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Today's Rundown

Featured Story

AstraZeneca cancer R&D exec Ferté hits the exit

Charles Ferté, senior director and global project leader of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, is leaving the company.

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Top Stories

Roche culls 2 COVID-19 drug hopefuls amid Q1 clear-out

Roche has cut a series of experimental lung drugs from its pipeline, including two midstage COVID-19 assets.

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Humanigen opens up CMO role, drops AstraZeneca vet to push on with COVID hopeful

Humanigen has created a chief medical officer role and has chosen AstraZeneca’s Adrian Kilcoyne, M.D., to fill it. Kilcoyne previously served as vice president of oncology global medical affairs, head of evidence generation and external alliances at the U.K. pharma giant.

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Sponsored: Why Integrated Partners are Critical to Cell and Gene Therapy Success

Working with the right integrated partner can help ease increasingly common problems with scale, access to high-demand raw material, viral vector production and quality requirements. 

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Versant nets $950M to build its next class of biotech startups

Versant Ventures banked $950 million in its latest raise to invest in 20 or more biotech startups and chip into later-stage rounds for its portfolio companies. The capital will be split into three funds, including a primary global fund, a "booster" fund, and a fund for later-stage investments.

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'Gateway to China' Zai Lab aims for $750M to bankroll licensing deals, clinical trials

Led by Samantha Du, Ph.D., who is viewed by many as the godmother of China’s biotech industry, Zai Lab has made a name for itself by bringing new drugs from the likes of GlaxoSmithKline and Regeneron into the country. Now, the company is looking for more cash to ink yet more licensing deals—and it’s tapping into U.S. investors. 

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Genentech oncology exec jumps to Replimune to get cancer-killing meds to market

Sushil Patel, the Genentech executive who led the development of Tecentriq in lung cancer, is turning his focus to oncolytic, or cancer-killing, viruses. He joins Replimune, a biotech working on treatments designed not just to replicate within tumors and kill them, but also boost the effects of checkpoint inhibitors like Tecentriq.

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Tesseract raises $80M to pursue a new dimension of eye-based diagnostics

Using the eyes as a window into the body’s health, the company has raised $80 million to help complete the development of its retinal scanning system.

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Biogen’s Alzheimer’s hopeful aducanumab faces ‘less than a coin flip’s chance’ of FDA approval: analysts

As the June decision date draws near for Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab, analysts at RBC Capital Markets are raising concerns about the drug's prospects for approval. They considered eight recent developments—some specific to the drug and others more generally related to the Alzheimer’s market environment.

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Resources

Content Hub: Process Intensification Resource Center

A one-stop hub for Cytiva resources to support process intesification

Whitepaper: COVID-19 Survey report: The Lasting Impact on Outsourcing Decisions

How has COVID-19 impacted CRO/CDMO customer (dis)satisfaction and outsourcing decisions for pharma and biotech companies in 2021 and beyond?

Content Hub: Emerging Biotech Resource Center

A one-stop hub for Cytiva resources to support process development and manufacturing of your novel molecule

Whitepaper: Top 5 Benefits of a Cloud ELN

Discover the benefits of a cloud-native ELN that delivers better performance, security, connectivity, total cost of ownership PLUS sub-second search results through even the largest data volumes.

Special Report: The Marketer’s Guide to Taking the Vaccine Viral

Access this guide for the latest insights into how marketers can use data, technology, and personalized messaging to build vaccine confidence and drive successful immunization efforts.

Content Hub: How to improve the virtual work you do every day

We enable virtual work — offering over-time sessions where participants are more focused, insights are more diverse and business goals are met.

Report: New research indicates an accelerated shift to decentralized clinical trials

New research indicates an accelerated adoption of decentralized clinical trials due to COVID-19.

Whitepaper: Roche to pick up GenMark Diagnostics in $1.8B infectious disease testing deal

Roche has inked a $1.8 billion, all-cash deal for GenMark Diagnostics, to acquire its molecular tests designed to screen patient samples for multiple infections simultaneously.

Content Hub: Remarque Systems Resource Hub

Remarque Systems consolidates data, then layers on visualization and automated metrics to generate consistent, actionable data insights in real-time. Click here for more info. 

Whitepaper: New Data: A Better Way to Run CHO Cell Culture Experiments

Find out how upstream bioprocess scientists can use Culture Biosciences’ bioreactor system and real-time data visualizations to get faster insights and get their product to market more quickly.

Whitepaper: Overcoming the hurdles of Real-World Data Access through a federated global network

Those wishing to unlock RWD’s true value must have access to a variety of data sources/types and the technological capabilities to use the data to uncover meaningful insights.

Report: New research indicates an accelerated shift to decentralized clinical trials

New research indicates an accelerated adoption of decentralized clinical trials due to COVID-19.

Executive Summary: Manufacturing Strategies to Effectively Industrialize Autologous Cell Therapies

Autologous cell therapies have seen propelled growth since 2017, with the spotlight on the first FDA approval of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy, Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel), for the treatment of relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

eBrief: Drug Product Process Development: Ensuring a Consistent, High-quality Biologic

Learn about drug product process development challenges and risks, the difference between innovator and biosimilar drug product process development, and more during the drug product process development phase.

Whitepaper: Achieving a Successful Drug Product Technology Transfer

Get insights on key considerations for a successful tech transfer process for manufacturing a biologic drug product, including a case study on overcoming challenges in a process transfer for a sterile diluent.

Whitepaper: The Art of Recognizing Clinical Supply Risk Factors

In a BioPharma Dive industry survey, planning and forecasting were identified as top concerns for trial sponsors. In response to this need, the CSM team at Catalent has developed a methodology for identifying, evaluating, and proactively managing the inherent risks involved in clinical trial supply chain management.

eBook: Expecting the Unexpected: Strategies for Efficient Clinical Supply Management and Forecasting

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.

Events