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This week on Leading Beyond The Lab, Lawrence Rose sat down with Megan McGill, CEO of Brenig Therapeutics, with years of experience spanning biotech leadership, strategy, clinical medicine, management consulting and neuroscience research.

In this episode, Megan covers:

• Why Brenig Therapeutics is targeting neuroinflammation and Parkinson’s disease through LRRK2 and NLRP3 inhibitors, and how the company is positioning itself within the rapidly evolving neurodegenerative disease landscape.

• How AI and machine learning are being used across medicinal chemistry and drug development at Brenig through investment from Torrey Pines, OrbiMed, New Enterprise Associates, BioGeneration Ventures, to optimise brain penetration, selectivity and safety profiles simultaneously.

• Why Megan believes an MD and PhD background is critical in biotech leadership, combining a deep understanding of disease biology with a real-world understanding of patients and unmet medical needs.

• The realities of building a career in medicine, biotech and leadership while raising children as a single mother, and the leadership lessons around empathy, patience and resilience that came from that experience.

• Why neuroscience investment remains significantly underfunded despite the growing global burden of neurodegenerative disease, and what needs to change across biotech, pharma and venture capital to accelerate progress in CNS innovation.

• Lawrence and Megan also discuss organisations and companies including Eli Lilly and Company, McKinsey & Company, BridgeBio Pharma and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Be sure to check out the full episode to hear Megan’s perspective on the future of neuroscience, biotech leadership and the evolving role of AI across drug development.

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Megan McGill

CEO at Brenig Therapeutics

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcgillmegan/

Lawrence Rose

Consulting Director at ARTO

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencerose/

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

02:21 Megan’s background across medicine, biotech and neuroscience

03:03 Joining Brenig Therapeutics and the company’s pipeline

04:16 LRRK2 and NLRP3 inhibitors in Parkinson’s disease

05:23 The growing neuroinflammation landscape

06:51 Phase 1 clinical trial milestones and biomarkers

07:23 Why Brenig chose Parkinson’s disease

10:14 AI medicinal chemistry and machine learning in drug discovery

12:08 How AI is changing biotech operations and strategy

14:20 Brenig’s Series B strategy and upcoming milestones

15:57 Building efficient biotech teams and scaling operations

17:30 Leadership inspiration and high-performing teams

18:46 The advantages of being an MD and PhD in biotech leadership

21:16 Commercial partnerships and pharma collaboration strategy

23:08 Digital biomarkers, diagnostics and wearable technology

28:06 Balancing medicine, biotech leadership and motherhood

33:30 Mentorship, McKinsey and learning commercial strategy

37:00 Leadership communication and simplifying complexity

38:23 What defines elite biotech teams and company culture

40:40 Brenig’s board, investors and strategic support

43:16 Building a culture of excellence in a virtual biotech company

46:13 The future of neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease

50:25 Clinical trial recruitment and patient engagement

52:34 The Biotech CEO Sisterhood and women in biotech leadership

56:17 Diversity, leadership and representation in biotech

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