Ben is Xconomy's Deputy Editor, Biotechnology. He is a seasoned business journalist that comes to Xconomy after a nine-year stint at The Deal, where he covered corporate transactions in industries ranging from biotech to auto parts and gaming. Most recently, Ben was The Deal’s senior healthcare writer, focusing on acquisitions, venture financings, IPOs, partnerships and industry trends in the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics and med tech spaces. Ben wrote features on creative biotech financing models, analyses of middle market and large cap buyouts, spin-offs and restructurings, and enterprise pieces on legal issues such as pay-for-delay agreements and the Affordable Care Act. Before switching to the healthcare beat, Ben was The Deal's senior bankruptcy reporter, covering the restructurings of the Texas Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, GM, Delphi, Trump Entertainment Resorts and Blockbuster, among others. Ben has a bachelor’s degree in English from Binghamton University.
MedCo Touts New Data for Long-Lasting Heart Drug as Reckoning Looms
The Medicines Co. and partner Alnylam Pharmaceuticals have presented new evidence supporting the long-term use of their RNA-based cholesterol lowering therapy inclisiran, which is meant to be a longer lasting alternative... Read more »
ASCO Abstracts: Breast Cancer, Precision Treatments in the Spotlight
The world’s biggest annual cancer conference is just around the corner. Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting each year can change medical practice and make or break... Read more »
Vertex Continues Plan to Diversify, Strikes a $70M Pact With Kymera
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is best known for its cystic fibrosis franchise. But over the past several years Vertex has been making inroads elsewhere, and a deal it is announcing this morning continues... Read more »
Bio Roundup: Rare Disease Showdowns, Prices on TV, Dealmania & More
The market for drugs for rare or “orphan” diseases continues to grow. An April report from Evaluate Pharma predicted sales of orphan drugs to rise 12 percent a year between now... Read more »
SMA, Migraine Data Lead Neuro Highlights from AAN Meeting
The American Academy of Neurology meeting in Philadelphia is rolling on through the end of this week. There has been plenty of news to digest already. New clinical data could herald... Read more »
FDA OKs Pfizer Rare Disease Drug, Sets Up Battle With Alnylam, Akcea
[Updated 5/6/19, 9:20 am ET. See below.] A year ago, there were no FDA-approved medicines available for US patients with the debilitating rare genetic disease transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR). Things... Read more »
SMA Moment: Will Gene Therapy Shift Treatment, Costs of Muscle Disease?
This is a big moment for people diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, a rare and potentially lethal genetic disorder that destroys muscles. For decades, there was no way to... Read more »
Exosomes Head to Wall Street As Codiak Biosciences Lines Up IPO
Do Wall Street investors believe that exosomes, the tiny bubbles once thought to be just cellular garbage bins, may be the key to treating a slew of potential diseases? The coming... Read more »
Biogen, Taking Its Crisis “Seriously,” Keeps Focus on Neuroscience
[Updated, 1:00 pm ET, see below.] A month after the failure of its once-promising Alzheimer’s disease drug aducanumab shattered its share price, Biogen is trying to pick up the... Read more »
Bio Roundup: Nationwide’s Rise, a Surgeon’s Quest, CRISPR USA & More
Persistence and perseverance were the themes of two of our top stories this week.
First there’s the story of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The Columbus, Ohio, hospital chose to invest in gene... Read more »
$100M for Talaris Gives Surgeon a Shot to Reinvent Organ Transplants
When Novartis dissolved its gene and cell therapy unit a few years ago, a bunch of projects the Swiss pharma giant had incubated were tossed aside. One of them was the... Read more »
Alzheimer’s, Gene Therapy & More: Agenda For “What’s Hot” on May 21
The gene therapy boom. The frustration of failure after failure in Alzheimer’s disease. The critical interplay between venture firms and “crossover” investors in a volatile, unpredictable macro-environment. The... Read more »
Another Week, Another Gene Therapy Buyout: Catalent Pays $1.2B for Paragon
The gene therapy boom continued this morning with yet another acquisition.
Contract drug manufacturer Catalent (NYSE: CTLT), of Somerset, NJ, has agreed to buy Paragon Bioservices for $1.2 billion,... Read more »
How an Ohio Kids’ Hospital Quietly Became Ground Zero for Gene Therapy
[Updated, 4/22/19, see below] If a once-modest regional hospital and its new biotech allies have their way, the capital of Ohio could one day rival America’s other biomedical hubs.... Read more »
Alnylam Makes Case For 2nd RNAi Drug at Big Liver Disease Meeting
The “attacks,” as they’re known, are debilitating and even possibly fatal. A patient with the ultra-rare genetic disease acute hepatic porphyria (AHP) is struck with excruciating abdominal pain and rushes to... Read more »
Thwarting Opposition, Bristol Gets Shareholder OK for $74B Celgene Buyout
The early opposition has turned out to be just noise. Shareholders of Bristol-Myers Squibb today approved the pharma giant’s planned buyout of Celgene, paving the way for a deal that will... Read more »
Alnylam Gets $800M From Regeneron to Bring RNAi to Eye, Brain Diseases
Alnylam and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals are announcing a wide-ranging alliance this morning to co-develop treatments for eye and neurological diseases using RNA interference, a method of drugmaking that has recently come of... Read more »
AACR 2019 Roundup: Notes from a Weekend of Early Stage Cancer Results
[Editor’s note: Alex Lash co-authored this report] The American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting is wrapping up in Atlanta today. The conference typically focuses on early research and... Read more »
SpringWorks, Armed with Ex-Pfizer Cancer Drugs, Reloads with $125M
SpringWorks Therapeutics, a startup spun out of Pfizer to develop drugs gathering dust on the New York pharma giant’s shelves, has closed its second nine-figure financing round in less than two... Read more »
Panel Nod Moves Bluebird’s Gene Therapy Closer to Europe’s Market
A one-time, long-lasting treatment for the genetic blood disease beta thalassemia looks to be the next gene therapy on its way to market—at least, for now, in Europe.
The Committee for... Read more »
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