Latest Posts

• McAfee CTO On Election Hacking, Cryptojacking, Quantum Security

  Election hacking. Information warfare. Adversarial artificial intelligence. All worrisome topics racing through Steve Grobman’s head these days. But the McAfee chief technology officer seems surprisingly upbeat about the prospects of meeting these cybersecurity challenges—or at least putting up a good fight.... Read more »

  Jeff Engel12/10/18

• Bio Roundup: ASH Wrap, CRISPR Baby Fallout, Moderna’s Record IPO

  The biggest yearly meeting for blood disease research has come and gone, and yet the stories to come out of the American Society of Hematology’s gathering in San Diego represent just a fraction of what happened in biopharma this week.

  Even... Read more »

  Ben Fidler12/7/18

• SuperNus ADHD Drug to Head to FDA, But Is It Better Than a Generic?

  An experimental attention deficit hyperactivity drug developed by SuperNus Pharmaceuticals has met the main goals of two late-stage studies, bolstering the company’s case that it could provide an alternative to currently available ADHD therapies. But shares of the Rockville, MD-based... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan12/6/18

• Brii Bio’s Alliance with VBI Vaccines Adds Hepatitis B Drug to Pipeline

  Brii Biosciences launched earlier this year with $260 million and a mission to find new medicines in infectious disease and other therapeutic areas and bring them to China. Today, the startup is announcing new partnerships that jump-start its pipeline, with an... Read more »

  Corie Lok12/6/18

• Former Biotech VC Steven Burrill Draws 30-Month Prison Term for Fraud

  G. Steven Burrill, once a noted biotech investment fund founder, sought-after conference speaker, and life sciences publisher, was sentenced Wednesday to serve 30 months in federal prison for defrauding his investors and evading taxes.

  Burrill was indicted by a federal grand... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey12/5/18

• Diffbot’s A.I. Engine Draws Global Map of Machine Learning Expertise

  A year ago, the leading Chinese Internet company Tencent Holdings pegged the global number of artificial intelligence researchers and professionals at 300,000 or less—just as the unmet demand for such experts was pushing salary offers to as much as $1 million. In... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey12/5/18

• “JK Told Me He Was Planning This”: A CRISPR Baby Q&A with Matt Porteus

  Last week, Chinese researcher He Jiankui stunned the world with his claim to have created the world’s first gene-edited humans. He said he had used CRISPR-Cas9 to change the DNA of the embryos of twin girls, to make them immune to... Read more »

  Alex Lash12/4/18

• BCMA Day: At ASH ‘18, Cell Therapies For Myeloma Take Center Stage

  The treatment landscape for multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the bone marrow that affects about 30,000 Americans every year, has changed significantly over the past decade. And more changes look to be on the way.

  Take the results of a... Read more »

  Ben Fidler12/4/18

• 15Five Lands $8M to Provide Coaching Software to More Managers

  [Updated 12/4/18 9:20 am. See below.] San Francisco-based performance management startup 15Five, whose mission is to torpedo annual performance reviews for workers and replace them with supportive weekly coaching by managers, announced today it raised $8 million in a Series... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey12/4/18

• ASH 2018: Three Up, Two Down as Big Blood Disease Meeting Rolls On

  [Updated 4:37 p.m. See below.] Last week, Xconomy previewed the American Society of Hematology’s big meeting in San Diego, the largest medical gathering in the country on blood diseases. We took a deep dive into five specific disease areas... Read more »

  Ben Fidler12/3/18

• Volvo Expands In Silicon Valley As Auto Innovation Goes West

  As GM announced a wave of auto plant closures in the North American heartland this week at the cost of thousands of jobs, Sweden’s Volvo Cars was expanding its U.S. presence, both in Silicon Valley and at a new South Carolina... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey11/30/18

• Bio Roundup: CRISPR Babies, Blood Diseases, Big Cancer Nod & More

  This was one of those weeks when the world seemed to slip into a new era with no going back. A Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, claimed he helped bring to life two genetically engineered babies, twin girls with a gene disabled... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/30/18

• Under Fire, He Jiankui Says He’s “Proud” to Help Make CRISPR’d Babies

  [Updated, 11/28/18, 12:20pm ET. See below.] Is there another CRISPR baby on the way? In his first public appearance since his stunning claim, released on YouTube Sunday, that he helped bring the first genome-edited humans into the world,... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/28/18

Load More News ›

• Genetic Medicine: FDA OKs 2nd Cancer Drug That Targets DNA, Not Tissues

  [Updated 11/26/18. See below.] Going deeper into the new world of genetic medicine, the FDA has for the second time approved a drug that targets a tumor’s DNA fingerprint, no matter where in the body that cancer is found.... Read more »

  Ben Fidler11/26/18

• ASH 2018: A Guide to the Latest for Blood-Borne Cancers and More

  [Note: Ben Fidler co-authored this report.] This weekend, San Diego will host the annual American Society of Hematology conference, the largest U.S. medical gathering to get the latest on blood diseases, and a venue for updates on some of... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/26/18

• How Blockchain Is Finding a Place at Your Thanksgiving Table

  The food we buy in grocery stores and restaurants has a story to tell about where it came from and each step it took on its journey to your dinner table. Blockchain technology can help tell that tale.

  The story many... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/20/18

• Plant-Based Burger Maker Beyond Meat Cooks Up Plans for an IPO

  We’ll soon find out if Wall Street has the appetite for investing in alternative meat technology.

  Beyond Meat, a maker of plant-based meat products, has filed for an IPO. The El Segundo, CA-based company set a preliminary target of $100 million... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/19/18

• X·CON 2018: Photos From Three Innovation Days in November

  On November 4-6, Xconomy organized a meeting of the minds—an elite gathering of leaders in technology, business, healthcare, education, and energy—to discuss and demonstrate the key trends in their fields, heading into next year.

  Our expert speakers and attendees at X·CON... Read more »

  Gregory T. Huang11/19/18

• Wonolo Scores $32M to Expand Blue-Collar Gig Workers’ Marketplace

  Wonolo, which runs a marketplace where companies can find fill-in staffers for jobs like stocking store shelves and warehouse chores, announced Monday that it raised $32 million in a Series C funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures.

  Bain... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey11/19/18

• Bio Roundup: Moderna’s IPO, Arena’s Comeback, E-Cig Survey & More

  Thanksgiving is around the corner and this week delivered a bounty of deals that have a number of life science companies expressing their thanks a little early.

  One deal saw a company land a whopping $800 million upfront for a rights... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/16/18

• Arena’s Comeback Continues with $800M Deal for Lung Disease Drug

  [Updated, 11/15/18, 2:06 p.m. ET. See below.] Arena Pharmaceuticals continued its comeback Thursday, netting a whopping $800 million up front in a deal that hands United Therapeutics another experimental drug for the rare disorder pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

  The... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/15/18

• Ribometrix Takes Aim at “Undruggable” RNA with $30M Series A Funding

  Most drugs target proteins in the cell, but the world of RNA has remained largely untapped by companies making chemical-based, or small-molecule drugs. That’s changing though—just in the last couple of years, there’s been a mini-boom in biotechs trying to overturn... Read more »

  Corie Lok11/13/18

Load More News ›

• Qualtrics Skips IPO for $8B Sale to SAP

  It’s hard to say no to $8 billion. Qualtrics, the enterprise software firm that was on the verge of going public, has pulled its IPO in favor of selling to German software giant SAP for $8 billion in cash.

  Qualtrics—which has... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/12/18

• Bio Roundup: Midterm Fallout, Alzheimer’s Search, Postpartum Panel

  There was plenty at stake in this week’s midterm elections, and not just in terms of political wins and losses. With congress now divided—Democrats took back control of the House and Republicans extended their majority in the Senate—the implications are significant... Read more »

  Ben Fidler11/9/18

• Hold Your Horsepower: For Mobility Industry, “Reality Is Sinking In”

  Earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra told the crowd at a financial conference that her company was on track to unveil a ridesharing service in 2019 that would be powered by autonomous vehicles. It sounded like pretty big news, but... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson11/8/18

• Esperanto Reaps $58M to Speed Development of Its AI Chip

  Esperanto Technologies, a startup AI chip developer that has operated mostly below the radar since its founding in 2014, announced this week that it raised $58 million in a Series B fundraising round.

  Mountain View, CA-based Esperanto is vying with... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey11/5/18

• Scale Computing Snags $34.8M to Advance “Alternative” IT Platform

  Scale Computing, an Indianapolis IT startup serving smaller businesses, distributed enterprises, and retailers around the world, has raised $34.8 million in a Series F funding round.

  Co-founder and CEO Jeff Ready says technology hardware giant Lenovo was the largest contributor... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson11/2/18

• Bio Roundup: Depression Drug Dashed, Peek at ASH, CRISPR Worry & More

  The gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 is opening up new research avenues all the time, such as giving drug developers a cheaper, faster way to knock out genes in tumor cells.

  Studies of CRISPR-Cas9 to treat human disease are about to start,... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/2/18

• Cloud Leaders Shrug at IBM’s $34B Red Hat Deal

  In some ways, the biggest software acquisition of all time could be a yawner.

  IBM’s planned $34 billion deal to acquire open-source software maker Red Hat is a hefty price to pay to give its cloud computing business a shot in... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/1/18

• IRobot’s Roombas to Map Households for Google Smart Homes

  Autonomous vehicle developers rely heavily on navigational technology that maps the complex terrain of roads, curbs, signs, and people that their cars have to thread through.

  Google, as it develops its smart home systems, is turning to a company that already... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/31/18

• Facebook’s 3Q Growth Suffices to Stave Off Another Stock Dive

  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) shares gained nearly 3 percent Tuesday, and ticked up further in after-hours trading following the release of a third quarter earnings report that showed some strengths as well as shortfalls. Investors have been concerned about the social... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/30/18

Read More Posts ›