8
Jun
2015
Bristol-Myers Should Drop the Bully Act. Non-Competes Are Bad for Biotech
Big Pharma talent has been migrating to biotech startups the past couple years, and that’s good. Lots of people with skills and rare experience are being matched with exciting new opportunities. This dynamic labor market is healthy for the industry, and increases its ability to create innovative healthcare products. Foolishly, some company had to try to squash all that.
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5
Jun
2015
Cancer is Hot, Diabetes is Not: Watch for Drug Safety and Cost Debates at ADA
The Internet was crackling this week with stories of progress against a disease that kills lots of people, and costs society billions in lost productivity. That was cancer. Don’t expect such hopeful scientific narratives this weekend, as physicians gather in Boston to discuss another common scourge—diabetes. Compared with innovation in cancer, diabetes is dullsville. This drug market is more about... Read More
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1
Jun
2015
Big Pharma Talent Is Flocking to Biotech Startups. Nobody’s Saying ‘Are You Nuts?’
Look at some of the high-science, high-risk, venture-backed companies in biotech and you’ll see something that wasn’t so common five years ago. The management teams of these startups are often stacked with people who quit high-paid, high-powered jobs in Big Pharma. Last week, the cancer immunotherapy startup Juno Therapeutics poached a chief scientific officer, Hyam Levitsky, from Roche. Microbiome drugmaker... Read More
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29
May
2015
Cancer Immunotherapy’s Amazing Four-Year Run: A Timeline of Events
The biggest idea in cancer R&D, for a couple years, has been the notion that you can unleash the immune system to attack cancer cells like a foreign invader. Immunotherapy, in various permutations, is on everyone’s mind this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. The buzz is there because of the evidence. Researchers are raising... Read More
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26
May
2015
Long-Term Relationships May Not Count in Many Businesses, But They Do in Biotech
Cynicism runs through just about every business, if you read the news or follow pop culture. The Netflix show “House of Cards” portrays dirty politics of Washington, D.C. A new “Entourage” movie delves into Hollywood manipulation. Prosecutors in real life last week showed traders cackling about rigging interest rates that harm millions of people, so they can sail away on... Read More
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22
May
2015
The Genentech Alumni: Where Are They Now?
Genentech is almost 40 years old, and still has spring in its step. Through ups and downs, the company has never stopped attracting first-rate talent, and still develops people with the itch to do big things in healthcare. Last week, a trio of Genentech veterans came together to start a neuroscience company called Denali Therapeutics that raised initial financing of... Read More
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21
May
2015
Why a Pfizer R&D Exec Joined Synlogic to Make ‘Therapeutic Synthetic Life’
One of Pfizer’s well-connected R&D leaders, Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, quit recently to run a startup with technology that’s just a little too early, a little too risky, for just about any Big Pharma company. JC, as he is commonly known, said today he has joined Cambridge, Mass.-based Synlogic as president and CEO. It’s a two-year-old company with $35 million in venture... Read More
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18
May
2015
Zigging Away From the Herd: Lilly’s Road-Less-Traveled R&D Strategy
In my hometown, an insurance company ad campaign pokes fun at locals who commit the fashion faux pas of wearing socks with sandals. We’re all in on the joke. We like living in a place where it’s OK to be quirky and geeky. There’s relatively little pressure to conform. Researchers, too, tend to be an iconoclastic bunch. If they were... Read More
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15
May
2015
More than Moderna: Who’s Who in mRNA Therapeutics?
Biotech doesn’t usually make for must-see TV. It scares most people. Something must be up if a biotech company can get extended air time on television. Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna Therapeutics captured more than its share of attention this week when it succeeded Elon Musk’s Mars exploration company as the “No. 1 Disruptor” in corporate America by CNBC. Many in biotech... Read More
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11
May
2015
How Do VCs Divvy Up Their Pay?
Venture capitalists are notorious for keeping their performance a secret. But an even bigger mystery is who has the power inside firms, and how that gets reflected in their pay. Compensation is a sign of who’s who inside a firm, and what it values. It’s frequently the thing that tears apart firms in both bad times and good. While much... Read More
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7
May
2015
Gates Foundation VC Portfolio: Where is the Global Health Investment Going?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy, decided about five years ago that instead of just giving out grants to researchers and hoping for the best, it sometimes made more sense to invest in startups. That way, the Seattle-based foundation could put some of its $43.5 billion to work with entrepreneurs developing high-impact vaccines, diagnostics, and drugs... Read More
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4
May
2015
What’s Real, and What’s Not Yet, in Digital Health?
The late, great columnist Molly Ivins once said there are three ways to evaluate a politician. First, look at the record. Second, look at the record. Third, look at the record. Notice the lack of emphasis on what the politician says. Actions speak. Digital health, for some time, has been one of those areas long on talk and short on... Read More
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29
Apr
2015
Q&A With Illumina CEO Jay Flatley on Where Genomics Is Growing
Walk into any biomedical lab these days, and chances are you’ll see Illumina’s orange logo. Many scientists, diagnostics makers, physicians, and Wall Street analysts look upon the dominant maker of DNA sequencing machines with a mix of respect, fear, and awe. Much like Intel became the company that sparked so much of the computer revolution, Illumina has risen to prominence... Read More
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27
Apr
2015
It’s Time to Re-Think How We Train and Develop Biomedical Scientists
A strange feeling hit me the other day at one of the world’s great biomedical research centers. There I was, at the end of a long table at MIT, surrounded by two dozen young researchers. While munching sandwiches over the lunch hour, they fired away with questions about the biotech industry. It was a great back-and-forth. The questions were sharp... Read More
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23
Apr
2015
See the Photos: Timmerman Report East Coast Launch Party
About nine months ago, I booked plane tickets for the whole family to go to Boston. The plan was to run the Boston Marathon, and maybe do a little sight-seeing. I didn’t realize at the time it would turn into a business trip. Oh, but it did, and what a great business-and-pleasure trip it was. After Timmerman Report went live... Read More
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20
Apr
2015
Hungry for Cash, Academia Reaches For a Bigger Piece of Biotech Action
Cash is gushing through the pharmaceutical industry at the same time its allies in academia are scraping for every nickel. The gap between these haves and have-nots is wide and getting wider. But at least in a couple recent cases, the poor people in academia have figured out clever ways to get a piece of the biotech action, at least... Read More
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15
Apr
2015
Who Should Biotech Pros Follow on Twitter?
Many people in biotech are still afraid of Twitter, even as it has accumulated more than 280 million users. Drug companies want to advertise to patients and doctors on social media, but they’re afraid the FDA will slap them for misleading promotions. They want to engage with investors, but they’re afraid someone (rightly or wrongly) will question their clinical trial... Read More
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13
Apr
2015
The Big Boys Love Kendall Square. Let’s Hope They Don’t Squeeze The Life Out of It
Something magical has been happening in Cambridge’s Kendall Square for years. All kinds of biotech companies, big and small, have thrived on it. Now the big guys have to be careful not to squeeze the life out of it. The biotech real estate market in Kendall Square is about as hot as it gets. Genzyme is building a new headquarters along... Read More
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9
Apr
2015
Which Big Public Investors Are ‘Crossing Over’ Into the Private Arena?
Big-time money managers on Wall Street have all heard of biotech giants like Amgen, Biogen, Celgene, and Gilead Sciences. Those stocks are part of many diversified portfolios. But funds with really deep pockets, as one of my editors used to say, see the rest of biotech as “a bunch of little companies nobody has ever heard of.” Not anymore. As... Read More
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6
Apr
2015
Baseball Meets Biotech, Where Hope Springs Eternal
Baseball season is here, and I can’t wait. It’s time to draw some analogies between these two passions of mine. Plenty of writers have observed that baseball is basically a microcosm of life in all its messy glory, filled with hope and disappointment. This time of year, the old saying goes, “hope springs eternal.” Fans are optimistic, and maybe even... Read More
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