The Recipe for Drug Discovery

Cyrus Harmon, co-founder and CTO of Olema Oncology, joins Venrock partner Alex Rosen to discuss the history of Olema. Olema had a successful IPO last year and Harmon sheds light on what biotech companies should look for when selecting banks for an IPO and how to build momentum for financing rounds.  He also dives into the factors that led to the founding of Olema and how the company evolved to develop their OP-1250 drug, used for the treatment of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Harmon shares the biggest challenges he encountered, things he would have done differently, and the importance of perseverance as a leader. Harmon also touches on the biotech trends he’s most excited about, including mRNA vaccines, gene therapy, and AI in computational drug discovery.