Josh Bilenker and Jeff Engelman bundle a mother lode of cash for their stealthy startup, attracting a who’s who of biotech investors

Josh Bilenker, Endpoints JPM 2020

May 4, 2021 08:22 AM EDTUpdated 10:58 AM

Josh Bilenker and Jeff Engelman bundle a mother lode of cash for their stealthy startup, attracting a who's who of biotech investors

Josh Bilenker and Jeff Engelman won’t be worrying about money for their stealthy startup anytime soon.

Late last week the pair filed a Form D for their new biotech Treeline Biosciences outlining a $212 million raise for their new company — which Bilenker founded around the time he ejected from his top position at Eli Lilly’s oncology group.

Their plan is to top out the raise at $220 million, but with Bilenker’s list of marquee investors on board for his latest creation, that won’t be much of a stretch.

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July 27, 2021 07:03 AM EDT

R&D

In Focus

How one startup foretold the neuroscience renaissance after '50 years of shitshow'

Max Gelman

Editor

In the past couple of years, something curious has happened: Pharma and VC dollars started gushing into neuroscience research.

Biogen’s controversial new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm has been approved on the basis of removing amyloid plaque from the brain, but the new neuro-focused pharma and biotechs have much loftier aims. Significantly curbing or even curing the most notorious disorders would prove the Holy Grail for a complex system that has tied the world’s best drug developers in knots for decades.

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Ryan Watts, Denali CEO

July 26, 2021 07:36 AM EDTUpdated 08:11 AM

R&D

Denali slips as a snapshot of early data raises some troubling questions on its pioneering blood-brain barrier neuro work

Max Gelman

Editor

Denali Therapeutics had drummed up considerable hype for their blood-brain barrier technology since launching over six years ago, hype that’s only intensified in the last 14 months following the publications of a pair of papers last spring and proof of concept data earlier this year. On Sunday, the South San Francisco-based biotech gave the biopharma world the next look at in-human data for its lead candidate in Hunter syndrome.

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Why is Oncology Drug Development Research Late to the Digital Biomarkers Game?

Tyler Guthrie

During the recent Annual ASCO Meeting, thousands of cancer researchers and clinicians from across the globe joined together virtually to present and discuss the latest findings and breakthroughs in cancer research and care. There were more than 5000+ scientific abstracts presented during this event, yet only a handful involved the use of motion-tracking wearables to collect digital measures relating to activity, sleep, mobility, functional status, and/or quality of life. Although these results were a bit disappointing, they should come as no surprise to those of us in the wearable technology field.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director-Regulatory

Icosavax, Inc.

Seattle, WA, USA

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Bob Bradway, Amgen CEO (Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

July 27, 2021 04:47 PM EDTUpdated 05:04 PM

Deals

Amgen bellies back up to the M&A table for another biotech buyout, this time with a $2.5B deal for an antibody player focused on PSMA

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Five months after Amgen CEO Bob Bradway stepped up to the M&A table and acquired Five Prime for $1.9 billion, following up with the smaller Rodeo acquisition, he’s gone back in for another biotech buyout.

This time around, Amgen is paying $900 million cash while committing up to $1.6 billion in milestones to bag the privately held Teneobio, an antibody drug developer that has expertise in developing new bispecifics and multispecifics. In addition, Amgen cited Teneobio’s “T-cell engager platform, which expands on Amgen’s existing leadership position in bispecific T-cell engagers by providing a differentiated, but complementary, approach to Amgen’s current BiTE platform.”

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Art Levinson (Calico)

July 27, 2021 10:58 AM EDTUpdated 11:14 AM

Deals

R&D

Google-backed Calico doubles down on anti-aging R&D pact with AbbVie as partners ante up $1B, start to detail drug targets

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Seven years after striking up a major R&D alliance, AbbVie and Google-backed anti-aging specialist Calico are doubling down on their work with a joint, $1 billion commitment to continuing their work together. And they’re also beginning to offer some details on where this project is taking them in the clinic.

According to their statement, each of the two players is putting up $500 million more to keep the labs humming.

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July 27, 2021 07:21 AM EDT

FDA+

Coronavirus

Businesses and schools can mandate the use of Covid-19 vaccines under EUAs, DOJ says

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

As public and private companies stare down the reality of the Delta variant, many are now requiring that their employees or students be vaccinated against Covid-19 prior to attending school or to returning or starting a new job. Claims that such mandates are illegal or cannot be used for vaccines under emergency use authorizations have now been dismissed.

Setting the record straight, the Department of Justice on Monday called the mandates legal in a new memo, even when used for people with vaccines that remain subject to EUAs.

Ugur Sahin, BioNTech CEO (Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP Images)

July 27, 2021 07:07 AM EDT

R&D

Manufacturing

BioNTech is spearheading an mRNA vaccine development program for malaria, with a tech transfer planned for Africa

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Flush with the success of its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, BioNTech is now gearing up for one of the biggest challenges in vaccine development — which comes without potential profit.

The German mRNA pioneer says it plans to work on a jab for malaria, then transfer the tech to the African continent, where it will work with partners on developing the manufacturing ops needed to make this and other vaccines.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director, High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Drug Discovery Group

Pliant Therapeutics

South San Francisco, CA, USA

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July 24, 2021 06:00 AM EDT

Weekly

Novartis reshuffles its wild cards; Tough sell for Biogen? Googling proteins; Ken Frazier's new gig; and more

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

If you enjoy the People section in this report, you may also want to check out Peer Review, my colleagues Alex Hoffman and Kathy Wong’s comprehensive compilation of comings and goings in biopharma.

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Frank Pallone (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP Images)

July 26, 2021 03:34 PM EDT

FDA+

House committee seeks more from FDA on inspection backlog, when to restart work on foreign sites

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

House Energy & Commerce committee leaders are raising fresh questions about the FDA’s ability to conduct foreign manufacturing site inspections and bring down its growing backlog.

“While we understand that the emergence of COVID-19 required the agency to suspend in-person inspection activities temporarily, we remain concerned that more than one year into the pandemic, the strategy for resuming all inspections and addressing the backlog of delayed inspections remains unclear,” E&C chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and a group of five other bipartisan leaders of the committee wrote to FDA acting commissioner Janet Woodcock.