Bristol Myers backs a European VC’s record-setting biotech venture fund, which tops out at $600M

March 10, 2020 06:52 AM EDTUpdated 07:25 AM

Bristol Myers backs a European VC's record-setting biotech venture fund, which tops out at $600M

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

A European biotech venture group with a yen for transatlantic deals will face whatever is coming on the investment side of the business with a new fund that claims boasting rights as the largest life sciences fund ever raised on the continent.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

IDC: Life Sciences Firms Must Embrace Digital Transformation Now

James Allgood

Sr Product Marketing Manager, Life Sciences, Egnyte

Pre-pandemic, the life sciences industry had settled into a pattern. The average drug took 12 years and $2.9 billion to bring to market, and it was an acceptable mode of operations, according to Nimita Limaye, Research Vice President for Life Sciences R&D Strategy and Technology at IDC.

COVID-19 changed that, and served as a proof-of-concept for how technology can truly help life sciences companies succeed and grow, Limaye said. She recently spoke about industry trends at Egnyte’s Life Sciences Summit 2022. You should watch the entire session, free and on-demand, but here’s a brief recap of why she’s urging life sciences companies to embrace digital transformation.

Chris Sheldon, AstraZeneca's former VP and head of investor relations

August 16, 2022 01:48 PM EDTUpdated 04:54 PM

People

Pharma

AstraZeneca files lawsuit against former exec as he jumps to GSK

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

AstraZeneca and GSK are once again wrangling over talent.

The British pharma giant has filed suit against former VP and head of investor relations Chris Sheldon as he prepares to start a new job at its rival next month. AstraZeneca argued in a London court filing that Sheldon would be violating a non-compete agreement, which he was paid more than $774,000 in shares to sign back in 2021, Bloomberg reported.

Bayer's first DTC ad campaign for chronic kidney disease drug Kerendia spells out its benefits

August 17, 2022 02:17 PM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

Bayer aims to simplify the complexities of CKD with an ABC-themed ad campaign

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Do you know the ABCs of CKD in T2D? Bayer’s first ad campaign for Kerendia tackles the complexity of chronic kidney disease with a play on the acronym (CKD) and its connection to type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Kerendia was approved last year as the first and only non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist to treat CKD in people with type 2 diabetes.

In the TV commercial launched this week, A is for awareness, B is for belief and C is for cardiovascular, explained in the ad as awareness of the connection between type 2 and kidney disease, belief that something can be done about it, and cardiovascular events that may be reduced with treatment.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Head of Site Finance mRNA - Cell & Gene

Lonza

Geleen, Netherland

view job offer post your job now

James Mock, incoming CFO at Moderna

August 17, 2022 02:15 PM EDTUpdated 02:59 PM

People

Pharma

Moderna taps new CFO from PerkinElmer after former one-day CFO ousted

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

When Moderna hired a new CFO last year, it didn’t expect to see him gone after only one day. Today the biotech named his — likely much more vetted — replacement.

The mRNA company put out word early Wednesday that after the untimely departure of then brand-new CFO Jorge Gomez, it has now found a replacement in James Mock, the soon-to-be former CFO at diagnostics and analytics company PerkinElmer.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Joe Jonas (Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

August 17, 2022 01:14 PM EDTUpdated 02:43 PM

Pharma

Solo Jonas brother carries Merz's new tune in Botox rival campaign

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

As the lyrics of his band’s 2019 pop-rock single suggest, Joe Jonas is only human — and that means even he gets frown lines. The 33-year-old singer-songwriter is Merz’s newest celebrity brand partner for its Botox rival Xeomin, as medical aesthetics brands target a younger audience.

Merz kicked off its “Beauty on Your Terms” campaign on Tuesday, featuring the Jonas brother in a video ad for its double-filtered anti-wrinkle injection Xeomin.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Tom Barnes, Orna Therapeutics CEO

August 16, 2022 06:45 AM EDTUpdated 10:36 AM

Deals

UPDATED: 'We have failed to fail': Merck gambles $250M cash on a next-gen approach to mRNA — after punting its big alliance with Moderna

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Merck went in deep on its collaboration with Moderna on new mRNA programs, and dropped them all over time, including their RSV partnership. But after writing off what turned out as one of the most successful infectious disease players in the business, Merck is coming in this morning with a new preclinical alliance — this time embracing a biotech that hopes to eventually outdo the famously successful mRNA in a new run at vaccines and therapeutics.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Marisol Peron, Genmab SVP of communications and corporate affairs

August 17, 2022 11:20 AM EDTUpdated 05:34 PM

Pharma

Marketing

Genmab launches corporate campaign amplifying its ‘knock your socks off’ antibodies

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Genmab often talks about its “knock-your-socks-off” antibodies — and now the term is getting its own logo and corporate campaign.

The teal and purple logo for the acronym KYSO — Genmab pronounces it “ky-so” — debuts on Wednesday and comes on the heels of Genmab’s newly announced 2030 vision. That aspiration aims to expand Genmab’s drug development beyond oncology to include other serious diseases, while also doubling down on its own drug development.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Head of Quality Systems

Lonza

Lexington, MA, USA

view job offer post your job now

Kate Haviland, Blueprint Medicines CEO

August 17, 2022 11:10 AM EDT

R&D

Blueprint met all its endpoints in bid for expanded Ayvakit label — but stock trends lower anyway

Lei Lei Wu

News Reporter

Blueprint Medicines announced this morning that the second part of its study on Ayvakit in non-advanced systemic mastocytosis (SM) — a rare disease in which a type of white blood cells known as mast cells builds up — met all endpoints, but the biopharma left key questions unanswered.

In 212 patients, with 141 in the treatment arm and 71 in the control arm, patients who got Ayvakit saw an average 15.6-point decrease in their symptom scores compared to a 9.2-point decrease in the placebo arm at 24 weeks. In an extension study, those on Ayvakit saw their symptom scores drop by 20.2 points by week 48.

President Joe Biden signs the Democrats' landmark climate change and health care bill. From L-R: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL). (Susan Walsh/AP Images)

August 17, 2022 11:06 AM EDTUpdated 02:27 PM

Pharma

Law

President Biden signs major drug pricing reforms into law: What's coming for biopharma?

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

President Joe Biden yesterday afternoon signed into law historic, decades-in-the-making new drug pricing reforms as part of a wider reconciliation bill that will likely take a chunk out of biopharma companies’ profits for some blockbusters just prior to generic or biosimilar competition.

The partisan bill (all Democrats in the House and Senate voted for it, and all Republicans voted against it) includes not only Medicare price negotiations — which won’t kick off until 2026, leaving ample time for a legal challenge — but mandatory inflation-related rebates, and a $2,000 annual cap on what seniors’ pay for their prescription drugs.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 148,300+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.