopefully capturing the technological advancements that enable us to deliver better therapies, those therapies faster to patients, and hopefully, where we can run clinical trials where they have hopefully a good opportunity to really deliver that value to patients. And then, and then within that context, really focus those efforts in areas that address high unmet medical needs. And I do think that last part, you know, as a sector, and I think this is always a partnership between operating companies and shareholders that hopefully we deploy our capital, we're working on new things. And I appreciate sometimes those things take more time. There may be more risk associated. But I think if we continue to focus on the unmet medical need portion with patients, I think we're gonna have a great path forward. So it's been a terrific ride for us since we've been public in 2019. And we think 2024 will be absolutely critical year for us moving forward.
Joe Coletti
Right, I think we'll end it there. Yujiro, it's a pleasure having you on, I hope you'll come back. Good luck and good luck with all your meetings today at the conference.
Yujiro Hata
Thanks so much, Joe. And good luck to RBC for the rest of this conference. Thank you.
Joe Coletti
That's all for our conversation today. Thanks again for listening to Pathfinders in Biopharma brought to you by RBC Capital Markets. Please remember to subscribe to get more great content and be alerted about future episodes. This episode was recorded on May 15, 2024. If you'd like to learn more or continue the conversation, please visit RBCCM.com/biopharma. See you next time.