The Biotech Startups Podcast

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Amy Hay, Chief Business Officer at CTMC, shares how CTMC bridges academia and industry to help lean cell therapy teams reach the clinic faster and more capital-efficiently through a co-development model that bundles manufacturing, regulatory, and operational support so scientists can stay focused on the science while building scalable, commercialization-ready processes from day one. Amy and host Jon Chee dig into why business model innovation—milestone-based contracts and, in some cases, equity alignment—can be as critical as scientific breakthroughs in today’s tough fundraising landscape, and how regional manufacturing, knowledge transfer, and global network alliances are turning cell therapy from a theoretical option into a practical reality for patients around the world.

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Amy Hay's remarkable evolution from a longtime leader at MD Anderson Cancer Center to an entrepreneurial consultant and medtech executive. Amy shares the deeply personal and professional challenges of leaving an institution that defined her for two decades, describing how a "painful" leadership change became the ultimate catalyst for her growth and reinvention.
Amy details her global journey, from navigating the cultural nuances of opening oncology clinics in Brazil to the eye-opening experience of consulting in Nigeria, where she learned that healthcare innovation must meet people where they are. She discusses the founding of her consulting firm, Evolve, its timely acquisition by Varian just before the global pandemic, and her eventual full-circle return to the Houston biotech ecosystem to lead strategy in the burgeoning field of cell therapy.

"If you're persistent, you can get there. If I think it's gonna be meaningful, I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Amy Hay, Chief Business Officer at CTMC, shares how she transformed ground-level patient care experience at MD Anderson into high-impact leadership that reshaped cancer treatment delivery. She traces her path from MD Anderson's first-ever internal administrative fellow to spearheading the institution's first proton therapy center and pioneering satellite clinics—including a "flea-bitten" Bellaire, Texas facility that became a runaway success by prioritizing convenience, compassion, and continuity of care. Amy recounts the audacious multi-year journey of raising 125 million dollars by assembling an unlikely coalition of clinicians, physicists, investment bankers, and construction operators, weathering the shock of 9/11 and frozen capital markets, then pivoting to purpose-driven local investors like firefighters' and police officers' pension funds whose communities are directly impacted by cancer.

Along the way, Amy reflects on the challenges of intrapreneurship inside a major academic medical center, the unexpected emotional letdown that follows a "big win," and how that restlessness ultimately pushed her toward global oncology. She shares how collaborations with Hospital Albert Einstein in São Paulo, the American Hospital in Istanbul, and other international partners expanded her perspective beyond elite U.S. centers, sharpening her focus on access, alignment, and building care models that work across diverse health systems—not just in Houston.

"If you work hard and you try hard, you'll get there. It might take a long time. It might be a little bit bloody, and you might be battered, but you'll get to the top of the mountain. You just have to work hard."

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Amy Hay's formative years and the experiences that shaped her unique approach to healthcare leadership. From caring for her grandparents through dementia in Dallas to landing her first job at MD Anderson Cancer Center on the same day as its new president, Amy's journey reveals how personal crisis, liberal arts education, and unwavering resilience can forge a distinctive path in oncology and biotechnology.​

Amy shares how her father's advice to "behave as if you're in your next job" transformed her approach to work, starting from her role as a receptionist where she learned to never say no—only how. She recounts her unconventional college application using a photo essay documenting individuals at a Dallas food bank on Thanksgiving, her child life internship at Santa Rosa Hospital, and how these experiences taught her that meaningful healthcare careers extend far beyond clinical roles. Amy also discusses the critical balance between the business of healthcare and patient care, explaining how her decision to pursue a Master's in Healthcare Administration while working full-time at MD Anderson gave her real-world context to apply theoretical knowledge immediately.

"The best thing about starting your own business is you get to design the business that you always wanted to work for."

We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, where Jason C. Foster takes us through his remarkable journey of building an international pharmaceutical company across Europe and his transition to founding Ori Biotech, a pioneering cell therapy manufacturing technology company. Jason shares how he moved from Richmond, Virginia to London in 2010 with a pregnant wife and toddler to build what would become Indivior, scaling the business from just a handful of employees to over 1,100 people across 37 countries before listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2014.
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Jason offers candid insights into the cultural challenges of doing business across Northern and Southern Europe, the complexities of navigating different regulatory environments, and the critical importance of building mission-driven culture over purely financial incentives. He discusses how discovering cell therapy's potential to cure cancer—yet seeing patients unable to access these treatments due to cost and manufacturing limitations—compelled him to co-found Ori Biotech in 2018. Jason explains how the company is revolutionizing personalized medicine by creating scalable, affordable manufacturing platforms for cell therapies, with their Iro platform launching in 2024 and expecting to treat first patients in clinical trials in 2025.