Ben Fidler

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.

Recent posts

Colorectal Cancer Data Spurs Pfizer to Pay $11.4B for Array Bio
[Updated 11:02 a.m. See below.] Array BioPharma touted data less than a month ago that could shift the treatment landscape for some patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. The data... Read more »
Bio Roundup: Roche-Spark Drags On, GSK Taps CRISPR, Diabetes News & More
Is one of the bigger biopharma acquisitions of the year in trouble?
This past week, antitrust regulators once again delayed Roche’s planned $4.8 billion buyout of gene therapy developer Spark Therapeutics... Read more »
Can AI Tools, $76M Lead BlackThorn to Targeted Psych Drugs?
It’s notoriously tough for experimental psychiatric drugs to succeed in clinical tests. BlackThorn Therapeutics wants to show that an AI-driven, precision approach can make it easier, and today it’s added another... Read more »
CymaBay Therapeutics Stumbles in NASH Race, Shares Fall
One of the entrants in the ultra-competitive race to develop treatments for the fatty liver disease known nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) suffered a setback in clinical testing today, but the company, Cymabay... Read more »
Merck Bags Tilos, Adding an Immunotherapy Booster to Its Arsenal
Cancer immunotherapy leader Merck continued to roll up oncology assets with a deal this morning to acquire privately held Tilos Therapeutics.
Merck (NYSE: MRK) didn’t disclose how much it will... Read more »
Immunotherapy Is Now Here For Breast Cancer. What Are Its Prospects?
Drugs that rev up a patient’s immune system have changed how we treat cancers of the skin, lung, and more, offering people whose tumors have spread a chance to live longer... Read more »
Second US Gene Therapy, Approved for Rare Muscle Disease, to Cost $2M
The FDA today has made Zolgensma, a Novartis treatment for the rare genetic disease spinal muscular atrophy, the second approved gene therapy in the US.
The news marks a milestone for... Read more »
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 »