Leading to Commercialization: Q&A with Doug Biehn

Doug Biehn
CEO
Octave Bioscience

Octave Bioscience has developed the Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity Test, a multi-variant blood test that detects for the disease’s activity and, when combined with the company’s AI platform, is able to translate multiple forms of data into actionable insights for doctors. The company’s CEO Doug Biehn is leading the company through its commercialization phase while also implementing plans to scale up and expand its pipeline into Parkinson’s. He spoke with Pharmaceutical Executive about these plans and the steps being taken to implement them.

Pharmaceutical Executive: How are you utilizing your experience in the industry to lead Octave’s commercialization?
Doug Biehn: I'm leveraging my extensive experience in building and scaling growth businesses to help drive Octave’s commercialization. Our focus is on expanding the use and adoption of our breakthrough Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity (MSDA) test, a first-of-its-kind multianalyte biomarker panel for MS. From sales and marketing to clinical evidence generation and market access, I’m drawing on my expertise to lead a world-class team of deep subject matter experts.

Together, we’re building an innovative commercial engine to accelerate physician and pharma adoption. With over 100 leading MS clinics now using our test, and 90% of our monthly volume from repeat healthcare providers, we’re poised for continued growth. We're also working with health plans to ensure accessibility and affordability for patients nationwide. Octave is building momentum in redefining the standard of care for neuro degenerative diseases.

PE: What is your strategy for developing biomarker tests and how will the tests help inform treatment decision making and drug development for Multiple Sclerosis?
Biehn: MS is a complex, heterogeneous disease affecting all patients differently, which makes diagnosis and prognosis difficult. The industry has lacked dynamic, quantitative tools to measure disease activity over time, and currently the approach to care in MS is reactive and subjective. Our strategy is to help physicians move to a proactive and objective approach to optimize treatment for MS patients throughout their lives.

For example, Octave’s MSDA test is the industry’s first and only clinically validated multianalyte biomarker blood test that measures 18 biomarkers to determine 4 biological pathway scores and an overall disease activity score that is specific to MS disease activity. Our MSDA report provides information that is easily interpretable for the physician and patient, and provides actionable insights that inform longitudinal clinical management, including enabling better treatment selection, evaluating treatment response, as well as monitoring for relapses and smoldering disease.

With the MSDA test, physicians and patients can now have a better understanding of the biology of the patient, the level of their disease activity, how patients are responding to treatments, and if changes need to be made to improve outcomes. We have received great feedback from the physician community about how the MSDA test is informing their decision making, and we’re building a body of evidence that supports the clinical utility of our test. In addition, pharma is using our test to support drug development by demonstrating the efficacy of pipeline drugs to reduce MS disease activity and differentiate against competitors for in-market drugs.

PE: When do you plan to expand your products to include tests for Parkinson’s?
Biehn: Building on Octave’s progress in Multiple Sclerosis, we are now creating a multi-protein test for Parkinson’s, with funding and support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation. We started this work last year, and we expect to have a fully validated panel for Parkinson’s in 2H2026.

This will be the industry’s first multianalyte biomarker panel for Parkinson’s with the potential for tremendous impact for physicians and patients. We are deploying proven strategies we’ve used to build the MSDA test to create a novel tool for Parkinson’s ranging from market research, literature curation, biological modeling, large scale proteomics, and KOL engagement in support of the discovery, development, and validation of our biomarker panel. These approaches and techniques will help us create a biomarker panel for Parkinson’s that addresses the clear unmet need for deeper, objective, and more precise insights that are based on the individual patient’s biology.

PE: How difficult is it to pivot from focusing on one disease to a broader set of diseases?
Biehn: While much of our scientific method can be applied and replicated to new indications, the power of our approach comes from our ability to develop solutions that are highly differentiated and relevant to the specific condition. Each neurological disease is highly heterogeneous, and what works for MS may not work for Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer's.

We’re recognized as leaders in the space because of our ability to deeply understand the disease, our proven scientific process, and our ability to successfully commercialize and bring these solutions to the clinic. Building off our success with the MSDA test, we’re excited to now expand into Parkinson’s, where there is a huge unmet need for biomarker solutions that can accelerate drug development and guide more effective treatments.