Latest Posts

• Early Bird Sale Ends Friday, June 5 for Xconomy’s AI & Drug Discovery Online Forum and Networking Conference

  The early bird sale for Xcelerating Life Sciences San Francisco: The AI, Big Data, and R&D Boom ends this Friday at 11:59 p.m. PT. Register today to lock in the low $99 rate and secure your spot at the online forum... Read more »

  Editors6/4/20

• Pliant Therapeutics Prices IPO, Lands $144M to Test Fibrosis Drugs

  Pliant Therapeutics is now a public company, raising $144 million from its IPO, plus more from a separate transaction with partner Novartis.

  South San Francisco-based Pliant priced its offering of 9 million shares at $16 apiece, which was the high end... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan6/3/20

• Grail Plants a Seed in RTP, Pledges $100M Investment in New Site

  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 »

  Frank Vinluan6/2/20

• Chinook, Aduro Merger Plan Sets Up New Kidney Disease-Focused Biotech

  Chinook Therapeutics and Aduro Biotech, each pursuing different approaches to the same rare disease, are now converging on a path to combine their operations into a single company focused on developing new treatments for kidney disorders.

  The merger agreement announced Tuesday... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan6/2/20

• After Inking Bristol Myers Pact, Repare Therapeutics Sets Sights on IPO

  It’s been a busy week for Repare Therapeutics. On Tuesday, the cancer drug developer struck up an alliance with Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) that pays $65 million now and as much as $3 billion later, depending on the progress... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/29/20

• Bio Roundup: ASCO Opens, Merck Takes On COVID, Evofem’s Approval & 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 »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/29/20

• New Webinars: In Vitro Hepatotoxicity Assessment Solutions & Enzyme Fragment Complementation Tech

  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 »

  Editors5/27/20

• Gilead Gains Foothold in Solid Tumors With $375M, 10-Year Arcus Bio Pact

  With the year’s biggest oncology conference days away, Gilead Sciences is signaling now what its cancer immunotherapy pipeline could look like in the years to come. The drug maker is entering a partnership with Arcus Biosciences that spans the biotech’s four... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/27/20

• Insitro Adds $143M to Fuel Machine Learning-Driven Drug Development

  A stem cell biologist, a gene editing expert, and a data engineer walk into a room…and that’s just a few of the people Daphne Koller has recruited in the past two years to Insitro. The South San Francisco-based startup has grand... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/26/20

• Generation Bio Leads a Trio of Biotech Companies Aiming for the Nasdaq

  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 »

  Frank Vinluan5/22/20

• Bio Roundup: mRNA Vaccine Data, Rise of Rallybio, Roche’s Protein Play & 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 »

  Frank Vinluan5/22/20

• Applied Molecular Plots IPO to Back Transport of Biologic Drugs to Gut

  The human gut hosts a hub of activity spanning the immune system, the nervous system, and more. But drugging this nexus comes with challenges. Applied Molecular Transport is developing biologic drugs that use a cell’s own mechanisms to get a therapy... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/20/20

• With $30M, Octant Launches Synthetic Bio Search for Multi-Target Drugs

  Octant, a new drug discovery company, launched Wednesday with millions in backing from tech investors to push ahead plans to leverage advances in science and in tech—including genomics, synthetic biology, and big data computation—to map out the relationships between chemicals, drug... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/20/20

Load More News ›

• Bio Roundup: FDA Dings BMS, Genfit’s Fall, Alexion’s Activist & 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 »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/15/20

• Biotech “Mapmaker” Immunai Launches With $20M to Chart the Immune System

  It may seem like an unlikely link but the body’s response to arthritis may hold answers for better cancer drugs, says Luis Voloch, chief technology officer of startup Immunai. Immune cells respond to both conditions, but in different ways. Insights into... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/14/20

• Boehringer Ingelheim Acquires Northern Biologics’ Preclinical Pipeline

  Two preclinical programs developed by Canadian biotech Northern Biologics have been acquired by privately held German company Boehringer Ingelheim, which is looking to bolster its cancer immunology portfolio.

  The assets acquired from Northern Biologics in the deal, announced Thursday, are designed... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/14/20

• Pliant Pushes Forward With IPO Plans to Back Fibrosis Drug Studies

  Pliant Therapeutics has a pipeline of experimental fibrosis treatments and a research alliance with Novartis. Now the biotech is preparing an IPO to raise cash to advance its clinical-stage programs.

  In paperwork filed with securities regulators, Pliant set an $86 million... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/12/20

• Genfit Contender in Heated NASH Drug Race Fails in Phase 3 Study

  Genfit, once considered among the frontrunners in the biotech race to commercialize a treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), has come up short. The French company said Monday that its investigational treatment, elafibranor, did not meet the main goal of a late-stage... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/11/20

• MyoKardia’s Heart Drug Shines in Phase 3, FDA Filing Planned for 2021

  An experimental MyoKardia drug developed to treat an inherited cardiovascular condition that restricts blood flow is showing it can improve on the symptoms of this condition as well as the heart’s ability to function.

  MyoKardia (NASDAQ: MYOK) is testing its... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/11/20

• Bio Roundup: Acquisitive Alexion, CRISPR on COVID, C. diff Success & 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 »

  Frank Vinluan5/8/20

• Ventus Launches With $60M to Shine Light on Innate Immune System Drugs

  The innate immune system has become a hot area for drug development, and for good reason. As the body’s first line of defense, its function (or dysfunction) plays a role in many diseases. The problem, says Ventus Therapeutics CEO Marcelo Bigal,... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/6/20

• Encouraging Signals for New Cancer Cell Therapy Strategies

  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 »

  Mandy Jackson5/6/20

Load More News ›

• Alexion Pharma Boosts Blood Drug Lineup With $1.4B Deal for Portola

  Alexion Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy Portola Pharmaceuticals in a $1.4 billion deal that brings it a first-in-class therapy for treating life-threatening bleeding.

  According to financial terms announced Tuesday, Boston-based Alexion (NASDAQ: ALXN) will pay $18 for each outstanding share... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan5/5/20

• Bio Roundup: Remdesivir Data, Erasca’s $200M, a New FDA Nod & 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 »

  Sarah de Crescenzo5/1/20

• BridgeBio’s Pipeline Expansion Continues as Portfolio’s Milestones Approach

  BridgeBio Pharma Inc. is poised to achieve its goal of rapidly bringing treatments for genetic diseases and genetically defined cancers to the market with two different products expected to be submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration before the end... Read more »

  Mandy Jackson4/30/20

• Adicet Aims to Advance CAR-T Therapies in Reverse Merger with resTORbio

  Adicet Bio, a privately held preclinical biotech looking to move ahead its “off-the-shelf” CAR-T cell therapies, has struck a deal with struggling resTORbio to use its Nasdaq listing as a backdoor to the public markets.

  The companies on Wednesday announced an... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo4/29/20

• ADC Therapeutics Resubmits IPO to Fuel Cancer Drug Filing, Launch Plans

  Last fall, ADC Therapeutics (ADCT) concluded the time just wasn’t right for an IPO. Six months later, with its lead drug in a pivotal test and plans being drawn up for a regulatory submission and potential commercialization, the cancer drug... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan4/27/20

• Bio Roundup: Fast FDA Approvals, Biogen Delays, ORIC’s IPO & 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 »

  Frank Vinluan4/24/20

• ORIC Pharma Gets $120M in IPO to Advance Drug-Resistant Cancer Therapies

  ORIC Pharmaceuticals followed in the footsteps of the other biotechs that have managed to go public this month, selling more shares than it expected for a haul of $120 million.

  The South San Francisco, CA-based company—whose name is an acronym for... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo4/24/20

• Nitrome Bio Bags $38M to Prep Parkinson’s Program for the Clinic

  Nitrome Biosciences is looking to leverage its research into a class of enzymes involved in the aggregation of a protein characteristic of Parkinson’s disease into a treatment for that and other age-related diseases.

  This week the San Francisco-based startup raised $38... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo4/23/20

• Affinivax Lands $120M to Take MAPS Tech Into New Vaccine Territory

  Affinivax has a lead program with early clinical data showing the potential to best a pharmaceutical giant’s blockbuster vaccine. The startup now has $120 million in financing to see just how much further its technology can go.

  The Series B round... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan4/23/20

Read More Posts ›