Bayer's gene therapy division loses a pioneer

Kathy High, a scientist and executive who led the development of the first gene therapy approved in the U.S., has left Bayer subsidiary AskBio two years after joining.

As STAT's Jason Mast reports, AskBio confirmed her departure, saying she left to start a sabbatical at Rockefeller University and "spend more time with her family before focusing on ventures in new spaces." In a brief interview, High praised AskBio and Bayer but didn't comment directly on her reasons for leaving.

High joined AskBio as president of therapeutics in January 2021, roughly a year after she left Spark Therapeutics, the gene therapy biotech she spun out of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. A year before, Bayer bought the company in a deal worth up to $4 billion, promising to maintain its autonomy.

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Sequencing

After a legal dispute, Complete Genomics is out to undercut Illumina

Complete Genomics, a U.S. firm affiliated with Chinese sequencing giant BGI, is rolling out a new line of machines it claims can read human genomes at a lower price point than anything market leader Illumina has to offer.

As STAT's Jonathan Wosen reports, Complete Genomics said its latest sequencing technology can read about 2.5 times as many genomes a year as Illumina's latest product, and the cost of reading each genome will be as low as $100. That's the lowest price ever offered, executives said, because it includes the cost of the materials and chemicals used in sequencing as well as amortization of the machine.

Complete Genomics, acquired by BGI in 2013, spent years in a legal fight with Illumina and was barred from selling its products in the U.S. by a 2020 court ruling. Last year, after a Delaware jury ruled in Complete Genomics favor, the two firms agreed not to bring any patent or antitrust cases against one another for three years, clearing the company to compete in the U.S.

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Wall Street

Activist investing is back en vogue

After a pandemic lull, the world's corporate raiders seem newly energized, targeting companies with flagging stock prices and agitating for change.

According to Bloomberg, activist investors have set their sights on companies with more than $400 billion in combined value, pressuring management to embrace austerity in the name of shareholder value.

In major pharma, Bayer is facing investor unrest, and Reuters reports at least one major shareholder is recruiting others to the cause of breaking up the German giant. In biotech, Sarissa Capital is escalating its disputes with Amarin and Alkermes, pushing for its own slate of directors with plans to change each company's strategy.

Financials

Vertex has bigger plans for 2023 than Wall Street expected

Vertex Pharmaceuticals' projected 2023 revenue outpaced analysts' estimates, and the company is spending more on research as it advances a next generation of medicines.

Vertex expects full-year sales to come in at about $9.7 billion, roughly 2% above Wall Street's projections, and its estimated $4 billion in R&D investment is nearly 20% higher than analysts expected.

To RBC analyst Brian Abrahams, the numbers suggest Vertex is preparing for a pivotal year. The company's banner franchise of treatments for cystic fibrosis is still expanding, but future growth will depend on pipeline medicines for pain and rare blood disorders that might not come to fruition until 2024 and beyond.

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