Part club, part guide, part landlord: Arie Belldegrun is blueprinting a string of bespoke biotech complexes in global boomtowns

July 16, 2019 08:00 AM EDTUpdated 11:27 AM

Part club, part guide, part landlord: Arie Belldegrun is blueprinting a string of bespoke biotech complexes in global boomtowns — starting with Boston

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

The biotech industry is getting a landlord, unlike anything it’s ever known before.

Inspired by his recent experiences scrounging for space in Boston and the Bay Area, master biotech builder, investor, and global dealmaker Arie Belldegrun has organized a new venture to build a new, 250,000 square foot biopharma building in Boston’s Seaport district — home to Vertex and a number of up-and-coming biotech players.

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Janet Woodcock (AP Images)

January 14, 2021 07:29 AM ESTUpdated January 15, 10:40 AM

People

Regulatory

Janet Woodcock to be acting FDA commissioner while Biden team finalizes nominee — reports

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Janet Woodcock is set to be the most powerful person at the FDA in less than a week.

The veteran regulator and longtime director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has been tapped as acting commissioner of the FDA, according to reports by BioCentury’s Steve Usdin and Pink Sheet’s Sarah Karlin-Smith.

The appointment was requested by the incoming Biden team, Karlin-Smith added, as they sort out the nomination of a permanent successor to Stephen Hahn — whose one-year tenure has been defined by Covid-19.

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Janet Woodcock (AP Images)

January 15, 2021 11:13 AM ESTUpdated 12:28 PM

People

Regulatory

Janet Woodcock is in the running for FDA commissioner — what does that mean for the agency's future?

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Just a day after reports emerged that Janet Woodcock will serve as interim chief of the FDA, word has gotten out that she is also in the running for the permanent job.

The decision, as the initial wave of reactions suggest, could have dramatic implications for where the agency is headed in the next four years — if not beyond.

Woodcock, the longtime CDER director, is being vetted alongside former FDA principal deputy commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, Bloomberg reported. Already tapped as acting head of the agency, she’s set to take over from Stephen Hahn right after Biden’s inauguration next week.

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Steve Harr (L) and Hans Bishop

January 13, 2021 04:14 PM ESTUpdated January 14, 07:12 AM

Financing

Painting by the numbers, Sana founders carve up a giant unicorn-sized IPO — for a biotech that hasn't quite made it to the clinic

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Sana Biotechnology is one of those startups that was sketched in on the chalkboard day one in the shape of a unicorn.

A giant unicorn.

And from the numbers the cell therapy 2.0 play spelled out in their S-1 $SANA, it’s clear that the company founders — led by a pair of major VCs aligned with some high-profile industry figures — are hunting a big chunk of that value for themselves.

The raise they penciled in — $150 million — isn’t likely what they actually have in mind, and it doesn’t do justice to the size of their ambitions.

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January 15, 2021 10:37 AM EST

Financing

Pharma

Eli Lilly re-ups diversity pledge, pitching in $30M to venture fund for minority-owned healthcare firms

Kyle Blankenship

Senior Editor

The fight against racial injustice spurred by a series of high-profile shootings of Black men by police earlier this year put Big Pharma and healthcare — industries targeted for their lack of diversity — in the hot seat. Eli Lilly made an early pledge to change its ways and put more back into the community, and now it’s continuing to make good on that commitment.

Lilly will infuse $30 million into the Unseen Capital Health Fund, a venture fund looking to invest in early-stage minority-owned healthcare companies that have been historically “unseen” by the investment community, the pharma said Friday.

Laurie Glimcher, Dana-Farber president and CEO (Getty Images)

January 15, 2021 07:38 AM ESTUpdated 11:47 AM

Financing

UPDATED: With its rank-and-file churning out startups, Dana-Farber launches venture fund to capitalize on that success

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

The pace of innovation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in recent years has seen a wave of startups launch with IP or leadership sourced from the nonprofit’s ranks. Now, looking for its own returns on that success, Dana-Farber has launched a new venture fund to invest in those fledgling businesses.

On Thursday, Dana-Farber unveiled Binney Street Capital — its first-ever venture fund. Roche and Verily veteran Luba Greenwood has been tapped to lead the fund, which was named after the location of the institute’s Boston site.

CEO Brett Monia (Ionis)

January 15, 2021 07:30 AM EST

R&D

Can Brett Monia push Ionis beyond Spinraza?

Jason Mast

Editor

For 30 years, Brett Monia struggled as one of Ionis’ top scientists to get their antisense technology to work. Now, as CEO, he’s trying to use it to turn Ionis into one of the industry’s biggest biotechs.

Monia, one of the handful of young scientists who in 1989 followed Stanley Crooke across the country from SmithKline (now GSK) in Philadelphia to found Ionis in Northern California, replaced Crooke as CEO last January. By then, they had proven antisense, an RNA-based method for manipulating gene expression, could work dramatically well in at least some instances, transforming spinal muscular atrophy with the Biogen-partnered blockbuster Spinraza.

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David Kessler in April 2009 (Eric Risberg/AP Images)

January 15, 2021 07:00 AM ESTUpdated 10:57 AM

Coronavirus

Covid-19 roundup: Hackers start releasing 'manipulated' Covid-19 vaccine docs; Ex-FDA commish David Kessler to replace Moncef Slaoui as Operation Warp Speed chief — report

Endpoints Staff

There’s a new twist on the EMA Covid-19 hacking story.

Friday the European agency put out the 5th in a series of statements about the hackers who broke into their system, noting that some of the information on vaccines that was gleaned in the attack is showing up online — altered to raise questions about the Covid-19 vaccines now in use.

This included internal/confidential email correspondence dating from November, relating to evaluation processes for COVID-19 vaccines. Some of the correspondence has been manipulated by the perpetrators prior to publication in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines.

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Nadim Ahmed (Bristol Myers Squibb)

January 14, 2021 11:47 AM EST

People

Bristol Myers' top hematology exec is on his way out — right on the heels of a $6B CVR implosion

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Fourteen days after the $6.3 billion CVR tied to the approval of liso-cel went up in smoke, one of the top execs in charge of the work at Bristol Myers Squibb is preparing to step out of his job.

Mizuho analyst Salim Syed, who’s been following every twist and turn in the CVR saga, told investors on Thursday morning that Nadim Ahmed is on his way out. Syed’s note:

Recall, Ahmed is EVP and President of Hematology at BMY (i.e. JCAR017 and bb2121 are both hematological drugs). He’s still listed on the BMY management page. This is true — he’s still technically there. However, I have confirmed w/ BMY that his last day is tomorrow, Friday 1/15. To my best knowledge, Ahmed does not have another job lined up post his departure tomorrow.

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Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO (AP Images)

January 13, 2021 10:50 AM EST

People

Pharma

#JPM21: Albert Bourla prepares Pfizer to settle in to next phase post-Upjohn, but that doesn't mean he's ruling out deals

Kyle Blankenship

Senior Editor

One of the iconic brands in biopharma, Pfizer took a big gamble on the strength of its in-house science when it decided to offload its flagging Upjohn generics business last year. Now, a more agile Pfizer is looking to cement its identity for the future, but one thing will stay the same: M&A is still very much a part of the game plan.

With its Upjohn generics business off the books, Pfizer is looking to double down on its branded medicines with the goal of hitting 6% annual growth each year — previously unheard-of at old Pfizer — while continuing to develop its blockbuster pipeline, CEO Albert Bourla said at a JP Morgan fireside chat Tuesday.

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