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
9
Jan
2022
Beware of the Expert Fallacy, But Don’t Fall Into The Cynicism Trap
In December, a team led by two University of Pennsylvania scholars, psychologist Angela Duckworth (best known as author of Grit) and behavioral economist Katy Milkman published in Nature the results of a colossal study on behavior change. The researchers evaluated the impact of a huge range of behavioral interventions – 54 – that were thought to potentially influence gym attendance... Read More
6
Jan
2022
Biotech’s Candle Burns Bright in the Dark
Earlier this week, in need of an afternoon break, I went for a 15-minute walk to the local branch of the Seattle Public Library. With KN95 mask snugly in place, I walked in, picked up my book on hold, and walked out. Two minutes, tops. No lingering these days. At home, I flipped open Carl Sagan’s 1996 manifesto, “The Demon-Haunted... Read More
6
Jan
2022
The Omicron Wave: A Review of the Research on Spread and Severity
The vast majority of people in the US have at least partial immunity to many forms of SARS-CoV-2, either from prior infection, vaccination, or both. The past few weeks have shown us that the Omicron variant transmits faster than any of its predecessors. That essentially guarantees that the unvaccinated plus early vaccinees (last dose/boost more than 6 months ago) will... Read More
5
Jan
2022
RNA Editing Seeks Its Place in the Gene Editing World
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3
Jan
2022
The Future is Simple: How the Genetic Revolution is Making Old Modalities Stronger
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30
Dec
2021
A Doctor’s View From the Front Line of the Omicron Wave
My phone buzzed with alerts about record-setting case numbers as I rushed between patients. A pile of tiny bottles with swabs floating in pink liquid accumulated while awaiting PCR testing. Patients with coughs and sniffles lined up outside the door, waiting to be seen. My shift as an internal medicine physician yesterday in MGH Chelsea’s urgent care facility reminded me... Read More
23
Dec
2021
Pfizer, Merck Get COVID Drugs OK’d, Sanofi Buys Amunix, and a New PCSK9 Contender
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23
Dec
2021
Improving Health and Wellness in 2022
As we start to think about 2022 and improving our health and wellness in the New Year, we make ambitious resolutions and urgently try to identify the optimal diet and best exercise program to achieve our health goals. Stop Searching For The One As intuitive as this approach sounds, it’s almost certainly the wrong mindset. What behavior change experts, including... Read More
20
Dec
2021
Controlling COVID in 2022: Masks, Treatments and Fast, Frequent Testing
Over the past week I have been reflecting on what we know now, two years into a seemingly unending pandemic. One of the biggest failures has been with testing. At first, our only effective defenses were masking and social distancing. We were slow to ramp up testing, unable to give most people the timely information they could use to isolate... Read More