9
Apr
2020
GSK Partners With Vir on Antibodies, Pfizer With BioNTech on Vaccines, & the Testing Fiasco Continues
Here we are heading into Easter Weekend. We’re the wealthiest country in the world, and the undisputed superpower of biomedicine. Yet we’re still playing a game of catch up against SARS-CoV-2, which apparently our intelligence community knew was emerging around Thanksgiving. Even after months to get our act together, we still don’t have a coordinated national strategy on exactly how...Read More 
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8
Apr
2020
Facing the Consequences of a Misinformation Pandemic
You know what it’s like, trying to keep up with information about SARS-CoV-2? It’s like being aboard the Battlestar Galactica. (H/T to @tvoti for surfacing this once again timely tweet) In that episode of the famous sci-fi series, the Cylons, an alien, robot race bent on humanity’s destruction, attack the Battlestar Galactica, the last human warship, every 33 minutes. For...Read More
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7
Apr
2020
George Yancopoulos, That Rarest Of Species – A Physician-Scientist Still In Charge Of A Pharma
Growing up in an academic household (my parents are both professors at Yale Medical School, still engaged, as ever, in dyslexia research), it was perhaps inevitable that, outside of my parents, my first role model was the brilliant President of Yale University, the late Bart Giamatti (you know- Paul’s dad). The elder Giamatti inspired me so much as a teenager...Read More
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7
Apr
2020
Rationale for Testing Anticoagulants Against COVID19
We have seen and heard about the classic symptoms of COVID-19 at UCSF Medical Center, where I work as a cardiologist. Patients keep coming in with pulmonary distress, pneumonia, and ultimately, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) – the life-and-death situation that requires ventilators. However, I’m beginning to learn about other symptoms that some doctors are noticing. There are numerous reports...Read More
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7
Apr
2020
COVID-19 Models: What Makes Them Tick?
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, questions about its likely course are much on our minds. How long will it last? How bad will it get? And are we doing enough to flatten the curve? These questions are not about the past, but about the future. Models are now frequently cited in public by elected leaders to inform expectations and justify...Read More
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6
Apr
2020
I’ve Got a Fund Full of Toilet Paper and I’m Ready to Deal!
Here we are, burrowed deep into week four of what McSweeney’s calls “living among the mole people.” I don’t know about you, but those in my family do all we can to avoid making eye contact at this point. Even the dog is saying, “Thanks, but I’ll walk myself.” I’ve already watched The Tiger King. While it did make me...Read More
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6
Apr
2020
Where the Puck is Going: Serologic Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Immunity
Germany, my home country, has gotten attention lately for doing some things right in its pandemic response. Diagnostic testing has been a key factor in keeping its death rate relatively low. As a biotech entrepreneur, and with my PhD training in biomedical engineering, I want to think ahead about working on another useful idea the Germans, among others, are considering:...Read More
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6
Apr
2020
Loss and Grief in the Time of Covid-19
We are in the midst of a pandemic that is disrupting our society and taking an enormous toll on human lives. We are experiencing this in many ways, and particularly as stress and loss. There is the loss of our usual routine. Loss of employment and income. For high school and college seniors, there are graduations that won’t happen, while...Read More
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4
Apr
2020
Diagnostic Dysfunction for COVID19: Mike Pellini on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Mike Pellini. Mike is a managing partner with Section32, a venture firm that invests in biotech startups. Mike is an expert in diagnostics. He was previously the CEO of Foundation Medicine, a company that looks at a wide range of gene mutations in tumor samples to can act as molecular drivers of cancer....Read More
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2
Apr
2020
A Baffling Coronavirus Response, Arch & Flagship Reload, & Merck Passes 2 Phase IIIs
The world now has more than 1 million confirmed cases of infection with an insidious virus that spreads from person to person with exponential speed, is spread by people who don’t display symptoms, and kills an estimated 1 percent of people who get infected. As the US death toll now exceeds more than 1,000 a day from COVID-19, we are...Read More
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2
Apr
2020
COVID-19’s Unexpected Silver Lining: A Chance at Redemption for US Healthcare
The US healthcare system has taken a lot of heat the past few years. Stories about surprise out-of-network hospital bills, overpriced drugs and sky-high insurance premiums and deductibles have severely tarnished the reputations of hospitals, drugmakers and health insurers. The COVID-19 pandemic presents these industries with a chance for a fresh start. Everything that they do, and why they do...Read More
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1
Apr
2020
What’s the Real Risk of Death from COVID19? It Can Be Deceiving
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics,” quote popularized in the US by Mark Twain This is an almost direct follow-up to my latest article for Timmerman Report (“Let it Rip or Shelter at Home?) Usual caveats apply: I am not an epidemiologist, and not a virologist. This is still a new virus for us as...Read More
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1
Apr
2020
Building On Our Immunology Understanding, Seeing Reasons for Hope
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads and the death toll mounts, two areas of drug development have come front and center in the battle. Antivirals are the first and most obvious class of medicines to reach for in the toolbox. Given the expertise and considerable resources of companies in the HIV and hepatitis C field, this is a promising place to...Read More
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1
Apr
2020
Thinking Ahead: Building a Broad Arsenal Against Infectious Disease
After a late start, I’m optimistic the community will adapt and get the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic under control. But what happens next? Months from now, does the urgency of the battle against infection fade away? That is the sad truth about so many disease outbreaks of the past. Truly being prepared for the next one means keeping up a sustained, multi-faceted...Read More
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31
Mar
2020
The Strategy of Stealth Mode. When to Stay Hidden, When to De-Cloak
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $149 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
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31
Mar
2020
Diagnostic Test Developer Points to Academic Blind Spot That Hampers Translation
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for reliable diagnostic tests for the new SARS-CoV-2 virus, and treatments that can cure or mitigate its devastating effects. To have an impact, these diagnostic tests can’t just work brilliantly in a single academic lab. They ultimately need to be rapidly deployable across this large country with 330 million people. Developing an approach...Read More
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31
Mar
2020
Switzerland: What Went Right, and How to Better Prepare for the Second Wave
I have worked in Switzerland for most of the last 18 years. Almost 14 of those were with Roche, with a detour through China, followed by the last 4 years with Versant Ventures, based again in Basel. Oh, and the last four weeks I’ve been working from home like so many of you. Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, shares...Read More
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31
Mar
2020
Learning from China, Ramping Up COVID19 Tests to Meet Needs Around the World
In the classical Chinese story “Journey to the West,” a mythological Monkey King has supernatural powers to see through the facades of demons with his Fire Eye or “Huo-Yan.” As people around the world suffer and die from the invisible, rampaging SARS-CoV-2 virus, we can only imagine having a superpower like that of the Monkey King, to see the disguised...Read More
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30
Mar
2020
Cancer Drugmakers Seek to Broaden Use of Tissue-Agnostic Therapies
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $149 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
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29
Mar
2020
As COVID19 Comes to India, Expect Drug Supplies to Run Short
Generic medicines aren’t glamorous. But they are a linchpin of healthcare in the United States, representing nearly 90% of all prescriptions filled. Where do these vital medicines come from? The vast majority of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for those drugs are manufactured in China and India. Indeed, about 90% of the manufacturing plants making API’s are outside the United...Read More
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