4
Apr
2015
Will We Just Give Up on Federal Funding for Research? I Sure Hope Not
Most people on the street have no idea where the money comes from to support basic research into diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, or diabetes. The issue only gets muddier when research centers complain about federal funding cuts, which sounds self-serving and whiny to many ordinary taxpayers This week, the folks at my local public radio station, KUOW in Seattle, asked... Read More
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3
Apr
2015
Sarepta’s Controversial CEO is Out, But Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy R&D is Rising
Sarepta Therapeutics is one of those rare biotech stories with Hollywood appeal. Its CEO was ousted this week, and it may never deliver the happy ending so many desperate parents are counting on for children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. But no matter what, the company has helped spark a renaissance of R&D for this crippling rare disease. To get a... Read More
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30
Mar
2015
Cancer Combos Force Companies To Do Some Re-Thinking
Cancer drug developers like to say they follow the science, work well with partners, and that their prices are designed to make sure every patient gets access. But those statements are being put to the test now by combination therapies for cancer, where two or more companies will have to work together in novel ways to make the biggest impact... Read More
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26
Mar
2015
See the Photos: Timmerman Report West Coast Launch Party
Entrepreneurs know what it’s like to dream big and take risk, so they naturally tend to support people who do the same. For that, I’m immensely thankful. I was blown away, and humbled, by the words of encouragement I heard last week at the Timmerman Report launch party in my hometown of Seattle. There was a great mixed crowd of... Read More
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24
Mar
2015
Come to Pfizer Cambridge for the East Coast Launch Party
Timmerman Report is coming to Boston next month for, oh, two of the bigger events of my life. Please mark your calendars for the first event—the Timmerman Report East Coast Launch Party. It will be 4-6 pm Thursday, Apr. 16 at Pfizer Cambridge, 610 Main Street, Cambridge, Mass. This will be a free gathering to thank the first wave of... Read More
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23
Mar
2015
Company Subscriptions: You Asked, and You Will Get
Timmerman Report is off to a fast start, more than halfway to the 1-year goal on subscriptions in the first six weeks. Subscriptions, at $99 a year for individual professionals, are rolling in every day. But one thing I’ve consistently heard is that many companies don’t want to buy subscriptions one at a time. So based on popular demand, I’m... Read More
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23
Mar
2015
Salaries are Inching Up in the Biotech Boom, Not Booming
If you think people and companies make rational economic decisions in their own self-interest, then you probably reason this must be a great time to be a worker in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Biotech stocks are way up, investment is flowing, and good new drugs keep hitting the market. As the economic tide rises, logic says companies will compete... Read More
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20
Mar
2015
NASH is the Next Monster Pharmaceutical Market. Here Are The Players
People in rich countries like the U.S. eat lots of junk food and sit around. That gives rise to some of the biggest opportunities that exist for pharmaceutical companies. Obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are the ones everyone knows about. A little over a year ago, another huge opportunity became clear. It’s called Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, or NASH. New York-based Intercept Pharmaceuticals,... Read More
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18
Mar
2015
Third Rock’s Revolution Medicines Tears Apart Antifungals, Atom By Atom
Mother Nature has provided scientists with a lot of odd chemical structures that work as drugs, and offers inspirational templates for new drugs. But good drugs derived from scorpion venom, tree bark, and other strange sources aren’t easily cooked up in the lab. Now a group from the University of Illinois, backed by Third Rock Ventures, says it has hit... Read More
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16
Mar
2015
The Top 20 Early-Stage Biotech Investors (And 2 Resuscitated By the Boom)
It takes brains, nerves, absurd self-confidence, and above all, patience, to invest in early-stage biotech companies. In a world fixated on quick and easy returns, these venture investors—from the 15 or 20 firms that survived the Great Recession—are strange birds. But now that boom days are here, some of them are making big bucks, and fast. Lately, I’ve been wondering:... Read More
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13
Mar
2015
Ember Therapeutics, After Shutting Down, Pools IP With Mariel
Quick follow-up on a story I broke here last month. Third Rock Ventures shut down its obesity drug company Ember Therapeutics late last year, and spent a few months looking to hand over its intellectual property to someone else. Now it has found that someone else, as was noted by FierceBiotech. Boston-based Ember said yesterday it has agreed to merge... Read More
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12
Mar
2015
Antibiotic R&D Is Getting More Attention. Who’s Doing What?
Bacteria, when confronted with the same old antibiotics, find ways to survive and sometimes kill people. Drugmakers haven’t paid much attention in recent years. But now, after repeated warnings about the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and some new profit incentives, the industry is coming around to the fight against “superbugs.” Drugmakers have long seen bigger opportunities to make money elsewhere.... Read More
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9
Mar
2015
2015 Power Rankings: Biotech Investment Banks
Which banks have the most power in biotech? You could just flip to the bottom of the press release on AbbVie’s $21 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics last week. Morgan Stanley, Centerview Partners, and JP Morgan cashed in big-time on that megadeal. But there are a lot of banks making hay while the sun is shining in biotech, in their own... Read More
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6
Mar
2015
Esperion Jockeys For Place Between Statins and the Next Big Class of Heart Drugs
Millions of people have been taking statins for years. These pills are cheap, simple to take, and effective at reducing heart attacks and strokes. They are a tough act to follow. Now here comes a new class of drugs that inhibit a molecular target called PCSK9. Elegant genetics, profound clinical trial results, and deep corporate pockets are all lined up... Read More
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3
Mar
2015
Come Celebrate at the Timmerman Report Launch Party
Timmerman Report turned on the lights one month ago. Thanks to you and many other subscribers like you, it’s off to a terrific start. Now it’s time to celebrate. Please mark your calendars for 4 pm Friday, Mar. 20 at the Agora Conference Center at 1551 Eastlake Avenue East in Seattle. This will be a free gathering to thank the... Read More
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2
Mar
2015
Margaret Hamburg: One of the Best Commissioners in FDA History
The one time I saw FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg speak was memorable only for its dullness. Firebrand liberal Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, woke everybody up before Hamburg put everyone to sleep. Nothing Hamburg said was even close to newsworthy. That sums up the brilliance of a public servant who will go down as one of the best food... Read More
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25
Feb
2015
The Tularik Alumni: Where Are They Now?
Two of the biggest stories in biotech this week, Flexus Biosciences and NGM Biopharmaceuticals, had something in common. They were both led by entrepreneurs who cut their teeth years ago at Tularik. That company name from the past is dotted all over the employment histories of the people now running Flexus Biosciences and NGM Biopharmaceuticals. For those who missed it,... Read More
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23
Feb
2015
Who Is Poised To Go Public in 2015, and Who Isn’t?
This is the greatest bull market ever for biotech IPOs, which everyone reading this surely knows. If Dr. Seuss were around, he’d ask something like: “How long can it go? Nobody knows.” Renaissance Capital counted 102 healthcare IPOs last year, more than one-third of all the new stock offerings in the U.S. An infusion of more than $9 billion flowed to... Read More
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20
Feb
2015
Five Things to Watch at Next Week’s Big Genomics Show
This is the cold, dreary, snowy time of year when all the geeky kids in genomics flock to a remote island off the Florida Gulf Coast. The boys, and they are mostly boys, will hear a lot of marketing hype about the whiz-bang new tools being developed for biology. They’ll hear a few nitty-gritty technical talks from scientists doing exciting... Read More
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19
Feb
2015
Global Blood Zeroes in on Sickle Cell, a Potentially Big, and Touchy, Opportunity
Black people suffer from all kinds of health disparities compared with other racial and ethnic groups. Yet diseases that mainly hit African Americans seldom get to the top of the R&D priority list. Global Blood Therapeutics is one of the rare companies that could build a big business and put a dent in a stubborn societal problem.
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