Jens Lindberg, CEO at Medivir, on The Biotech Rollercoaster - Medivir´s Previous Four Months (and Biotech Today in 2026)

About this episode

Jens Lindberg discusses his experiences and challenges as CEO of Medivir AB in the biotech industry.

In this episode, I talked with Jens Lindberg, CEO of Medivir AB, a Swedish biotech developing innovative therapies in liver cancer and rare disease. Jens brings over 30 years of late-stage development and commercialisation experience—including 25 years at AstraZeneca—where he worked on blockbuster drugs such as Tagrisso and Lynparza. Jens opens up about the moment he was handed the global commercial lead role for what the company believed would be its next blockbuster—only to realise the asset was significantly overvalued. What followed was one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do professionally: telling senior leadership that the people who licensed the asset were wrong—without making them feel that way. We also get into Medivir's turbulent last few months: a forced pivot from a multi-country Phase 2b study, a round of layoffs, and then a dramatic reversal with new investors coming on board and two programs now moving forward at the same time. For anyone trying to understand what fundraising truly looks like in today's biotech environment, Jens is direct about how completely his approach to investor relations has had to change since 2022. When he's not steering Medivir…

People in this episode

Host: Charles Spence

Guest: Jens Lindberg

Topics covered

• biotech
• investor relations
• career development
• commercialization
• healthcare
• leadership

Keywords

• biotech
• Medivir
• AstraZeneca
• investor relations
• liver cancer
• rare disease
• commercial lead
• fundraising
• career

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Medivir AB, AstraZeneca

Products: Tagrisso, Lynparza

Places: Sweden

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