You can rack up one more high-profile debut effort in the wave of activity forming around cell therapy 2.0. It’s another appealing Bay Area group that’s attracted some of the top hands in the business to a multi-year effort to create a breakthrough. And they have $85 million in hand to make that first big step to the clinic.

Today it’s Ken Drazan and the team at South San Francisco-based ArsenalBio that are coming from behind the curtain for a public bow, backed by billionaire Sean Parker and a collection of investors that includes Beth Seidenberg’s new venture investment operation based in LA.
Drazan — a J&J Innovation vet with a long record of entrepreneurial endeavors — exited the stage in 2018 when his last mission ended as he stepped aside as president of Grail. It wasn’t long, though, before he was helping out with a business plan for ArsenalBio that revolved around the work of a large group of interconnected scientists supported by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunology.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 65,000+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SUBSCRIBE SIGN IN

What differentiates a woman leader in biopharma R&D from a man?

Not much, except there are fewer of them in senior posts. Data suggest women are not more risk-averse, family-oriented or less confident than their male counterparts — indeed the differences between the two sexes are negligible. But a glance at the top R&D positions in Big Pharma leaves little doubt that upward migration in the executive ranks of biopharma R&D is tough.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 65,000+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SUBSCRIBE SIGN IN

An in-house FDA review of Amarin’s Vascepa raises a set of hurdles the biotech will have to clear if the biotech expects to get the long-awaited FDA approval that could set it on a path to superstar status. But it appears that Amarin has survived another potential setback without introducing a major new threat to its prospects.
The stakes don’t get much higher, with analysts saying a win this week for Amarin could lead to billions in new sales — provided the agency stamps it with an OK. And investors liked what they say in the FDA review this morning, bumping the stock $AMRN 17%.
The insider take at the agency includes a note on two new safety signals seen in the big cardio outcomes study of the omega-3 fatty acid drug that shocked many analysts with a solid set of efficacy data. There’s a key concern over whether the use of mineral oil in the placebo skewed LDL levels in such a way that tilted the data in Amarin’s favor.
The FDA overview was written by John Sharretts, the acting deputy director in the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products. 
On the safety side, the internal review focused on a 3.1% versus 2.1% rate of adjudicated events of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter requiring hospitalization. But they also say a-fib shouldn’t confound the benefit-safety of the drug — given the improvement on MACE — or prevent its use. And then there was also a higher rate of bleeding events in the drug arm.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 65,000+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SUBSCRIBE SIGN IN

Solid Biosciences continues to be plagued by safety issues.

Close to 18 months after the gene therapy biotech was able to quickly shed an FDA hold on their lead Duchenne muscular dystrophy program for SGT-001, regulators have stepped back in to force another halt after another patient was hit hard by a set of serious adverse events remarkably similar to the first set.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 65,000+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SUBSCRIBE SIGN IN

With Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Celgene buyout all but complete, the BD teams are working in perfect synchrony now. The Celgene side is going back to Skyhawk, a darling of the crowd that set out to drug RNA, and they’re adding a suite of new programs that mesh perfectly with the new regime in charge.

Celgene is shelling out $80 million in a cash upfront to add oncology, immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases to the initial roundup of neurological targets mapped early in Skyhawk’s existence.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 65,000+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SUBSCRIBE SIGN IN