Leena Gand­hi steps out of Keytru­da spot­light and in­to a top re­search job at I/O lag­gard Eli Lil­ly

Two weeks ago, Leena Gand­hi was in the spot­light at AACR with the lat­est land­mark da­ta on Mer­ck’s Keytru­da/chemo com­bo for front­line lung can­cer. That pack­age end­ed up out­shin­ing a ri­val play from Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb as Mer­ck con­tin­ued to con­sol­i­date its lead po­si­tion in the field. 

To­day, we find out that Gand­hi, an in­ves­ti­ga­tor at the Perl­mut­ter Can­cer Cen­ter at NYU Lan­gone Health and a Dana-Far­ber vet, has been re­cruit­ed by none oth­er than Eli Lil­ly to head up its im­muno-on­col­o­gy re­search work. Or per­haps, more to the point, the I/O work that Lil­ly plans to get start­ed on. And she’s the lat­est in a se­ries of new hires that points to Lil­ly’s brew­ing in­ter­est in forg­ing new on­col­o­gy deals.

Dan Skovron­sky

As of now, Lil­ly has been large­ly by­passed on the glob­al I/O su­per high­way as it pairs up its tar­get­ed can­cer agents with the lead play­ers. But in its Q1 call a few days ago, new R&D chief Dan Skovron­sky and the ex­ec­u­tive team made it clear that the com­pa­ny is prepar­ing to hatch some I/O deals to beef up its can­cer drug pipeline. And Gand­hi is clear­ly cen­tral to that process.

“(W)e need to be ac­tive ex­ter­nal­ly and you can count us,” said CEO Dave Ricks. 

Sue Ma­ho­ny

Lil­ly has a rep as a fair­ly re­li­able big phar­ma drug de­vel­op­er, field­ing a string of new drugs in re­cent years. It’s made a huge in­vest­ment in­to Alzheimer’s dis­ease, with noth­ing to show for it. And while em­i­nent­ly re­li­able on the da­ta, a big plus for di­a­betes R&D, Lil­ly’s de­vel­op­ment group has been a slow and pon­der­ous per­former, of­ten late to every big new mar­ket­ing niche it tries to tack­le.

These new re­searchers will be charged with chang­ing that rep.

“We men­tioned we’ve on-board­ed two physi­cians re­cent­ly, one from Duke and the oth­er from the Memo­r­i­al Sloan Ket­ter­ing and you will see us con­tin­u­ing to bring­ing more ex­ter­nal tal­ent,” said Eli Lil­ly on­col­o­gy chief Sue Ma­ho­ny dur­ing the call, high­light­ing the ar­rival of Memo­r­i­al Sloan Ket­ter­ing Can­cer Cen­ter’s Mau­ra Dick­ler, re­cruit­ed as Lil­ly’s new VP of late-phase de­vel­op­ment in on­col­o­gy.

Gand­hi ar­rives at Lil­ly June 25.


Im­age: Leena Gand­hi. NYU LAN­GONE HEALTH

Has the mo­ment fi­nal­ly ar­rived for val­ue-based health­care?

RBC Capital Markets’ Healthcare Technology Analyst, Sean Dodge, spotlights a new breed of tech-enabled providers who are rapidly transforming the way clinicians deliver healthcare, and explores the key question: can this accelerating revolution overturn the US healthcare system?

Key points

Tech-enabled healthcare providers are poised to help the US transition to value, not volume, as the basis for reward.
The move to value-based care has policy momentum, but is risky and complex for clinicians.
Outsourced tech specialists are emerging to provide the required expertise, while healthcare and tech are also converging through M&A.
Value-based care remains in its early stages, but the transition is accelerating and represents a huge addressable market.

Alaa Halawaa, executive director at Mubadala’s US venture group

The ven­ture crew at Mubadala are up­ping their biotech cre­ation game, tak­ing care­ful aim at a new fron­tier in drug de­vel­op­ment

It started with a cup of coffee and a slow burning desire to go early and long in the biotech creation business.

Wrapping up a 15-year discovery stint at Genentech back in the summer of 2021, Rami Hannoush was treated to a caffeine-fueled review of the latest work UCSF’s Jim Wells had been doing on protein degradation — one of the hottest fields in drug development.

“Jim and I have known each other for the past 15 years through Genentech collaborations. We met over coffee, and he was telling me about this concept of the company that he was thinking of,” says Hannoush. “And I got immediately intrigued by it because I knew that this could open up a big space in terms of adding a new modality in drug discovery that is desperately needed in pharma.”

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'Band­ing to­geth­er': 50 fe­male biotech ex­ec­u­tives lay out plans for board di­ver­si­ty, new com­pa­nies and men­tor­ing founders

Earlier this month, during the Silicon Valley Bank meltdown, Angie You recalled the speed with which female biotech CEOs were helping each other connect with bankers, get their wires through and assuage concerns during a financial implosion.

This past weekend, 50 of about 125 women who are part of that Slack group and a broader coalition self-dubbed the Biotech Sisterhood met in person in Cancun for the second rendition of an annual summit connecting female biotech CEOs. The attendance list doubled that of the inaugural gathering in Arizona 12 months ago.

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Francesco Marincola, newly-appointed Sonata Therapeutics CSO

Kite's head of re­search leaves for Flag­ship start­up Sonata

Another leader is departing Kite Pharma, and will to spend the “last part” of his career exploring how cancer evades the immune system.

Kite’s senior VP and global head of cell therapy research Francesco Marincola left the Gilead CAR-T unit last week for Sonata Therapeutics. Flagship last May unveiled the startup, which was pieced together from two fledgling biotechs Inzen and Cygnal Therapeutics. As CSO, Marincola will lead Sonata’s push to reprogram cancer cells to make them more immunogenic.

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No­var­tis touts sev­en years of dura­bil­i­ty da­ta for Zol­gens­ma

The same day that Roche touted positive durability and safety data for its spinal muscular atrophy drug Evrysdi, Novartis also made a splash with its multi-million dollar gene therapy for the disease.

Novartis rolled out interim data from two long-term follow-up studies Monday at the 2023 Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Clinical and Scientific Conference. In the first study, LT-001, all children in the trial that were treated after showing symptoms of SMA “maintained all previously achieved motor milestones” up to 7.5 years after being dosed. The average time since Zolgensma was given was 6.86 years.

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Rohan Palekar, 89bio CEO

89bio’s PhII da­ta add to quick suc­ces­sion of NASH read­outs as field seeks turn­around

89bio said its drug was better than placebo at lessening fibrosis without worsening nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, in two of three dose groups.

The San Francisco biotech said it thinks the Phase IIb data pave the way for a potential Phase III, following in the footsteps of another biotech in its drug class, Akero Therapeutics. To fund a late-stage study, CEO Rohan Palekar told Endpoints News 89bio “would need to raise additional capital,” with the company having about $188 million at the end of last year.

FDA in­di­cates will­ing­ness to ap­prove Bio­gen ALS drug de­spite failed PhI­II study

Ahead of Wednesday’s advisory committee hearing to discuss Biogen’s ALS drug tofersen, the FDA appeared open to approving the drug, newly released briefing documents show.

Citing the need for flexibility in a devastating disease like ALS, regulators signaled a willingness to consider greenlighting tofersen based on its effect on a certain protein associated with ALS despite a failed pivotal trial. The documents come after regulatory flexibility was part of the same rationale the agency expressed when approving an ALS drug last September from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, indicating the FDA’s openness to approving new treatments for the disease.

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Who are the women break­ing bar­ri­ers in drug de­vel­op­ment? Nom­i­nate them for End­points' an­nu­al re­port

Today, we’re opening nominations for our fifth annual Women in Biopharma R&D special report.

Over the last four years, we’ve honored 80 women whose extraordinary accomplishments have changed the game in biopharma R&D. We’re looking for big thinkers, scientists, executives and other enterprising women who are breaking barriers in drug development and inspiring the next generation of leaders.

Flare Therapeutics biochemists Yong Li (L) and Valerie Vivat

A $123M Flare will get Third Rock on­col­o­gy biotech in­to the clin­ic this year

Flare Therapeutics will start its first human trial this year with an investigational urothelial cancer drug after pulling together a $123 million Series B from Big Pharmas, VCs and its incubator, Third Rock Ventures.

Launched in 2021 on the idea that a biotech could finally succeed at drugging the much-sought-after but stubborn transcription factor, Flare Therapeutics said Wednesday it is now primed for the clinic after closing its large financing haul earlier this year. The raise is a relatively stark figure in a tough startup financing environment but further buoys the upbeat signals coming out of other Third Rock biotechs in recent weeks, including the $200 million CARGO Therapeutics and $100 million Rapport Therapeutics rounds.

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