Dr Tony Reid Of EpicentRx: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Doctor

An Interview With Jake Frankel

Don’t follow the crowd — create a new path. Arnie Oronsky instilled this in me; he was successful by doing things that made a difference and not by just following the trail created by others.

As a part of my series about healthcare leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Tony Reid.

Dr. Tony Reid, Chief Executive Officer at EpicentRx, holds an MD and PhD from Stanford. His academic research has been focused on using targeted gene therapy vectors to treat cancer. In addition to his role at EpicentRx, Dr. Reid continues to see patients as a Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Moores Cancer Center as a medical oncologist. He continues to focus on preclinical and early phase clinical research seeking to advance the tumor-selective adenoviral platform he developed. Dr. Reid holds numerous national awards such as America’s Top Doctor (top 1%), 2008 to present, America’s Top Doctor for Cancer (top 1%), 2009 to present, and America’s Most Honored Professional (top 1%), 2016 to present.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?

I grew up in Iowa raising horses and cows, so science and medicine weren’t top-of-mind. Even in college, I majored in Philosophy with a focus on Legal Theory, a far stretch from scientific fields. However, in a turn of events, I ended up going to Stanford Medical School for my medical and graduate degrees where I found a passion for research, specifically in oncology. I completed my training and joined the faculty there for seven years before moving to UC San Diego in 2002. What I really enjoyed about my pivot from law to medicine was that in science, there can be a hypothesis, experiment and conclusion. For me, law was fascinating. A tight, well-reasoned argument was amazing to read and an art to craft. But, after focusing on constitutional law and studying Supreme Court decisions for two semesters as an undergraduate student at Grinnell College, I realized that even tight and very well-reasoned arguments could reach diametrically opposed conclusions for the same legal case. Most of the Supreme Court decisions we studied did not result in a unanimous decision between all nine justices. Even at the highest court in the country, many cases were decided by a split vote with a majority opinion and a dissenting opinion. In science, an experimental hypothesis could be answered with a high degree of statistical certainty. After majoring in a non-science subject, I was surprised to learn that I prefer to have an objective goal, improving cancer therapy. Nature was the final arbiter of my reasoning and efforts. Many small steps, given time, vision and some degree of luck, could make a difference.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

When I entered Stanford, I met professor George Stark and joined his laboratory to conduct my research. He was an overflowing fountain of knowledge. The focus of his research was to determine how cancer cells become resistant to chemotherapy. This was and remains a critical issue. If a cancer initially responds to treatment with a chemotherapeutic agent but becomes resistant over time, further treatment with that agent would cause toxicity without clinical benefit. Moreover, an important treatment option was lost. Therefore, it was critical to understand how tumor cells could become resistant to a therapeutic agent. Armed with this knowledge, further work could yield ways to reverse or prevent drug resistance in tumors and improve cancer therapy. Dr. Stark was one of the first people to identify the overarching theme of drug resistance by gene amplification, a hot topic in oncology. His work was cutting edge and fascinating.

I joined his research effort and we began talking about research projects. A problem that he was interested in pursuing was to determine how cancer cells responded to and subsequently became resistant to interferon, a recently identified biologic agent. At the time, interferon was thought to be a miracle cure for cancer and was even highlighted with a cover story in TIME magazine. Interferon was not a classic chemotherapy that damaged and killed cells. Instead, it was a biologic agent, naturally produced by the body during an infection to block viral infection. But, it was also found to have anticancer activity. As I became more immersed in this project, I realized something very interesting and unexpected. As expected, interferon blocked viral replication in the normal cells I was testing. However, unexpectedly, interferon did not block the replication of viruses in tumor cells! This led to the idea that interferon, given to a cancer patient, could protect normal cells from viral infection but, paradoxically, permit viral infection of tumor cells. Moreover, viral infection and replication could result in the destruction of the tumor cells while the normal cells were protected and remained healthy. While novel at the time, a broader concept emerged of targeting tumors cells with oncolytic viruses that selectively destroy cancer cells while sparing normal cells. Oncolytic viruses have become widely recognized as a potential therapeutic modality for cancer. However, while the concept of oncolytic viruses was very attractive, translating the concept into a safe and effective therapeutic proved to be very challenging. A large part of my career has focused on refining the concept of killing cancer cells with oncolytic viruses while protecting healthy cells.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My funniest mistake was a ‘work-study’ job in college. Work-study jobs were a great way to get real world experience and earn some money. So, I headed on over to the cork board with 3x5 cards detailing all the available opportunities. I guess I went too late because one of the few jobs left was to take care of rats in a breast cancer research program. I was much more interested in the legal and constitutional issues than tumor models in rodents. I was deflated! However, I needed a job so I attended the interview and was hired. While taking care of the rats, I started asking questions about the research they were conducting and soon enough I was helping with these experiments and eventually was doing the experiments for them. The head of the department came by one day and asked me about my career interests. I told him about my interest in complex legal issues and goal for attending law school. He thought about my goals, perplexed I guess because there were few complex legal issues related to tumor growth in rodent models. But, he asked if I had considered MSTP programs. I did not know what those programs were. He explained that these were where you get training as both a physician and a scientist. He explained that the goal of these programs was to train physicians that not only treated patients but endeavored to improve medical care. These physicians-scientists, he explained, worked in the trenches with patients, treating disease and finding new ways to treat disease. Of course, I thought that was an amazing opportunity and profession, so I applied and was accepted into Stanford where I trained to be both a physician and a scientist. While the “mistake” of showing up late to pick a work-study job felt so deflating at the time, I can now say years later, that it might have been the best thing to happen to me and certainly changed the course of my career.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?

EpicentRx is currently working on two novel therapies, AdAPT-001 and nibrozetone (RRx-001). AdAPT-001, is a tumor-selective adenovirus developed in my laboratory. This vector selectively infects tumor cells and has been engineered to express a protein designed to neutralize a critical immune regulatory protein called TGF-β. AdAPT-001 stalks tumors and traps TGF-β, thereby helping the immune system to fight cancer. Initial data from a Phase 1/2 clinical trial demonstrates that AdAPT-001 is well-tolerated with evidence of significant anti-tumor responses when given alone and with synergistically activity when combined with various immune therapies. We recently presented data from this study at the Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer (SITC) 2023. Notably, a patient with sarcoma involving most of the left side of his face, who failed all available therapies and would have to undergo a large and disfiguring surgical resection, demonstrated a dramatic response to AdAPT-001 and has nearly cleared the sarcoma in just six months. What is particularly notable about this case is that the tumor responded dramatically to AdAPT-001 with essentially no toxicity or damage to the local skin or underlying tissues. Needless to say, the patient is ecstatic! After years in development, AdAPT-001 is making a difference.

EpicentRx‘s other clinical development candidate, nibrozetone (RRx-001), is a first-in-class NLRP3 inhibitor and Nrf2 upregulator. Nibrozetone (RRx-001) protects or shields normal tissues from the side effects of other cancer therapies, particularly when it is administered as a pretreatment. Based on our Phase I/II studies, nibrozetone (RRx-001) has been awarded Fast Track designation by the FDA for the treatment of severe oral mucositis in head and neck cancer. We are also looking into its potential in neurogenerative diseases and have been awarded a grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am very grateful to have met Arnold “Arnie” Oronsky, the founder of EpicentRx. I met him while I was managing the clinical research program at UCSD. Arnie was looking for clinical sites to evaluate the anticancer effects of a new drug he had developed and came to UC San Diego because he knew the director of the cancer center at that time, Dr. Dennis Carson. Arnie was very excited about the new drug, nibrozetone (RRx-001). He was eager to test it and, since I was directing the clinical research program at the time, Dr. Carson introduced us. Nibrozetone (RRx-001) was not an incremental change in an existing molecule, it was a completely new entity with a unique dual function. He wanted to test this molecule in cancer patients. No one else wanted to give it a shot because it was so different, but Arnie liked taking chances and trying new things. He funded and provided the inspiration for us to bridge the gap from something that was in the laboratory, to something that’s now in the clinic. One of the most inspirational things about Arnie was that he didn’t do the obvious and he allowed for mistakes. His hard work and passion ultimately allowed for nibrozetone (RRx-001) to undergo careful testing in a variety of malignancies and clinical settings and help patients with cancer. Unexpectedly, it may also help treat Parkinson’s disease.

Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?

The first book that comes to mind is John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I love this novel as it focuses on human conquest and overcoming the challenges and complexities of human conditions. I recently watched the movie with my daughter when she was visiting from college, and she enjoyed it too. But of course, the book is better than the movie.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I believe I use my success to bring goodness to the world by taking unlikely viruses or molecules and engineering them to treat cancer patients. Not only is it interesting to see how we can change these viruses to help us, but it helps a lot of people. It is very heartwarming to see the impact you’ve made on your patients.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?

My first favorite quote, which I actually have in my office, is Albert Eistein’s “if we knew what we were doing it would not be called research.” To me, this quote means that you’re allowed to fail because you don’t know the answer. This relates to all research: there will most likely be failures before successes.

My second favorite quote is, “You have to be moving to trip over something.” I tripped over the idea that you could engineer viruses to attack cancer because I was studying the anticancer and antiviral effects of interferon. If I had not compared normal cells to tumor cells in the same assays, I would not have come to the conclusion that the common cold virus can be engineered to fight cancer. And the patient with a sarcoma of the face noted above might have undergone a large resection of his face instead of vacationing in Hawaii now.

Can you share your top three “lifestyle tweaks” that will help people feel great?

1. I like to run early in the morning. It is quiet and amazing to see the sun rise. It’s a great time to cater to your physical and mental health before your day gets overwhelming.
2. Work with great people. Being surrounded by great people at all levels of a job really makes coming into work every day so much more enjoyable. The things you can accomplish together can improve the world.
3. You can learn something from everyone; you can learn something from every job you do. This includes everyone from the janitor to the CEO, everyone can teach you something.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.

1. It is truly amazing and rewarding to be a doctor and help people. People who were just diagnosed with cancer come to me — it’s incredible to have the knowledge to guide them through cancer treatment while their whole world has just been turned around. It is incredible to have developed a therapy that can help people fight this devastating disease.
2. You’re going to run into things that almost destroy you. Once I was working in an emergency room and a man came in with delirium tremens from alcohol. When he recovered, we began talking and I found out that he was an emergency room physician at one time. He succumbed to an addiction to alcohol. He lost his job, his medical license and his family had abandoned him. He was alone, basically living on the streets and begging for money to buy more alcohol. It made me realize that you can always make a wrong turn, and it can destroy your life. Don’t think it can’t happen to you, just do better to try and avoid those things that can destroy you.
3. Research is cool! You’re not only treating people and helping them out, but you’re a part of a team creating something new. Building on what has come before and advancing knowledge.
4. Some of the best discoveries come from failed experiments. Our failed experiment led to us finding the most interesting things.
5. Don’t follow the crowd — create a new path. Arnie Oronsky instilled this in me; he was successful by doing things that made a difference and not by just following the trail created by others.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

The movement I would start would not be so much a totally new movement. Instead, I would seek to stand by the foundations of knowledge created by those that have come before us and make meaningful contributions to that foundation for future generations. I would want to join with others, inspire them and commit to pursue excellence. In my case, it’s a fight against cancer. I don’t have to start a new movement; I have to be one of many who pick up the baton, carry it forward and then hand it off to the next generation of physician/scientists.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 😊

There are so many people that come to mind, but I would love to meet Barack Obama. While I served as the chairman for the Association of American Cancer Institute, I had the opportunity to meet many of the policy makers in the US government, including members of the senate and congress and the director of the FDA. I was invited to give testimonies to Congress in support of Clinical Cancer Research. In that capacity, I read relevant sections of Obama’s Affordable Care Act. There were many aspects of that policy that were pioneering. I would love to discuss his inspiration and commitment to advancing health care for the population.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

LinkedIn: Tony (MD, PH.D.) Reid [https://www.linkedin.com/in/treidmdphd/]

Thank you so much for these wonderful insights!