An ‘innocent bystander’ in the booming biotech investor world is writing a blank check for $100M. Who’s going to cash it?

November 3, 2020 11:04 AM EST

An ‘innocent bystander’ in the booming biotech investor world is writing a blank check for $100M. Who’s going to cash it?

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Srini Akkaraju’s LinkedIn profile describes his work as a “biotech investor (aka innocent bystander)” with tongue-in-cheek modesty. But he’s been deeply steeped in the ways of venture investing since leaving a BD job at Genentech in 2001, following a career path that wound through New Leaf and Sofinnova Ventures in Menlo Park. And now he’s executing a quick flip on Wall Street for the latest in a series of biotech blank check companies to debut this year.

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Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos (via Getty Images)

November 27, 2020 09:56 AM ESTUpdated 01:36 PM

Deals

With aducanumab caught on a cliff, Biogen’s Michel Vounatsos bets billions on another high-risk neuro play

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

With its FDA pitch on the Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab hanging perilously close to disaster, Biogen is rolling the dice on a $3.1 billion deal that brings in commercial rights to one of the other spotlight neuro drugs in late-stage development — after it already failed its first Phase III.

The big biotech has turned to Sage Therapeutics for its latest deal, close to a year after the crushing failure of Sage-217, now dubbed zuranolone, in the MOUNTAIN study.

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Pascal Soriot (AP Images)

November 23, 2020 05:43 AM ESTUpdated 02:00 PM

Coronavirus

AstraZeneca, Oxford on the defensive as skeptics dismiss 70% average efficacy for Covid-19 vaccine

Amber Tong

Editor

On the third straight Monday that the world wakes up to positive vaccine news, AstraZeneca and Oxford are declaring a new Phase III milestone in the fight against the pandemic. Not everyone is convinced they will play a big part, though.

With an average efficacy of 70%, the headline number struck analysts as less impressive than the 95% and 94.5% protection that Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have boasted in the past two weeks, respectively. But the British partners say they have several other bright spots going for their candidate. One of the two dosing regimens tested in Phase III showed a better profile, bringing efficacy up to 90%; the adenovirus vector-based vaccine requires minimal refrigeration, which may mean easier distribution; and AstraZeneca has pledged to sell it at a fraction of the price that the other two vaccine developers are charging.

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Jason Kelly, Ginkgo Bioworks CEO (Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

November 25, 2020 11:48 AM EST

Coronavirus

Manufacturing

After Kodak debacle, US lends $1.1B to a synthetic biology company and their big Covid-19, mRNA plans

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

In mid-August, as Kodak’s $765 million government-backed push into drug manufacturing slowly fell apart in national headlines, Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly got a message from his company’s government liaison: HHS wanted to know if they, too, might want a loan.

The government’s decision to lend Kodak three quarters of a billion dollars raised eyebrows because Kodak had never made drugs before. But Ginkgo, while not a manufacturing company, had spent the last decade refining new ways to produce materials inside cells and building automated facilities across Boston.

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Michelle Longmire, Medable CEO (Jeff Rumans)

November 24, 2020 11:14 AM EST

Venture

Medable gets $91M for virtual clinical trials, bringing total raise to $136M

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

As biotechs look to get clinical studies back on track amid the pandemic, Medable returned to the venture well for the second time this year, bagging a $91 million Series C to build out its virtual trial platform.

The software provider recently launched three new apps for decentralizing clinical trials, and saw a 500% revenue spike this year. And it isn’t alone. Back in August, Science 37 secured a $40 million round for its virtual trial tech, with support from Novartis, Sanofi Ventures and Amgen. Patients and researchers are taking a liking to the online approach, suggesting regulators could allow it to become a new normal even after the pandemic is over.

Feng Tian, Ambrx CEO (Ambrx)

November 24, 2020 10:28 AM EST

Venture

Startups

After 5 quiet years, a former Scripps spinout raises $200M and announces plans to try again at an IPO

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

The first time San Diego biotech Ambrx tried to go public in 2014, they failed and the company’s board switched to a radically different strategy: They sold themselves for an undisclosed amount to a syndicate of Chinese investors and pharma companies.

Now, after 5 quiet years, that syndicate has raised a mountain of cash and indicated they’ll soon make another bid to go public.

Earlier this month, Ambrx raised $200 million in what they billed as a crossover round financed by Fidelity, BlackRock, Cormorant Asset Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Invus, Adage Capital Partners and Suvretta Capital Management. It’s the largest amount they’ve ever raised and, according to Crunchbase figures, more than doubles the total amount of VC capital collected since their launch 17 years ago.

November 24, 2020 08:37 AM EST

Bioregnum

Regulatory

The aducanumab conundrum: The PhIII failed a clear regulatory standard, but no one is certain what that means anymore at the FDA

Eighteen days ago, virtually all of the outside experts on an FDA adcomm got together to mug the agency’s Billy Dunn and the Biogen team when they presented their upbeat assessment on aducanumab. But here we are, more than 2 weeks later, and the ongoing debate over that Alzheimer’s drug’s fate continues unabated.

Instead of simply ruling out any chance of an approval, the logical conclusion based on what we heard during that session, a series of questionable approvals that preceded the controversy over the agency’s recent EUA decisions has come back to haunt the FDA, where the power of precedent is leaving an opening some experts believe can still be exploited by the big biotech.

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John Maraganore, Alnylam CEO (Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

November 23, 2020 08:04 PM ESTUpdated 09:21 AM

Pharma

Regulatory

Alnylam gets the green light from the FDA for drug #3 — and CEO John Maraganore is ready to roll

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Score another early win at the FDA for Alnylam.

The FDA put out word today that the agency has approved its third drug, lumasiran, for primary hyperoxaluria type 1, better known as PH1. The news comes just 4 days after the European Commission took the lead in offering a green light.

An ultra rare genetic condition, Alnylam CEO John Maraganore says there are only some 1,000 to 1,700 patients in the US and Europe at any particular point. The patients, mostly kids, suffer from an overproduction of oxalate in the liver that spurs the development of kidney stones, right through to end stage kidney disease.

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Bob Nelsen (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images)

November 23, 2020 11:52 AM ESTUpdated 02:51 PM

Startups

Bob Nelsen raises $800M and recruits a star-studded board to build the 'Foxconn' of biotech

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

Bob Nelsen spent his pandemic spring in his Seattle home, talking on the phone with Luciana Borio, the scientist who used to run pandemic preparedness on the National Security Council, and fuming with her about the dire state of American manufacturing.

Companies were rushing to develop vaccines and antibodies for the new virus, but even if they succeeded, there was no immediate supply chain or infrastructure to mass-produce them in a way that could make a dent in the outbreak.

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Peter Thiel (Riccardo Savi/Sipa via AP Images)

November 23, 2020 10:35 AM ESTUpdated 11:48 AM

Venture

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel backs a leading psychedelic drug developer

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Right on the heels of investing in antibody drug developer AbCellera, Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel has jumped into a syndicate putting up $125 million for a company with a portfolio of psychedelic drugs in the clinic for mental health.

The C round — which includes a $32 million conversion of notes to equity — will fuel the development programs at ATAI Life Sciences, a Berlin-based biotech that has assembled a portfolio of companies with psychedelic and non-psychedilc approaches to depression, anxiety and addiction.

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