Watch: What’s up with tranched deals in biotech?
Tranche is a French word meaning slice, and that’s pretty much what it means in…
Category: biotechnology
STAT+: Biogen drug for rare form of ALS fails pivotal study — another setback for fatal disease with few treatments
Biogen reported disappointing results Sunday from a late-stage clinical trial involving its experimental treatment for…
STAT+: New data on CRISPR Therapeutics’ off-the-shelf CAR-T cancer therapy shows more remissions, no major safety issues
More of the cancer patients who received CRISPR Therapeutics’ experimental, off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapy showed…
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STAT+: FDA halts Allogene blood cancer trials after patient found to have ‘chromosomal abnormality’
Allogene Therapeutics said Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration had placed a hold on…
Listen: Shkreli on film, the next NIH director, and a looming FDA deadline
Did we learn anything from the Martin Shkreli saga? Who will run the NIH? And…
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STAT+: Disappointing tumor responses, more side effects, seen with latest Amgen KRAS combination studies
Combining Amgen’s KRAS-blocking cancer drug Lumakras with other targeted medicines led to higher rates of…
STAT+: Backed with $500 million, a startup aims to rethink psychiatric drug development
For more than a decade, psychiatry has been a graveyard for new medicines. While in…
STAT+: Northwest Bio marks ignominious anniversary of brain tumor study delay with silence
Northwest Biotherapeutics has buried data from its completed brain cancer clinical trial for so long…
STAT+: Vedanta touts positive new data for its C. diff microbiome therapeutic — but is it too late?
Vedanta Biosciences is touting positive new Phase 2 results for a microbe-based treatment for C….
STAT+: The biotech scorecard for the fourth quarter: 19 stock-moving events to watch
The year is almost over! Here is STAT’s biotech scorecard, our regular ledger of stock-moving…
STAT+: In the ‘fail fast’ world of biotech, ‘offboarding’ is just as important as onboarding
In today’s biotech job market — where competition for people with in-demand experience is fiercer…
Listen: Health equity ‘tourism,’ an $11B biopharma acquisition, & a bony Covid protest
An $11 billion biopharma acquisition. Health equity “tourism.” And, where can you buy a 12-foot…
STAT+: With $11 billion Acceleron deal, new Merck CEO hopes to convince investors there is a lot more to the biopharma giant
Merck will continue to search out more acquisitions after its $11 billion purchase of biotech…
STAT+: Editas CRISPR treatment improved vision for one patient, but not others, early data show
An experimental CRISPR-based treatment from Editas Medicine led to meaningful improvements in the functional vision…
STAT+: Graduate students launch an entrepreneurship program to bring new faces to biotech
A group of graduate students is expanding a Boston-based biotech entrepreneurship program across the country,…
STAT+: Biogen, Eisai seek fast approval for second Alzheimer’s drug, relying on relaxed FDA standard
Biogen and its Japanese partner Eisai announced Monday evening the start of an application process…
STAT+: Biogen’s Aduhelm sales slower than disclosed, forcing company to consider cost-cutting measures
Earlier this month, Biogen executives admitted publicly that the launch of Aduhelm, its treatment for…
STAT+: Is a Beyondspring drug helping lung cancer patients live longer? Study results trigger debate
Beyondspring’s stock price tripled in August after the New York drug maker said its experimental…
STAT+: With new colon cancer study results, Mirati lays claim to best KRAS-blocking drug
A drug from Mirati Therapeutics designed to block the cancer protein called KRAS shrank tumors…
STAT+: Amgen combination treatment with KRAS-blocking drug shows improved response in colon cancer patients
A combination treatment that pairs Amgen’s KRAS-blocking drug Lumakras with another of its targeted cancer…
STAT+: Facing pressure from ALS patients and advocates, the FDA does about-face on review of potential treatment
The Food and Drug Administration has reversed an internal decision and will now review an…
STAT+: STAT+ Conversation: What’s next in gene therapy
Editor’s note: A livestream of the conversation will be embedded below at 1 p.m. ET….
STAT+: In new remarks, Cassava Sciences’ CEO shifts defense of embattled treatment for Alzheimer’s
Cassava Sciences CEO Remi Barbier on Monday shifted his defense of the company’s embattled treatment…
Return of the mammoth? George Church-backed company launches with $15 million for elephant-sized quest
Harvard scientist George Church, a pioneer of both DNA sequencing and gene editing, has been…
Listen: Verily’s moment of truth, Aduhelm’s rocky rollout, & the problem with Covid testing
Are we ever getting that Tricorder? Why’s it so hard to find Covid-19 tests? And…
STAT+: The future of Apellis Pharma’s eye disease treatment is clouded by divergent study results
Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a good news-bad news problem involving its experimental treatment for geographic atrophy…
Biogen admits Aduhelm launch ‘slower than we anticipated’
Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos admitted Thursday that the launch of Aduhelm, the company’s intensely scrutinized…
FDA’s rejection of Humanigen drug highlights problems in developing Covid-19 treatments
The Food and Drug Administration has declined to grant emergency use authorization to lenzilumab, an…
STAT+: Early data suggest monthly hemophilia drug could contend with gene therapy
Centessa, a biotech company that raised more than $300 million in an IPO earlier this…
Sanofi acquires Kadmon for $1.9 billion, adding transplant medicine drug
French drug maker Sanofi said Wednesday that it will acquire Kadmon Pharmaceuticals for $1.9 billion,…
STAT+: FDA dings Kaleido Biosciences for testing a microbiome drug without proper paperwork
The Food and Drug Administration is warning Lexington, Mass.-based Kaleido Biosciences that it shouldn’t have…
STAT+: STAT+ Conversation: Which biotech venture capitalist funds performed best during the pandemic?
Editor’s note: A livestream of the conversation will be embedded below at 2 p.m. ET….
Opinion: STAT+: A 10-point plan for sustaining the biopharma industrial base for a more secure nation
Covid-19 has underscored the critical role the biopharma industrial base plays in the U.S.’s national…
STAT+: Boston Scientific completes $1 billion acquisition of Israeli firm
Boston Scientific’s shopping spree for smaller medical-device companies continued on Wednesday when the Marlborough-based company…
STAT+: ‘Change is messy’: Inside the tumultuous efforts to stabilize BIO, the biotech lobby
WASHINGTON — The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the lobbying group that represents roughly 1,000 biotech companies,…
STAT+: Flagship’s Laronde raises $440 million for a new class of medicines
Flagship Pioneering, the Cambridge, Mass., venture capital firm, brought biotech startup Laronde out of stealth…
Listen: Vaccine mandates, biotech’s messy summer, & a pharmaceutical thriller
What’s standing in the way of mandatory Covid-19 vaccination? Is biotech in a credibility crisis?…
STAT+: Sesen Bio pulls E.U. application for FDA-rejected cancer drug
Sesen Bio, a small biotech firm whose investigational cancer treatment once seemed poised for approval,…
STAT+: Four takeaways on Pfizer’s $2.3 billion purchase of Trillium
Pfizer said Monday that it is buying Trillium, a Toronto developer of cancer drugs with…
STAT+: Flagship, Orbimed, ARCH, Alta top list of high-performing biotech venture capital firms
Flagship Pioneering is on track to return its investors’ money an eye-popping 15 times over,…
STAT+: Biotech founder David Sabatini placed on leave following investigation into sexual harassment
A prominent biology professor and biotech founder at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been…
STAT+: Sesen Bio trial of cancer drug marked by misconduct and worrisome side effects, documents show
The clinical trial of a cancer drug rejected by the Food and Drug Administration last…
Gene therapy’s next steps
Editor’s note: A livestream of the event will be embedded below at 1 p.m. ET…
STAT+: RNA firm GreenLight Biosciences to go public in $1.2 billion deal
A Massachusetts-based synthetic biology company whose research ranges from developing pesticide alternatives for crops to…
STAT+: Adagio raises $300 million in IPO, looks to advance Covid-19 antibody therapy
Adagio Therapeutics, a Waltham startup advancing COVID-19 antibody treatments, is going public Friday just over…
Listen: The mRNA gold rush, Delta’s alarming rise, & the next treatment for Alzheimer’s
Who’s going to win the mRNA bake-off? How worrisome is the Delta variant? And why…
STAT+: Scientists plumbing mysterious RNAs in the human genome find a possible treatment for an inherited disorder
When hundreds of scientists from around the world finally pieced together a draft of the…
STAT+: Athira cited altered studies in $15 million NIH grant application, creating legal risk
Biotech company Athira Pharma, which is in turmoil after its chief executive was found to…
STAT+: Amylyx is breaking all of biotech’s unwritten rules — and still raising impressive sums
If you want to raise big money in biotech, there are a few unwritten rules….
STAT+: Sanofi pays $3 billion to purchase Translate, raising stakes around mRNA technology
Major drug makers are getting into mRNA, the technology behind the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid…