19
May
2022
A Path Forward for More Biotech Workers
Biotech needs more workers. More people who don’t have PhDs and MDs. The industry is 40 years old, and maturing. More companies are developing commercial products. Someone needs to make these products with precision, and at scale. Given the sophisticated nature of the products (cell therapy, gene therapy, advanced biologics, RNA medicines), the fragile global supply chains, and the importance... Read More
17
May
2022
Remix Gets $70m for Small Molecules to Alter RNA Processing
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12
May
2022
Changing the Balance of Power
Early in my career as a physician, I took care of a woman who died from complications of an abortion procedure. The patient had traveled to the blue state where I practiced, from a red state where she lived that restricted abortion access, to obtain care she couldn’t find or afford at home. She had previously gotten a procedure performed... Read More
11
May
2022
The Limits of Biomedical Innovation, and Why We Should Embrace Them
Last October, I wrote for this publication about the emergence of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) for cancer, based on my father’s experience being treated with Padcev for bladder cancer. A few months later, I posted on Twitter that, while Padcev had stopped working for my father, he had since started on another ADC called Trodelvy. His tumors had shrunk. He was... Read More
10
May
2022
MOMA Gets $150M to Make Small Molecules Against ATPases, Laborers of the Cell
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9
May
2022
Fighting Cancer With Food and Drugs: Lew Cantley and Sid Mukherjee on The Long Run
Today’s guests on The Long Run are Lewis Cantley and Siddhartha Mukherjee. They are co-founders of San Francisco-based Faeth Therapeutics. Cantley, who recently moved to Dana Farber Cancer Institute, is a scientist well-known for his work on cancer metabolism. He discovered the PI3kinase pathway that’s an important regulator of normal cell growth, proliferation, metabolism – and which can become activated... Read More
5
May
2022
An Old Idea Whose Time Has Come
People are returning to the office. Many are rethinking the basics of work. So many people are exhausted and anxious. Biotech leaders are thinking carefully about how to proceed. An R&D-based industry needs people in environments that allow them to be energized, creative, collaborative. Here’s one simple idea: Walking meetings. The “walk and talk” business meeting isn’t new. But we... Read More
3
May
2022
Dianthus Gets $100m to Take Complement Inhibition to a New Level
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3
May
2022
Ram Aiyar on Finding Deal Alignment Internally and Externally
Ram Aiyar is currently the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Korro Bio, a company using RNA editing to treat genetic diseases, including Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. Before he took that job, he was a founder and executive vice president of corporate and business development at Corvidia Therapeutics. That company was acquired by Novo Nordisk in August 2020 for $725 million upfront, and... Read More
2
May
2022
Biopharmas: Digitizing, But Not Quite Digital
What a difference two years makes. In January 2020, I left my role as a senior partner at a corporate life-science venture fund to pursue my interest in what I recognized as a captivating frontier: the intersection of biopharma with emerging digital and data technology. I set up an independent consultancy, and advised senior R&D executives in both large and... Read More
28
Apr
2022
A Big Opportunity in Obesity
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27
Apr
2022
The Timmerman Traverse for Life Science Cares Is Back, Fighting Poverty
The biotech community has plenty of people willing to work to support vulnerable members of our society. This year, I’m doing what I can to again mobilize the biotech community to fight poverty. I’m happy to announce the Timmerman Traverse for Life Science Cares. It’s a Presidential Traverse hike set for Sept. 11-14, 2022. This expedition builds on the success... Read More
25
Apr
2022
Inspired by Bolero: Creative Parallels Between Songwriting and Biotech Building
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21
Apr
2022
Regeneron Buys Checkmate, Bivalent Vaccine Progress, & a Fitting Acronym
Clinical trialists are always trying to come up with catchy study titles. I’m not a big fan of these acronyms, and try to avoid using them. They’re often forgettable. But this week I saw one that stood out as especially meaningful. Yale University researchers are running a new Long COVID study. It’s called – LISTEN. It stands for Listen to... Read More
19
Apr
2022
Microbiome-based Drug Development: Bernat Olle on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Bernat Olle. Bernat is the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Vedanta Biosciences. The company was founded in 2010 by Puretech Health, in collaboration with a handful of academic founders. At the time, the faster/cheaper tools of DNA sequencing were making it possible for immunologists and microbiologists to gain a much more fine-grained view of... Read More
14
Apr
2022
GSK Acquires Sierra, Cimeio’s Shielded Cell Therapies, & AACR Highlights
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13
Apr
2022
Versant-backed Cimeio Gets $50M for Shielded Stem Cell Therapies
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5
Apr
2022
Samantha Truex on How Getting Market Feedback Turned Into M&A for Padlock
Samantha Truex is the CEO of Upstream Bio, a stealthy developer of drugs for inflammatory diseases with $200 million in backing from a syndicate led by OrbiMed. Before her newest venture, Sam had an impressive career as a business development executive, including as the chief business officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Padlock Therapeutics. That company, a developer of Protein/Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase... Read More
23
Mar
2022
LifeMine Snags GSK Deal and $175m to Drive Fungus-Based Drug Discovery
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16
Mar
2022
Evidation: Finding Tailwinds For Pharma Companies, and Individual Patients
Sailors know the concept of tacking. It’s an essential way of moving forward. Without tacking, the headwinds are too strong. The boat can go wildly off track, or stall. By steering from one direction to the other, in zigs and zags, it is possible to drive into the headwinds and make progress. Do it well, and you can gradually overtake... Read More