Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (Credit: Jamie Scott Lytle)

A stem cell pi­o­neer sent an ex­per­i­ment in­to space. Pa­tients are the next fron­tier

Last July, Jeanne Loring stood on a dirt road surrounded by Florida swampland and watched as a nearby SpaceX rocket blasted into the sky. The payload included a very personal belonging: cell clusters mimicking parts of her brain.

For more than two decades, Loring has been at the forefront of a stem cell field that always seems on the brink of becoming the next thing in medicine, but has been slow to lift off.

Endpoints Premium

Premium subscription required

Unlock this article along with other benefits by subscribing to one of our paid plans.

Image courtesy of The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

Pro­tect­ing the glob­al phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­no­va­tion ecosys­tem – what’s at stake?

We are living in a new era of healthcare that is rapidly advancing progress impacting patient outcomes and experiences. We’ve seen a remarkable pace of transformational innovation, applied research, and advanced clinical development over the last decade.

Despite this tremendous progress, there is much more work to be done, and patients are counting on us – now more than ever – to continue that momentum. At the heart of our industry is a focus on developing and delivering medicines for some of the world’s most challenging diseases, including those that have few or no effective treatments today.

Roger Perlmutter, Eikon Therapeutics CEO

Roger Perl­mut­ter builds Eikon's pipeline with deal-mak­ing flur­ry, rais­ing $106M more

Eikon Therapeutics announced three business development deals on Thursday, effectively dropping in a pipeline of cancer drugs alongside more than $100 million in fresh funding.

The Hayward, CA-based company has become one of biotech’s richest startups since its 2019 founding, having raised nearly $775 million. It’s developing a massive, automated research approach built around Nobel Prize-winning microscope science to peer inside cells and watch proteins in action. After its Series B last year, PitchBook reported a $3.02 billion valuation. And while CEO Roger Perlmutter declined to comment on that figure, he said its first tranche of nearly $106 million in Series C funding is a “meaningful step-up to our Series B valuation.”

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

RA Cap­i­tal-backed non-vi­ral gene ther­a­py start­up Sum­ma­tion Bio to shut down

As a string of new gene therapy startups aims to create treatments without the go-to shuttling method of an AAV virus, and as multiple gene editing biotechs look to do the same, one such startup is coming to a close.

Summation Bio, backed by at least $24 million in Series A funds, is “terminating operations” next month, per an employee’s LinkedIn profile update. (According to their LinkedIn profile, an employee said the company raised $60 million in the round.) Another employee took to the networking site last week to say the circumstances were “insurmountable,” noting that “despite all-out effort and error-free execution, the science, this time, was elusive.”

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Bausch + Lomb to pro­mote three SVPs to ex­ec­u­tive team

Bausch + Lomb is making more executive change-ups, including the promotion of three of its senior VPs that will report directly to CEO Brent Saunders.

Earlier this year, Saunders returned to lead Bausch + Lomb and its roughly 12,000 employees after originally running the company from 2010 to 2013.

Bausch + Lomb said Thursday that Luc Bonnefoy, John Ferris and Yang Yang — the leaders of its surgical, consumer and vision care businesses, respectively — will join the executive management team and report directly to Saunders. It also said that Joseph Gordon, head of global consumer, surgical and vision care, is now a strategic advisor to Saunders.

Endpoints Premium

Premium subscription required

Unlock this article along with other benefits by subscribing to one of our paid plans.

Far­al­lon says it's won all de­sired board seats from Ex­elix­is af­ter share­hold­er vote

Less than two months after Farallon Capital Management launched a proxy fight to gain control of three seats on cancer biotech Exelixis’ board, it got what it wanted at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

The hedge fund said Wednesday that preliminary results at Exelixis’ annual shareholder meeting elected all three of Farallon’s candidates to the board: Tom Heyman, Dave Johnson and Bob Oliver.

Endpoints Premium

Premium subscription required

Unlock this article along with other benefits by subscribing to one of our paid plans.

Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­ment calls mem­ber states to ac­tion on an­timi­cro­bial re­sis­tance

Members of the European Parliament have called on EU countries to develop national action plans against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), calling it a top-three priority health threat.

Parliament on Thursday announced recommendations for the fight against AMR, including national action plans that must be updated at least every two years, an EU-level database tracking AMR and antimicrobial use and increased partnership between the pharma industry, patient groups and academia.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

San­doz plans to stay lo­cal af­ter No­var­tis sep­a­ra­tion, se­lect­ing new HQ in Basel

Sandoz, a generics maker that Novartis plans to spin off later this year, has picked its new headquarters — and it’s only 2.4 miles away from its current digs on the Novartis campus.

The Novartis unit said Thursday that it plans to move to an office building in Basel called Elsässertor sometime in mid-2024.

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said in a news release that the location in the heart of Basel “will allow us to create a working environment that meets our business needs,” citing the talent pool in the Swiss city. Sandoz added that the workspace is designed to allow for “closer collaboration and teamwork.”

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Bay­er buys li­cense to Cedil­la pre­clin­i­cal can­cer pro­gram; MEI Phar­ma says no to un­so­licit­ed of­fer

Bayer has acquired exclusive rights to Cedilla Therapeutics’ preclinical cancer drug candidates for an undisclosed amount.

Bayer announced Thursday morning that it is acquiring the license for Cedilla’s preclinical Cyclin E1/CDK2 complex inhibitors. Cyclin E1 activates CDK2, and the two drive cancer progression and are overexpressed in cancer cells.

Bayer did not disclose what indications it will be pursuing under this partnership. The deal is structured traditionally — Bayer will pay Cedilla an undisclosed amount upfront, and the latter is also eligible for potential development and commercial milestones and royalties. — Lei Lei Wu

Endpoints Premium

Premium subscription required

Unlock this article along with other benefits by subscribing to one of our paid plans.

Roche plans to di­vest from lega­cy Genen­tech man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty in Cal­i­for­nia

Roche is planning to make some changes to its subsidiary’s manufacturing network in California.

The Swiss pharma announced Wednesday that it plans to divest from Genentech’s manufacturing facility in Vacaville, CA, around 58 miles northeast of San Francisco. According to a statement from Roche, the move is part of a “broader strategy” to bring its manufacturing capabilities in line with its future pipeline. Roche is starting the process of finding a buyer for the site but has not named any candidates yet.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.