Latest Posts

• With “Inflection Year” Ahead, Ovid Adds Novartis’s Tardio to C-Suite

  About five years ago, former Teva Pharmaceutical CEO Jeremy Levin launched Ovid Therapeutics with a plan to develop treatments for rare brain diseases.

  Now, with the completion of a clinical trial on the horizon anticipated to provide enough data to file... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/18/19

• Alkermes Eyes Brain Disorders and Beyond With $100M Deal for Rodin

  Rodin Therapeutics has limited data from human studies about its neurodegeneration drug, but the company’s new approach to treating brain disorders has proven attractive enough for Alkermes to plunk down $100 million to buy the startup.

  According to financial terms announced... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/18/19

• ResTORbio’s Respiratory Drug Flunks Phase 3 Test, Shattering Shares

  A resTORbio respiratory drug has failed a late-stage test, and the company is stopping further development of the compound for lung infections in elderly patients.

  In the first of two Phase 3 studies, ResTORbio on Friday released preliminary data showing that... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/15/19

• Biotech Roundup: Gottlieb v. Juul, Solid Slumps, Avidity Gets $100M & More

  Lung injuries connected to the use of electronic cigarettes have topped 2,000 and killed 40 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  It’s still unclear whether the cases are tied to legally sold products or devices modified by... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/15/19

• Daré to Add Microchip-Based Birth Control to Women’s Health Portfolio

  The list of activities our smartphones can control grows daily. Transfer money? It’s simple. Order groceries? That, too. Turn off the bedroom lights? Check.

  How about contraception?

  Advancing new forms of birth control is a central focus at Daré Bioscience (NASDAQ:... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/15/19

• Startup X-37 Raises $14.5M to Expand on AI-Powered Drug Discovery

  Launched just last year, artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery company X-37 now has raised $14.5 million in Series A financing to expand its development programs.

  Co-founded by Atomwise and a team from Velocity Pharmaceutical Development, the San Francisco, CA-based company uses Atomwise’s... Read more »

  Melissa Fassbender11/14/19

• Bayer and Dewpoint Ink Deal for Drugs R&D at New Frontier of Biology

  [Updated, 12:15 p.m. See below.] Inside of a cell, some proteins and RNA are concentrated in liquid droplets that assemble in formation during a variety of cellular functions. Dewpoint Therapeutics is making headway understanding the role these droplets play... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/14/19

• FDA Again Halts Solid Bio’s Duchenne Gene Therapy Clinical Trial

  The FDA has stopped a clinical trial testing a Solid Biosciences gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy after a patient developed complications associated with the experimental treatment.

  Cambridge, MA-based Solid Bio says the problems deemed to be related to the gene... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/12/19

• Roche Challenger to Biogen’s SMA Drug Succeeds in Pivotal Study

  A Roche drug in development as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy achieved the main goals of a key study, helping to build the case that the drug could challenge a Biogen therapy already approved for the rare disorder.

  Roche announced... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/11/19

• Neuroscience Is Taking the Spotlight at Xconomy’s Bay Area Xchange

  These are heady times for neuroscience research. Startups developing new approaches to brain disorders are raising money to advance their discoveries toward clinical trials. One failed neuro drug is getting another shot.

  On Nov. 19 in San Francisco, we’ll... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/11/19

• Anemia Drug From Acceleron Pharma and Celgene Wins FDA Approval

  [Updated 6:41 p.m. See below.] A drug that Celgene and Acceleron Pharma developed to treat low red blood cell levels in patients who have a rare blood disorder now has regulatory clearance to enter the market.

  The FDA on... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/8/19

• Bio Roundup: Feds Sue Gilead, Biogen Eyes China, CRISPR’d Kidneys & More

  During the state of the union address this year, President Trump pledged to end HIV transmission within the next decade. A key part of that plan is an HIV prevention drug made by Gilead Sciences. That drug has now become the... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/8/19

• eGenesis Lands $100M to Advance CRISPR-ed Pig Kidney to Human Test

  Biotech startup eGenesis, which is applying gene editing to animal organs in order to make them suitable for human transplant, has raised $100 million to ramp up work on its kidney program and bring it into human testing.

  The Series B... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/7/19

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• Arkuda Unveils $44M and a Protein Restoration Approach to Dementia

  The onset of one of the most devastating forms of dementia often comes with a misdiagnosis. Personality and behavioral changes in a patient can spark a hypothesis of depression or psychosis. Memory problems rouse suspicion of Alzheimer’s disease. By the... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/7/19

• AstraZeneca Chooses China for R&D and AI Centers, $1B Biotech Fund

  AstraZeneca says it will establish centers for drug research and artificial intelligence development in China. The pharmaceutical giant has also set up a $1 billion fund to foster biotech innovation in that country.

  The move—which was announced at the China International... Read more »

  Gareth Macdonald11/6/19

• Biogen Adds Two More Biosimilars in $100M Deal with Samsung Bioepis

  Biogen is bolstering its strategy of selling biosimilars—lower-cost versions of biological drugs that are losing patent protection—with a $100 million deal for rights to two eye products. The drug maker is also expanding its biosimilar scope to include China.

  Cambridge, MA-based... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/6/19

• GE Healthcare Opens Startup Labs at Former AstraZeneca UK R&D Site

  The doors have opened at a GE Healthcare-supported open-access lab for startups at AstraZeneca’s former global center for oncology research and development at Alderley Park, the largest bioscience research campus in the UK.

  The AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) site in Macclesfield,... Read more »

  Dan Stanton11/6/19

• Why Steve Kafka Left Third Rock Ventures for Up-and-Comer Section 32

  Section 32, which invests in healthcare and life sciences companies with a technology component, has added a third managing partner.

  The small venture capital firm was started in San Diego about two years ago by Bill Maris, who, during his... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/5/19

• Biotech Roundup: Novartis on Hold, AMAG Vote, Neuro News & More

  The brain has stymied many efforts to develop new neuroscience drugs, leading a number of big pharmaceutical companies to pull back on such R&D work. This week, Amgen joined them.

  Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) is ending its research and early development... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/1/19

• Pinteon Gets $17M to Tackle Tau in Alzheimer’s, Other Brain Diseases

  Beta amyloid grabs most of the headlines and research dollars for Alzheimer’s disease, but efforts to develop drugs targeting that brain protein have largely come up short. Pinteon Therapeutics is trying for a better outcome with drugs that block tau, a... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/31/19

• Roche to Pay Dicerna Pharma $200M to Team Up on Hepatitis B Drug

  Dicerna Pharmaceuticals’ research on medicines intended to stop a gene from producing a disease-causing protein has caught the eye of Roche, which is paying the company $200 million up front for global rights to its early-stage hepatitis B virus infection drug.... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/31/19

• FDA Halts Novartis Gene Therapy Study Amid Animal Safety Concerns

  Novartis must stop enrollment of a clinical trial testing its gene therapy for a rare, muscular disorder after safety concerns surfaced in data from an animal study.

  The FDA put a partial clinical hold on a Phase 1/2 study testing the... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/30/19

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• Disc Medicine Launches With $50M to Advance New Anemia Treatments

  Red blood cells need iron to carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, and having too little or too much can lead to serious health problems.

  When iron levels go awry, the number of healthy red blood... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/29/19

• Bio Roundup: Biogen’s Reversal, FDA Moves Fast, a CF Cocktail & More

  Earlier this year, it seemed that companies testing Alzheimer’s disease treatments based on a long-held hypothesis as to its cause—brain deposits of a protein called beta amyloid—were giving up the ghost.

  Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) was among them. The drug maker... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/25/19

• Former Quartet, Knewton Exec David Liu Joins Sonde Health as CEO

  Sonde Health, a company developing technology to monitor and diagnose people by analyzing their speech, has appointed David Liu to serve as CEO. Liu is the former president and chief operating officer at Quartet, a company applying technology to mental... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/24/19

• Xconomy Awards Boston 2019 Honors Best in Life Sciences: Slideshow

  The third annual Xconomy Awards Boston Gala was the biggest and most spectacular yet. More than 450 people from across the life science ecosystem came out to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center last month to celebrate the finalists over dinner... Read more »

  Jeff Bauter Engel10/23/19

• Biogen Reverses Course on Alzheimer’s Drug Analysis, Plans FDA Filing

  Six months after Biogen stopped work on a closely watched experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment, the neuroscience drug developer is reviving it with plans to file for FDA approval.

  Aducanumab’s Phase 3 failure in March was viewed as yet another nail in... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/22/19

• Vertex Stock Up on Quick FDA OK For 3-Drug Cystic Fibrosis Therapy

  The FDA on Monday approved a Vertex Pharmaceuticals cystic fibrosis treatment that combines three drugs, a decision that comes three months after the company submitted its application and five months before the agency’s deadline to finish its review.

  The Boston-based company... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/22/19

• Backed by $50M, Verseau Launches to Reprogram Immune Cells Against Cancer

  Cancer therapies that harness the immune system don’t work for all patients. Verseau Therapeutics aims to bring cancer immunotherapy to more people by targeting a type of immune cell present in the vast majority of tumors and directing it to fight... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/21/19

• Bio Roundup: Ichnos Emerges, Beyond CAR-T, BridgeBio Bails & More

  New brand-name drugs typically grab the life science headlines. A venture capital firm will invest tens of millions to develop one and a pharmaceutical company hopes to recoup hundreds of millions by selling it. But a shortage of one particular chemotherapy... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/18/19

• Healx Bags $56M to Advance Affordable, AI-Based Orphan Drugs

  Atomico, a European venture capital firm, has helped persuade Cambridge, UK-based Healx to return to the capital market a year earlier than anticipated. The biotech has just raised $56 million in Series B funding to bankroll its mission to use AI... Read more »

  Mike Ward10/17/19

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