→ The needle on the Maraganore Meter is moving again, as John Maraganore keeps collecting more post-Alnylam roles. First, he and BeiGene co-founder Peter Ho will be strategic advisors for Hillhouse-backed China startup Overland Pharmaceuticals, founded by Hua Mu and Ed Zhang. (By the way, Zhang has been named permanent CEO of Overland this week after the one-time COO and CBO served as interim chief since May.) Next, Maraganore has been elected to the board of directors at protein degradation biotech Kymera Therapeutics — a board chaired by Bruce Booth that includes Don Nicholson and outgoing Blueprint Medicines CEO Jeff Albers.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 163,900+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Cytokinetics’ candidate for the muscle disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, failed a Phase III trial, the Bay Area biotech announced Friday morning.

At a second interim analysis of the trial, an independent review committee recommended that Cytokinetics discontinue its COURAGE-ALS trial for reldesemtiv, as it “found no evidence of effect” compared to placebo on the primary or key secondary endpoints.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 163,900+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

In the early 1990s, Mathai Mammen was a teaching assistant in Greg Verdine’s Science B46 course at Harvard. In June, the former R&D head at Johnson & Johnson will succeed Verdine as CEO, president and chair of FogPharma, the same month the seven-year-old biotech kickstarts its first clinical trial.

After leading R&D at one of the largest drugmakers in the world, taking the company through more than half a dozen drug approvals in the past few years, not to mention a Covid-19 vaccine race, Mammen departed J&J last month and will take the helm of a Cambridge, MA biotech attempting to go after what Verdine calls the “true emperor of all oncogenes” — beta-catenin.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 163,900+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Jim Mullen is in, by his count, his third or fourth “long, cold winter in biotech investing.” But that’s not stopping the ex-Biogen CEO from finding flickers of light.

Earlier this week, private equity player Advent International announced that Mullen had joined as an operating partner — its term for independent advisors who bring industry experience.

Mullen told Endpoints News in an interview that he’s been doing advising work for a number of private equity firms and enjoyed it.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 163,900+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Molecular Templates is ridding itself of a Phase I HER2 asset and fine-tuning its pipeline to focus on three programs and a preclinical Bristol Myers Squibb collaboration. With the narrowed scope on its so-called engineered toxin bodies, the Austin, TX biotech is laying off about half of its staff.

That’s a little more than 100 employees, per an SEC filing. Molecular’s layoffs, approved by its board Wednesday, add to the dozens of pullbacks in the industry in the first three months of 2023.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 163,900+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN