Biotech en­tre­pre­neurs Arie Bellde­grun and Cedric Fran­cois test pos­i­tive for Covid-19 — and here's why they want you to know

Arie Bellde­grun, one of the best known en­tre­pre­neurs in biotech, has test­ed pos­i­tive for coro­n­avirus.

In a state­ment out late Fri­day, the 71-year-old Bellde­grun — who co-found­ed Al­lo­gene af­ter sell­ing Kite to Gilead for $11.9 bil­lion — said he had self-quar­an­tined af­ter de­vel­op­ing a cough and a “tran­sient low-grade fever.” A test on Fri­day showed he was pos­i­tive for Covid-19.

And he’s not alone. Over the week­end Cedric Fran­cois, the CEO and co-founder of Apel­lis, a Ken­tucky biotech that lists its main of­fice in Waltham, MA, added him­self to the list of biotech ex­ecs with a con­firmed case of Covid-19. Fran­cois had at­tend­ed the Cowen health­care con­fer­ence, where at least 1 Bio­gen ex­ec at­tend­ed while sick with the virus.

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