Thomas Kaiser Talks Pill Penalty, North Carolina, and the Realities of Drug Development on Making Medicine

On the latest episode of the Making Medicine podcast, Incubate executive director John Stanford sat down with Thomas Kaiser of Avicenna Biosciences to talk about Kaiser's career in drug discovery, the future of pharmacology, and the role policy plays in bringing new drug candidates to market.

Before founding Avicenna, Kaiser developed several antiviral compounds. Despite failure being the norm in drug development, Kaiser remains fascinated by the scientific challenge. "It's so hard to find new medicines it might as well be gambling," he joked.

And that's before factoring in policy hurdles. As Kaiser pointed out, even when a promising compound shows potential, getting it funded can feel like a second battle. The "pill penalty" has further complicated the landscape for small molecule drugs in particular.

"Drug discovery is hard enough," Kaiser said. "You're already wrestling with nature -- you don't really need to wrestle with bad policy."

This combination of scientific uncertainty and policy headwinds has cast a cloud over early-stage investment in small molecule companies. Thankfully, the recently introduced EPIC Act would undo the pill penalty, restoring investment incentives for all promising therapies.

To learn more about the pill penalty and the EPIC Act, the scientific realities of drug discovery, and why North Carolina has emerged as a leader in the biotech industry, listen to the full episode here.