| | | |   | Hello, everyone. Damian here with the latest challenge to Illumina, the state of Biogen's Alzheimer's disease partnership, and a milestone in cancer medicine. | | | How a beachside stroll led to a new biotech VC Time BioVentures, a new biotech investor that counts Sean Parker among its advisers, is led by a venture capital odd couple: a millennial musician-turned-entrepreneur and a veteran drug developer drawn out of retirement.
As STAT’s Allison DeAngelis reports, D.A. Wallach was coming off a decade in the music business when he pivoted to biotech. That led to 2018 introduction to Tim Wright, who had spent years developing drugs at Novartis and Pfizer, and an introductory dinner that turned into a long walk on the beach and, eventually, a business partnership.
They founded Time BioVentures, recruited advisers including Parker and Arch Venture’s Bob Nelsen, and eventually raised $100 million to place bets in biotech.
Read more. | Gene therapy is on sale Biotech’s prolonged downturn hasn’t led to a widespread boom in high-dollar acquisitions, but gene therapy companies, among the hardest hit in 2022, have emerged as an in-demand bargain bin for major pharmaceutical companies.
The latest is Taysha Gene Therapies, which has lost about 90% of its value since going public in 2020. Yesterday, Taysha disclosed an agreement with Japanese drugmaker Astellas to trade 15% of the company and the rights to two of its medicines for $50 million.
That follows Pfizer’s decision to pay $10 million for the rights to technology from Voyager Therapeutics, which is down about 65% since 2021, and Eli Lilly’s $487 million acquisition of the gene therapy firm Akouos, a price more than 50% below the company’s 2020 IPO value. | Trust for Life: Zai Lab’s Global Approach to Sustainability Addressing serious diseases requires building the public’s trust. In the newly published report, Trust for Life, global biopharmaceutical company, Zai Lab, explains how it is approaching ESG differently. Read more. | It’s Eisai, not Biogen, pulling the strings on lecanemab That was the through-line on Biogen’s third-quarter earnings call yesterday, as analysts again and again asked questions about the future of Alzheimer’s disease treatment lecanemab and each time got some variation of “That’s up to Eisai.”
Biogen’s Japanese partner was responsible for the development of lecanemab, and Eisai now has final say on interactions with the FDA, plans for commercialization, the drug’s list price, and an all-important appeal to the federal agency that governs Medicare, Biogen said on yesterday’s call. Underlining the apparent distance between the two partners, Biogen declined to comment on whether it had even seen lecanemab data beyond what was in Eisai’s September press release.
You might wonder, as Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat asked Biogen, whether the two companies are on the same page. “I can tell you that the relationship is very solid since many years,” Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos said. “I have had the opportunity to meet and to align with my counterpart on a very regular basis.” | A milestone for bispecifics Johnson & Johnson won FDA approval for the blood cancer treatment teclistamab, marking the U.S.’s first bispecific antibody directed at a protein called BCMA.
The drug, to be marketed as Tecvayli, binds to both BCMA, which is present on multiple myeloma cells, and a protein called CD3, which is found on the body’s T cells, thereby setting the immune system’s sights on tumors. It’s approved for adult patients whose multiple myeloma has persisted after at least four prior lines of therapy.
J&J’s milestone underscores the rapid rise of two-armed antibody treatments in medicine, following the success of bispecifics in hemophilia, ophthalmology, and other forms of cancer. | More reads - Pacific Biosciences, known for niche DNA sequencing, looks to rival Illumina with new product launch, STAT
- Fatal fungi threaten global health, WHO says, Wall Street Journal
- Q&A: A health justice lawyer and new MacArthur ‘Genius’ on pharma’s patent games, STAT
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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