Doing deals in a time of coronavirus: Biotech CEO Bill Haney says ‘you focus on the things that make a difference’

March 19, 2020 09:15 AM EDTUpdated 10:08 AM

Doing deals in a time of coronavirus: Biotech CEO Bill Haney says 'you focus on the things that make a difference'

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Bill Haney counts his blessings where he finds them these days.

As CEO of two biotechs — Skyhawk and Dragonfly — he’s had a front row seat to watch the “dramatic” impact the pandemic can have on operations. But he’s quick to offer thanks that no one in his two companies — or their families — have yet to be infected.

Yet.

“We know this challenge is coming for people we care about, and we’re concerned about that,” says Haney.

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Targeting a Potential Vulnerability of Certain Cancers with DNA Damage Response

Andree Blaukat

Every individual’s DNA is unique, and because of this, every patient responds differently to disease and treatment. It is astonishing how four tiny building blocks of our DNA – A, T, C, G – dictate our health, disease, and how we age.

The tricky thing about DNA is that it is constantly exposed to damage by sources such as ultraviolet light, certain chemicals, toxins, and even natural biochemical processes inside our cells.¹ If ignored, DNA damage will accumulate in replicating cells, giving rise to mutations that can lead to premature aging, cancer, and other diseases.

February 26, 2021 07:00 AM ESTUpdated 09:51 AM

Deals

Roivant parlays a $450M chunk of equity in biotech buyout, grabbing a computational group to drive discovery work

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

New Roivant CEO Matt Gline has crafted an all-equity upfront deal to buy out a Boston-based biotech that has been toiling for several years now at building a supercomputing-based computational platform to design new drugs. And he’s adding it to the Erector set of science operations that are being built up to support their network of biotech subsidiaries with an eye to growing the pipeline in a play to create a new kind of pharma company.

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Ken Frazier, Merck CEO (Bess Adler/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

February 25, 2021 07:43 AM ESTUpdated 10:46 AM

Deals

Pharma

UPDATED: Merck takes a swing at the IL-2 puzzlebox with a $1.85B play for buzzy Pandion and its autoimmune hopefuls

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

When Roger Perlmutter bid farewell to Merck late last year, the drugmaker perhaps best known now for sales giant Keytruda signaled its intent to take a swing at early-stage novelty with the appointment of discovery head Dean Li. Now, Merck is signing a decent-sized check to bring an IL-2 moonshot into the fold.

Merck will shell out roughly $1.85 billion for Pandion Pharmaceuticals, a biotech hoping to gin up regulatory T cells (Tregs) to treat a range of autoimmune disorders, the drugmaker said Thursday.

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February 26, 2021 06:27 AM ESTUpdated 09:50 AM

People

With dust settled on activist attack, Laurence Cooper leaves Ziopharm to a new board

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Laurence Cooper has done his part.

In the five years since he left a tenured position at Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center to become CEO of Boston-based Ziopharm, he’s steered the small-cap immunotherapy player through patient deaths in trials, clinical holds, short attacks and, most recently, an activist attack on the board.

So when the company has “fantastic news” like an IND clearance for a TCR T cell therapy program, he’s ready to pass on the baton.

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February 25, 2021 08:31 AM ESTUpdated 09:46 AM

Editor's note

Follow biotechs going public with the Endpoints News IPO Tracker

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

The Endpoints News team is continuing to track IPO filings for 2021, and we’ve designed a new tracker page for the effort.

Check it out here: Biopharma IPOs 2021 from Endpoints News

You’ll be able to find all the biotechs that have filed and priced so far this year, sortable by quarter and listed by newest first. As of the time of publishing on Feb. 25, there have already been 16 biotechs debuting on Nasdaq so far this year, with an additional four having filed their S-1 paperwork.

Steve Cutler, Icon CEO (Icon)

February 24, 2021 10:50 AM ESTUpdated 11:53 AM

Deals

In the biggest CRO takeover in years, Icon doles out $12B for PRA Health Sciences to focus on decentralized clinical work

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

Contract research M&A had a healthy run in recent years before recently petering out. But with the market ripe for a big buyout and the Covid-19 pandemic emphasizing the importance of decentralized trials, Wednesday saw a tectonic shift in the CRO world.

Icon, the Dublin-based CRO, will acquire PRA Health Sciences for $12 billion in a move that will shake up the highest rungs of a fragmented market. The merger would combine the 5th- and 6th-largest CROs by 2020 revenue, according to Icon, and the merger will set the newco up to be the second-largest global CRO behind only IQVIA.

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February 26, 2021 10:29 AM ESTUpdated 05:24 PM

Coronavirus

J&J adcomm live blog: Committee votes 22-0 to recommend an FDA OK for the J&J vaccine, setting up 3rd US Covid-19 jab

Jason Mast

Editor

The US could have a third authorized Covid-19 vaccine within hours.

The FDA’s advisory committee voted unanimously — 22-0 — to recommend the agency issue an emergency use authorization for J&J’s vaccine. If they follow the precedent of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, the FDA will likely authorize the vaccine by Saturday, immediately adding a few million doses to the US supply and adding a 100 million by June. An authorization would give the world its first single-dose vaccine, a major weapon in the effort to vaccinate the world and bring the virus to heel, particularly in rural and developing areas.

February 26, 2021 10:03 AM ESTUpdated 05:29 PM

Deals

R&D

Roche and Genentech researchers plot $53M discovery quest aimed at sparking a 'Holy moly' pivot in neuro R&D

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Roche and Genentech have committed $53 million to back a 10-year quest aimed at going back to the drawing board to use new technology and fresh scientific insights to generate a pipeline of drugs for neurological diseases.

Researchers from both Roche and its big South San Francisco hub — mixing teams from gRED and pRED this time — will mix it up with the scientists drawn together for the Weill Neurohub — formed in 2019 as a joint research partnership involving UCSF, Berkeley and the University of Washington — in an exploration of the field to develop new therapies for some of the toughest diseases in drug R&D: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, ALS and autism.

February 26, 2021 07:14 AM ESTUpdated 09:31 AM

Coronavirus

Covid-19 roundup: US secures 100,000 doses of Eli Lilly's antibody cocktail; Merck's $356M supply deal on hold as FDA asks for more data

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

A couple weeks after racking up its third EUA for a Covid-19 treatment — this one for its antibody cocktail — Eli Lilly has struck a deal with the US government for at least 100,000 doses.

The US will pay $210 million for doses of bamlanivimab and etesevimab, which will be delivered through March 31, Lilly said in a statement. The deal builds on 1.45 million doses of bamlanivimab alone that the US has already purchased, more than 1 million of which have been delivered. Another 450,000 doses of the single antibody are also expected to arrive by March 31.

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