Sun rises over cash-strapped Concert

Today's Big News

Jan 19, 2023

Editas finds buyer for iNK programs 10 days after clearing out pipeline


Jiving with Jazz after $325M opt-in, Zymeworks links HER2 bispecific to 84% survival after 18 months


Concert joins Sun Pharma’s symphony for $576M with aim of bringing alopecia treatment to market


Mineralys polishes $100M IPO plans ahead of phase 3 in hypertension


ReNeuron lays off 40% of staff after funding failure, buying time to execute exosome pivot


SPAC to it: Alzheimer’s-focused Aprinoia inks deal with Wilbur Ross' blank check company


Gilead fosters growth with plans for new research center in California hometown

 

Featured

Editas finds buyer for iNK programs 10 days after clearing out pipeline

Just 10 days after announcing plans to let go of its iNK programs as part of a major portfolio and workforce restructuring, Editas Medicine has found a buyer for the cell technologies in the form of Shoreline Biosciences.
 

Top Stories

Jiving with Jazz after $325M opt-in, Zymeworks links HER2 bispecific to 84% survival after 18 months

Fresh from its $325 million opt-in, Jazz Pharmaceuticals has posted phase 2 data on its HER2-targeted bispecific antibody zanidatamab. The Zymeworks-partnered prospect kept 84% of people with metastatic gastroesophageal cancer alive for at least 18 months when given in combination with chemotherapy.

Concert joins Sun Pharma’s symphony for $576M with aim of bringing alopecia treatment to market

If there's been a theme to 2023 so far, it's mid-size companies taking the plunge and making an offer on their biotech peers. The latest example is Sun Pharmaceutical, which has put down $576 million to acquire Concert Pharmaceuticals and its JAK inhibitor that could give Eli Lilly's approved alopecia treatment a run for its money.

Using real RWD to better understand and engage neuro patients

Traditional real-world data isn’t truly from the real world – it’s from the clinical world, and it’s missing a big part of neuro patients’ stories.

Mineralys polishes $100M IPO plans ahead of phase 3 in hypertension

If we’re looking for good omens for biotech in 2023, then a planned $100 million IPO seems as good a sign as any. That’s how much Mineralys Therapeutics is aiming to bring if it goes public as planned.

ReNeuron lays off 40% of staff after funding failure, buying time to execute exosome pivot

Iain Ross has made an immediate mark on ReNeuron, overseeing a restructuring to reduce the biotech’s head count by 40% within weeks of taking the reins. The cuts extend the stem cell player’s cash runway out to 2024, partly easing the pressures that built up as it struggled to raise money last year.

SPAC to it: Alzheimer’s-focused Aprinoia inks deal with Wilbur Ross' blank check company

Wilbur Ross' SPAC and Alzheimer’s focused-Aprinoia Therapeutics have inked one of the first biotech blank check deals of the new year, reigniting hope in the chilly SPAC waters.

Gilead fosters growth with plans for new research center in California hometown

Gilead is expanding with a new research center that's plotted in headquarters Foster City, California, as it races to develop 10 new transformative therapies.

PsychoGenics on board for Iama's preclinical Dravet syndrome therapy study

PsychoGenics has signed on with Italy's Iama Therapeutics to run a preclinical study as part of an effort to identify and develop drug candidates to treat Dravet syndrome.

Roche touts industry-first liver cancer win, expects more Tecentriq adjuvant data this year

Nearly three years after snatching the first-in-class FDA approval in metastatic liver cancer, a combination of Roche’s Tecentriq and Avastin has come back with an industry-first win in early-stage disease. And the PD-L1 inhibitor is looking at a busy year with potentially four adjuvant readouts on deck.

Nearly a quarter of inpatient admissions experienced an adverse event in 2018, Massachusetts hospital study finds

An 11-hospital sample of about 2,800 admissions published in The New England Journal of Medicine found 978 adverse events, about a third of which were judged to be serious or worse.

Surmodics returns to the drawing board as FDA declares drug-coated balloon ‘not currently approvable’

Surmodics looks to pave a new path forward after the FDA sent a device submission back for revision yet again.

Bluebird extends cash runway to late 2024 with $113M raise through stock sale

Just about a week after saying its cash could fund operations until early next year, bluebird bio has raised $113 million by selling new shares of its stock. The money should fund operations through the fourth quarter of 2024.

Cleveland Clinic anticipates $200M-plus operating loss in 2022, CEO says

In an address to Cleveland Clinic employees, CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., said the organization plans to cut back on spending and administrative hiring.
 
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