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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28
Feb
2022
Making Clinical Trials More Diverse: Michele Andrasik on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Michele Andrasik. I’m excited to have Michele on the show to talk about an undercovered aspect of the scientific enterprise. Michele is the director of social and behavioral science and community engagement for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, and COVID-19 Prevention Network. She’s based in Seattle at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,... Read More
24
Feb
2022
When Does COVID Normalcy Begin?
When can we declare the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic over? For some people, a battle is over when it is clearly won or lost. Our fight with COVID-19 doesn’t fit into such tidy categories. The term endemic, at least in epidemiology, means chronic. It’s a constant presence, usually of an infectious organism, at some steady level. If a virus is endemic, that... Read More
22
Feb
2022
A Long Hauler, Two Years Later
I can’t believe my daughter is about to turn 16, and I have been living with COVID for two years. Having contracted the virus on her birthday, it will seemingly always be my Covidversary. She has blossomed over the past two years, while I feel like I have wilted. I still lean hard toward the sun, but it’s not easy.... Read More
17
Feb
2022
The Unsung Community Heroes Who Make Biotech Thrive
Every thriving biotech hub can trace its origins to one or two outstanding scientific institutions. But every thriving region can also trace some of its success back to community leaders. These are people who attend boring night meetings. They aren’t household names. They’re fine with that. These people were especially common in America after World War II. They laid down... Read More
17
Feb
2022
For China-made drugs, Sintilimab Was the Exception, Not the Rule
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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
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
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