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.
Government Shutdown Hits Biotech as FDA Punts Review of Aimmune Drug
[Updated, 11:25 am ET, see below] The partial U.S. government shutdown has just had its first tangible effects on the potential approval of a new drug: The FDA review... Read more »
In a Huge Biopharma Shakeup, Bristol-Myers to Buy Celgene For $74B
Bristol-Myers Squibb has agreed to acquire Celgene in a deal that would create one of the largest biopharma organizations in the world and send ripples throughout the life sciences sector.
Bristol... Read more »
MyoKardia Goes Solo as Sanofi Ends Precision Heart Drug Deal
MyoKardia rode a partnership with Sanofi to the public markets a few years ago. But the two companies are cutting ties today, with MyoKardia regaining full rights to its drug programs... Read more »
Atlas Venture Bags $250M For New Growth Capital Fund
Atlas Venture says it has raised a $250 million fund meant to continue backing its startups as they grow.
The Cambridge, MA, life sciences venture firm, known for seeding and incubating... Read more »
Acorda Gets FDA Nod for New Parkinson’s Drug, But Rival Looms
The FDA late Friday approved a new treatment meant to help Parkinson’s disease patients cope with “off” episodes, when their medications stop working.
The drug, Inbrija, from Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ:... Read more »
With New Results, FibroGen’s Anemia Pill Inches Closer to FDA Review
There was a new development today in the high-stakes race to use pills, not injectable biologic drugs, to treat anemia. San Francisco, CA-based FibroGen and partners AstraZeneca and Astellas Pharma have... Read more »
Pfizer, GSK to Merge Consumer Health Units, Focus on Prescription Drugs
Two of the world’s top drugmakers want to focus on making prescription drugs. Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have agreed to merge their consumer health businesses and spin them off into a joint... Read more »
15 For ’19: Key Clinical Data to Watch For Next Year (Part 2)
On Monday, Xconomy began our annual look ahead at clinical trials that could define biotech and have profound healthcare effects in the coming year. Today we’re circling back with the rest... Read more »
15 for ’19: Key Clinical Data to Watch for Next Year (Part 1)
It can take decades and billions of dollars to develop a drug, and its fate—and often that of its developer—rests in the outcome of clinical trials.
Just look at some of... Read more »
To Cover Debts, Synergy Inks $200M Bankruptcy Sale to Bausch Health
Synergy Pharmaceuticals has spent years looking for a buyer. The developer of a struggling drug for two types of chronic constipation finally has one—now that it’s gone bankrupt.
New York-based Synergy... Read more »
Roche Vet O’Day Tapped to Shape Gilead’s Future as Hep C Sales Fall
Daniel O’Day, a veteran executive from Swiss pharma giant Roche, has been tapped for one of the top jobs in biotech. He’s been named the CEO of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD... Read more »
Bio Roundup: ASH Wrap, CRISPR Baby Fallout, Moderna’s Record IPO
The biggest yearly meeting for blood disease research has come and gone, and yet the stories to come out of the American Society of Hematology’s gathering in San Diego represent just... Read more »
Moderna Raises $604M and Nails Down Biotech’s Biggest IPO Ever
One of the biggest gambles in the history of the life sciences industry made it to Wall Street this evening when Moderna, a developer of messenger RNA drugs—an unproven technology with... Read more »
BCMA Day: At ASH ‘18, Cell Therapies For Myeloma Take Center Stage
The treatment landscape for multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the bone marrow that affects about 30,000 Americans every year, has changed significantly over the past decade. And more changes look... Read more »
ASH 2018: Three Up, Two Down as Big Blood Disease Meeting Rolls On
[Updated 4:37 p.m. See below.] Last week, Xconomy previewed the American Society of Hematology’s big meeting in San Diego, the largest medical gathering in the country on blood diseases.... Read more »
GSK Pays $5.1B For Tesaro, Setting Up “PARP” Battle With Rival AstraZeneca
GlaxoSmithKline on Monday agreed to pay $5.1 billion for Tesaro, becoming the latest firm to bet on a new type of cancer drug that has shown promise treating multiple tumor types... Read more »
Alkermes Schizophrenia Drug Heads To FDA, But Questions Linger
Alkermes got some much-needed good news on Thursday, announcing that an experimental schizophrenia drug fared better than a staple drug for the debilitating disease in a closely watched study. But is... Read more »
X4 Pharma Heads to Nasdaq Via Reverse Merger with Arsanis
A tough setback for Arsanis has given privately held X4 Pharmaceuticals the chance to go public.
Arsanis (NASDAQ: ASNS) and X4, two Boston-area biotech firms, agreed Tuesday morning to merge... Read more »
Genetic Medicine: FDA OKs 2nd Cancer Drug That Targets DNA, Not Tissues
[Updated 11/26/18. See below.] Going deeper into the new world of genetic medicine, the FDA has for the second time approved a drug that targets a tumor’s DNA fingerprint,... Read more »
After Head Injury Drug Fails, Edge Merges with Immuno-Oncology Firm PDS
An experimental head injury drug took Edge Therapeutics all the way to the public markets. But one failed clinical trial later and the company is now heading for the exits.
Edge... Read more »
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