8
Dec
2020
VC Roundup: Microglia Targeting, RNA Processing, and Radiopharmaceutical Startups Raise Cash
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7
Dec
2020
Vaccine Trials: A Band of Brothers and Sisters
On Dec. 2, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article coauthored by many prominent medical scientists, including physicians, who advocated for extending the time in which volunteers in the placebo group enrolled in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 clinical trials should be followed. Essentially, they are arguing that the study volunteers – people who sacrificed for the... Read More
7
Dec
2020
This COVID-19 Long Hauler is Still Trying to Recover
Our daughter celebrated her 14th birthday on Mar. 14. It’s an event none of us will forget. Our family invited a few of her friends to join us for dinner in New York City to celebrate. Scary headlines about the COVID-19 outbreak in New York were everywhere in the days leading up to her birthday. We had to stop and... Read More
3
Dec
2020
AZ’s Muddy Result, Regeneron Cocktail OK’d, and Biogen, Sage Bet Big on Depression
Take two weeks between Frontpoints columns, and a lot of stuff happens. On Monday Nov. 23, AstraZeneca presented a muddy picture from its Phase III clinical trial with a COVID-19 vaccine developed on adenovirus technology with Oxford University. It’s either delivering 90 percent efficacy or 62 percent efficacy, depending on the dose. So it’s either great or good, but we’re... Read More
2
Dec
2020
Genesis Therapeutics, AI Drug Discovery Startup, Captures $52M Series A
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1
Dec
2020
Vaccine Scarcity: Buckle Up for Debate
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are likely to secure Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) from the FDA by Christmas. These are amazing gifts of science. They also arrive with high expectations from a weary public, especially since the clinical trials of these mRNA vaccines indicate near-complete protection from severe disease. These first two vaccines arrive at the most tumultuous time yet... Read More
1
Dec
2020
COVID-19 Drives New Push for CRISPR-Based Home Diagnostics
Though polymerase chain reaction, PCR, is regarded as the gold standard in molecular diagnostics, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken off some of the shine. Under normal circumstances, samples processed in commercial diagnostic labs that run standard PCR machines can take hours to yield results. In a pandemic, with a surge in demand for tests, turnaround times are creeping upward and... Read More
30
Nov
2020
The Weather Outside is Frightful and That’s Just the Half of It
I really miss waiters. I was recently talking, via the mixed blessing of Zoom, with the very awesome members of a women’s group to which I belong. Our full group of about 35 meets once a year. Normally, we do so in person, at a spa, where food is brought to us by actual waiters. Remember waiters? Man, I miss... Read More
30
Nov
2020
5AM, Atlas Join $40M Bet on Kinaset, a Pan-JAK Inhibitor for Severe Asthma
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.
25
Nov
2020
I Used to Report on Clinical Trials, Now I’m In One; Here’s Why I Volunteered
I am not brave. Once, I passed out after a routine blood draw for a diagnostic test. Ever since that first scary and embarrassing episode at a LabCorp location in Manhattan several years ago, the act of giving a blood sample, no matter how small, has been a source of anxiety. Will I break out in a cold sweat? Feel... Read More
24
Nov
2020
Getting Married in 2020. One of Many Difficult Family Decisions
So there it was, hanging in the closet. My carefully chosen bridal gown, with its lace in a delicate shade of ivory. Beside it was my bridal veil, featherlight, translucent, and freshly purchased just the day before the wedding. When Anna, my girlfriend, gingerly pinned it on my head, I heard the words of my mother sounding in my head.... Read More
23
Nov
2020
Medicines Based on Unusual Genetic Traits: Andrew Farnum on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Andrew Farnum. Andrew is the CEO of Seattle-based Variant Bio. Variant Bio is a startup seeking to discover new drugs, by finding gene variants in rare ethnic groups. It’s especially interested in what can be learned by sequencing exceptional groups of people in countries where there hasn’t been much sequencing. This is a... Read More
23
Nov
2020
A New Model for Vaccine Communications Grounded in Science and Empathy
With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths surging, the impressive vaccine results from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and now AstraZeneca arrive just in time to provide some needed hope. But for these vaccines to bring the pandemic to an end, enough people need to be willing to take them. That’s not a given. Various polls have told a story this year about a rising tide... Read More
20
Nov
2020
Why the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Studies Aren’t Limited to Severe Disease
[Editor’s Note: a version of this article was first published on Nov. 13 on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. —LT ] The COVID-19 Operation Warp Speed (OWS) trials have taken some criticism in the medical press, and lay press, for evaluating what some consider to be “trivial” characteristics of mild COVID-19 disease. Some are arguing that it would... Read More
20
Nov
2020
Moderna, Pfizer Nail COVID-19 Vaccines. Now Comes the Hard Part
It wasn’t the dominant headline it should have been, and few are in the mood to celebrate with the pandemic out of control, but this was a week to celebrate a monumental scientific victory that provides hope for 2021. Moderna dazzled everyone on Monday by reporting its mRNA vaccine candidate for COVID-19, developed in partnership with the National Institute for... Read More
18
Nov
2020
The mRNA Vaccine News is Good. But Let’s Keep Masks for Now
[Editor’s Note: a version of this article was first published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. —LT ] Clinical trials are usually designed to answer one or two specific questions. For the pivotal COVID-19 trials evaluating messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, researchers are looking at whether these vaccines prevent a person from getting sick, keep them... Read More
12
Nov
2020
Pfizer, BioNTech’s Watershed Moment, Lilly Antibody Gets EUA, & The Rebuilding Begins
First thing Monday, we all woke up to the brightest ray of light in this dark year. Pfizer and Germany-based BioNTech reported that their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19. The report was via press release, not peer-reviewed journal, but this was still a moment to celebrate. The interim analysis wasn’t based... Read More
11
Nov
2020
Creating the Future of Microbiome-Based Therapies: Simba Gill on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Simba Gill. Simba is the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Evelo Biosciences. Evelo is part of a new generation of biotech companies seeking to make medicines based on new understanding of the microbiome. The science here is fascinating. Evelo’s drug candidates are biologics designed to be taken orally, to act directly in the gut,... Read More
11
Nov
2020
So You Have a Cool Platform. The Next Decision Will Make or Break Your Company
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.
10
Nov
2020
Biotech Companies Acting on Promises to Increase Racial Diversity
First came the pandemic. Then the economic slump. Then the push for racial justice. Taken together, you have three major challenges for business leaders to tackle all at once. Because the pandemic has illuminated many racial inequalities, these issues have become intertwined. In the biopharma sector, many company leaders stepped up. Decisive moves were made to reorganize working patterns to... Read More