The rapid growth of biopharma is causing a shift to a new paradigm for the drug development and delivery model. In the same manner that the personal computing industry grew and developed business models that fit the way products were sourced, constructed and delivered, a business model for biopharma is taking shape.
Image: https://www.biospace.com
In a different year, incoming freshmen would already have in hand a tightly choreographed schedule for late summer and early fall: the move-in date, the orientation and, finally, the first day of classes.
But on the coronavirus pandemic calendar, there are no dates yet for the next academic year. Just scenarios. And that unprecedented uncertainty is fueling a second wave of crisis for schools already plunged into financial distress.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, says “we are not in a situation where we can say we are exactly where we want to be with regard to testing” capacity for COVID-19 in the U.S.
Fauci, in a discussion for TIME 100 Talks: Finding Hope on Thursday, says that the U.S. needs to not only increase the number of tests, which is happening as commercial testing companies increase production and the Food and Drug Administration continues to clear tests using different types of samples (including ones from the nose and saliva, as well as blood). But, he says, we also needs to make sure tests can actually be run the way they should.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) says it will work with Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE:EBS) to produce more than a billion doses of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, as it seeks to scale up global manufacturing of its potential treatment.
J&J says it is already preparing for clinical vaccine production at its Leiden facility in the Netherlands, with the aim of starting its Phase 1 clinical trial of its vaccine candidate on humans in September and potentially having it ready under an emergency use authorization next year.
We at Gentian AS believe it is the duty of all companies in the health industry to help combat the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19/Corona virus. High mortality and long hospitalisation are the consequences of the severe cases with COVID-19 pneumonia. Hence, it is important to identify biomarkers that early could aid in rapid and effective identification of the severely affected patients. In the Gentian test portfolio, the two biomarkers, cystatin C and plasma calprotectin, could be useful for the early detection of the severely affected COVID-19 patients. To do our part we are reaching out to research/hospital institutions who want to run a trial to assess whether these biomarkers can make a contribution in the detection of severe COVID-19 cases.
Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”) a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today the close of a $61.3M financing led by HLB Co., LTD, a global pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel cancer drugs. This represents the second closing in the investment process for the HLB Consortium, ($10M was placed in February 2020), and substantially increases their holding in Immunomic Therapeutics to 47.6% of the common stock. HLB also secured an option to make further investment into the company in the months ahead.
Even prior to COVID-19, change was afoot in the venture capital industry. Machine learning and algorithms were emerging as new ways to spot winners, and cities like Boston staked out turf as VC hot spots, proving that not all innovation takes place in Silicon Valley.
Most Americans are still stuck at home, but a trio of reports, out from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, are starting to lay a foundation for what reopening the country might look like, if done safely.
Though staying inside is certainly keeping more infections at bay right now, it’s not without its costs.
Aside from the strain stay-at-home orders are putting on families, friends and communities, the newfound national quiet means the US is “hemorrhaging $100 billion to $350 billion a month,” according to the new Harvard analysis, which was released on Monday.
Image: A worker wears a protective face mask in a factory of roll-forming machine maker Gasparini, in Mirano. Reuters
In the coronavirus era, a host of epidemiological terms have entered common public use. There’s the now-ubiquitous “social distancing,” and the newly politicized “flatten the curve.” And as states and local governments seek a way out of lockdowns that have brought their economies to a near-standstill, “contact tracing” has made its way into everyday conversation as well.
Image: Public health nurse Lee Cherie Booth conducts a test for COVID-19 outside of the Salt Lake City Public Health Center on April 10, 2020, accompanied by Salt Lake County infectious disease nurse Travis Langston. When a swab test comes back positive, contact tracing starts. Scott G Winterton—The Deseret News via AP
Even as the novel coronavirus has derailed daily life and business operations, the life sciences sector continues to see companies make public debuts and ink both financing and partnership deals.
In venture capital, US deal activity in the first quarter tallied 2,300 financings totaling $34.2 billion, according to the latest report by the National Venture Capital Association, which uses data from PitchBook. That’s roughly on track to match the total raised in the past two years, both record-setters in one way or another. But the likelihood of that pace continuing is slim, according to the report.
Image: Sarah de Crescenzo
