No­var­tis on­col­o­gy chief Bruno St­rig­i­ni is on the way out of the phar­ma gi­ant.

In a brief state­ment No­var­tis point­ed­ly said that St­rig­i­ni had de­cid­ed to re­tire “from No­var­tis and the in­dus­try” for per­son­al rea­sons.

Bruno St­rig­i­ni

The state­ment sug­gests that St­rig­i­ni — a cen­tral fig­ure in one of the lead­ing on­col­o­gy bio­phar­ma groups in the world — won’t be mak­ing the usu­al end run out of one Big Phar­ma and in to a new job. Such moves have be­come rou­tine, es­pe­cial­ly as biotechs and eq­ui­ty stakes beck­on from a thriv­ing sec­tor of the drug de­vel­op­ment world.

No­var­tis has made some big moves in can­cer since hir­ing St­rig­i­ni from a se­nior Mer­ck po­si­tion in the sum­mer of 2014, par­tic­u­lar­ly in its role in spear­head­ing the first CAR-T to hit the mar­ket and in­te­grat­ing GSK’s on­col­o­gy port­fo­lio three years ago. The deal pre­ced­ed St­rig­i­ni’s ar­rival by a few months.

St­rig­i­ni is step­ping out of the ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee and then plans an ear­ly-2018 de­par­ture as Narasimhan se­lects a key re­place­ment for his team.

CEO Joe Jimenez, who’s al­so head­ed out of No­var­tis as de­vel­op­ment chief Vas Narasimhan pre­pares to shift to the helm, did the hon­ors.

I’d like to thank Bruno St­rig­i­ni for his con­tri­bu­tions and achieve­ments. He has nav­i­gat­ed the busi­ness unit through the Gleevec patent ex­pi­ra­tion and has led the suc­cess­ful in­te­gra­tion of the GSK On­col­o­gy Prod­uct Port­fo­lio ac­quired in 2015. I wish him the best for his fu­ture.

After being struck by a rare disease as a healthy third year medical student, David Fajgenbaum began an arduous journey chasing his own cure. Amidst the hustle of this year’s JP Morgan conference, the digital trials platform Medable partnered with Endpoints Studio to share Dr. Fajgenbaum’s story with the drug development industry.

What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation between Medable CEO Dr. Michelle Longmire and Dr. Fajgenbaum, and it is full of lessons for biotech executives charged with bringing the next generation of medicines to patients.

November 2019 proved to be a fruitful month for patients with blood disorders known as hemoglobinopathies. Within days, the FDA ushered two drugs for sickle cell disease and another for beta thalassemia to the market — livening up a barren field.

Imara, a relatively young plower, is riding on that enthusiasm as it shoots for an $86.25 million IPO.

Imara emerged from New Enterprise Associates’ orphan drug accelerator Cydan in 2016 as a single-product company. $77.3 million in private financing later IMR-687 remains the sole asset in its pipeline; the difference is the drug is now in Phase II for sickle cell disease, with topline data slated for later this year and two other mid-stage beta thalassemia studies lined up.

A Beijing-based rare disease and oncology player has raised $98 million to help fund the expansion of its pipeline as well as a commercial portfolio.

CANbridge put out word Tuesday that the global private equity player General Atlantic joined forces with Chinese CRO Wuxi AppTec to lead the Series D, with both ready to chip in an extra $10 million each under the right conditions. The syndicate includes RA Capital Management, Hudson Bay Capital Management, YuanMing Prudence Fund and Tigermed.

The technology used to detect explosives at airports — mass spectrometry — is being piloted as an engine for drug discovery.

Mass spectrometry is a tool designed to measure with profound accuracy the mass of a single molecule. Typically, mass spectrometers can be used to identify unknown compounds, to quantify known compounds, and to determine the structure and chemical properties of molecules.

One of the three drugs that China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has tapped as potential COVID-19 treatments to watch has notched its first Chinese OK — for the flu.

While there’s no proof yet that fapilavir, or favipiravir, is the cure that patients and physicians are yearning for, it stands out for a unique constellation of qualities. It’s been commercially available in Japan for several years (unlike Gilead’s experimental remdesivir) yet it’s new to China (unlike the malaria drug chloroquine phosphate). Perhaps more importantly, a domestic biotech — Zhejiang Hisun Pharma — owns the rights to manufacture and market the drug, preempting any concerns about patents.