16
Mar
2021
AZ’s Vaccine Mess, Rubius Infiltrates Solid Tumors, & Insitro’s $400M Haul
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16
Mar
2021
Why Digital Fitness Companies Like Peloton and Tonal Are Exciting For Healthcare
A truism in healthcare is that a medicine only works if it’s taken. Unfortunately, many people don’t take the medicines they are prescribed. Adherence rates for many drugs – especially for preventive medicines like statins – tends to be remarkably low, as I’ve discussed in the New York Times. About half of patients who start taking statins to reduce their... Read More
15
Mar
2021
Software for the Cell & Gene Therapy Wave: Vineti’s Amy DuRoss on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Amy DuRoss. Amy is the co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Vineti. The company provides software to manage the delicate logistical dance for cell and gene therapies. Vineti has raised about $115 million in three venture rounds of financing. Its backers include Cardinal Health, the big medical distributor, as well as traditional venture... Read More
14
Mar
2021
One Vaccine Dose or Two? We Need Our Best Defenses Against the Variants
When there aren’t enough doses of vaccine to go around against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and you’re trying to protect as many people as possible as fast as possible, what’s the right thing to do? Does it make sense to take the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and give them as single shots, in order to stretch out our existing supplies and... Read More
11
Mar
2021
Novavax Shines, VIR Antibody Stays in the Game, and CDC Lightens Up
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10
Mar
2021
Once Vaccinated, What To Do With Masks?
Contributing editor: Chris Beyrer, MD Once I’m fully vaccinated, should I still wear a mask? This is probably the biggest public health policy question facing us today. It’s an issue each one of us will have to ask ourselves as the U.S. mass vaccination campaign continues to roll out, especially when many people around us aren’t yet fully vaccinated. ... Read More
9
Mar
2021
The Rise in Asian American Hate Crimes: A Biopharma Perspective and Call For Action
I have been a biopharma executive for 30 years. For the last 12 years, I’ve been living with Young-Onset Parkinson’s Disease. I have been an Asian American even longer…all my life. The biopharma industry has been very good to me, offering constant growth and opportunity for advancement and reinvention. My most recent job was in patient engagement. It suited me... Read More
8
Mar
2021
Signs of Life: Merck-Ridgeback COVID-19 Antiviral and Sanofi Universal Flu Vaccine
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8
Mar
2021
Science Policy Chat: Join Rep. Auchincloss and Me on Clubhouse Mar. 10
Science is poised for a comeback in the public mind. Most can agree that science, after years of getting beaten up, is leading us out of the crisis. It’s a source of national competitive advantage. This creates an opportunity to double down on investments, to test new ways of working, to shake some things up that need shaking. Mark your... Read More
4
Mar
2021
Mental Health: A New Frontier for Biotech
Mental health problems were mounting heading into this pandemic. Now, the challenges are bigger and coming in waves. There’s the grief. Think about all the family and friends of the more than 520,000 people who have died. There’s anxiety about getting infected. There’s depression, and loneliness, that stems from social distancing. Addictions to alcohol and drugs are on the rise... Read More
4
Mar
2021
What Pharma Data Scientists Can Learn from SpaceX, Health System Barriers, & the FDA
Three quick data science items: 1) How pharma companies could engage more constructively with data scientists. 2) How health system barriers to data sharing inhibit robust evaluation of the underlying science. 3) The savvy way the FDA is thinking about data science. Learning From SpaceX On Wednesday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX landed a prototype spacecraft vertically on the ground — a... Read More
3
Mar
2021
J&J Vaccine: One Dose Delivers Strong Immune Response and Protection
The mRNA vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna have understandably dominated the news, but this past week was Johnson & Johnson’s turn in the spotlight with another important contribution to the COVID-19 vaccination effort. The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee recommended, and the FDA authorized the vaccine, based on results from the 44,000-person Operation Warp Speed–sponsored ENSEMBLE clinical trial evaluating... Read More
3
Mar
2021
Bring on the AI-derived Antibodies: Aulos Envisions Way to Seize IL-2 Opportunity
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1
Mar
2021
J&J Vaccine OK’d, Morphic Nails Integrin Target, & AZ Grabs $1B for Moderna Shares
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.
1
Mar
2021
Investing in Manufacturing, Mental Health & More: Bob Nelsen on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Bob Nelsen. Bob is the co-founder and managing director of ARCH Venture Partners. He’s one of the most prolific, and successful, venture capitalists in biotech history. Bob likes to get involved in startups in the earliest days. He is willing to stick his neck out, and generally do things that might seem weird... Read More
1
Mar
2021
Tenaya Grabs $106M for Gene Therapy, Regenerative Medicines for the Heart
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.
27
Feb
2021
Digital Tools Helped Enable COVID-19 Vaccine Trials. What are the Lessons Learned?
Digital tools played a critical role in accelerating the development and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, according to leaders at the companies driving this effort. Speaking at a recent virtual panel discussion organized by the Galien Foundation (and available here), leaders from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna, and the CRO IQVIA shared their experiences leveraging digital tools for vaccine development. Data Deluge... Read More
27
Feb
2021
AI in Healthcare: Harvard’s Zak Kohane on What Innovators Are Missing
Despite, or perhaps because, of the incessant hype, it can be difficult to assess the impact AI is actually having in medicine. Enter Harvard’s Zak Kohane, who in a remarkably astute recent seminar, available on YouTube, highlighted the opportunities for AI in healthcare while revealing some of the ways AI is falling short – generally by being deployed in a... Read More
25
Feb
2021
Pfizer/BioNTech Ace Real-World Test, J&J Faces FDA Scrutiny, & Merck Pays Up
Vaccine news keeps getting better by the day. The number of new people being diagnosed with COVID-19 has been plummeting for weeks. That’s the good news. Read on and synthesize the most important financings, deals, and scientific developments of the week in biotech. Vaccines Let’s start with the best news of the week. Researchers from Israel reported on the Pfizer... Read More
24
Feb
2021
Comprehensive Policy for Infection: There Has Never Been a Better Time
The suffering from COVID-19 can be measured in multiple, sobering ways: Life expectancy in the US has fallen by a full year, according to the CDC. The economic cost – measured in reduced gross domestic product, premature death, and long-term disability – has been estimated at $16 trillion by economists David Cutler and Larry Summers at Harvard University. This week,... Read More