A new VC with $350 million and an eye on early science

If you want a little secrecy in the biotech hub of Cambridge, Mass., you might have to travel. That's what brought a trio of industry veterans to the suburban public library where, with the help of a whiteboard, they plotted out what is now Cure Ventures, an investment firm with $350 million to back new biotech companies.

As STAT's Allison DeAngelis reports, Cure is looking to invest in about 20 seed-stage companies, most of which it will help establish either by working alongside scientific founders or licensing medicines other drugmakers have put on the shelf.

The firm's founders — David Fallace, Richard Lim, and Lou Tartaglia — had worked at five venture funds between them before gathering around the whiteboard to start Cure. Combined, they've helped bring 22 medicines to market.

Sequencing

Illumina's case for patience is getting strained

The Federal Trade Commission ordered Illumina to unwind its roughly $7 billion acquisition of the cancer-testing firm Grail yesterday, news that compounds the company's struggles and lends weight to an activist investor agitating for change.

As STAT's Matthew Herper reports, the FTC's decision follows similar feedback from European regulators, who are expected to make an identical demand later this year. Illumina is already contesting the European ruling and intends to appeal the FTC's.

Regardless of whether the company can win those appeals, the simple fact that Illumina is pursuing them means it will spend yet more time and money trying to hold onto Grail despite lengthening odds that it will have no choice but to sell the company at a loss. That only bolsters the case of famed activist Carl Icahn, who has demanded the company appoint three hand-picked directors and put an end to its costly work with Grail.

M&A

Pharma's shopping list is looking specialized

Despite months of hopeful analyst forecasts, the world's major pharmaceutical firms have largely been loath to swoop in and acquire the many biotech companies that have been trading at depressed valuations for going on two years. And the deals that have materialized suggest pharma is prizing commercial potential over scientific promise.

The latest evidence comes from Bloomberg, which reported yesterday that large drugmakers are looking into bids for Apellis Pharmaceuticals, a roughly $8 billion company that recently won FDA approval for a pioneering eye treatment.

If Apellis gets acquired, it would fit in with Pfizer's $43 billion acquisition of Seagen, Sanofi's $2.9 billion takeover of Provention Bio, and Amgen's $27.8 billion buyout of Horizon Pharmaceuticals — cases of pharma companies spending cash on smaller firms with actual products, not cash-burning biotechs years away from the market.

Regulation

A milestone in genome editing

Partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics submitted their genome-editing treatment for FDA approval, pressing forward with what could be a curative medicine for sickle cell disease.

As STAT's Adam Feuerstein reports, the two companies outpaced their rivals at Bluebird Bio, whose gene therapy for sickle cell disease is expected to go before the FDA some time this year.

Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics' treatment would be the first medicine based on CRISPR technology to reach the market. It works by editing a patient's own blood stem cells to produce high levels of fetal hemoglobin — the healthy, oxygen-carrying form of hemoglobin that is produced during fetal development but normally shuts down soon after birth. Higher levels of fetal hemoglobin in people with sickle cell disease are associated with reduced symptoms and improved outcomes.