CEO Jean-François Brepson on Scaling a CRO, and Selling to Charles River | E59 [Sponsored]

Founded in 2010, the Institut Pasteur spinout PathoQuest sold to top CRO Charles River for $70M this year, a product of years of collaboration and stepwise investments.Jean‑François tells us how the exit unfolded, as well as the importance of biosafety and CMC as pharma and biotech outsource heavily and cell and gene therapies mature. We also cover how animal testing is disappearing from CMC and how France must nurture its biotech ecosystem.

---For transparency, this episode has been sponsored by PathoQuest.---

⭐️ ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jean-François has more than 20 years of pharma leadership under his belt. Before his ten years at PathoQuest, he was a Senior Vice-President in charge of Ipsen’s GI-oncology and endocrinology franchise.He has an engineering degree and a master’s degree in Foreign Trade.

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED

• CRL acquires PathoQuest (2026) — https://pathoquest.com/press-release-pathoquest-to-join-charles-river-laboratories-2/
• Werner Lanthaler 🇦🇹 | Biopharma AI, CDMO, Antibody Optimization | E48 — https://flot.bio/episode/werner-lanthaler-biopharma-ai/
• Charles River Laboratories and PathoQuest Expand Strategic Biologics Partnership (2018) — https://ir.criver.com/news-releases/news-release-details/charles-river-laboratories-and-pathoquest-expand-strategic
• Charles River and PathoQuest validate viral safety assay (2023) — https://ir.criver.com/news-releases/news-release-details/charles-river-and-pathoquest-announce-publication-head-head
• Philipp Baaske, NanoTemper 🇩🇪 | Bootstrapping in Biotech | E29 — https://flot.bio/episode/philipp-baaske-nanotemper-boostrapping-biotech/
• Solexa acquisition by Illumina (2007) — https://investor.illumina.com/news/press-release-details/2006/Illumina-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Solexa/default.aspx
• PathoQuest US lab opens in Wayne, PA (2022) — https://pathoquest.com/pathoquest-announce-the-opening-of-its-new-u-s-facility/
• Thomas Ybert, DNA Script 🇫🇷 | DNA Printing & Synthesis | E27 — https://flot.bio/episode/thomas-ybert-dna-script-dna-printing/
• Pascal Touchon 🇫🇷 | Cell Therapy, Jeito, Kymriah | E49 — https://flot.bio/episode/pascal-touchon-jeito/
• First FDA-approved CAR-T — https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-receives-first-ever-fda-approval-car-t-cell-therapy-kymriahtm-ctl019-children-and-young-adults-b-cell-all-refractory-or-has-relapsed-least-twice
• Marc de Garidel, Abivax 🇫🇷 | Ulcerative Colitis, Inflammation | E46— https://flot.bio/episode/marc-de-garidel-abivax-ulcerative-colitis-inflammation/

📜 TRANSCRIPT

Read the full transcript here: https://flot.bio/episode/jean-francois-brepson-pathoquest-cmc/

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⏰ TIMESTAMPS

• [00:00:00] Intro
• [00:02:06] Big Pharma Is Heavily Outsourcing
• [00:07:05] The $70M Charles River Acquisition
• [00:11:18] CROs, PE and WuXI
• [00:18:35] Biosafety with the "Intel Inside" Model 
• [00:23:50] Replacing CMC Animal Testing: How the FDA Is Boosting Business 
• [00:32:00] Lessons from US Expansion
• [00:38:02] Biologics, Cell Therapy, and $15B of In Vivo CAR-T Bets 
• [00:42:59] Jean-François Brepson: From Siberia to Startup CEO
• [00:56:14] Quick-Fire: Animal Testing, AI, China, Elon Musk