After leaving a distinguished academic career for the biotech world, Dr. Paul Peter Tak’s story challenges the idea that industry and academia are on opposite sides.

‘’How is it on the dark side?’’, Paul Peter Tak’s former academic colleagues would ask him at medical conferences after he moved to industry. His response addressed the core of a long-standing cultural divide in the biotech industry. ‘’I would respond in the following way: ‘I was just going to ask you: how is it on your dark side? How often do you talk about integrity, transparency, and patient focus rather than who the last author is or who got the biggest grant?’ There should always be scrutiny about the key goals, behaviours, and cultural values – both in academia and in the biopharmaceutical industry.’’

His perspective is shaped by an unusual career path. Paul Peter Tak had reached the pinnacle of academic medicine in rheumatology. He held positions such as Professor of Medicine and founding Chair of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, served on a large variety of editorial boards, research committees, and international organisations and received an award from a previous Dutch Minister of Health for being the country’s best rheumatologist, among many scientific awards. So, when he announced his departure for GlaxoSmithKline at the height of his influence in academic rheumatology, it came as a shock to many.

Years later, however, Dr. Tak is the CEO of Nasdaq-listed Candel Therapeutics, which has potential breakthrough therapies in late-stage trials. He represents something increasingly valuable in biotech: a leader who has successfully navigated both worlds and can explain why the industry's mission of developing transformative medicines requires embracing, rather than rejecting, commercial realities. ‘’I have a particular sense of purpose when it comes to working in medicine. I know I'm a decent scientist, and I feel responsible for using my talent to develop medicines that could improve patients' lives.’’

Building blocks

Paul Peter Tak admits that, as a teenager in the Netherlands, he was not very interested in school during the early years of secondary education. ‘’I was focused on many other things, ranging from my little greenhouse and my chemistry set, which I used for experiments, to my electronics kit. I did lots of things outside of school. I found school quite boring, so I wasn't initially very driven to perform well. But over time, I realised that you need to study and learn a few things occasionally. That's when I became much more ambitious.’’

He chose to study medicine at the Free University of the Amsterdam University Medical Centre due to personal adversity. ‘’But then, at the end of secondary school, I fell seriously ill, due to an infection I caught in Spain, for several months. I had to return to the Netherlands in a wheelchair. I was amazed that every doctor I saw gave a different diagnosis and recommended a different therapy. I had this somewhat naïve idea that there must be a better way of doing things. During my several months of recovery, I decided to study medicine to become a good clinician. It was as simple as that.’’

During his early medical studies, Dr. Tak worked part-time as a teaching assistant in the Division of Medical Ethics and Philosophy. ‘’Spending almost as much time on philosophy as on medicine shaped my mindset and encouraged me to always focus on doing the right thing. At the same time, I asked myself: What are we trying to achieve, and how? What are the underlying principles of our thinking in medicine and science? I believe this experience enabled me to reflect on a deeper level.’’

‘’Thus, I became a physician with a keen interest in philosophy’’, Paul Peter Tak continues. When the time came to choose a specialty, his interests steered him away from surgery and towards what he considered to be a more intellectual medical specialty. ‘’So I decided to become an academic specialist in internal medicine. Ultimately, I started a PhD programme under the supervision of Professor Ferry Breedveld, the head of the Rheumatology Department at the Leiden University Medical Centre. After that, based on exciting developments in the field, I decided to also train in rheumatology.’’

I had this somewhat naïve idea that there must be a better way of doing things. During my several months of recovery, I decided to study medicine to become a good clinician. It was as simple as that.

Transition from academia to industry

In 2011, Paul Peter Tak moved from academia to large pharma by joining GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He worked there until 2018, serving as Senior Vice President, Chief Immunology Officer, and Global Development Leader. For Dr. Tak, improving patients’ lives has always been his guiding principle. ‘’When I joined the pharmaceutical industry, I thought I might potentially be able to impact millions of people by developing medicines that address their significant unmet needs rather than only treating individual patients. The same could be achieved in biotech, but at a faster pace.’’

The second principle is that Paul Peter Tak managed and led his academic department at the Academic Medical Centre as though it were a business or professional organisation – with clear strategy, measurable goals, accountability, and a focus on delivering impact. ‘’I gave a lot of thought to the optimal leadership principles required to make this a success. When I joined, I was almost alone and developed the Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology Department into a leading organisation. By the time I left, we had around 140 full-time equivalents, including my own biotech company, which was spun out from my academic department. I have subsequently used the same principles that made us successful to build strong business units in large pharma and biotech.’’

When I joined the pharmaceutical industry, I thought I might potentially be able to impact millions of people by developing medicines that address their significant unmet needs rather than only treating individual patients. The same could be achieved in biotech, but at a faster pace.

Making the difficult but necessary decisions

Paul Peter Tak’s relentless focus on making difficult decisions to advance the most promising programmes is illustrated by his decision to terminate a phase 3 ready programme. ‘’It was promising, but I was not sure it was transformative compared to our other programmes. I'm only interested in developing medicines that can fundamentally alter patient outcomes. This is also important from a commercial perspective, because such revolutionary therapies are more likely to sell themselves.’’ One example that he observed first hand was the introduction of TNF blockers in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. ‘’At the time, the Leiden University Medical Centre participated in the first randomised controlled clinical trial with the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London. Even though the trial was still placebo-controlled, we observed improvements that had never been seen before. Some people in wheelchairs were able to walk again. That's what you need to aim for.’’

Another example of this approach comes from Candel Therapeutics. One of the assets in its pipeline, CAN-2409, is a viral immunotherapy based on the adenovirus platform. ‘’It is a form of in situ immunisation, whereby the patient's own immune cells are trained to recognise the tumour. We have achieved significant success in our phase 3 clinical trial in newly diagnosed, localised prostate cancer. We have also observed very encouraging effects in therapy-resistant non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. We observed doubling of expected median overall survival in lunger cancer, and markedly improved survival in borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. Our second investigational medicine, CAN-3110, has also shown very encouraging survival data supported by extensive biomarker research in recurrent glioblastoma, as published in Nature.’’

Despite the clinical and biomarker activity of CAN-2409 in newly diagnosed glioblastoma, as recently published in Neuro-Oncology, Dr. Tak decided to terminate the phase 3 programme of CAN-2409 in glioblastoma in the context of rigorous portfolio prioritisation. Extensive stakeholder management was required for the decision. He describes his conversations with academic experts and board members. ‘’I had to explain the decision whilst we have positive, but not necessarily transformative data. I remember talking to an academic key expert. After some back-and-forth, he said, ‘I need to commend you because you are actually making the right decision here. You have convinced me that, based on the data, this is probably not going to be paradigm-shifting in this indication’. I believe we made the right decision, because we want to have a relentless focus on delivering our investigational medicines for the indications where they can have the greatest impact.’’

I'm only interested in developing medicines that can fundamentally alter patient outcomes.

The voice of the patient

The idea behind Paul Peter Tak's approach to drug development can be easily understood on an intuitive level: patients understand their own needs often better than the healthcare professionals who treat them. Refined through decades of clinical practice, this insight challenges the traditional approach to endpoint selection and trial design. ‘’I would argue that patients are often more open to innovation than scientists and physicians. Why? Because they live with the disease. They know how big an impact it has on their lives. They also understand the type of medical procedures they consider acceptable if it helps to live longer with a good quality of life. Therefore, I want to work with patients, advocacy groups and patient organisations.’’

An example of a new therapeutic strategy is Candel’s intratumoral approach. Intra-tissue injection is a proven method of in situ immunisation, which is leveraged to induce systemic anti-tumour immunity following CAN-2409 administration. For example, patients with localised prostate cancer receive three intra-prostatic administrations with the aim of improving disease-free survival. The procedure takes around 20 minutes in an outpatient setting and is generally well tolerated, as shown by patient surveys. According to Dr. Tak, it is also important to choose primary endpoints in clinical trials that matter to patients. In immuno-oncology, where tumour cells may be replaced by immune cells, sometimes leading to ‘pseudo-progression’, it is critical to focus on disease-free survival or overall survival rather than imaging-based metrics. ‘’Again, this is about living longer with a good quality of life, not about merely improving CT scans.’’

Paul Peter Tak provides an example of such a patient-focused approach. ‘’Our lead investigational medicine for newly diagnosed, localised prostate cancer is used as a neoadjuvant therapy, and is given to patients who have already opted for radical treatment using radiotherapy. These patients accept the long-term side effects of standard of care radical therapy because they want to eradicate their tumour. Our phase 3 clinical trial, which included 745 patients, showed that adding CAN-2409 (timogen) significantly improves tumour eradication. While many oncologists, who typically treat patients with more advanced disease, focus on metastatic-free survival, we believe that our approach of aiming for disease-free survival in early disease – namely the absence of evidence of remaining or recurrent cancer – represents a higher hurdle and is more aligned with the patient’s desire to eliminate the tumour associated with cancer-related anxiety and fear of recurrence. This highlights the crucial role of the patient’s voice in driving innovation towards what truly matters to them: a potential cure.’’

In what way is leading in industry different?

‘’For some in academia, it feels rewarding to be the shining star on the big stage, with everyone coming to you for advice. In the biopharmaceutical industry, however, there is a stronger focus on collective efforts to advance the science while creating medicines that may improve patients’ lives. This works best when you’re able to leverage collective intelligence. When I recruit top academics into my organisations, we talk a lot about this. It's not about being the first or last author. It's not about being the principal investigator. It's about making the best possible decision as a team. Next, you must focus on operational excellence to drive the programme forward and achieve the best possible outcome. Those who transition successfully from academia into the biopharmaceutical industry are those who can put their ego aside. Compare it to top-level sports. It's not just about you getting the ball into the goal. It's about creating the best opportunities as a team and systematically increasing the probability of success.’’

How difficult was it to adapt to the transition to industry?

‘’It was an interesting time. When I decided to step down, I was a member of the Planning Committee of the American College of Rheumatology and the Executive Committee of EULAR (the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology) as well as of many editorial boards. We had a celebration after having co-organised another EULAR Annual Meeting, and that’s when I said: ‘I want to make an announcement. I have decided to step down from all my roles with immediate effect and I am going to join GlaxoSmithKline’.’’

‘’People may have thought we had run out of funding or perhaps they thought I had an imminent midlife crisis’’, Dr. Tak recounts the reactions to this announcement. ‘’But it was a deliberate decision to learn new things and potentially impact the lives of many patients on a whole different scale. After joining large pharma, I realised how many amazing scientists work in industry. It's a misconception that discoveries are made in academia and then just commercialised by pharma. Very often, the identification of a therapeutic target is the beginning of a long and complex scientific journey. I liked the scientific rigour, team spirit, and focus on developing medicines. I could use the same scientific and leadership principles that I had used in in academia but on an entirely different scale. That’s why I found the transition easier than I had anticipated.’’

Those who transition successfully from academia into the biopharmaceutical industry are those who can put their ego aside.

Resetting the company

Nearly five years after joining Candel Therapeutics, Tak's vision of drugs that may genuinely impact patients’ lives is becoming a reality. ‘’I joined Candel close to five years ago and basically reset the company. There were three building blocks. Firstly, there was a legacy company called Advantagene. Secondly, we licensed an asset from Brigham and Women's Hospital. Thirdly, we licensed intellectual property from another biotech company called Periphagen. I then brought in a new leadership team with decades of experience in drug discovery and development, and formally changed the company's name to Candel Therapeutics.’’

The transition required some bold decisions and swift action. ‘’In the United States, you can move quickly, if needed. As mentioned, we prioritised the clinical portfolio. We also created a brand new discovery platform from scratch, called the enLIGHTENTM Discovery Platform, which has been very productive. After that, I took the company public on the Nasdaq. As the legacy programmes were still very much under the radar and we still had gaps in our understanding of the mechanism of action, this was not easy. Therefore, we skipped the typical crossover financing and went straight to market with an IPO. When I saw the clinical data in 2020, I thought it was like Aspirin in its early days. People knew it worked against headaches before they knew how. I thought that Candel’s viral immunotherapies worked and that we would be able to fill in the scientific gaps, as we did. Since then, we have published in high-impact journals such as Nature.’’

The strategy has paid off. ‘’At the end of last year, our pivotal phase 3 clinical trial of CAN-2409 (timagen) convincingly achieved its primary endpoint, in early, localised prostate cancer, supported by secondary endpoints. As agreed with the FDA, our focus is on disease-free survival, and we have a Special Protocol Assessment in place. Following the positive results, the FDA also recently granted CAN-2409 Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation, which provides all the benefits of Breakthrough Therapy designation and is intended to expedite the review of potentially life-saving treatments. Since then, we have also obtained positive phase 2A data from a small, randomised controlled clinical trial in pancreatic cancer. We observed a clear separation of the overall survival curves when comparing CAN-2409 plus standard of care to standard of care alone, a finding supported by biomarker data. Based on these results, we are preparing a potentially registrational randomised-controlled phase 2b/3 clinical trial of CAN-2409 in borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. We have received Fast Track and Orphan Designation from the FDA as well as Orphan Designation from the EMA.’’

‘’Consistent with this data, we achieved very encouraging results from an open-label phase 2A clinical trial of CAN-2409 in patients with unresectable, stage III/IV non-small cell lung cancer who had an inadequate response to immune checkpoint inhibitors’’, Dr. Tak confirms. ‘’Most of these patients had progressive, metastatic disease. With standard of care second-line chemotherapy treatment with docetaxel, their expected median overall survival is less than one year. However, after just two administrations of CAN-2409, we observed a median overall survival of more than 25 months. These results provide the rationale for a potentially registrational phase 3 clinical trial of CAN-2409 in non-small cell lung cancer, which we are preparing.’’

‘’Pivoting from academia to the biopharmaceutical industry has not always been easy’’, Paul Peter Tak concludes. ‘’But it has been an amazing learning experience. In fact, it increasingly feels like the so-called ‘dark side’ may offer the brightest perspective: the opportunity to develop potentially transformative medicines for patients with high unmet need. There’s a reason we call our company Candel. A candle brings light into darkness. And that is what we aim to do every day: bring hope, illumination, and new possibilities to people and families affected by devastating diseases. That vision keeps me inspired, and it’s what drives our entire team forward.’’

Pivoting from academia to the biopharmaceutical industry has not always been easy. In fact, it increasingly feels like the so-called ‘dark side’ may offer the brightest perspective: the opportunity to develop potentially transformative medicines for patients with high unmet need.

Paul Peter Tak received his medical degree cum laude from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1986, subsequently completing his PhD at the Leiden University Medical Centre. He went on to specialise in internal medicine, rheumatology, and immunology. From 1999 to 2011, he was Professor of Medicine and Founding Chair of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam. During this period, he served on the executive committees of both the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). He has published over 570 peer-reviewed papers and received numerous accolades, including the Medal of Honour from the Netherlands Society for Rheumatology and honorary membership of EULAR.

After transitioning from academia to industry, he joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2011. He served as Senior Vice President, Chief Immunology Officer and Global Development Leader for seven years. In this role, he was responsible for the scientific assessment of GSK's R&D portfolio, overseeing the development of new therapies for cancer, inflammatory diseases and infectious diseases. These include key drugs such as belantamab mafodotin (Blenrep®) and otilimab. From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Tak served as venture partner at Flagship Pioneering and also as President and CEO of Kintai Therapeutics (merged with Senda Biosciences). In addition, he has served as board director of Galvani Bioelectronics, ViiV Healthcare, and Omega Therapeutics

Paul Peter Tak has been President, CEO and Board Director of Candel Therapeutics since September 2020, continuing to lead the company's strategic vision and executive team. He also oversaw the IPO process on the Nasdaq in 2021.

Paul Peter Tak will be speaking at the next edition of Innovation for Health conference on 11 March 2027 in Beatrixgebouw, Jaarbeurs Utrecht, the Netherlands.

This article is part of a partnership between BiotechNews and BioPitch. See here for the original article on BioPitch.