High-Throughput Innovation & Breaking Biotech Bottlenecks | Judy Chou (Part 2/4)

Описание: Part 2 of 4 of our series with Judy Chou, President and CEO of AltruBio.

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, President & CEO of AltruBio, Judy Chou, shares her pivotal transition from academia to industry, revealing how she left AbbVie when the company went idle after Humira's launch to pursue more meaningful work at Wyeth. Despite Humira becoming one of the most successful drugs in history, the company's uncertainty about biologics left Judy feeling unable to fulfill her mission to make a difference for patients.
Judy describes how she pioneered high-throughput screening for biologics at Wyeth, earning the nickname "High-Throughput Lady" when colleagues thought her ideas were crazy. She explains how she adapted small molecule screening techniques to biologics despite widespread skepticism, ultimately generating 10 grams per liter antibody production for the first time and winning Wyeth's President Award for the biggest business impact of the year. Judy also recounts being recruited to Genentech to build a revolutionary product-driven department in Oceanside, where Ann Lee's vision to break vertical silos and create a "startup within a major company" generated much of the pipeline Genentech still develops today.

Key topics covered:
Leadership Philosophy: Balancing management expertise with hands-on technical understanding across multiple disciplines
High-Throughput Innovation: Introducing robotics and screening tools that became industry standard despite initial mockery
Analytical Tools as "Eyes and Ears": Creating bioanalytical methods for biomanufacturing that accelerated development timelines
Product-Driven Departments: Building Genentech's Oceanside facility using Toyota's cross-functional model instead of traditional vertical silos
Mindset Over Structure: Why focusing on getting products to the finish line faster matters more than having the best individual technologies

If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening.

Subscribe to the Podcast:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162...
Youtube:    / @thebiotechstartupspodcast  
Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast...

Find our guest, Judy Chou at these links:
LinkedIn:   / judy-chou-ph-d-biotech  
Website: https://www.altrubio.com/altrubio/en

Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:
LinkedIn:   / jonchee  

Learn more about Excedr:
LinkedIn:   / excedr  
Website: https://www.excedr.com

Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:
Website: https://flow.page/kyojin

Resources & Articles:
High-Throughput Screening in Biologics:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Bioanalytical Tools in Biomanufacturing:
https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-inform...
Monoclonal Antibody Production and Development:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Toyota Production System and Cross-Functional Teams:
https://global.toyota/en/company/visi...
​
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
AbbVie: https://www.abbvie.com/
Wyeth (now part of Pfizer): https://www.pfizer.com/
Genentech: https://www.gene.com/
Gilead Sciences: https://www.gilead.com/
​
Ann Lee-Karlon   / ann-lee-karlon-a9592424  
Tim Charlebois   / tim-charlebois-25a109b  
Mike Kamarck   / michael-kamarck-71450415  
​Bob Ruffolo   / bob-ruffolo-28366b9  
Napoleone Ferrara   / napoleone-ferrara-7202b3b  

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:43 Management Philosophy: Getting Your Hands Dirty vs. Pure Leadership
05:06 Leaving AbbVie After Humira Launch
09:20 Culture Shift: Moving from AbbVie to Wyeth
15:13 Pioneering High-Throughput Screening for Biologics
23:45 Industry Collaboration in Early Biotech Days
25:21 Genentech Recruitment: Breaking the Development Bottleneck
29:35 Building Oceanside: A Product-Driven Department from Scratch
33:35 Leading Cross-Functional Projects at Genentech
40:09 Product vs. Technology Innovation: Lessons on Organizational Change
40:56 Outro

#BiotechLeadership #PharmaInnovation #AntibodyDevelopment #HighThroughputScreening #BiopharmaCareer

The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing.