What's the ROI on a COVID-19 vaccine? We have no idea, says Pfizer Kura Oncology CEO Wilson on the power of biotech in the quest beyond KRAS Nimbus CEO Keiper: 'We're not just a one-hit wonder' Is COVID-19 changing how biopharmas think of M&A? Not really, say J&J and Takeda execs BridgeBio CEO Kumar on its 'hub-and-spoke' model and where else it could work Moderna, Merck execs see possible speed bumps in COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing Boehringer BD head Sapountzis on striking deals during COVID-19 Audentes CEO Holles on keeping the biotech spirit 'Boom and bust' pandemic response isn't working, Sanofi exec says. It's time to get ready for future outbreaks Orchard CEO Gaspar on the company's 2020 pivot Featured Story | Thursday, June 11, 2020 Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are rushing to develop an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 and ramp up production to meet demand. How much will that cost? And how will Pfizer price the vaccine? The company has to balance the demand from investors to answer those questions with the need for an effective vaccine, chief business officer John Young says. read more |
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Top Stories Friday, June 12, 2020 Troy Wilson’s company Wellspring Biosciences was working on a KRAS inhibitor with Johnson & Johnson when a thought struck him: are there other ways to modulate the same pathway KRAS does? After spending “nights and weekends” poring over literature, he stumbled across a drug that his partner, despite all its resources, couldn’t take forward. read more Monday, June 8, 2020 When Nimbus Therapeutics set up shop in 2009, it had to convince the industry—including its founding chief scientific officer—that virtual drug discovery could be a viable approach. Now, Nimbus is unveiling four new programs it’s been working on, which could lead to treatments for metabolic disorders, cancer and autoimmune disease. read more Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Biopharma M&A has seen a sharp decline so far this year, both in terms of monetary value and total transaction count, amid a COVID-19 business slowdown. But executives from Johnson & Johnson, Takeda and Horizon Therapeutics said their companies' M&A strategies remain unchanged. read more Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Five years ago, Neil Kumar, Ph.D., quit his job at Third Rock Ventures to start a new kind of biotech company. The idea was "Moneyball" for biotech—to pick up potential rare disease treatments languishing in academia and to develop enough of them in parallel that the rare focus wouldn’t scare off investors. read more Thursday, June 11, 2020 With more than 130 vaccines against COVID-19 under development, headlines highlighting their progress swirl at a dizzying pace. But behind the scenes, execs at some of the leading players are intensely focused on the details needed to produce the candidates on a massive scale. read more Tuesday, June 9, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a curve ball at the global economy, and the biopharma industry is no exception. Companies are scrambling to develop tests, treatments and vaccines for the disease, while making sure not to neglect their pipelines. We caught up with Ioannis Sapountzis, Boehringer Ingelheim’s global head of business development and licensing, to see how the German pharma is handling this. read more Thursday, June 11, 2020 When Astellas closed its $3 billion buyout of Audentes Therapeutics, the J.P. Morgan conference crowd was full of “backhanded congratulations.” They offered Natalie Holles, then the newly minted CEO of Audentes, their kudos along with horror stories of biotechs that had been subsumed by Big Pharma and lost their spunk. read more Thursday, June 11, 2020 With much of the world caught up in responding to COVID-19, experts and lawmakers are again underscoring the need to prepare for the next pandemic, as distant a concern as it may seem. read more Tuesday, June 9, 2020 In 2019, it was all systems go for Orchard Therapeutics. The company had pulled off a $200 million IPO, picked up GlaxoSmithKline’s stable of rare disease gene therapies and planned to break ground on a $90 million manufacturing site in California. Now, under the wing of a new CEO, the company has reined it in. read more |
