Latest Posts

• Bio Roundup: Generic Drugs Graft, ASCO Ahead, ElevateBio Rises & More

  Generic drugs are supposed to give consumers more choices and a counterweight to more costly branded medications. During his tenure as FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb often spoke about generics as a market force that could help tame climbing drug prices. But... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/17/19

• ASCO Abstracts: Breast Cancer, Precision Treatments in the Spotlight

  The world’s biggest annual cancer conference is just around the corner. Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting each year can change medical practice and make or break companies whose drugs are under the microscope. That’s what makes... Read more »

  Ben Fidler5/16/19

• Endpoint Security Company CrowdStrike Files Publicly for IPO

  CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company that identified the two Russian government-linked hacker groups that invaded the Democratic National Committee (DNC)’s network during the 2016 presidential campaign, filed publicly for an initial public offering on Tuesday.

  Sunnyvale, CA-based CrowdStrike sells cloud-based security... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey5/14/19

• ElevateBio Gets $150M to Grow a Crop of Gene & Cell Therapy Startups

  When a biotech startup is ready to test an experimental therapy it faces a pricey choice: Should it make its drug in-house, or hire a contract manufacturer? The decision is particularly expensive for companies developing complex gene and cell therapies, which... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/13/19

• Tech Ethics, Regulation & Strategy: Here’s the Napa Summit Agenda

  With Uber’s long-awaited IPO, Facebook’s mounting controversies, and ongoing debates over drug pricing and safety issues, come a great responsibility. A big story in the innovation community now is about the ethics and regulation of tech and life sciences. What are... Read more »

  Gregory T. Huang5/10/19

• Bio Roundup: Rare Disease Showdowns, Prices on TV, Dealmania & More

  The market for drugs for rare or “orphan” diseases continues to grow. An April report from Evaluate Pharma predicted sales of orphan drugs to rise 12 percent a year between now and 2024, when they will account for an estimated 20... Read more »

  Ben Fidler5/10/19

• Uber Completes $8.1B Public Market Debut in Spite of Tumultuous Past

  [Updated 5/10/19, 5 pm ET. See below.] Ride-hailing giant Uber secured $8.1 billion in new capital late Thursday as it priced an initial public offering that set its market capitalization at $82.4 billion, according to calculations by The... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey5/9/19

• Two Days, Five Biotech IPOs, and $359M Raised for Clinical Trials

  It will be hard to top last year’s flurry of biotech companies joining the public markets, but this week is shaping up to be the busiest for life science IPOs in recent memory. Five biotechs priced their IPOs and at least... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/9/19

• SMA, Migraine Data Lead Neuro Highlights from AAN Meeting

  The American Academy of Neurology meeting in Philadelphia is rolling on through the end of this week. There has been plenty of news to digest already. New clinical data could herald cutting-edge treatments for migraine, the rare disease spinal muscular atrophy,... Read more »

  Ben Fidler5/7/19

• Pendo Adds to Analytics, Engagement Software With Receptive Purchase

  Pendo, an analytics business whose software helps companies study user behavior and feedback, has acquired a UK-based startup called Receptive Software. Pendo declined to disclose terms of the deal.

  Raleigh, NC-based Pendo aims to help its customers—ranging from tech startups to... Read more »

  David Holley5/7/19

• Bio Roundup: Head and Spine Previews, Biogen Moves, IPO Dreams & More

  America continues to suffer from healthcare headaches. Our convoluted private-public insurance system was under scrutiny this week from Democrats, holding a “Medicare for All” hearing in the House, and from Republicans, as several GOP-led states and the Trump administration asked... Read more »

  Alex Lash5/3/19

• At Big Neuro Meeting, Migraine Drug Competitors to Make Oral Arguments

  The first new class of migraine drugs in decades won FDA approval last year. But the companies who commercialized these new therapies and their potential competitors are already planning new, more convenient versions, taken as pills instead of injectoins just... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/3/19

• Beyond Meat’s IPO Bags $241M to Make Plant-Based Burgers Mainstream

  A Beyond Meat burger is coming to a location near you—and soon. The food technology company’s upsized IPO has raised $241 million to finance plans to bring its plant-based “meat” to more grocery stores and restaurants across the country.

  Beyond Meat... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/2/19

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• SMA Moment: Will Gene Therapy Shift Treatment, Costs of Muscle Disease?

  This is a big moment for people diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, a rare and potentially lethal genetic disorder that destroys muscles. For decades, there was no way to change the trajectory of their disease. They now have one... Read more »

  Ben Fidler5/2/19

• Retailers, Startups Work to Offer Efficient E-Commerce Delivery

  The on-demand delivery war in retail is on.

  In its quarterly earnings call Thursday, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced it would switch to one-day shipping for Prime members, halving the time the 100 million-plus people who subscribe to the service must... Read more »

  Angela Shah5/1/19

• Ford, Lincoln Owners Can Get Amazon Packages Delivered to Their Cars

  Many of us know that anxious feeling that comes when Amazon texts a notification that it has delivered your package, except you’re nowhere near home at the time to receive it. The mind races: is the package sitting out in plain... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson4/30/19

• Bio Roundup: Biogen’s Strategy, Drug Price Convo, NASH News & More

  The road to every new drug approval is littered with the remains of earlier failures. Biopharmaceutical companies don’t like to talk about the failures. But it’s earnings season now, so some of them don’t have much choice.

  Biogen’s (NASDAQ: BIIB)... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan4/26/19

• To Help Boost Female-led Startups, More Women Join Investor Ranks

  Houston—Men have long leveraged their networks to succeed in business, and the tech industry has been no exception. Women, finding themselves outside of the club, are now creating their own networks to do the same.

  Katelyn O’Shaughnessy already had a... Read more »

  Angela Shah4/25/19

• Announcing Net@50: The Roots and Future of the Internet

  The first short message went out over Arpanet, the precursor to the internet, 50 years ago this year—and it changed everything. Much of the change has been wonderful—as the internet has revolutionized communication, commerce, and access to information, in the process... Read more »

  Robert Buderi4/25/19

• Join Xconomy for Our 8th Annual Napa Summit, June 13-14

  Google. Amazon. Genentech. Those are some of the companies you’ll hear from at this year’s Napa Summit, the Xconomy Retreat on Technology, Jobs, and Growth.

  This is our most special event of the year—the eighth year we’ve held it—and it’s... Read more »

  Gregory T. Huang4/23/19

• SPECIAL REPORT: 2019 Blockchain Outlook — Reality Check

  After a breakout year in 2017, the blockchain sector suffered a series of blows in 2018, from crashing cryptocurrency prices to increased regulatory scrutiny of crypto ventures and deepening skepticism about whether the technology was actually useful. Now, the industry has... Read more »

  Jeff Engel4/23/19

• Can We Afford to Be Cured? A Conversation With ICER’s Steve Pearson

  [Corrected, 4/23/19, 7:10 p.m. See below.] New cell and gene therapies bring the possibility of cures once hardly imaginable. But the potential cures could also cost millions of dollars, like Novartis (NYSE: NVS), the owner of the gene... Read more »

  Alex Lash4/23/19

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• Bio Roundup: Nationwide’s Rise, a Surgeon’s Quest, CRISPR USA & More

  Persistence and perseverance were the themes of two of our top stories this week.

  First there’s the story of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The Columbus, Ohio, hospital chose to invest in gene therapy when the field was in its darkest days. After... Read more »

  Ben Fidler4/19/19

• It’s Tough to Find Drugs to Bind to RNA: Arrakis Nabs $75M to Help

  Arrakis Therapeutics has been scouting elusive pharmaceutical quarry: small molecules able to “drug” RNA, the molecular messengers that carry the genetic instructions for proteins. Most drugs in use today act on proteins. But CEO Michael Gilman says targeting the genetic blueprints... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan4/18/19

• $100M for Talaris Gives Surgeon a Shot to Reinvent Organ Transplants

  When Novartis dissolved its gene and cell therapy unit a few years ago, a bunch of projects the Swiss pharma giant had incubated were tossed aside. One of them was the work of surgeon Suzanne Ildstad, who has spent decades trying... Read more »

  Ben Fidler4/18/19

• Hatteras Launches New Fund With $94M for Life Science Investments

  Hatteras Venture Partners is kicking off its latest fund with $94 million it plans to deploy to life sciences startups.

  The cash committed so far is the first closing of a fund that Hatteras says could reach up to $200 million.... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan4/15/19

• How an Ohio Kids’ Hospital Quietly Became Ground Zero for Gene Therapy

  [Updated, 4/22/19, see below] If a once-modest regional hospital and its new biotech allies have their way, the capital of Ohio could one day rival America’s other biomedical hubs.

  “Our goal is to make Columbus the center of the... Read more »

  Ben Fidler4/15/19

• Lyft, Uber, and the Changing Disclosure Rules For Unicorn IPOs

  When a much-watched tech company such as Lyft, Uber, or Pinterest files for an initial public stock offering, people eagerly scour the sudden trove of information that such a private business must finally disclose when it begins to offer shares to... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey4/12/19

• Thwarting Opposition, Bristol Gets Shareholder OK for $74B Celgene Buyout

  The early opposition has turned out to be just noise. Shareholders of Bristol-Myers Squibb today approved the pharma giant’s planned buyout of Celgene, paving the way for a deal that will create one of the largest biopharma organizations in the world,... Read more »

  Ben Fidler4/12/19

• Bio Roundup: EASL Does It, Alnylam’s BFF, Gene Therapy Deals & More

  A major conference devoted to liver disease kicked off with updates from the race for approval of the world’s first drug to treat a form of advanced liver disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. The gene therapy field continued to attract... Read more »

  Alex Lash4/12/19

• AskBio Reels In $235M to Advance Gene Therapy Clinical Trials

  Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio) has raised $235 million in financing to support its research and development of gene therapies for rare, genetic disorders.

  The funding came from TPG Capital and Vida Ventures, which together invested $225 million and gained a minority stake... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan4/11/19

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