| | | |   | Good morning. Damian here with a look at the tightening market for biotech venture capital, the escalating prices of new drugs, and the magical thinking of conference cancelation. | | | With public markets down, who’s investing in private biotech? The prolonged downturn in biotech stocks has dramatically reduced the pace of private companies going public. And without the potential for an IPO on the horizon, the entire venture capital model starts to look ever riskier, which is making it difficult for VCs to raise money in 2022.
But it’s not impossible. As STAT’s Allison DeAngelis reports, serial entrepreneurs Michelle Dipp and Jennifer Lum managed to raise a $245 million inaugural fund for their new firm, called Biospring Partners. The plan is to invest in often overlooked parts of the biotech industry, including manufacturing, technology, and other support tools.
Perhaps reflecting the broader market, Biospring is often looking at companies that not only have revenue but a path to profitability. “We’re very lucky to be in this moment in a time where we have cash to deploy,” Dipp said.
Read more. | Newly launched drugs cost 20% more each year That’s according to an analysis published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which also found that the introductory price for new medicines went up tenfold between 2008 and 2021.
The study, from three researchers at Harvard Medical School, also found that almost half of new drugs introduced in 2020 and 2021 carried prices of more than $150,000 per year, while only about 10% of new drugs cost that much in 2008. And even accounting for manufacturers’ rebates and discounts, launch prices rose about 11% per year over the study period, the authors wrote.
This all probably sounds quite familiar, as it builds on years and years of similar data essentially concluding that, in the U.S., drug prices outpace inflation and, despite persistent outrage, no one does much about it. In an accompanying New York Times guest essay, the authors argue that doesn’t have to be the case, urging Senate Democrats to act on pricing legislation before the end of the year. | What you need to know about disclosing clinical trial data The anticipation of clinical trial data represents an important milestone in your company's communications planning. For both private and public companies, these milestones are a great way to raise visibility within the investment, clinical, and scientific communities. But if not handled correctly, the consequences can be severe. What are best practices for disclosing data, whether you're a public or private company? Find out in this article. | Moderna’s new Covid vaccine beat the old one A new version of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine led to a superior antibody response against Omicron compared to the original, the company said yesterday, data that will soon go before the FDA.
As STAT’s Matthew Herper reports, Moderna’s new booster is bivalent, containing mRNA that codes for the spike protein for both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the newer Omicron strain. In a clinical trial enrolling more than 400 people, the bivalent vaccine generated eight times the antibody production seen with the older version, the company said. Moderna hopes to win authorization for the booster this summer.
That could be good news ahead of a potential Covid-19 surge in the fall, but it’s likely to be a net neutral for Moderna’s actual business. The company said doses of its bivalent vaccine would be shipped in place of the old one under its existing supply contracts, meaning there will be no near-term revenue boost.
Read more. | Wall Street loves a cancelation Shares of Biogen reached their highest value in more than a month yesterday after the company said that it had dropped out of a scheduled investor conference, inviting Wall Street to indulge in a time-honored excuse for uninformed speculation.
The presentation, at the Jefferies Healthcare Conference, was meant to be this morning, and Biogen’s reason for canceling it is “considerations related to Covid,” according to a statement issued yesterday. But Biogen’s share price, which rose about 4% on the news, suggests at least some investors believe the company might have dropped out because it has some massive, material news under its hat, like perhaps an acquisition, or a new CEO, or really anything that might improve sentiment.
This sort of thing happens quite often in biotech, where a seemingly innocuous scheduling change seeds market speculation that, more often than not, proves to be pointless in the end. It’s also worth remembering back to 2016, when Alexion Pharmaceuticals canceled an appearance at an investor conference with the excuse that "something came up." The market read that as the prelude to a buyout, and Alexion rose 12 percent. Later we learned that what "came up" was the dawn of an internal investigation that would see a complete managerial overhaul at Alexion, whose value promptly tanked. | More reads - How much medicine does the U.S. actually have to fight monkeypox? STAT
- Sanofi's Dupixent gets U.S. approval to treat eczema in young children. Reuters
- FTC will investigate pharmacy benefit managers and their role in prescription drug costs. STAT
- Resilience nets another deal, this time with billionaire’s cancer research center. Endpoints
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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