MD Anderson tries to assure researchers in town hall meeting that Asian ‘ethnicity’ is not the driving force behind purge

April 24, 2019 10:30 AM EDT

Amber Tong

MD Anderson tries to assure researchers in town hall meeting that Asian ‘ethnicity’ is not the driving force behind purge

Should Chinese researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center be worried in the wake of three Asian scientists’ dismissals tied to alleged foreign influence?

The answer is a firm no, according to administrators who hosted a town hall on Tuesday for alarmed employees. Science, which first broke the news about the firings together with the Houston Chronicle, obtained an recording recording from the meeting.

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September 18, 2019 09:57 AM EDTUpdated 13 hours ago

John Carroll

People

A favorite in Alexion’s C-suite is leaving, and some mighty surprised analysts aren’t the least bit happy about it

Analysts hate to lose a biotech CFO they’ve come to trust and admire — especially if they’re being blindsided by a surprise exit.

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David Grainger [file photo]

September 18, 2019 01:10 PM EDTUpdated 19 hours ago

Natalie Grover

Cell/Gene Tx

R&D

'Disconnect the bastards' — one biotech's plan to break cancer cells' unified defenses

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the current gladiators of cancer treatment, but they come with well-known limitations and side-effects. The emergence of immunotherapy — a ferocious new titan in oncologist’s toolbox — takes the brakes off the immune system to kill cancer cells with remarkable success in some cases, but the approach is not always effective. What makes certain forms of cancer so resilient? Scientists may have finally pieced together a tantalizing piece of the puzzle, and a new biotech is banking on a new approach to fill the gap.

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September 19, 2019 11:09 AM EDT

Natalie Grover

Pharma

R&D

While Novartis banishes Zolgensma scandal scars — Biogen goes on a Spinraza 'offensive'

While Novartis painstakingly works to mop up the stench of the data manipulation scandal associated with its expensive gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Zolgensma— rival Biogen is attempting to expand the use of its SMA therapy, Spinraza.

The US drugmaker $BIIB secured US approval for Spinraza for use in the often fatal genetic disease in 2016. The approval covered a broad range of patients with infantile-onset (most likely to develop Type 1) SMA.

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Recursion Pharaceuticals

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Jason Kelly. Mike Blake/Reuters via Adobe

September 19, 2019 10:55 AM EDTUpdated 2 hours ago

Amber Tong

Venture

Eyeing big therapeutic push, Ginkgo bags $290M to build a cell programming empire

Ginkgo Bioworks is on a roll. Days after publicizing a plan to nurture new startups via partnerships with accelerators Y Combinator and Petri, the Boston biotech says it has raised another $290 million for its cell programming platform to reach further and wider.

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September 19, 2019 10:40 AM EDTUpdated 01:02 PM

Jason Mast

People

Pharma

UPDATED: Speaker Nancy Pelosi to unveil bill for federally negotiated drug prices

After months of buzz from both sides of the aisle, Speaker Nancy Pelosi will today introduce her plan to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for 250 prescription drugs, setting up a showdown with a pharmaceutical industry working overtime to prevent it.

The need to limit drug prices is a rare point of agreement between President Trump and Democrats, although the president has yet to comment on the proposal and will likely face pressure to back a more conservative option or no bill at all. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is reportedly lobbying his fellow party members on a more modest proposal he negotiated with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden in July.

September 19, 2019 06:58 AM EDTUpdated 07:52 AM

Natalie Grover

IPOs

Startups

Jeff Kindler's Centrexion renews bid to make public debut

Jeffrey Kindler’s plan to take his biotech — which is developing a slate of non-opioid painkillers — public, is back on.

The Boston based company, led by former Pfizer $PFE chief Kindler, originally contemplated a $70 million to $80 million IPO last year— but eventually postponed that strategy. On Wednesday, the company revived its bid to make a public debut in a filing with the SEC — although no pricing details were disclosed.

September 13, 2019 08:33 AM EDTUpdated 08:47 AM

John Carroll

R&D

It’s finally over: Biogen, Eisai scrap big Alzheimer’s PhIIIs after a predictable BACE catastrophe raises safety fears

Months after analysts and investors called on Biogen and Eisai to scrap their BACE drug for Alzheimer’s and move on in the wake of a string of late-stage failures and rising safety fears, the partners have called it quits. And they said they were dropping the drug — elenbecestat — after the independent monitoring board raised concerns about…safety.

We don’t know exactly what researchers found in this latest catastrophe, but the companies noted in their release that investigators had determined that the drug was flunking the risk/benefit analysis.

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Senior Analyst - Science & Technology

Alexandria Real Estate Equities

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Zachary Hornby. Boundless

September 19, 2019 06:08 AM EDTUpdated 02:57 PM

Jason Mast

Startups

Venture

'A fourth revolution in cancer therapies': ARCH-backed Boundless Bio flashes big check, makes bigger promises in debut

It was the cellular equivalent of opening your car door and finding an active, roaring engine in the driver seat.

Scientists learned strands of DNA could occasionally appear outside of its traditional home in the nucleus in the 1970s, when they appeared as little, innocuous circles on microscopes; inexplicable but apparently innate. But not until UC San Diego’s Paul Mischel published his first study in Science in 2014 did researchers realize these circles were not only active but potentially overactive and driving some cancer tumors’ superhuman growth.

Scott Gottlieb, AP Images

September 17, 2019 08:59 AM EDTUpdated 09:14 AM

John Carroll

People

Scott Gottlieb is once again joining a team that enjoyed good times at the FDA under his high-energy stint at the helm

Right after jumping on Michael Milken’s FasterCures board on Monday, the newly departed FDA commissioner is back today with news about another life sciences board post that gives him a ringside chair to cheer on a lead player in the real-world evidence movement — one with very close ties to the FDA.

Aetion is reporting this morning that Gottlieb is joining their board, a group that includes Mohamad Makhzoumi, a general partner at New Enterprise Associates, where Gottlieb returned after stepping out of his role at the FDA 2 years after he started.

Gottlieb — one of the best connected execs in biopharma — knows this company well. As head of FDA he championed the use of real-world evidence to help guide drug developers and the agency in gaining greater efficiencies, which helped set up Aetion as a high-profile player in the game.

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