We dive into BIAL’s meteoric journey from a small pharmacy in Porto to Portugal’s biggest biopharma company, all while still being 100% family owned. We cover BIAL’s pipeline, including treatments for epilepsy and Parkinson’s, and why BIAL’s multigenerational leadership story is nowhere as dramatic as HBO’s “Succession.”

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This episode is brought to you by Avance Life Sciences, Europe’s leading financial advisory firm dedicated exclusively to life sciences. For over 20 years, Avance has helped biotech and pharma companies raise capital, close deals, and value assets with precision. Learn more at https://bit.ly/flot-avance.

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⭐️ ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Prior to leading BIAL, António worked at Roche in the UK as a Medical Sales Representative and a Market Analyst. While he worked at Roche, he also launched a Hepatitis C drug. António holds a degree in Economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto and an Executive MBA from the Porto Business School.

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED

• BIAL’s website — https://www.bial.com/en
• BIAL 2024 financials — https://downloads.ctfassets.net/oyx9uzi3vj2y/XTmSUhXd7ggVEnpJLx0Ch/7a22a851246d910c517e064fca4b6968/Consolidated_Management_Report_BIAL_Holding_2024.pdf
• BIAL launches KYNMOBI in Portugal and Spain — https://bial.com/en/media/news/bial-launches-kynmobi-in-portugal-and-spain
• Succession TV show — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660850/
• BIO-Europe Spring — https://informaconnect.com/bioeurope-spring/

Transcript

[00:00:00] Intro

Philip Hemme: You are a hundred years old, but you reach over 300 million revenues and you’re still a hundred percent family owned, which is quite rare in Europe or even globally. 

António Portela: We don’t have the complexities of management shareholders in the company today. Until now, we haven’t felt the need to open up the equity of the of the company.

Philip Hemme: I don’t know who has watched the TV show. Succession sounds less traumatic than that. 

António Portela: We do have our own things, but definitely a lot less dramatic than that. It would be a boring Netflix. A 

Philip Hemme: boring. What’s the most common misconception that industry leaders have about the hour? 

António Portela: I think because we come out of a country that is not known for innovation, they don’t realize how much good innovation and how much value added our projects have.

Philip Hemme: This episode is brought to you by Advance Life Sciences. Europe’s leading financial advisory firm focused exclusively on life sciences for over 20 years. Advance has helped biotech and pharma companies raise capital close deals and value assets with precision from fundraising to out licensing. They connect you with the right partners to move your science forward.

Learn more by clicking on the link in the description below.

You have to a new episode. I am the host and the founder of Flood Bio of the Flood Bio Show, which is Europe’s leading biotech podcast. This episode is a bit special ’cause we, we are on stage it’s actually the third time we do it in partnership was by Europe, which is pretty cool. And today we’re talking about largest biopharma in Portugal has around 900 employees. And I’m very excited to have a, to have Antonio on stage. Actually, I didn’t know him personally, but I heard many great things about you. It’s cool. And just as we are live, a quick format thing I will open up to questions. We have some mics going around.

So please don’t be too shy and we can make it interactive. Please give a round realm of applause for, Antonio. Please turn me on stage.

António Portela: Thank you for the invitation, Philipp. Yeah, welcome. It’s good to be here. We here with you. Welcome from, welcome to Lisbon. From Porto. Yep. 

[00:02:31] BIAL’s humble beginnings

Philip Hemme: Alright, so I wanna start with with VR itself. There’s, quite a few things that impressed me. But one of the things that, yeah. A hundred years old.

But you reach over 300 million in rev revenues and you’re still a hundred percent family owned which is quite rare in, Europe or even globally. So can you gimme a and give us a quick like story from a hundred years to today? 

António Portela: Yeah. Yeah, I can. The, co the company’s actually turned a hundred years in nine, in, in 2024.

So it was founded by my great-grandfather in 1924. My father led my grand great-grandfather led the company for about. 40 years, and he was the one that started the business from a small pharmacy in the, center of portal that still exists today. And ended up developing, creating a pharma company out of it.

And I, think that was normal at the at, the times there. He was very innovative. He was very into today we’d call him, call, we would call him a big entrepreneur. As he tried to bring new products that would add bene had benefits, he was very good at marketing and sales.

So the company developed quite well during, his tenure. Then he moved to, my grandfather. He only run the company for about 10 years, and as he died relatively young, and his mark in the company was he brought industrialization to the company. He brought machineries that in terms of the manufacturing a lot of efficiencies.

He, he’s a pharmacist, so he, understood a little bit, better, and the company progressed in that sense, a lot. During his tenure, during the seventies, the company went through a very difficult period. When my grandfather died his, four children were very young at the time, couple of them still teenagers.

And my father actually wanted to be a medical doctor and a researcher was not very keen in actually moving to, to work in the company. But ended up after a lot of ups and downs, ended up acquiring the a hundred percent of the company to himself. Left his medical and research career and dedicated himself to, the business.

This was 78. He was 27 years old. He dedicated the next 10 years so during the eighties in terms of solidifying the business in Portugal. A lot of it about in-licensing drugs from pharma com, big pharma from different parts of the world for US, Japan and building our business in port.

Where we started to become a very solid company. In the nineties he started doing r and d. So he started the r and d project. And we do both research and development. We have about 150 people in research and development today. And and these team over the last 30 years has been able to bring two two innovative drugs to the market.

One for epilepsy and the other one for Parkinson’s disease. That helped. Transform the company into become an international company. And we’ve opened now affiliates in all, almost all western European countries where we’re very focused in in neuroscience. 

Philip Hemme: Ah, good. We’ll talk about the, portfolio and the pipeline in just a bit.

[00:05:59] Behind the scenes of the Portela family

Philip Hemme: But one thing, and we talked last week also for preparing this this, chat this, that being still a hundred percent family owned is actually there, there’s a few others in Europe. But, some of them are not a hundred percent. You have a foundation like, like Novo, like a few, some that are majority family owned.

Like Inger, Yeah. Vo yeah. Quite a few. But in your case and what I heard also is that the succession is not necessarily easy. So can you talk about, that part? 

António Portela: Yeah. I think our, so I think in that sense, we’re a little bit different from other companies. Because my father, although being third generation, he acquired all the rights.

So he basically became a hundred percent again. So we don’t have the complexities of many different shareholders in the company today, like other European companies that that we all know have. And our preference until now has been to keep it a hundred percent within, the family, although yeah it is it’s, interesting to see how the the succession is made and if, and if you look at other companies and obviously.

We look at other companies, what they’re doing and how successful they are in terms of succession, in terms of opening up the capital to external still keeping majority, but opening up, which allows them to accelerate. Yeah some growth. In our case until now we haven’t felt the need to open up the equity of the of the company.

Philip Hemme: Is that an option for later or. 

António Portela: It has been an option until now. I think what I would say it does depend on the projects and how much growth we wanna put if there was something transformational. That could help the company, maybe we would consider that. So it’s not that we’re close to it.

Yeah. We would have to have the right incentive to, to to actually do it. And the succession. Yeah. It’s, interesting because these, things are never easy in terms of succession. And what is family? It’s family. It’s always I think it’s always a bit more complex because you.

You can’t really separate things from your the professional part and the personal part. Yeah. And so I’ve been CEO for the last 15 years. So my, my, my father actually stepped down from the executive role and became chairman 15 years ago. And, but obviously he’s run the company for many years.

So he was very involved with the company and I understand it’s difficult for him to let go. And it’s difficult to accept that they might, I have different views. And then the executive team has different views. And we don’t always agree with with with everything.

We, do clash from time to time, but I think what is important is at the end of the day that we have a common goal and a common share. And this is between my father and myself, but also my, my, my brother and sister. So that we can, we have one goal and, a common goal in terms of where we wanna bring the company.

Then we need to adjust the better way to get there. 

Philip Hemme: That’s good. Yeah, because when I hear succession, I don’t know. Who has watched the movie, the TV show Successions, but sounds less dramatic than that. 

António Portela: I think. I think we do have our own things, but definitely a lot less dramatic than that. It would be a boring Netflix dude.

Philip Hemme: Boring it. Perfect. And what I heard also what struck me is that initially you actually, you were not sure if you wanted to go into pharma, into the, pharmacist. What’s, what led you what led you to, actually begin? 

António Portela: I think that’s, an interesting point. ’cause I think when there’s not that many family business, family, pharmaceutical business in in Europe and.

We tend to know each other quite well. And and the models that the some of them have some of them allow all family members to get in. Some of them is strictly forbidden for ma family members to participate in the business. They are shareholders, but you can’t actually participate in the business.

And I think with us my father was always very keen in preparing us. Me and my brother and sister very well in terms of for what we wanted to do independently of us being the company. I think when I look back now, it was clear that he wanted at least one of us to join the company, but he never forced us.

He never he, was never very and I was. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna the fam, the family business. I was always a little bit afraid of being the son of the owner in the company. So I ended up deciding to go and work for a different company.

I applied for a few jobs. I ended up working for Roche in the uk. And I started my career as a sales rep, which, which was quite interesting. And, I had a, few other positions in Roche which, which led me to understand that. I like the industry and what we do in pharma is really has today we talk a lot about purpose.

And even not, ’cause that wasn’t the very si science was not my the thing that I liked a lot. I was much more into management, into, numbers and that, that was much more what I liked. But what I understood was that what we do in the industry really touches people’s lives and you need a bunch of people with different capacities and competencies to actually make things happen.

So it was, a great experience, was a great personal experience, but also a great professional experience working for Roche. No one knew who I was there, so it was was interesting for me to, have that experience without having the pressure. And then I came to bi and, for me, I felt a lot more comfortable joining because first I brought some added value to the company, but also because I understood what we were trying to achieve.

And it was definitely good to bring that, to, to, to bal. So I really enjoy what I do and I think we, touch millions of people’s lives in a very nice way. 

[00:12:45] A CNS innovator pipeline

Philip Hemme: Yeah. Cool. Maybe we’ll touch a bit more on, on some more personal question at the end, but I want a good transition to more biopharma innovation.

I think what you’ve seen also at Rush, you told me you, you launched some of the like ecology products, which were like really groundbreaking. And what’s interesting with, BI is that now I think 50% of the revenues roughly are from innovative drugs versus the more historical business that you mentioned.

Can you go a bit more details into, these drugs? It’s in CNS and a bit of the dynamic as well there. 

António Portela: Yeah. So, we have in terms of research and development, we focused on neuroscience and also rare diseases, but rare still very much focused on neuro as well. And, we’ve developed one drug for epilepsy and one for Parkinson’s disease which we commercialize ourselves in Europe.

And we partner for the rest of the world. Us, Canada, Latin America, and then Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Australia. We have partners in those, regions. So our competencies and our capabilities are within neuro today. And that’s where we’re building our name in in, what we, in, in what we have to do.

So The The expansion of the company has been growing out of the innovation. I think, it’s very clear for everybody in the organization that without the innovation, we would not be where we are today, or we would’ve been a very, we would’ve been a very small company, or we would’ve probably already been sold to someone else or a insignificant player in the market.

So innovation has brought us to where we are today. And definitely our future goes through innovation. Not only internal innovation, ’cause obviously we are today, we’re looking at external innovation and a couple of projects in our pipeline today are external projects, not only internal.

Even that has been evolving in, in, in how we collaborate the size of the company that we are, partnering for us is, I was telling you earlier since the eighties we’ve been partnering in terms of in-licensing, we have some partnerships that go back to the eighties today still.

And 20, 30 years partnerships with some companies on licensings on r and d. The whole partnering is quite key for us in terms of the in and the outbound of, drugs for us. 

Philip Hemme: Yeah. And I saw your, partnering team here, so 

António Portela: yeah. 

Philip Hemme: On those, we’re curious. You can reach out.

António Portela: I have a few. A few. I probably have all of my partnering team here

Philip Hemme: and on the drug itself from understanding as well. You, so one in epilepsy, one in Parkinson. The epilepsy one is also the, patents are expiring. Yeah. You’ve got some generics. I think the sales are. Quite dropping there. 

António Portela: That was an experience that we had ne we had not had before, which is when, a product goes off patent it’s a real challenge because you lose a significant part of business.

So we probably lost about a third of our business over the last five years which we had to compensate with with a new one and with other products as well. 

Philip Hemme: But your other product is growing strongly. I guess it, it covered for 

António Portela: Yeah it’s covering. But and we are very hopeful is in the pipeline that we have in terms of the future.

So we’ve, we, I think we’re starting to have a very solid early stage pipeline with with some drugs in pd targeting, disease modification on, on, on pd, but also in rare diseases. We’ve got a couple of projects in rare epilepsies, rare pediatric epilepsies. And the most advanced project that we have is a is a, a, drug that is finalizing phase two B. Yeah. For a specific type of PD patients that carry a gene mutation called GBA one which, is quite there’s about 10 to 12% of PD patients that carry these gene mutation. And if you if you’re unfortunately to carry it you’re more likely to develop much earlier.

So in your thirties, early forties. And the disease progresses two to four times faster. So the prognosis is not very good for these type of patients. And what we’re trying to show with our drug in this phase two which is a very large phase two study in terms of patients, but also in terms of durations, an 18 month study, we’re trying to show some disease modification, which is something that no drug has ever showed in pv.

Philip Hemme: I think if you read out soon as well. 

António Portela: Yeah. We should, over the next two or three months, we should have the results of that. Fingers crossed. We have a lot of people, namely the PD community. We have a lot of people that write or tell us we’re really eager to learn about what’s happening with with your drug.

Philip Hemme: I can imagine. And the but and the rest of the pipeline then it’s, earlier stages. 

António Portela: Yeah we have one other product in, pd and that has actually started phase one last year. But everything else is is still in early stage. So we have about six or seven projects in in the earliest stage of, development.

And we’re looking to complement when we look at the, our late the development part, we’re looking to complement our, pipeline with partnering. We did partner we, launched a drug that we partnered also for PD in Europe. Sublingual form of apomorphine that we partnered with a US company.

So we acquired the, European Rights for, Europe. And we’ve launched that drug already in five countries now over the last 18 months. 

[00:18:42] From small molecules to biologics

Philip Hemme: Okay. I have a last question and then I will open up for questions. On terms of technology you’re doing mostly small molecules. Yes. Which makes sense for CNS.

But I think recently in, in this space you have quite a lot of, like more biological as well forcing the brain blood barrier with some antibodies. Are you looking into this as well? Are you agnostic or are you your preferences there or 

António Portela: Our competencies until today are in small molecule.

But over the last three years, namely, because we’ve all started targeting rare diseases, we’ve also looked at others. So we’re our most advanced. Project in rare diseases is a gene therapy. 

Philip Hemme: Yeah. 

António Portela: So we are our steep we, have a steep learning curve in terms of gene therapies right now and trying to understand how that is done.

But we’re not only close to small molecules, so we’re looking at a gene therapy also at Azos as well in terms of developing some rare yeah. Okay. Projects. 

Philip Hemme: Yeah, because I can you, talk a bit about gene therapy for cns because I think it’s, there’s some really good results also recently.

António Portela: Yeah there’s been a number of failures, but there’s also some, been some very interesting results in some very dramatic diseases. And we, have been we’re still learning in that space because the. Since we started our r and d project we were focused on neuro and cardiovascular.

Yeah. And only five years ago we did a big strategic overview. And we, so we step aside from cardiovascular, which we never we never had any success there. And we, and one area that we thought with the knowledge and with the competencies that we have in neuro, that we could go looking to rare neuro.

Starting with Rare Neuro, then potentially evolving within rare, because there’s so much unmet need in rare. And a company like us which is a smaller company could target something that for big pharma is not interesting because it’s too small. But for us it might be interesting already to develop and patients need that.

Yeah. So we have been focusing also but it’s something that is recent three, four years that we’ve been investing in this area. So it’s been a learning process for us on the rare side. 

Audience: Awesome. 

Philip Hemme: If anyone has questions, we can just raise your hand and we have some mics passing on the question there.

[00:21:17] Sourcing Portuguese talent from overseas

Audience: Hi my name is yo, I’m the head of technology transfer att the University of ra. Thank you very much for your presentation. Bial is currently the only Portuguese company that has two products on the market with a Portuguese stamp. So I’ll say, or challenge you to say, what were the lessons learned to inspire us to have better products with added value With the Portuguese.

And thank you 

António Portela: tha thank you the Yoko for, the comments. I think I would love for other companies in Portugal to have to bring more, products because I think we do have, in Portugal a very interesting ecosystem. I think we do train people very well.

But it’s unfortunate that we haven’t break that barrier more in terms of developing new drugs. I think one of, one of the things that, or a few things that are key. Some of things are persistent and resilience in, in getting these things done. But the other thing is how what exact is the focus that we put on putting, getting a project through identifying value, getting the finance for it.

That, that was one of the big advantages that we had. Obviously the times were different, I think. Financing and money today exists more, not a lot in Portugal, but more we, as we, because we had the commercial side, we could finance our own projects and that helped bring, them forward.

And I think the people you know behind it we have very good we have very good scientists in Portugal. But also we have very good si Portuguese scientists that have gone abroad and have huge experiences today. I was, actually I had a few months ago I gave a lecture and I had to talk about people and, the competencies that we have in Portugal.

And I asked my HR team for one thing that I was really surprised over the last three or four years we recruited in Bial. I think it was 12 Portuguese that were working abroad, so we went to pick people that actually left the country. Because one of the things I, think we, train people very well in Portugal in, in life sciences and healthcare.

But then because we don’t have, the industry is difficult for people how do we develop a drug if there’s no experience? But we have a lot of people today that actually went abroad and know how to do that. The question is how can we bring them back to incentivize them and to, bring a project forward.

And there are a lot of people with very good experiences today. 

Philip Hemme: Go for it. Yeah. Hold on 

[00:24:14] Manufacturing critical for gene therapy

Audience: another question. So we are trying to cover the innovation cycle on gene therapies. And so my question is, what were the lessons learned while developing or trying to launch gene therapies into the market?

António Portela: We’re still learning. But there’s a number of interesting things that we are one thing, for example, manufacturing is a lot more critical in gene therapy than small molecules. I think that was one of the learnings that we immediately understood.

It’s much more complex. You need a lot more understanding of the process and you need to start much earlier in terms of the manufac manufacturing. The other thing that I think in rare diseases and probably these are the two things that for me, stuck out a lot more. Is you need to involve the patient community a lot more.

For example, one thing is Parkinson, and we work we, work with the patient community in the different countries with Parkinson, Europe, but in rare diseases, you, we really need to understand what the patients, are going through, where the patients are, because sometimes we think, oh, the rare disease, focus on a certain area. So it’s a rare, I’ll give you an example. In our rare epilepsies, we thought the problem is the seizures. Yes, these kids have 150 or 200 seizures a day, but apart from that, they have autism, they have very bad behavior. So they have a number of other problems that are more important than the seizures.

Because for the seizures, we already have epilepsy drugs that we can. Control them better. The rest we don’t. So we, really need to understand and get involved with the patient community to, really grasp what’s underneath that we can help with with those patients.

Audience: You 

[00:26:21] António Portela’s dynamic leadership

Philip Hemme: Alright, so finish one question, then we’ll do a quick five. Quick question, quick answer on the personal side, there’s one thing I wanted to ask is I feel like you I, like your more your, leadership style. I feel like you’re a bit more, let’s say, dynamic modern compared to most other farmer or your other farmer peers.

Is it intentional? Is it 

António Portela: that’s a very nice compliment. Thank you. I think we, are, a we’re a small company and I think and Small in the in, in the big pond that is pharmaceuticals and biotech today we have to be very agile. We have to be very close.

And that’s I think one thing that we try to play the organization is that we, because we don’t have the resources and by resources the people, we don’t have the resources in terms of the funds that other have. We really need to work very close together.

So I think it’s, My leadership style, but also it’s, how I think that people should work in the organization. And I think it has to be one of the advantages that we have. 

Philip Hemme: Yes. Alright, so 

Audience: quick fire. So 

[00:27:38] Quick-fire questions

Philip Hemme: Quick, questions, quick quicker answer. One mistake you made in the past 12 months.

António Portela: One mistake I would probably, we haven’t prepared enough for rare diseases. We, I think we should have prepared much earlier. We’re finding out now that we, that there’s a number of things that we didn’t prepare on time. Yeah. 

Philip Hemme: And you prefer portal or lisbon’s portal.

Do you have a hair to replace you when the time is right? 

António Portela: No. Our. Our children are still too young, so the transition will have to go externally. 

Philip Hemme: Is it Okay? What’s the most common misconception that industry leaders have about bi?

António Portela: I think because we come out of a country that is not known for innovation they don’t realize how much good innovation and how much value added our products projects have. 

Philip Hemme: Yeah, But even if you have a track record or like a. 

António Portela: Even if we have a track record I think it’s sometimes we, sometimes we need to explain what what we’re doing.

Hope the podcast helps, I hope as well. 

Philip Hemme: Two last ones. One of your biotech heroes or mentors except to that, 

António Portela: fran Hoer, I think he was fantastic in what he did for Roche transformed the company when we went after Genentech and brought all that innovation from and well transformed Roche, but also transformed how the sector looked at.

So he’s he’s someone I really admire. 

Philip Hemme: Awesome. Last one one, a one advice to 40 years old Antonio.

António Portela: One advice to 40 years, Antonio. So if I look 10 years back, focus, I think as I think we’re trying to put a lot more focus, but if we had done this 10 years ago considering the resources that we have, sometimes we think you can plan in a view different things because you’re diversifying risk.

But we do need to have more focus. And this is one of the things that a company that has a hundred year legacy, sometimes the legacy doesn’t help you focus because you bring a lot of, things behind. So if I had one advice for Antonio 10 years ago would be focus more on the things that are gonna bring, value to you in the future.

Philip Hemme: Thanks a lot, Antonio. Great conversation. 

António Portela: Thank you, Philip, for having me.

Philip Hemme: I’m impressed by how Antonio grew the innovation part of the company and what lies ahead for Bial. I’m also impressed by how he took over the rain. Of the company and his calm, sharp personality. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please click on the follow or review button. Any of these action help a lot more people discover the podcast.

Feel free to check out our channel where we have many more similar videos. I would also love to hear what you think, so if you could leave a comment wherever you are or shoot me an email@philipatflos.bio. Alright, thanks for staying to the end and see you next episode.