In­sti­tu­tion­al re­search is flawed. I'm team­ing with End­points to help de­moc­ra­tize it

As some­one who con­sumes a lot of re­search, it has be­come in­creas­ing­ly clear to me that this is an in­dus­try reach­ing on­ly a frac­tion of its full po­ten­tial. The re­search mar­ket is ripe for dis­rup­tion.

Con­sid­er the fol­low­ing:

  • Sell-side re­search (Wall Street re­search) is not al­ways in­de­pen­dent and can be in­flu­enced by bank­ing re­la­tion­ships a firm has with the com­pa­nies it cov­ers.
  • Most re­search is on­ly avail­able to in­vestor clients of the spe­cif­ic bank. Many po­ten­tial con­sumers are be­ing shut out. Com­pa­nies with no bank­ing needs, foun­da­tions, and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions want ac­cess to first-rate re­search as well. Those who don’t trade stocks and gen­er­ate re­sult­ing fees need not be left out.
  • There are many in­de­pen­dent KOL’s who bring unique ex­per­tise to a spe­cif­ic re­search top­ic that would be valu­able if shared wide­ly. How­ev­er, most do not have the dis­tri­b­u­tion net­work avail­able to make it pos­si­ble.
  • The re­search busi­ness is go­ing through im­por­tant fun­da­men­tal change. A new law im­ple­ment­ed in Eu­rope re­quires that clients pay for re­search di­rect­ly rather than through trad­ing fees. This means that the con­sump­tion of re­search and the val­ue placed on it in the fu­ture will be more close­ly aligned with the qual­i­ty of con­tent (as it should be). It al­so means that by tak­ing the trad­ing desk re­la­tion­ship out of the equa­tion, the brand name of the in­sti­tu­tion be­hind it mat­ters much less…if at all. Con­tent is king.

All of this can be done a bet­ter way. That is why I want­ed to team up with an in­de­pen­dent me­dia or­ga­ni­za­tion like End­points News to cre­ate a plat­form that can de­moc­ra­tize and change the re­search busi­ness. End­points is a first-class pub­lish­er with a unique fo­cus on biotech who shares this vi­sion of chang­ing re­search for the bet­ter.


Vis­it End­points Ex­change

To­geth­er via End­points Ex­change, we will make it pos­si­ble for any­one with unique ex­per­tise to cre­ate ex­cel­lent re­search for in­sti­tu­tion­al con­sump­tion and get it in the hands of all who are will­ing to pay. For con­sumers out there, all are wel­come here…no bank­ing re­la­tion­ship re­quired. We are re­mov­ing the in­ef­fi­cien­cies and bi­as­es of the cur­rent sys­tem out of the equa­tion and de­moc­ra­tiz­ing it on both sides. This will be re­search by the biotech com­mu­ni­ty for the biotech com­mu­ni­ty.

If you are an ex­pert in a par­tic­u­lar field, please reach out to us if you would like to share your in­sights with the biotech world. We want to help max­i­mize your ex­po­sure and im­pact. How­ev­er, End­points Ex­change will have a rig­or­ous eval­u­a­tion process and ac­cep­tance pol­i­cy. We cur­rent­ly plan to make avail­able on­ly one re­port at a time be­cause our goal is to show­case on­ly the best of the best. This il­lus­trates our qual­i­ty com­mit­ment to con­sumers and will al­so ben­e­fit pub­lish­ers who make the cut by giv­ing them the strongest spot­light pos­si­ble.

And if you are one of those un­der­served con­sumers, we hope you en­joy what our ex­perts have to share. Hav­ing the high­est stan­dards and a rig­or­ous qual­i­ty fil­ter­ing process is a top pri­or­i­ty. We will be very thought­ful about what re­ports find a home here so you can be con­fi­dent that this will be a place of ex­cel­lence. Our com­mit­ment to you is that any re­port that makes End­points Ex­change will be wor­thy your valu­able at­ten­tion.

We hope you en­joy End­points Ex­change and that it will be­come a valu­able new as­set for the biotech com­mu­ni­ty. Please al­ways let us know how we can im­prove this plat­form over time to bet­ter fit your needs.

Brad Lon­car is an in­de­pen­dent biotech­nol­o­gy in­vestor and an­a­lyst. He can be reached on Twit­ter at @brad­lon­car.

AUTHOR

Brad Loncar

CEO, Loncar Investments

Forge Bi­o­log­ics’ cGMP Com­pli­ant and Com­mer­cial­ly Vi­able Be­spoke Affin­i­ty Chro­matog­ra­phy Plat­form

Forge Biologics has developed a bespoke affinity chromatography platform approach that factors in unique vector combinations to streamline development timelines and assist our clients in efficiently entering the clinic. By leveraging our experience with natural and novel serotypes and transgene conformations, we are able to accelerate affinity chromatography development by nearly 3-fold. Many downstream purification models are serotype-dependent, demanding unique and time-consuming development strategies for each AAV gene therapy product1. With the increasing demand to propel AAV gene therapies to market, platform purification methods that support commercial-scale manufacturing of high-quality vectors with excellent safety and efficacy profiles are essential.

Mathai Mammen, FogPharma's next CEO

Math­ai Mam­men hands in J&J's R&D keys to lead Greg Ver­dine’s Fog­Phar­ma 

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.

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Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee lobs more bi­par­ti­san pres­sure on­to PBMs

Congress is honing in on how it wants to overhaul the rules of the road for pharmacy benefit managers, with a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday serving as the latest example of the Hill’s readiness to make changes to how pharma middlemen operate.

While pledging to ensure patients and pharmacies “don’t get a raw deal,” Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) laid out the beginning of what looks like a major bipartisan effort — moves the PBM industry is likely to challenge vigorously.

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Nicklas Westerholm, Egetis Therapeutics CEO

Ac­qui­si­tion talks on­go­ing for Swedish rare dis­ease biotech Egetis, shares up al­most 40%

Shares of the Sweden-based rare disease biotech Egetis Therapeutics skyrocketed on Thursday afternoon as the company said it’s engaged in “ongoing discussion” with external parties regarding a “potential acquisition.”

Egetis confirmed rumors with a statement on Thursday while noting that there is no certainty that a takeover offer will be made.

Nonetheless, the possibility of an acquisition has shot up Egetis’ share price. By the afternoon on Thursday, its stock price was {$EGTX.ST} up over 38%. An Egetis spokesperson told Endpoints News in an email that it has no further comments.

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Lu­pus drug de­vel­op­ment mar­ket heat­ing up, while FDA links with ad­vo­ca­cy group to fur­ther ac­cel­er­ate re­search

The long-underserved systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) market is suddenly buzzing with treatment possibilities. Less than two years after AstraZeneca’s approval for Saphnelo — the first new SLE drug in a decade and joining just one other approved in GSK’s Benlysta – the pipeline of potential drugs numbers in the dozens.

Although most are very early stage — Spherix Global Insights estimates five in Phase II/III — the pharma R&D enthusiasm is catching on among doctors, patients and advocacy groups. On Wednesday, the Lupus Research Alliance and the FDA formed a novel private-public partnership called Lupus Accelerating Breakthroughs Consortium (Lupus ABC) to help advance lupus clinical trial success.

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Stéphane Bancel, Moderna CEO (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Mod­er­na so­lid­i­fies deal with Kenya to build mR­NA man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty

The mRNA player Moderna is further cementing its presence on the African continent.

Moderna announced on Thursday that it has finalized an agreement with Kenya’s government to partner up and bring an mRNA manufacturing facility to the east African nation. The new facility aims to manufacture up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually. Moderna also said the new facility will have the ability to spike its production capabilities to respond to public health emergencies on the continent or globally.

Luke Miels, GSK chief commercial officer

GSK picks up Scynex­is' FDA-ap­proved an­ti­fun­gal drug for $90M up­front

GSK is dishing out $90 million cash to add an antifungal drug to its commercial portfolio, in a deal spotlighting the pharma giant’s growing focus on infectious diseases.

The upfront will lock in an exclusive license to Scynexis’ Brexafemme, which was approved in 2021 to treat a yeast infection known as vulvovaginal candidiasis, except in China and certain other countries where Scynexis already out-licensed the drug.

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CSL CEO Paul McKenzie (L) and CMO Bill Mezzanotte

Q&A: New­ly-mint­ed CSL chief ex­ec­u­tive Paul McKen­zie and chief med­ical of­fi­cer Bill Mez­zan­otte

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Boehringer re­ports ro­bust sales led by type 2 di­a­betes and pul­monary drugs, promis­es more to come high­light­ing obe­si­ty

Boehringer Ingelheim reported human pharma sales of €18.5 billion on Wednesday, led by type 2 diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance and pulmonary fibrosis med Ofev. Jardiance sales reached €5.8 billion, growing 39% year over year, while Ofev took in €3.2 billion, notching its own 20.6% annual jump.

However, Boehringer is also looking ahead with its pipeline, estimating “In the next seven years the company expects about 20 regulatory approvals in human pharma.”