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
14
Mar
2022
Structural Biology-Driven Drug Discovery: Ray Stevens on The Long Run
Today’s guest on the Long Run is Ray Stevens. Ray is the CEO of ShouTi. It’s a company that uses advanced structural biology technologies like cryo-EM images, and computational techniques, to discover small molecule drugs. The idea is to come up with orally available medicines that can build off the biological insights gained from protein or peptide drugs, but replace... Read More
10
Mar
2022
Aiming High, With a Team
Climbing Mt. Everest changed my life. The world’s highest mountain required digging deep — physically, mentally, emotionally. That was four years ago. That original climb was a success, raising $340,000 for cancer research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. But what came next meant more. The climb opened my mind to new ways of making a contribution, in addition... Read More
8
Mar
2022
Praveen Tipirneni on Watching Out for Sleeper Deals
[Editor’s Note: this is part of series of interviews with business development executives about some of the surprises, subtleties, and human aspects of biotech dealmaking.] Praveen Tipirneni is a physician by training, but more than anything it was his work in business development that put him in position to become the CEO of a publicly-traded biotech company – Waltham, Mass.-based... Read More
7
Mar
2022
The Globally Integrated Biotech Is Down, But Not Out
“What else can you do? The entire isolation of Russia. Nowadays we see real solidarity of the whole world to cancel or stop any economic, cultural, technological, financial connections with Russia and we urge the same from the Drug Discovery community.” This was the message on Mar. 5 from Andrey Tolmachov, founder and CEO of Enamine Ltd., a Ukrainian chemistry... Read More
7
Mar
2022
SARS-CoV-2: Where Did It Come From and Where Does It Go Next?
We are once again in a period of pandemic optimism — June 2021 redux. I hope this is justified, but I am reminded of the “fool me once, fool me twice” saying. Over the past few weeks there have been four papers that examine viral infection dynamics between animals and humans — animal to human and back again (Zoonosis) that... Read More
7
Mar
2022
Peacetime vs Wartime CEO: A Useful Lens for Transformative Leaders?
As biotech execs cope with challenging market conditions (the XBI biotech index is off about 50% from its high of February 2021), I found myself revising a now-classic 2011 essay by venture capitalist Ben Horowitz of Andreessen-Horowitz, arguing that extremely challenging times require very different management skills, and a different leadership style. He describes and contrasts the approaches of what... Read More
3
Mar
2022
Biotech Takes a Stand
Not long ago, biotech leaders steered clear of commenting on the issues of the day. Politics was limited to certain vested interests like drug pricing, science funding, and FDA regulation. Then came COVID-19 and the racial justice reckoning. Staring these terrible things in the face, people began to think more about their roles in the workplace, and in the community.... Read More
2
Mar
2022
Rondo Raises $67M to Make Bispecific T-cell Engagers for Solid Tumors
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