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.
Vertex Hums Along as AbbVie Snatches Up a Rival’s CF Drugs for $45M
AbbVie has just reworked a long-running deal with partner Galapagos NV, paying $45 million up front—a small sum for the pharmaceutical giant—to gain rights to all of the Belgian company’s experimental... Read more »
With $90M Round, Stoke Eyes a “Spinraza For Epilepsy” And a 2019 IPO
Ed Kaye stepped aside from Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT) last year after leading the company through one of the most noteworthy and controversial drug approvals in recent memory, for the... Read more »
Bio Roundup: Prices on TV, Novartis Hearts Radio, Warp Drive’s End
Two new battlegrounds emerged this week in the nation’s ongoing drug pricing debate. The first involved television: The federal government hopes that blaring prices in TV ads will essentially pressure drug... Read more »
Alnylam Won’t Seek Quick FDA Nod For Second RNAi Drug
A few weeks ago, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals indicated it might seek a speedy FDA approval for what could be the second-ever RNA interference medicine to market. After meeting with regulators, however, the... Read more »
Bristol Stumbles in Lung Cancer Again as Rivals Play Catch-Up
Nivolumab (Opdivo) recently became the first immunotherapy ever approved for people with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), a particularly aggressive form of the deadly disease. But the lead given to its... Read more »
FDA OKs Akcea Rare Disease Drug, Setting Up Market Clash with Alnylam
For the second time since August, the FDA has approved a new treatment for a rare and deadly disease called hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (hATTR). The agency’s nod for inotersen (Tegsedi) sets... Read more »
With Orchard’s IPO, GSK’s Old Gene Therapy Biz Gets a Wall Street Test
GlaxoSmithKline’s former gene therapy portfolio is headed to Wall Street—in the hands of Orchard Therapeutics.
The London, Boston, and San Francisco, CA, company has filed for an IPO, aiming to... Read more »
FDA Approves Roche Drug For All Hemophilia A Patients, But Rivals Loom
The treatment landscape for hemophilia is changing fast, and today marks a turning point. The FDA has just cleared Roche to sell its drug emicizumab (Hemlibra) to patients with any form... Read more »
Sarepta Touts New Data and a “Signal” With Duchenne Gene Therapy
For the first time, a gene therapy—a one-time, long-lasting treatment—has shown it may improve the lives of kids with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a deadly genetic disease with no cure. Patients in... Read more »
Bio Roundup: Amarin’s Stunner, Lung Cancer News, Data Dumps & More
Six years ago, a biotech called Amarin won FDA approval of a prescription fish-oil pill, Vascepa, because it could lower triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood. But Amarin didn’t... Read more »
With CRISPR’s Help, KSQ Touts 13 Cancer Drugs and Bags Another $80M
Can CRISPR-Cas9, the landmark genome editing tool, help speed up drug discovery? That was the pitch behind KSQ Therapeutics when it started up in 2015. Three years later, the Cambridge, MA,... Read more »
With New Data, Alnylam Could Seek Speedy OK For Second RNAi Drug
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals was just cleared to market the first-ever RNA interference medicine. The second one may not be that far behind.
Alnylam (NASDAQ: ALNY), of Cambridge, MA, said this morning... Read more »
Syntimmune Turns Drug For Rare Anemia Into $400M Alexion Buyout
Syntimmune, a biotech startup formed by the veteran founders of the hemophilia drug developer Syntonix, has been acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $400 million in cash up front.
Syntimmune is right... Read more »
Catch CRISPR 2.0, RNA-Targeting Drugs & More At “Disruptors” on Oct. 17
These days biotechs are raising cash and going public at a record pace. But before the Wall Street buzz and the big raises, they all started somewhere—with an idea, a... Read more »
Morphic Nets Another $80M For Integrin Drugs & First Human Tests
Morphic Therapeutic, a startup from Harvard scientist-entrepreneur Tim Springer, has reloaded with an $80 million Series B round that should get the company to its first human tests.
The round includes... Read more »
Another Precision Step for Roche as Ignyta Drug Heads to Regulators
There was more news this morning in the advancement of precision cancer drugs, which target a tumor’s genetic signature. Roche plans to file for approval of entrectinib, a drug the Swiss... Read more »
Amarin Soars as Fish Oil Pill Cuts Risk of Strokes in Long-Awaited Study
Can fish oil help prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease? Several studies have failed to show that it can. But Amarin this morning is releasing data from a massive... Read more »
Europe Advisory Panel Rejects Sarepta’s Duchenne Drug Once Again
Sarepta Therapeutics won one of the most controversial drug approvals in recent memory, when the FDA in September 2016 approved the Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug eteplirsen (Exondys 51) off a slim... Read more »
Amicus Shells Out $100M For Celenex And Dives Into Gene Therapy
Fresh off finally winning an FDA nod for its first product, Amicus Therapeutics is getting in on the gene therapy renaissance.
This morning, Cranbury, NJ-based Amicus (NASDAQ: FOLD) agreed to... Read more »
Viking Liver Drug Shows Promise for NASH, Shares Soar on Study Data
[Updated, 2:45 pm ET, see below] There is another update today in the competitive race to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an increasingly common liver disease with no FDA-approved therapies.... Read more »
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