Drug development rarely happens in isolation. Bringing a promising therapeutic from early research toward the clinic requires specialized expertise, thoughtful planning and the ability to translate complex data from multiple sources into decisions that move a technology forward.
That thinking is behind a new consulting collaboration between Lovelace Biomedical and Matt Reed, PhD, an independent pharmacology and board-certified toxicology consultant with more than 25 years of experience in respiratory drug development. The relationship brings an independent scientific and regulatory perspective in step with Lovelace’s scientific and operational capabilities to create additional value for sponsors.
We spoke with Dr. Reed about his background, what excites him about the collaboration and the challenges and opportunities facing respiratory drug developers today.
You’ve spent more than 25 years working across respiratory drug delivery and development. How would you describe the expertise and perspective you bring to a drug development program?
Matt Reed: I’m a pharmacologist and toxicologist by training and have been working in respiratory drug development, respiratory hazard assessment, and translational biology for over 25 years. I started this journey at Texas A&M where I earned my undergraduate and PhD degrees, followed by postdoctoral work in cancer biology and toxicology at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of New Mexico. I then moved to Alcon Research Ltd and later to Lovelace, for nearly 20 years, where I served as Director of Preclinical Drug Development and Vice President for Applied Toxicology.
Today, as an independent consultant and CSO, I work with pharmaceutical and biotech companies across a range of technologies, primarily in the respiratory drug delivery space. A big part of my work is translation: How do we take what we’re seeing in in vitro and disease models and understand what it could mean for people? What does an effective dose look like in a model system and how do we translate that to potential shots on goal patients? What are the potential hazards? Is there a therapeutic window that gives us a reasonable opportunity to achieve efficacy safely?
It’s about connecting early research, safety assessment and clinical development so sponsors can make informed decisions as they move toward first-in-human studies and, ultimately, drug approval.
You have a long history with Lovelace. What made this an interesting time to collaborate in a new capacity?
Reed: My history with Lovelace absolutely played a role. Although it has been almost a decade, having been part of the organization, I know firsthand the depth of its scientific expertise, its capabilities and the people behind the work. I’ve maintained strong relationships there over the years, so there was already a foundation of trust and mutual respect.
Plus, I’m still based in New Mexico, and Lovelace is one of the laboratories my clients use for translational biology, hazard assessment and therapeutic-window development. So it’s exciting to explore how we can work together. When my expertise, Lovelace’s capabilities and a sponsor’s needs align, we can bring those pieces together to create program value for the client.
What have you learned from working across so many different programs that you’re excited to bring to this collaboration?
Reed: One of the things I enjoy most about consulting is the breadth of technologies and challenges that you encounter. I’ve worked with more than 100 clients, and there is always something new—a new technology, scientific question or development challenge.
Inhalation and intranasal delivery in particular are challenging areas. It’s a specialized area of drug development, whether you’re treating disease locally in the lung or using the respiratory tract to deliver a therapy systemically. I hope to bring value to others by bringing decades of experience to those questions.
The translational biology piece is especially exciting to me. What does an efficacious or toxic dose in an animal model or in vitro actually mean when you start thinking about a human respiratory dose? That can be something of a black box. Bringing together the client, an experienced contract laboratory and independent consulting expertise allows us to work through those questions collectively and iteratively.
Where do you see yourself adding the most value for clients?
Reed: It starts with asking the right questions and designing work that creates real value. Drug development is expensive, and sponsors need the information that will help them understand whether they have a viable path forward to make the next decision. The goal is to generate meaningful data efficiently and ultimately move promising drugs toward patients.
Sometimes that also means helping a client recognize when the data aren’t supporting the outcome everyone hoped for. Drug development has a “fast fail” component, but that can be difficult when people are understandably invested in a technology succeeding. There’s an ethical responsibility to look objectively at the data and communicate clearly what it’s telling us—even when it isn’t the answer a what we or the client hoped to hear.
That’s an area where Lovelace and the contract industry as a whole are very much aligned. We believe in delivering those answers transparently, thoughtfully and ethically, with the ultimate patient and client’s best interests at the center. Combining that commitment with my independent strategic perspective and Lovelace’s scientific and operational capabilities can help sponsors make well-informed decisions about the best path forward.
Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities—and challenges—in respiratory and inhaled drug development?
Reed: I think one of the biggest opportunities is how much real potential still exists in the respiratory space. Inhalation and intranasal are specialized delivery routes, and they can be challenging, but for certain diseases and indications, it’s the right way to get the drug to the patient. There’s tremendous science happening in this arena, and we’re continuing to expand our understanding of what respiratory delivery can achieve and where it can have the most impact.
One challenge is that people outside of the field don’t always fully understand that potential. We need successes—programs advancing, therapies reaching patients and approvals that demonstrate what’s possible. Those wins build confidence and excitement around respiratory drug development in general.
Funding is always a big part of that equation, particularly for smaller biotech companies. Drug development is a long game, while companies often work within much shorter funding and time horizons. That makes it even more important to ask the right scientific questions, generate meaningful data value inflections and make good scientifically sound and ethical decisions along the way.
That’s where the combination of my background and experience and Lovelace’s experience and capabilities can be particularly valuable. Lovelace brings decades of specialized respiratory expertise and the ability to execute complex studies, while I bring an independent perspective shaped by working across many technologies and development programs in a different way. Together, those perspectives can help sponsors navigate complexity, understand what their data are telling them, and keep promising programs moving in the right direction.