Today's Rundown GSK becomes Vir's newest partner on COVID-19 treatments, vaccines Top biotech money raisers of 2019 Ex-FDA chief says regulator needs to up pace on COVID-19 drugs Chasing Arrowhead, onetime rivals Alnylam and Dicerna unite on liver disease Alkermes clinical lead jumps ship to slimmed-down, refocused Seres Servier snaps up antibody biotech Symphogen, looks to become 'recognized oncology player' GSK, AstraZeneca in talks for joint U.K. COVID-19 diagnostics project: Bloomberg Pfizer signs up for longer pact with Icon, pens extra 2-year clause Featured Story | | | Monday, April 6, 2020 Vir Biotechnology is adding GlaxoSmithKline to its roster of COVID-19 partners—and snagging a $250 million investment in the process. The duo will pool their resources to develop vaccines and treatments for coronaviruses, starting with two antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the current pandemic, which could hit phase 2 studies as early as this summer. |
|
|---|
|
Top Stories At first glance, venture investment for biotech slumped in 2019. By the raw numbers, 2019 lost on every metric compared to 2018. Total investment dollars dropped by $4 billion, from $17.9 billion in 2018 to $13.9 billion in 2019, and the average round size decreased too, from $40.2 million to $36.7 million. But that’s not the full story. Monday, April 6, 2020 Scott Gottlieb has called on the FDA to deploy regulatory tactics honed on rare and deadly cancers to help get a treatment for COVID-19 to market by the summer. Gottlieb thinks the industry needs to hit that timeline if the U.S. is to both restart its economy and avoid a new epidemic in the fall. Monday, April 6, 2020 Alnylam and Dicerna have struck a deal to jointly go after the alpha-1 liver disease market rather than separately advance rival drugs. The agreement tasks Dicerna with studying both its DCR-A1AT and Alnylam’s ALN-AAT02 and taking one or both of the RNAi therapeutics forward. Monday, April 6, 2020 After axing its chief scientific officer last year amid a raft of changes to its C-suite and beyond, Seres Therapeutics has nabbed a new chief medical officer from Alkermes. Monday, April 6, 2020 French biopharma Servier has bought up Danish cancer biotech Symphogen as it looks to bolster its immuno-oncology pipeline. Monday, April 6, 2020 GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are considering forming a joint laboratory to help the U.K. government stretch and expand its supplies for COVID-19 diagnostic tests, according to a report from Bloomberg. Monday, April 6, 2020 Back in 2016, Pfizer signed up with CRO Icon to help it, alongside other CROs PPD and Parexel, run its vast trial network. Resources Sponsored by: Clinical Ink This white paper includes a Phase III case study and discusses BYOD advantages and misconceptions, regulatory, copyright, and equivalency considerations. Sponsored by: Research Solutions Turn your drug failures into competitive advantage. Sponsored by: ICON How will US payers evaluate and manage digital therapeutics? Get insights and recommendations on successful market access considerations. Sponsored by: Epsilon Download this e-book to learn 9 ways to enhance the customer experience within healthcare marketing. Sponsored by: Copyright Clearance Center Despite advances in content aggregation and search, silos still limit the free flow of data and analytics. So, what can be done, and how can you get more value from the data you already have? Sponsored by: Applied BioMath Learn how we used a tiered model-based approach of a bispecific antibody to appropriately cover multiple antigen pairs to help teams with informed antibody design, prioritization of experiments, and triaging of challenging antigen pairs Sponsored by: Altran This whitepaper highlights the challenges of implementing the right digital twin strategy while providing key use cases in the manufacturing domain for which a digital twin is extremely useful and several examples of technology trends that will shape the future. Sponsored by: Outer Edge Technology To survive in these challenging conditions, companies need to promptly address business continuity issues - especially the remote delivery of data and voice solutions. See how Outer Edge can help. Sponsored by: Patheon, by Thermo Fisher Scientific Poorly soluble molecules hindering your workflow? Sponsored by: eClinical Solutions Key findings from the 2019 Life Sciences Data & Analytics Survey conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development will be unveiled during this live webinar led by industry expert and study lead, Ken Getz, Director of Sponsored Programs and Associate Professor. Sponsored by: Catalent Learn how to drive excellence within the forecasting process and utilize forecasting throughout the clinical study to better plan clinical supply budgets and project timelines. Explore how to identify potential supply-related issues before they can negatively impact your study. Sponsored by: Catalent Whether a study is simple or highly complex, forecasting and simulation reports serve as data driven communication tools to help minimize risks and keep the study on track. Learn more about forecasting solutions for informed decision making and supporting contingency planning for clinical study. Sponsored by: Catalent Learn about a real-world example of how clinical supply management expertise was applied to overcome inventory challenges for a complex, global study. Sponsored by: Catalent This whitepaper discusses the benefits of end-to-end solutions and share case studies on how flexible manufacturing strategies can accommodate the changing landscape of pharmaceutical products and help bring a drug to market. Sponsored by: Catalent Get expert insights on strategies to implement flexible manufacturing and different technologies that are easily scalable and reproducible. Sponsored by: Catalent Regardless of the assigned FDA expedited approval designation and approach, the key action items should be: the assurance of a detail-oriented plan and the adaption of a “forward-thinking” approach that will assist in any future challenges and opportunities for growth of each project. Sponsored by: Clarify Health Pharma launch teams spend significant resources on data and analytics with limited ROI. Read this case study to learn how a Life Sciences company identified two times more patients best suited for therapy, using Clarify’s deep and longitudinal patient and HCP insights. BioBasics 201: Targeted Biologics for the Non-Scientist June 16-17, 2020 | Boston, MA Medical Affairs Strategic Summit (MASS) East April 14-16, 2020 | New Brunswick, NJ BioBasics 101: The Biology of Biotech April 16-17, 2020 | Philadelphia, PA Drug Development Immersion April 23-24, 2020 | Boston, MA PEGS Boston – The Essential Protein Engineering & Cell Therapy Summit May 4-8, 2020 | Boston, MA 8-week Online Courses in Life Sciences Law and Compliance Virtual Course | May 31st, 2020 European Healthcare Compliance Certificate Program June 2-5, 2020 | Paris, France BIO International Convention June 8-11, 2020 | San Diego, CA Drug Development Boot Camp® 2020 November 18-19, 2020 | Register now and begin Pre-Boot Camp Preparation. | Take your new medicine development skills to the next level. | 