Catherine Arnst
Catherine Arnst is an award- winning writer and editor specializing in science and medicine. Catherine was Senior Writer for medicine at BusinessWeek for 13 years, where she wrote numerous cover stories and wrote extensively for the magazine’s website, including contributing to two blogs. She followed a broad range of issues affecting medicine and health and held primary responsibility for covering the battle in Washington over health care reform. Catherine has also written for the Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report and The Daily Beast, and was Director of Content Development for the health practice at Edelman Public Relations for two years. Prior to joining BusinessWeek she was the London-based European Science Correspondent for Reuters News Service. She won the 2004 Business Journalist of the Year award from London’s World Leadership Forum, and in 2003 was the first recipient of the ACE Reporter Award from the European School of Oncology for her five-year body of work on cancer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University.
Recent posts
It was a roller coaster week for news on the East Coast, with two clinical trials ending with diametrically opposite results, Vertex explaining lackluster earnings, and Sarepta dealing with a weird... Read more »
In a major setback, Celsion (NASDAQ: CLSN), based in Lawrenceville, NJ, reported today that its lead drug candidate failed in a Phase III clinical trial for treatment of primary liver... Read more »
The medical world took little notice earlier this month when Qiagen (NASDAQ: QGEN), a German maker of diagnostics equipment, asked the Food & Drug Administration to approve its test for... Read more »
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) announced today that it plans to cut as many as 1,000 jobs this year, on top of the 1,250 to 1,400 job cuts it announced in... Read more »
It looks like a Hail Mary pass came through for Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KERX). In the past few years, both of New York-based Keryx’s top drug candidates failed key clinical... Read more »
Humedica, a health IT startup based in Boston, has been acquired by UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) health IT unit, Optum, for an undisclosed sum.
The news was first... Read more »
It was good news all around this week in life sciences on the East Coast, with a strong earnings report for one company, a positive decision on a drug for two... Read more »
Progenics Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PGNX) of Tarrytown, NY, said on Tuesday that it has acquired financially troubled Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals for 4,566,210 shares of its stock.
Molecular Insight, based in Cambridge,... Read more »
Paclitaxel protein-bound (Abraxane) looks to be the cancer drug that keeps on giving to Celgene (NYSE: CELG). The Summit, NJ-based company reported late in the day on Tuesday that a... Read more »
Cambridge, MA-based companies had their share of stock offering announcements this week. Plus, Cambridge gained another company, a key clinical trial started for an unusual anti-obesity device, and New Yorkers discussed... Read more »
[Updated 1/22/13, 9:00 am. See below.] Xconomy New York has been chronicling New York City’s efforts to develop a welcoming environment for life sciences startups since we started, and we always... Read more »
(Updated 1/16/2013, 7:37 am. See below.) Two months after agreeing to pay out $65 million to settle a tense intellectual property lawsuit, Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) announced... Read more »
[Updated 1/14/13, 1:31 pm. See below] Aileron Therapeutics said today that, as the result of successful preclinical studies, it secured the $12 million it needs to move its experimental treatment... Read more »
More bad news for ArQule’s (NASDAQ: ARQL) lead drug candidate, tivantinib. Just months after the drug failed a Phase 3 trial in non-small cell lung cancer, ArQule said today that... Read more »
The life sciences industry was focused on the west coast, not the east, this week. Virtually all of the industry’s movers, shakers, and wannabes were at the 31st Annual JP Morgan... Read more »
Drug development doesn’t get much more depressing than the so-far futile search for a lasting treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. More than 20 experimental drugs have... Read more »
BIND Bioscience CEO Scott Minick is having a good JP Morgan Health Conference. As reported early Tuesday by Xconomy, he was able to announce just one day in to... Read more »
Third Rock Ventures, the prolific five-year-old Boston-based VC firm, likes to bet on biotech startups that are developing unusual drugs, and today one of those bets paid off. Shire (NASDAQ:... Read more »
Cambridge, MA-based BIND Biosciences got a large vote of confidence today for its novel targeted nanomedicine technology. The startup announced today that Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), in Thousand Oaks, CA, has... Read more »
In a boost to the drug discovery side of its business, Repligen (NASDAQ: RGEN) said it has found a very big pharma partner for its spinal muscular atrophy program—New York-based... Read more »