The federal government’s Operation Warp Speed has made its biggest financing award yet, promising $1.6 billion to a Maryland biotech to help advance its investigational COVID-19 vaccine and ready millions of doses in preparation for its possible success.
Gaithersburg, MD-based Novavax,... Read more »
Here’s a look back at some of the life science industry’s executive appointments, departures, and retirements from recent weeks:
—Pacific Biosciences (NASDAQ: PACB) CEO Michael Hunkapiller and Chief Financial Officer Susan Barnes are retiring.
—Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) appointed... Read more »
Uncertainty related to the continued spread of the pandemic continued to consume most of the oxygen in the room this week, but life sciences news outside of that arena continued apace.
Once considered all but shuttered, the IPO market again saw... Read more »
Checkpoint inhibitors do one thing: release the molecular brake that keeps immune cells from recognizing and targeting tumors. This cancer immunotherapy approach has saved countless lives and turned drugs from Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb into blockbuster products.
But what if... Read more »
The biggest life sciences deal this week involves a company that doesn’t discover or develop drugs, or even sell them. Yet its mark is found on pharmaceutical products spanning the entire sector.
Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ: RPRX) acquires the royalty rights... Read more »
The cancer cell therapies available today are made by tweaking a patient’s own immune cells to better recognize and fight the disease. Orca Bio is developing what it says is the next generation of cell therapy: custom preparations made without modifying... Read more »
The FDA on Monday revoked its emergency authorization permitting use of the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat the novel coronavirus, citing a lack of evidence of their efficacy.
In late March the agency authorized the drugs, which President Donald... Read more »
[Corrected 6/17/20, 1:48 pm PT. See below.] GlaxoSmithKline’s years-long oncology resurgence is on track to have two new drugs approved in the US in mid-2020, after the company won a key first-line ovarian cancer indication for Zejula (niraparib) in... Read more »
At the start of 2020 thousands of biotechies anticipated spending the second week of June in San Diego, hobnobbing at the annual conference hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
Instead, attendees from 64 countries spanning 28 times zones convened online this week... Read more »
Less than a month after reporting preliminary early-stage data for its experimental vaccine for the novel coronavirus, Moderna has finalized the plan for a Phase 3 test.
The study, set to begin next month, is targeting enrollment of about 30,000 volunteers,... Read more »
Race is not a topic that often comes up in pharmaceutical discussions but perhaps it should. Disease doesn’t discriminate by race, but health and economic disparities put some groups at higher risk than others. And yet clinical trials fail to reflect... Read more »
Grail, a clinical-stage company developing cancer tests intended to detect early signs of the disease from a small blood sample, has agreed to invest $100 million in a new outpost planned for Research Triangle Park, NC.
The new Grail site will... Read more »
A year ago about 40,000 people gathered in Chicago for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Today a virtual version of the ASCO conference, the cancer field’s largest, kicks off, with oncologists and others tuning in from... Read more »
Xconomy Insight is excited to offer two special webinars to our community this June. Sponsored by Eurofins, registration is free to all.
Applying Cell-based In Vitro Assays to Improve In Vitro Hepatotoxicity Assessment Challenges
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2020
... Read more »
COVID-19 has ravaged the economy, and it was expected to quash the IPO market, too. But the biotech sector is defying the pandemic with crossover financings and freshly minted public companies. On Friday, three firms added their names to the list... Read more »
As the nation started to reopen this week following two months of closed businesses and stay-at-home orders, public health officials and economists cautioned that society won’t truly return to anything resembling a pre-pandemic normal without a COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA... Read more »
This was a disappointing week for at least two major drug makers. French firm Genfit reported a trial failure in an intensely competitive indication, and New York-based Bristol Myers Squibb encountered a delay when the FDA declined to review its experimental... Read more »
Alexion Pharmaceuticals CEO Ludwig Hantson has made no secret that he wants to diversify his company’s drug portfolio and he has shown willingness to open the corporate checkbook to accomplish that goal.
Last October, Alexion (NASDAQ: ALXN) struck a $930... Read more »
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies have shown remarkable efficacy in leukemia and lymphoma patients who relapsed or were refractory to several prior treatments, but many challenges remain in the cancer cell therapy field. Strategies that may improve upon first-generation therapies were... Read more »
Remdesivir, the investigational Gilead Sciences antiviral drug, looks more likely than ever to become the first treatment authorized by the FDA to treat patients with COVID-19.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Anthony Fauci praised the drug after... Read more »
COVID-19’s spread has clamped down on a lot of economic activity, including the work of developing and testing new medicines. But the FDA isn’t showing signs of slowing down, at least when it comes to drugs filed for accelerated approval. The... Read more »
The start of a potentially big biomedical breakthrough is blooming within all of us. Drug research aiming to turn bacteria into microbiome therapies now spans programs aiming to address gut disorders, autism, cancer, and more.
Given the number of late-stage and... Read more »
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A Fireside Chat with Biocom President & CEO Joe Panetta
Biocom
