Turning Abandoned Drugs into Breakthroughs

About this episode

Eric Elenko discusses how PureTech Health rescues promising but discontinued drugs to create breakthroughs in drug innovation.

Promising drugs can become abandoned or underused because of tolerability issues, poor drug‑like properties, or other fixable limitations, even when there is already compelling human evidence that they work. PureTech Health starts with an unmet need and human pharmacology, then systematically dissects and solves the specific liabilities of discontinued drugs to unlock breakthroughs in an approach that has proved to be a highly efficient means of value creation. Eric Elenko, president and co‑founder of PureTech, discusses the company’s disciplined approach to drug innovation around rescuing promising but discontinued therapeutics, its hub‑and‑spoke structure, and how this model can neutralize emotional bias, enforce clear success criteria, and turn partially derisked assets into commercial successes.

People in this episode

Guest: Eric Elenko

Topics covered

• drug innovation
• pharmacology
• healthcare
• biotechnology
• value creation

Keywords

• abandoned drugs
• therapeutics
• human pharmacology
• drug properties
• value creation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PureTech Health

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