2017 gets start­ed with a bang as we get a glimpse of the good, the bad and the ug­ly

End­points as­sess­es the big bio­phar­ma R&D sto­ries of the week, with a lit­tle added com­men­tary on what they mean for the in­dus­try.

Pre-JPM biotech news burst un­der­scores a strong start to 2017, for the pri­vate side

Brad Lon­car not­ed on Twit­ter ear­li­er to­day that there’s been a dearth of pub­lic biotech news ahead of the big JP Mor­gan con­fab next week. But the pri­vate side has been any­thing but qui­et. Case in point: George Scan­gos quick piv­ot from CEO at Bio­gen to chief of a start­up called Vir Biotech­nol­o­gy. Arch has al­ready com­mit­ted $150 mil­lion in back­ing, and Gates and oth­ers will add hun­dreds of mil­lions more. The news, along­side a blast of new de­vel­op­ments that dom­i­nat­ed this short work week, un­der­scores that the fund­ing side in biotech re­mains ac­tive, even as pub­lic biotechs con­tin­ue to face a dif­fi­cult and un­for­giv­ing mar­ket. We count that as a glass more than half full, which is a good way to start the year.

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