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Today's Rundown

Featured Story

After Kaletra setback, AbbVie joins forces with biotech, academia for experimental COVID-19 hopeful

Earlier this year, AbbVie tried and stumbled in a clinical trial using its HIV med Kaletra to help certain COVID-19 patients; now, it’s tapping a triumvirate of life science groups to develop a new antibody for the virus.

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Top Stories

Bristol's Celgene merger sees it bounce Jounce drug pact

After culling a $2.6 billion biobucks pact last year, Bristol Myers Squibb is making a second and final cut to its pact with I-O biotech Jounce Therapeutics.

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Atlas banks $400M in its latest 'breakthrough biotech' fund

If there’s anything this pandemic has taught us, it's that biotech—and its investors—will not be stopped. With a $400 million raise, Atlas Venture is the latest VC shop to close a major fund since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, joining the likes of Arch, Flagship and Deerfield.

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Melinta wins bidding war to land deal to acquire Tetraphase

Melinta Therapeutics has struck a deal to buy Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals. The deal, which follows a bidding war with AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, gives Melinta another approved product and potentially complementary R&D expertise to support its bid to bounce back from bankruptcy.

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Biogen posts new data for 'positive surprise' lupus med

In December, Biogen delivered a “positive surprise” for its lupus candidate when all three doses of the drug outdid placebo at improving skin symptoms of the disease in a phase 2 trial. Now, the company is painting a fuller picture of the drug’s effects, including safety data, in patients with lupus limited to their skin.

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What does it mean to #BeFierce? Our new look tells the story

A few years ago, one of our Fierce Life Sciences editors met a Big Pharma R&D chief for the first time. “You’re the ones with the scary name,” he joked. It was a glancing reference, but the comment stuck, and for good reason. We had never articulated, for ourselves or anyone else, what being Fierce actually meant.

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Stanford team deploys CRISPR gene editing to fight COVID-19

Stanford bioengineers teamed up with researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a CRISPR system that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 by scrambling the virus's genetic code. They believe the technology could prove useful for combating several types of viruses, including influenza.

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FDA authorizes new Roche test for identifying high-risk COVID-19 patients

Roche received an emergency authorization from the FDA for a new type of coronavirus diagnostic test—not to confirm an active infection or previous exposure to the disease, but to help identify whether a person with COVID-19 has a high risk of developing severe complications.

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FiercePharmaAsia—'Onshoring' drug manufacturing; Takeda's IBD pipeline cull; Legend's $350M IPO

The pharma industry is arguing that manufacturing all drugs for the U.S. market in the U.S. is "impractical." Takeda has decided to terminate Shire's inflammatory bowel disease candidate after failing to sell it. Johnson & Johnson's CAR-T partner Legend Biotech is aiming for a $350 million IPO. And more.

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Chutes & Ladders—WuXi adds Celgene vet Chang to head CAR-T offerings

WuXi AppTec picks up Celgene vet to head CAR-T offerings; Ipsen poaches Sanofi Pasteur's Loew; Spectrum adds Dreiling to head clinical development.

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Enrollment Showcase

A Credential for the Future of Health Care

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Resources

Whitepaper: 7 Keys to Success in Europe

White paper describing 7 keys to success for any biopharma company that is entering (or thinking about entering) Europe.

Whitepaper: Rapid BYOD Build Timelines

This white paper covers a Phase III case study; BYOD advantages and misconceptions; and regulatory, copyright, and equivalency considerations.

Whitepaper: Keep Your GI Trials Moving During COVID-19

Learn how GI specific data capture solutions can support virtual and hybrid trials during COVID-19.

Whitepaper: The Evolution and Importance of Biomedical Ontologies for Scientific Literature

Dive into the history of biomedical classification and how these systems have evolved to address new technology and use cases.

Case Study: Establishing Parameters for Success

Learn about a real-world example of how clinical supply management expertise was applied to overcome inventory challenges for a complex, global study.

Fact Sheet: Forecasting to Optimize Clinical Trial Supply Management

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.

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.

Podcast: Developing residual HCPs ELISA assay for biopharmaceutical products

Listen to our brand-new Frontage Laboratories podcast where you’ll take home tips for developing residual host cell proteins ELISA assay for biopharmaceutical products using commercial kits.

Virtual Event: Cardiac Safety London Online

Join us for a day of discovery as global experts in Cardiology, Pharmacology and Diabetes discuss state of the art methods in early phase clinical research.

Report: Decentralized Trials - Where Does the Industry Stand?

Patient-facing digital technologies are playing an important role in clinical trials for new drugs and medical devices, to the point where conducting virtual trials is becoming mainstream. But terms like remote trials, direct-to-patient trials, hybrid trials, decentralized trials, and more all add to the confusion of what makes a trial "virtual."

Whitepaper: Covid-19 Requires a Cloud Strategy to Succeed in the “New Normal”

Covid-19 has forever changed the paradigm of “go to the office” business operations. Learn how an effective Cloud Strategy can position your company for success in these unprecedented times.

Whitepaper: Flexible Design for Novel Trials

Download this case study to read about how Cenduit navigated these challenges, and successfully supports the trial sponsor to execute the umbrella trial with agility.

Case Study: More Powerful Analytics Capabilities

Case Study: Oncology-focused pharmaceutical company strengthens product launch by identifying hundreds of high-value physicians with Acorn AI.

Case Study: Precision Analytics for Product Launch and Growth

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. 

Events