14
Feb
2022
Rethinking the Cell Therapy Business: Derrell Porter of Cellevolve on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Derrell Porter. Derrell is the founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Cellevolve. This is a different kind of biotech startup. Most startups are all about the R&D. Traditionally, many haven’t built up commercial capabilities in the early days for one big reason — they don’t have anything to sell. They have tended to... Read More
10
Feb
2022
Biotech’s Future off The Beaten Path
The future of biotech isn’t limited to a few square miles in Cambridge, Mass. and South San Francisco. Biotech is starting to spread its wings in minor league towns. That’s good news. It’s also necessary for the industry to grow and continue to better integrate into the wider world. Let’s look at an example close to my home in Seattle.... Read More
9
Feb
2022
The Omicron Story: The Winter of Our Discontent
The Omicron wave has been shocking. We in the virology community knew the SARS-CoV-2 virus had an exceptional ability to mutate, but the pace of its evolution was surprising. We were just as surprised by the even-faster speed by which this variant spread. Omicron became the dominant variant almost two years into the pandemic because it’s more transmissible and able... Read More
9
Feb
2022
Seismic Gets $101M to Use Machine Learning for Autoimmune Drug Discovery
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9
Feb
2022
Going Private: The Public Bear Market Will Soon Hit Private Companies
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8
Feb
2022
Behind the Scenes of BD: Maude Tessier on a Megamerger Curveball
[Editor’s Note: this is part of a series of interviews with business development executives about some of the surprises, subtleties, and human aspects of biotech dealmaking.] Maude Tessier is the chief business officer of Boston-based Ikena Oncology, a developer of targeted small molecule cancer drugs. Like a lot of people in business development, she considers herself a “recovering scientist.” She... Read More
7
Feb
2022
The Cancer Moonshot Relaunched
Last week, I had the honor of attending the Biden Administration’s relaunch of the Cancer Moonshot at the White House. The Cancer Moonshot dates back to 2016, when then-Vice President Biden, mourning the death of his son Beau, spearheaded this bold initiative to accelerate the rate of progress against cancer on a national scale. The initiative resulted in the 21st... Read More
3
Feb
2022
The World Waits for Novavax, and an FDA Commissioner
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2
Feb
2022
TR’s 7th Anniversary: Thank You
Timmerman Report is 7 years old today. On Feb. 2, 2015, I rode my bike to the office on a wet Seattle morning and turned on the lights. I thought there was a need for clear, probing, contextual biotech journalism. It was a leap of faith, like any entrepreneurial venture. I couldn’t have predicted 90 percent of what came next.... Read More
1
Feb
2022
Targeting Integrins With Small Molecules: Praveen Tipirneni on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Praveen Tipirneni. Praveen is the CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based Morphic Therapeutic. Morphic Therapeutic is developing oral small molecule drugs aimed at integrin targets. There’s some fascinating biology and computational technology underpinning this work, which I discussed a couple years ago on The Long Run with Morphic scientific founder Tim Springer. Just to review... Read More
31
Jan
2022
Gandeeva Raises $40m For Fast Cryo-EM Enabled Drug Discovery
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31
Jan
2022
Sridhar Iyengar on Figuring Out the Key Element to Success: Customer Needs
Sridhar Iyengar (Sri) is one of those vaunted serial entrepreneurs. He had successfully sold his second company and was ready to do it all over again. Sri long ago learned that the trick to creating a successful startup was finding a difficult problem to solve – one that vexed companies that had money to spend. It was 2015, and he... Read More
27
Jan
2022
A Small Step on Drug Pricing
Mark Cuban, the billionaire-turned-reality TV star, made news this week with the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. Cuban has been saying for a while that he wants to stick it to the man. The biopharma man. “I could make a fortune from this,” Cuban told Texas Monthly in September. “But I won’t. I’ve got enough money. I’d rather f—... Read More
27
Jan
2022
Simcha, Backed by SR One, Raises $40m to Inject New Life Into IL-18 for Cancer
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26
Jan
2022
Kyverna Gets $85M to Take CAR-T Cells for Autoimmunity To the Clinic
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20
Jan
2022
Reflecting on MLK and Science in Society
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20
Jan
2022
ImmPACT Bio, with Bispecific CAR-T Showing Durable CRs, Raises $111m Series B
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13
Jan
2022
The Biogen Debacle Continues
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11
Jan
2022
Antibody Engineering & Company Building: Bassil Dahiyat on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Bassil Dahiyat. Bassil is the CEO of Monrovia, Calif.-based Xencor. He’s been on a true Long Run. Bassil co-founded Xencor in 1997 after getting his PhD in chemistry at Caltech. He’s been through a lot of ups and downs in the biotech markets, and taken the company through a couple big strategic shifts.... Read More
11
Jan
2022
Brad Prosek on Getting to Know an Unconventional Acquirer
[Editor’s Note: this is the first in a monthly series with business development executives about some of the surprises, subtleties, and human aspects of biotech dealmaking.] Cambridge, Mass.-based Constellation Pharmaceuticals lived through the ups and downs of the epigenetic drug discovery field for a decade, before it exited on a high note last year. The company was acquired by Germany-based... Read More