The story of a top pharma exec leaving the industry and delving into biotech has always been a fascinating one, but Olema Oncology’s new chief Sean Bohen, M.D., Ph.D., took on the challenge amid the worst pandemic in more than a century.
Bohen left his former employer, AstraZeneca, in spring 2020. After a slow but steady turning of the British drugmaker’s R&D operations that culminated in the birth of two new units, Bohen felt it was time to move on.
Like many former top pharma execs, Bohen was then lured back into biotech and the raw science it offers. This is always a big transition, but his move to become the CEO of Olema came in a world upturned by COVID-19.
“It’s hard to separate the pandemic from the move [to Olema],” Bohen told Fierce Biotech editor Amirah Al Idrus in a Fierce JPM Week interview.
Olema raised $54 million last July to bankroll a phase 1/2 study of its lead program, OP-1250, in ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancers that have come back after treatment, spread locally or metastasized to other parts of the body.
Olema believes its prospect is a complete ER antagonist and a selective ER degrader, unlike other drugs that have been developed for this type of cancer. With cash and an asset to focus on, the company brought Bohen in to lead the startup last fall.
“Our sole R&D focus at Olema is on ‘1250,” Bohen said, “and that is very different, because previously [at AstraZeneca and, before that, Genentech] I had portfolios of multiple products I was working on. In some respects, however, that clarity of focus and vision is refreshing, because you can really dig deep in everything you are doing.”
Getting to grips with a single-asset R&D engine, as well as a new company culture, is hard enough, but moving over in the current environment only added more difficulties.
“More challenging has been building the organization and the community when we were earlier only able to meet virtually [because of the pandemic]. I have only been into the office one time,” Bohen said. “So we are finding our way around Zoom and other virtual mechanisms to build the company. We have been fortunate in being successful in doing so.”