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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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
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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
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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