Our three-year journey from rough diamond to transformative star

Exploration is all about storytelling – stories we encounter, learn and tell. Of adventure, new experiences, being taken outside of our comfort zones, and the more we tell these stories, the greater their impact.

This is the story of the new Candel Therapeutics. How, for the past three years, we’ve been exploring at the cutting edge of science, creating a paradigm shift in our perception of what is possible in biotechnology. To engineer successful viral immunotherapies, working with molecules that have the potential to become transformative medicines that impact the lives of patients by conquering hard-to-treat cancers.

We have two platforms based on novel, genetically modified adenovirus and herpes simplex virus constructs – CAN-2409 and CAN-3110. When CAN-2409 was injected into tumours in a recent trial in a specific form of lung cancer, we achieved disease control in two thirds of patients and improved both injected and uninjected metastases. By using CAN-2409 to vaccinate against the patient’s own tumour, we stopped it from growing. That means the potential for improved survival in this disease and potentially across other cancers, such as pancreatic and prostate. Similarly, we made great progress testing the effects of CAN-3110 in therapy-resistant brain cancer. The very encouraging results have just been published in Nature.

However, this is not just a story about science. It’s about people and what it means to take this journey of exploration together – the skills you need and mentality shifts that have to happen.

For more than 30 years, I’ve been a physician, scientist, business leader, enjoyed a series of leadership roles in academia, pharma, biotech and venture capital and, now, I’m the CEO of Candel. The ability to see things through those multiple lenses has helped me drive massive change at this company to become truly impactful, and it feels like the right moment to explain how.

How, in just 36 months, we went from an under-the-radar diamond-in-the-rough, to pioneers of a new modality in which nearly everything we touch scientifically appears to be working. And where it doesn’t work, we make rigorous decisions to stop early on. How leadership roles in highly innovative companies helped me to guide this exploration. And how others can be inspired by six key chapters of our story.

Chapter One: Creative collaboration.

Three years ago, we embarked on a rigorous restructure and hiring phase with a focus on cognitive diversity. We’ve created a leadership team in which it’s okay to see things in a different way, so that when ideas and approaches clash, we use that creative tension to uncover better solutions. The more diverse the culture within scientific organisations – and the more you design that diversity – the more innovative you will become. The checks and balances are there but the freedom to think and respectfully challenge (including challenging the CEO!) allow us to get to better solutions. I know I’m a better leader because of this high-performance diversity.

Chapter two. Innovation, real innovation.

So many leaders and companies talk about innovation but they do not always capture what it really means. It’s not a goal in itself and nor is it incremental improvement. Innovation is doing things in a way that hasn’t been done in the past. At Candel we are approaching viral immunotherapies in a novel way, focused on an in situ vaccination approach against the tumor, designing experiments and clinical trials differently so that we can optimise therapies. Inducing a personalized immune response against the patient’s own tumor with an off-the shelf product is a highly innovative approach that’s aligned with what’s needed in clinical practice. This kind of innovation is not easy which is why the next chapter is so important.

Chapter Three: Learning is not good enough.

You need to want to learn and willingly exist outside of your comfort zone. We’ve developed an empowering, learning culture where mindsets aren’t restricted by the processes and systems that larger corporates rely on. That’s down to trust. People need to feel trusted. To explore, question, disagree, to be honest with each other. At Candel, nothing is a crazy idea. Every molecule is potentially transformative. As truth-seekers, we constantly intellectualise problems in a way that encourages ideas to be suggested and potentially shot down. Does it change the biology of the tumor? Could it have a clinical impact on patients’ lives?? Sometimes that means being comfortable with not yet having all the answers.

Chapter Four: You need courage.

It takes courage and perseverance to change a paradigm. People – especially in science – have strong beliefs that are difficult to change. But if, like me, you’re guided by the data, a tipping point always collapses that entrenched belief system. Leaders need to inspire teams to show that energetic persistence, so they feel that anything is possible and that failures, when they come, are steps closer to the goal. Once you know that something is possible, that there is an indication, you can begin to change that paradigm by constantly questioning. Encourage teams to think outside the box. Just because something has not worked in the past, it doesn’t mean it can’t in the future. Re-examine the data, revisit the science and don’t be limited in your thinking.

Chapter Five: Saying no can be a positive.

Radical decision-making is as much about when to say no as yes. If things aren’t going anywhere, you can’t let your biases guide you. Let the data lead you to the value-creating catalyst. I give people incentives to find the negative data so that we can de-risk earlier. So, every week I bluntly ask my team a series of questions: do you really believe it’s working, where is the data, how can we optimise, do we believe it can be transformative, what does the biomarker data tell us? Endless questions that force us to shift mindsets from research to development and back again. In big pharma, those two are often put together but practised separately – research and then development. But Candel’s culture enables everyone to switch between the two, so that we can understand the probability of success and focus on programmes that are more likely to be successful. Have the mindset flexibility to reconcile the different goals of medicine and market.

Chapter Six: Be patient and persistent.

This final lesson is perhaps the most personal. When things don’t go to plan you need patience. Academia has been impressed by our work for some time and yet I underestimated how long it would take for the market to be similarly excited. Part of the problem is that the world in which we operate can sometimes be one big echo chamber. No one has ever seen an example of a viral immunotherapy that really disrupts the treatment paradigm, so instead of looking at the data they look at each other and reconfirm stories that they’re used to telling and hearing. Changing those stories – those paradigm concepts – takes time. It’s not good enough to know that we are creating next-generation therapies, we have to tell that story with more conviction based on the data.

The best thing about having that explorer mindset, is that it never fades. In life, there are always new places to discover. In science, there are always new molecules, new treatments, new approaches. And as a leader there are always new learnings. Perhaps having such a mixed background has enabled me to see patient care, science, team-building and investment potential in a unique way. To try and explore new ways of doing things, to not be afraid of getting out of that comfort zone.

I joined this company because of two molecules that have the potential to become transformative medicines that will improve survival, with a good quality of life. And I joined knowing that everything fails until someone works out how to do it.

Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing more stories about how we put different building blocks together to set ourselves up for success, and I’d love to hear your feedback.