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Nurturing A Culture Of “Smart Speed” To Bring Gene Therapy To The World

Nurturing A Culture Of “Smart Speed” To Bring Gene Therapy To The World

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4 years ago

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By Deanna Petersen, chief business officer at AVROBIO, and Georgette Verdin, chief human resources officer at AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC.

As we approach our 5th anniversary and surpass our 125th hire, we have come to recognize that one of the most important characteristics for success at AVROBIO is a commitment to our mantra of “smart speed.” We’ve been thinking a lot about what that term means for us – and for the field of gene therapy.

We coined the term back in the earliest days of AVROBIO, when the entire company consisted of four people sitting around one table, trying to figure out how to fulfill our vision of bringing personalized gene therapy to patients worldwide. We were committed to going about our work with the knowledge that every second of every minute of every day counted.

This may seem obvious, at face value. Most biotech companies focused on treating serious diseases know there are patients and families waiting. The urgency feels especially acute to us because we’re developing lentiviral gene therapies for relentless lysosomal disorders. We have to move fast to reach today’s patients in time to halt or reverse the progression of their disease.

But the imperative of speed also has direct implications on the business model when applied to a gene therapy company. Biotech companies that develop chronic treatments typically can count on an annual revenue flow for as long as their patents protect the IP, often out 20 years or more. The business model for a gene therapy company is very different – the opportunity to generate revenues is pulled forward in time because of the one-time treatment model and price. Gene therapy companies can potentially make 20 years’ worth of annual revenue in the first 10 (or so) years following product approval. The idea, after all, is to deliver a one-time treatment that may last decades, if not a lifetime. In the rare disease space, that means the first company to market with an effective gene therapy has the potential to collect higher revenues quickly in the initial years, but revenues will fall off after most existing patients have been treated, given that just a small number of new patients will be diagnosed each year. The gene therapy business model brings the need for smart speed into focus.

To build a sustainable gene therapy business that can consistently deliver returns for its investors, we decided early on that we would have to work on multiple programs in parallel, all with the same sense of urgency. We needed to have our second, third and fourth clinical programs waiting in the wings, just a half-step behind the first, to build a sustainable revenue model. To succeed in gene therapy, you can’t afford to work on each consecutively.

A work ethic and a business model

It was with these imperatives in mind that Deanna, chief business officer, coined smart speed. The term encapsulated both our work ethic and our business model – and it quickly became woven into AVROBIO’s DNA.

What does it mean in practice? It means feeling that urgency in the gut, day after day. It implies you have a deep understanding of the needs of patients and families who are waiting for new treatment options. It also requires casting aside some of your preconceived notions of how to run a business.

We set out to nurture a culture that empowered people to make smart, calculated decisions to move programs along faster. A culture that encouraged every single employee at AVROBIO to rethink tried-and-true approaches to their work. Standard operating procedure might bring in data in four months. We challenged our team to find a way to get that down to three months – and they did. Multiply that same urgency to disrupt the status quo across every function and you start to see how smart speed works. Job descriptions in the company included the phrase “ability to re-think and re-imagine every step…” and it wasn’t window dressing. It requires everyone to be a pioneer – and everyone to be driven.

We also had to re-engineer our understanding of efficiency. We didn’t want our teams to be so lean that they wouldn’t have the bandwidth to seize unexpected opportunities. We tolerated some duplication of effort in service of our imperative to advance multiple programs in parallel.

It’s important to note that the “smart” is just as important as the “speed” in our mantra. You must have a deep drive to win, but not at the expense of your data, your protocols or your colleagues. We can never, ever be reckless about our work. It does not mean speed for the sake of speed, or speed at any cost. Our vision centers around smart decision-making in service of our goal to bring potentially transformative gene therapies to patients and families as fast as possible.

Building a culture that nourishes smart speed

As you might imagine, smart speed requires teamwork. You can’t assess the opportunities or meet the challenges alone. Everyone around you must be committed to acting with integrity, transparency and urgency for this to work.

Nurturing this mindset while operating a start-up with limited resources requires great clarity of purpose and an exceptionally strong company culture. Last year, we upped our game by hiring Georgette as chief human resources officer to focus on organizational development, recruitment and building a robust HR function as well as building out AVROBIO’s unique culture.

If you’re going to work this hard and move this fast, you really have to trust – and like – the folks around you. And you need an abundance of goodwill. We built that into the AVROBIO model early, setting aside time to bring people together in a relaxed environment. Like many biotechs, we hosted twice-a-week catered lunches before the COVID-19 pandemic. We also launched company traditions, such as our cutthroat chili cookoff, our “Thirsty Thursday” poker games and our over-the-top Halloween festivities. Our CEO, Geoff MacKay, often sets the tone. (He spent Rare Disease Day dressed in zebra-striped pajamas and came to a recent Town Hall in full Darth Vader regalia.)

Beyond ensuring strong employee engagement, we have worked to create a well-functioning executive team that trusts and likes each other. Georgette and Geoff have worked together to craft quarterly offsites with the executive team. At these sessions we work on strategy and draft action plans, and also strengthen our relationships with one another. We hired an executive coach to help us all communicate honestly and constructively, especially in high-stress situations. We took the lessons very seriously; like any sports team, we practiced the scenarios the coach had laid out. We even graded ourselves. These sessions weren’t always easy, but they were essential to build the bonds we needed to establish a strong company culture. And importantly, we balance these sessions with opportunities to have fun. Recently the executive team opened our offsite (we’ve all gone virtual) with a “Secret Santa in June” exchange. Everyone was tasked with buying a gift for another member of the team and sending the gift to their home with instructions that they could not open it until the day of the offsite. When we opened our gift one by one on Zoom, the giver shared why they had chosen that particular item. The results were hilarious and heartfelt. We all realized how much we missed seeing each other face-to-face and appreciated the thoughtfulness of our colleagues.

Those events take time away from the day-to-day work, but they’re essential to maintaining a culture of smart speed. It’s our friendships – our genuine affection for one another – that keep us all afloat as we move mountains to advance our purpose of bringing personalized gene therapies to patients worldwide.

Cultural biomarkers that showcase our values

Good organizational development pivots on culture, so last fall we kicked off an effort to codify our core values.

We conducted focus groups representing every function and seniority level to bubble up ideas and hone into what was really core to AVROBIO. We got great insights, but Georgette pushed us to go deeper – to identify the “cultural biomarkers” that showed our unique company culture at work.

During the month of January, we tacked blank sheets of paper to a kitchen wall and encouraged everyone to share their reflections. The comments reflected a mindset very much aligned with smart speed:

  • “Maybe I’m not always going in the right direction, but my team won’t let me fail.”
  • “When we hit obstacles, we go over, around, under – whatever it takes to figure it out.”
  • “We hear from patients almost every month. They’re our north star.”
  • “Disagreements are not personal – they help move us forward.”
  • “We feel very connected to patients.”
  • “I really don’t want to let my colleagues down.”
  • “Every second, of every minute, of every day, counts.”

Then there’s this one, which genuinely captures the camaraderie of AVROBIO:

  • “I notice that Elise begins to sing when the office gets a little tense. She has a way of calming the vibe.’’

From these exercises, we came up with a set of values that resonate across the company: At AVROBIO, we are passionate, making a powerful difference for patients; problem solvers, overcoming obstacles and always learning; collaborative, working together with respect and openness; pioneers, pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo; and driven, tenacious in pursuit of our greater purpose.

Underpinning all these values is the concept of smart speed, which remains foundational to AVROBIO. People love to be part of team that is determined to succeed, and they don’t mind working hard if everyone around them is pulling toward the same goal – smart decision making and advancing with a do-it-now, do-it-right, do-it-fast mentality.

It’s the secret to our success so far. We can’t wait to see where it takes us next.

We’ll end with the hashtag coined by our CSO, Chris Mason: #EverySecond.

 

 

AVROBIO is currently conducting clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of its investigational lentiviral gene therapies. None of these investigational gene therapies has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other regulatory agency. For more information, go to www.avrobio.com.

 

 

The post Nurturing A Culture Of “Smart Speed” To Bring Gene Therapy To The World appeared first on LifeSciVC.

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Key shipping company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The Illinois-based general freight trucking company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize.

Published

7 hours ago

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March 14, 2024

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The U.S. trucking industry has had a difficult beginning of the year for 2024 with several logistics companies filing for bankruptcy to seek either a Chapter 7 liquidation or Chapter 11 reorganization.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a lot of supply chain issues for logistics companies and also created a shortage of truck drivers as many left the business for other occupations. Shipping companies, in the meantime, have had extreme difficulty recruiting new drivers for thousands of unfilled jobs.

Related: Tesla rival’s filing reveals Chapter 11 bankruptcy is possible

Freight forwarder company Boateng Logistics joined a growing list of shipping companies that permanently shuttered their businesses as the firm on Feb. 22 filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with plans to liquidate.

The Carlsbad, Calif., logistics company filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California listing assets up to $50,000 and and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities. Court papers said it owed millions of dollars in liabilities to trucking, logistics and factoring companies. The company filed bankruptcy before any creditors could take legal action.

Lawsuits force companies to liquidate in bankruptcy

Lawsuits, however, can force companies to file bankruptcy, which was the case for J.J. & Sons Logistics of Clint, Texas, which on Jan. 22 filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas. The company filed bankruptcy four days before the scheduled start of a trial for a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a former company truck driver who had died from drowning in 2016.

California-based logistics company Wise Choice Trans Corp. shut down operations and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on Jan. 4 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, listing $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities.

The Hayward, Calif., third-party logistics company, founded in 2009, provided final mile, less-than-truckload and full truckload services, as well as warehouse and fulfillment services in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Chapter 7 filing also implemented an automatic stay against all legal proceedings, as the company listed its involvement in four legal actions that were ongoing or concluded. Court papers reportedly did not list amounts for damages.

In some cases, debtors don't have to take a drastic action, such as a liquidation, and can instead file a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Truck shipping products.

Shutterstock

Nationwide Cargo seeks to reorganize its business

Nationwide Cargo Inc., a general freight trucking company that also hauls fresh produce and meat, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois with plans to reorganize its business.

The East Dundee, Ill., shipping company listed $1 million to $10 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities in its petition and said funds will not be available to pay unsecured creditors. The company operates with 183 trucks and 171 drivers, FreightWaves reported.

Nationwide Cargo's three largest secured creditors in the petition were Equify Financial LLC (owed about $3.5 million,) Commercial Credit Group (owed about $1.8 million) and Continental Bank NA (owed about $676,000.)

The shipping company reported gross revenue of about $34 million in 2022 and about $40 million in 2023.  From Jan. 1 until its petition date, the company generated $9.3 million in gross revenue.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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Key shipping company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The Illinois-based general freight trucking company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize.

Published

8 hours ago

on

March 14, 2024

By

The U.S. trucking industry has had a difficult beginning of the year for 2024 with several logistics companies filing for bankruptcy to seek either a Chapter 7 liquidation or Chapter 11 reorganization.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a lot of supply chain issues for logistics companies and also created a shortage of truck drivers as many left the business for other occupations. Shipping companies, in the meantime, have had extreme difficulty recruiting new drivers for thousands of unfilled jobs.

Related: Tesla rival’s filing reveals Chapter 11 bankruptcy is possible

Freight forwarder company Boateng Logistics joined a growing list of shipping companies that permanently shuttered their businesses as the firm on Feb. 22 filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with plans to liquidate.

The Carlsbad, Calif., logistics company filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California listing assets up to $50,000 and and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities. Court papers said it owed millions of dollars in liabilities to trucking, logistics and factoring companies. The company filed bankruptcy before any creditors could take legal action.

Lawsuits force companies to liquidate in bankruptcy

Lawsuits, however, can force companies to file bankruptcy, which was the case for J.J. & Sons Logistics of Clint, Texas, which on Jan. 22 filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas. The company filed bankruptcy four days before the scheduled start of a trial for a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a former company truck driver who had died from drowning in 2016.

California-based logistics company Wise Choice Trans Corp. shut down operations and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on Jan. 4 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, listing $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities.

The Hayward, Calif., third-party logistics company, founded in 2009, provided final mile, less-than-truckload and full truckload services, as well as warehouse and fulfillment services in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Chapter 7 filing also implemented an automatic stay against all legal proceedings, as the company listed its involvement in four legal actions that were ongoing or concluded. Court papers reportedly did not list amounts for damages.

In some cases, debtors don't have to take a drastic action, such as a liquidation, and can instead file a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Truck shipping products.

Shutterstock

Nationwide Cargo seeks to reorganize its business

Nationwide Cargo Inc., a general freight trucking company that also hauls fresh produce and meat, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois with plans to reorganize its business.

The East Dundee, Ill., shipping company listed $1 million to $10 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities in its petition and said funds will not be available to pay unsecured creditors. The company operates with 183 trucks and 171 drivers, FreightWaves reported.

Nationwide Cargo's three largest secured creditors in the petition were Equify Financial LLC (owed about $3.5 million,) Commercial Credit Group (owed about $1.8 million) and Continental Bank NA (owed about $676,000.)

The shipping company reported gross revenue of about $34 million in 2022 and about $40 million in 2023.  From Jan. 1 until its petition date, the company generated $9.3 million in gross revenue.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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Tight inventory and frustrated buyers challenge agents in Virginia

With inventory a little more than half of what it was pre-pandemic, agents are struggling to find homes for clients in Virginia.

Published

10 hours ago

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March 14, 2024

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No matter where you are in the state, real estate agents in Virginia are facing low inventory conditions that are creating frustrating scenarios for their buyers.

“I think people are getting used to the interest rates where they are now, but there is just a huge lack of inventory,” said Chelsea Newcomb, a RE/MAX Realty Specialists agent based in Charlottesville. “I have buyers that are looking, but to find a house that you love enough to pay a high price for — and to be at over a 6.5% interest rate — it’s just a little bit harder to find something.”

Newcomb said that interest rates and higher prices, which have risen by more than $100,000 since March 2020, according to data from Altos Research, have caused her clients to be pickier when selecting a home.

“When rates and prices were lower, people were more willing to compromise,” Newcomb said.

Out in Wise, Virginia, near the westernmost tip of the state, RE/MAX Cavaliers agent Brett Tiller and his clients are also struggling to find suitable properties.

“The thing that really stands out, especially compared to two years ago, is the lack of quality listings,” Tiller said. “The slightly more upscale single-family listings for move-up buyers with children looking for their forever home just aren’t coming on the market right now, and demand is still very high.”

Statewide, Virginia had a 90-day average of 8,068 active single-family listings as of March 8, 2024, down from 14,471 single-family listings in early March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Altos Research. That represents a decrease of 44%.

Virginia-Inventory-Line-Chart-Virginia-90-day-Single-Family

In Newcomb’s base metro area of Charlottesville, there were an average of only 277 active single-family listings during the same recent 90-day period, compared to 892 at the onset of the pandemic. In Wise County, there were only 56 listings.

Due to the demand from move-up buyers in Tiller’s area, the average days on market for homes with a median price of roughly $190,000 was just 17 days as of early March 2024.

“For the right home, which is rare to find right now, we are still seeing multiple offers,” Tiller said. “The demand is the same right now as it was during the heart of the pandemic.”

According to Tiller, the tight inventory has caused homebuyers to spend up to six months searching for their new property, roughly double the time it took prior to the pandemic.

For Matt Salway in the Virginia Beach metro area, the tight inventory conditions are creating a rather hot market.

“Depending on where you are in the area, your listing could have 15 offers in two days,” the agent for Iron Valley Real Estate Hampton Roads | Virginia Beach said. “It has been crazy competition for most of Virginia Beach, and Norfolk is pretty hot too, especially for anything under $400,000.”

According to Altos Research, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News housing market had a seven-day average Market Action Index score of 52.44 as of March 14, making it the seventh hottest housing market in the country. Altos considers any Market Action Index score above 30 to be indicative of a seller’s market.

Virginia-Beach-Metro-Area-Market-Action-Index-Line-Chart-Virginia-Beach-Norfolk-Newport-News-VA-NC-90-day-Single-Family

Further up the coastline on the vacation destination of Chincoteague Island, Long & Foster agent Meghan O. Clarkson is also seeing a decent amount of competition despite higher prices and interest rates.

“People are taking their time to actually come see things now instead of buying site unseen, and occasionally we see some seller concessions, but the traffic and the demand is still there; you might just work a little longer with people because we don’t have anything for sale,” Clarkson said.

“I’m busy and constantly have appointments, but the underlying frenzy from the height of the pandemic has gone away, but I think it is because we have just gotten used to it.”

While much of the demand that Clarkson’s market faces is for vacation homes and from retirees looking for a scenic spot to retire, a large portion of the demand in Salway’s market comes from military personnel and civilians working under government contracts.

“We have over a dozen military bases here, plus a bunch of shipyards, so the closer you get to all of those bases, the easier it is to sell a home and the faster the sale happens,” Salway said.

Due to this, Salway said that existing-home inventory typically does not come on the market unless an employment contract ends or the owner is reassigned to a different base, which is currently contributing to the tight inventory situation in his market.

Things are a bit different for Tiller and Newcomb, who are seeing a decent number of buyers from other, more expensive parts of the state.

“One of the crazy things about Louisa and Goochland, which are kind of like suburbs on the western side of Richmond, is that they are growing like crazy,” Newcomb said. “A lot of people are coming in from Northern Virginia because they can work remotely now.”

With a Market Action Index score of 50, it is easy to see why people are leaving the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria market for the Charlottesville market, which has an index score of 41.

In addition, the 90-day average median list price in Charlottesville is $585,000 compared to $729,900 in the D.C. area, which Newcomb said is also luring many Virginia homebuyers to move further south.

Median-Price-D.C.-vs.-Charlottesville-Line-Chart-90-day-Single-Family

“They are very accustomed to higher prices, so they are super impressed with the prices we offer here in the central Virginia area,” Newcomb said.

For local buyers, Newcomb said this means they are frequently being outbid or outpriced.

“A couple who is local to the area and has been here their whole life, they are just now starting to get their mind wrapped around the fact that you can’t get a house for $200,000 anymore,” Newcomb said.

As the year heads closer to spring, triggering the start of the prime homebuying season, agents in Virginia feel optimistic about the market.

“We are seeing seasonal trends like we did up through 2019,” Clarkson said. “The market kind of soft launched around President’s Day and it is still building, but I expect it to pick right back up and be in full swing by Easter like it always used to.”

But while they are confident in demand, questions still remain about whether there will be enough inventory to support even more homebuyers entering the market.

“I have a lot of buyers starting to come off the sidelines, but in my office, I also have a lot of people who are going to list their house in the next two to three weeks now that the weather is starting to break,” Newcomb said. “I think we are going to have a good spring and summer.”

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