Venrock joins the biotech VC fundraising game, tossing $447M into a $4.3B pot of new money

Bong Koh and Nimish Shah (Venrock)

April 22, 2020 04:34 PM EDT

Venrock joins the biotech VC fundraising game, tossing $447M into a $4.3B pot of new money

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

It’s not unusual to find the partners at Venrock traveling in the A-list section of biotech. They like to find some of the more mature startups headed toward IPOs or some new arrivals on the public market — sticking with deep-pocket investors looking to do big things. And they clearly have a big appetite for rounds that can range up into the stratosphere.

It looks like they’re going to remain in that neighborhood for some time to come.

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BiTE® Platform and the Evolution Toward Off-The-Shelf Immuno-Oncology Approaches

Peter Kufer

Vice President & Innovator of BiTE® Technology, Amgen

Despite rapid advances in the field of immuno-oncology that have transformed the cancer treatment landscape, many cancer patients are still left behind.1,2 Not every person has access to innovative therapies designed specifically to treat his or her disease. Many currently available immuno-oncology-based approaches and chemotherapies have brought long-term benefits to some patients — but many patients still need other therapeutic options.3

Leen Kawas, Athira CEO (Athira)

June 4, 2020 07:30 AM EDT

Venture

R&D

Can a small biotech successfully tackle an Everest climb like Alzheimer’s? Athira has $85M and some influential backers ready to give it a shot

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

There haven’t been a lot of big venture rounds for biotech companies looking to run a Phase II study in Alzheimer’s.

The field has been a disaster over the past decade. Amyloid didn’t pan out as a target — going down in a litany of Phase III failures — and is now making its last stand at Biogen. Tau is a comer, but when you look around and all you see is destruction, the idea of backing a startup trying to find complex cocktails to swing the course of this devilishly complicated memory-wasting disease would daunt the pluckiest investors.

June 3, 2020 08:57 AM EDT

R&D

Is a powerhouse Merck team preparing to leap past Roche — and leave Gilead and Bristol Myers behind — in the race to TIGIT domination?

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Roche caused quite a stir at ASCO with its first look at some positive — but not so impressive — data for their combination of Tecentriq with their anti-TIGIT drug tiragolumab. But some analysts believe that Merck is positioned to make a bid — soon — for the lead in the race to a second-wave combo immuno-oncology approach with its own ambitious early-stage program tied to a dominant Keytruda.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Process Development Scientist, Compound Management

Recursion Pharmaceuticals

Salt Lake City, UT

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June 3, 2020 07:34 AM EDTUpdated 11:25 AM

R&D

Regulatory

FDA delays decision on Novartis’ potential blockbuster MS drug, wiping away priority review

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

So much for a speedy review.

In February, Novartis announced that an application for their much-touted multiple sclerosis drug ofatumumab had been accepted and, with the drug company cashing in on one of their priority review vouchers, the agency was due for a decision by June.

But with June less than 48 hours old, Novartis announced the agency has extended their review, pushing back the timeline for approval or rejection to September. The Swiss pharma filed the application in December, meaning their new schedule will be nearly in line with the standard 10-month window period had they not used the priority voucher.

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June 2, 2020 06:00 AM EDTUpdated 07:18 AM

Venture

Pfizer’s Doug Giordano has $500M — and some advice — to offer a certain breed of 'breakthrough' biotech

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

So let’s say you’re running a cutting-edge, clinical-stage biotech, probably public, but not necessarily so, which could see some big advantages teaming up with some marquee researchers, picking up say $50 million to $75 million dollars in a non-threatening minority equity investment that could take you to the next level.

Doug Giordano might have some thoughts on how that could work out.

The SVP of business development at the pharma giant has helped forge a new fund called the Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative. And he has $500 million of Pfizer’s money to put behind 7 to 10 — or so — biotech stocks that fit that general description.

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June 4, 2020 07:30 AM EDTUpdated 07:40 AM

R&D

Pharma

GSK presents case to expand use of its lupus drug in patients with kidney disease, but the field is evolving. How long will the monopoly last?

Natalie Grover

Reporter

In 2011, GlaxoSmithKline’s Benlysta became the first biologic to win approval for lupus patients. Nine years on, the British drugmaker has unveiled detailed positive results from a study testing the drug in lupus patients with associated kidney disease — a post-marketing requirement from the initial FDA approval.

Lupus is a drug developer’s nightmare. In the last six decades, there has been just one FDA approval (Benlysta), with the field resembling a graveyard in recent years with a string of failures including UCB and Biogen’s late-stage flop, as well as defeats in Xencor and Sanofi’s programs. One of the main reasons the success has eluded researchers is because lupus, akin to cancer, is not just one disease — it really is a disease of many diseases, noted Al Roy, executive director of Lupus Clinical Investigators Network, an initiative of New York-based Lupus Research Alliance that claims it is the world’s leading private funder of lupus research, in an interview.

June 4, 2020 06:59 AM EDTUpdated 09:24 AM

Coronavirus

Covid-19 roundup: Moderna readies to enter PhIII in July, AstraZeneca not far behind; EU ready to negotiate vaccine access with $2.7B fund

Amber Tong

Editor

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

Moderna may soon add another first to the Covid-19 vaccine race.

In March, the mRNA biotech was the first company to put a Covid-19 vaccine into humans. Next month, they may become the first company to put their vaccine into the large, late-stage trials that are needed to prove whether the vaccine is effective.

In an interview with JAMA editor Howard Bauchner, NIAID chief Anthony Fauci said that a 30,000-person, Phase III trial for Moderna’s vaccine could start in July. The news comes a week after Moderna began a Phase II study that will enroll several hundred people.

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Senior Drug Discovery Scientist

New York, NY

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June 4, 2020 06:34 AM EDT

Deals

José Baselga finds promise in new class of RNA-modifying cancer targets, locking in 3 preclinical programs with $55M

Amber Tong

Editor

Having dived early into some of the RNA breakthroughs of the last decades — betting on Moderna’s mRNA tech and teaming up with Silence on the siRNA front — AstraZeneca is jumping into a new arena: going after proteins that modify RNA.

Their partner of choice is Accent Therapeutics, which is receiving $55 million in upfront payment to steer a selected preclinical program through to the end of Phase I. After AstraZeneca takes over, the Lexington, MA-based startup has the option to co-develop and co-commercialize in the US — and collect up to $1.1 billion in milestones in the long run. The deal also covers two other potential drug candidates.

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June 4, 2020 12:30 PM EDT

Deals

Bristol-Myers is cleaning up the post-Celgene merger pipeline, and they’re sweeping out an experimental checkpoint in the process

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Back during the lead up to the $74 billion buyout of Celgene, the big biotech’s leadership did a little housecleaning with a major pact it had forged with Jounce. Out went the $2.6 billion deal and a collaboration on ICOS and PD-1.

Celgene, though, also added a $530 million deal — $50 million up front — to get the worldwide rights to JTX-8064, a drug that targets the LILRB2 receptor on macrophages.

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