Latest Posts

• Bio Roundup: EQRx’s Ambitions, Nektar No Vote, New Frazier Fund & More

  Perhaps the most talked-about news at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference this week was a new startup that launched with $200 million and an ambitious claim that its first drug would be approved within five years, and 10 in total within... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/17/20

• FDA Panel Votes Down Nektar Opioid Painkiller, Asks for More Data

  [Updated 1/15/2020, 8:51 a.m. See below.] As the nation grapples with the ongoing opioid crisis, an FDA advisory panel on Tuesday unanimously voted against recommending approval of a Nektar Therapeutics painkiller that would add a new compound to the... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/14/20

• Eli Lilly Gets Skin in the Eczema Game With $1.1B Deal for Dermira

  Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire dermatology drug developer Dermira and its late-stage atopic dermatitis drug for $1.1 billion.

  Lilly (NYSE: LLY) will pay $18.75 per share, a 2.2 percent premium over Dermira’s closing stock price on Thursday. But the... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/10/20

• Biotech Roundup: Drug Pricing Promises, Bone Disease Data, IPO Plans & More

  A letter signed by 215 people involved in the biopharma industry, including CEOs and investors, published Wednesday promised to put the “interests of patients first.”

  Six CEOs, including five who run public companies, co-authored the letter. Signatories agreed to what they... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo1/10/20

• Bio Roundup: FDA Approvals, Intrexon’s Shift, Melinta Bankruptcy & More

  In the week leading up to Christmas, six drugs won FDA approvals. The decisions covered insomnia, migraine, and several different forms of cancer.

  The FDA’s final tally for the year totaled 48 new drug approvals. If you’re keeping score, that compares... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/3/20

• Bio Roundup: Amarin’s Approval, FTC v. Illumina, a $120M Deal & More

  As national politics dominates the news in the final days of the decade, we at Xconomy are wrapping up the year with some big moves by the FDA, including an approval of the first drug OK’d reduce heart risk in patients... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo12/20/19

• Zafgen’s Path Forward Is Reverse Merger With Chondrial Therapeutics

  Zafgen stumbled in clinical trials testing its experimental therapies for metabolic diseases. Going forward, it will have a new name, new management, and a mitochondrial disorder drug from another company.

  Boston-based Zafgen (NASDAQ: ZFGN) has entered a merger agreement with... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan12/18/19

• Bio Roundup: Sarepta’s Approval, Merck M&A, Drug Price Bill & More

  If you’re keeping track, FDA drug approvals have been on a tear in the past month with several decisions coming well ahead of their targeted dates. And then there’s Sarepta Therapeutics.

  Late Thursday, the FDA announced approval of the Cambridge,... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan12/13/19

• Iterum’s Antibiotic for Super Bugs Falls Short in Phase 3, Shares Sink

  Iterum Therapeutics’ bid to bring patients a new antibiotic that’s safer than currently available drugs has fallen short of the main efficacy goal of a late-stage clinical trial. But the company is pinning its hopes on another Phase 3 study that... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan12/11/19

• Bio Roundup: Biogen at CTAD, Sage’s Stumble, Astellas’s $3B Offer & More

  It’s been a roller-coaster year for those hoping for new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, a leading cause of death with rising treatment costs and no clear answer yet as to its cause.

  Clearing proteins, such as amyloid and tau, was... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo12/6/19

• Bio Roundup: So Long Celgene, RNAi’s Arrival, Pharma in 2020 & More

  Bristol-Myers Squibb this week completed its acquisition of Celgene, a $74 billion deal that creates a pharmaceutical juggernaut. And all it took was the largest asset sale ever required by federal antitrust regulators.

  As the Federal Trade Commission reviewed Bristol’s (NYSE:... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/22/19

• Biopharma Execs Remain Optimistic Despite Political Headwinds

  Drug pricing debates and uncertainty associated with Brexit are the issues most likely to keep biopharmaceutical executives awake at night. Nevertheless, senior figures remain optimistic about the industry’s prospects in 2020. These are among the major findings of a survey of... Read more »

  Mike Ward11/20/19

• 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

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• 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

• Avidity Bio Adds $100M to Advance R&D of Muscle Disorder Drugs

  Earlier this year, Avidity Biosciences and Eli Lilly began a partnership to develop new drugs based on the biotech’s technology for delivering genetic material to cells. On Wednesday, Lilly was among a group of investors that joined a $100 million financing... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/13/19

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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• 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

• Eli Lilly Drug Acquired in Armo Deal Fails Pancreatic Cancer Test

  An experimental drug that was the centerpiece of a $1.6 billion Eli Lilly acquisition last year has now failed a pivotal test in pancreatic cancer.

  Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) said Wednesday that patients treated with its drug candidate pegilodecakin, plus... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/16/19

• FDA OKs Lilly’s Lasmiditan, First New Acute Migraine Drug in Decades

  Eli Lilly won FDA approval for a migraine drug on Friday, giving the pharmaceutical giant a second medication that addresses the condition that causes millions of people to experience severe headaches and other debilitating symptoms.

  The FDA approved the drug, lasmiditan... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/11/19

• Bio Roundup: Nobel Prizes, Placebo Effect Rises, ICER’s Fire & More

  Congrats to this year’s Nobel Prize winners in medicine… although, we have to ask: For the US researchers who are honored, isn’t there something crushing about a call in the middle of the night from Sweden, interrupting a dream about... Read more »

  Alex Lash10/11/19

• The Placebo Effect Is Hobbling New Psychiatric Drugs. What Can Stop It?

  Sixteen years ago, Kim Witczak’s husband died by his own hand, turning her world upside down. He had just begun taking an antidepressant off-label for insomnia, and she believes an undisclosed side effect of the drug drove him to suicide. Compelled... Read more »

  Alex Lash10/10/19

• Nobel Prize in Medicine Goes to 3 Who Showed How Cells Sense Oxygen Levels

  Oxygen’s importance in cellular processes has long been known. But the work to understand how cells sense and adapt to changes in oxygen levels has led to medical insights and potential treatments for anemia, cancer, and more—and today, it has turned... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/7/19

• Bio Roundup: PARP Progress, A New Commish, IPO-Palooza & More

  It’s been a strange up and down ride for PARP inhibitors, a relatively new class of cancer drugs.

  Named for the tumor protein they target, PARPs rebounded after a big clinical setback in 2011 and have been at the center of... Read more »

  Ben Fidler10/4/19

• ESMO 2019: PARP and Prostate, SeaGen’s Win, KRAS Update & More

  The European Society for Medical Oncology meeting has wrapped up in Barcelona, the last major clinical cancer conference until December’s annual ASH meeting for blood diseases. We’ve highlighted a few top stories for you.

  Amid all the fuss over cell, gene,... Read more »

  Ben Fidler10/1/19

• Biotech Roundup: Vaping Toll Rises, NASH News, Akcea Shakeup & More

  Lung injuries linked to electronic cigarettes have topped 800 cases, including 12 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials aren’t sure whether the injuries are from legally sold products made by companies such as... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan9/27/19

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