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In peace. More news from Washington from yesterday: Lawmakers have developed legislation that would expand a program to help develop drugs for rare diseases in children.
Now on to other issues.
George Church is starting another process
Serial biotech founder George Church has a new startup, and this time, he has skin in the game, literally.
Church, the extraordinary founder of companies such as eGenesis, Editas Medicine, and Colossal Biosciences, donated his skin cells to the model bank when he started GC Therapeutics. (And, yes, it stands for George Church Therapeutics.)
The company, launched today, has a vision to convert pluripotent stem cells into neuronal, immune, gastrointestinal and other cell types for new off-stage therapies. Cell therapies have been more difficult to fund recently: Business dollars going into cell and gene therapy are expected to rise by 2021 to $8.2 billion, compared to $3.5 billion invested last year.
Read more from STAT’s Allison DeAngelis.
Corbus is riding Novo jackets in the CB1 style
Pharma giant Novo Nordisk and a small biotech called Corbus are both pursuing a controversial approach to obesity: blocking CB1 receptors.
About two decades ago, a drug called rimonabant and based on this mechanism was withdrawn from the European market and rejected by FDA advisors due to concerns about the risk of consider suicide. Wwhile rimonabant’s ability to penetrate the brain was considered a possible cause of side effects, the new pills penetrate the brain at a much lower rate.to make them more secure, Novo argues.
Phase 2 results of Novo’s CB1 inverse agonist are due to be released this quarter, and have significant implications for Corbus. If the data shows pure safety, Corbus sees itself as having an advantage.
Read more.
The race to develop a genetic cure for blindness is hot
4D Molecular Therapeutics released more information yesterday about its gene therapy for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of age-related blindness. In the Phase 2 study, 22 of the 30 treated patients did not need standard care vaccinations for at least 32 weeks, and two patients went two years without another vaccination.
The biotech now plans to launch two Phase 3 studies on the treatment. It is in hot competition with two other companies – Adverum and Regenxbio – to reach what could be the largest gene therapy market. There are differences in each method. 4D executives believe it has the best, safest treatment, but at least one researcher behind Adverum disagrees.
Read more from STAT’s Jason Mast.
The Fed cut rates and biotech stocks… didn’t do much
The Federal Reserve yesterday cut interest rates by 50 basis points, the first rate cut in four years. And how did biotech stocks respond? Although XBI initially rose after the decision, it eventually ended the day slightly lower.
The conventional wisdom is that low interest rates are good for biotech, as they make it easier to raise and borrow money to fund research and projects. But Mizuho analyst Jared Holz saw a strong reaction coming.
In a letter before the decision, he wrote that when he looked at the relationship between XBI and the profit margin in the past few years, there has not been a relationship.
After the decision, he said, “.I think this probably shows a little bit of power if you think that raising money and creating money is going to be easy. But I think that the net, this size of the scale is reduced for me, I come from neutral. ”
Biotech controversy spills over into social media
The biotech sector knows competition, but competition is rarely as controversial as what happened on social media this week when Co-CEO of Guardant Health AmirAli Talasaz posted a LinkedIn post betting the CEO of Exact Science $1 million that his company got cancer. the results would not hold up for further meaningful study.
Shortly after, Talasaz published an open letter clarifying that his post was motivated by a commitment to scientific rigor, but not everyone is convinced. “He made a foolish bet,” said Kathryn Lang, vice president of results and evidence at Guardant.
The incident speaks to a larger reality in the race to develop and commercialize cancer tests: The stakes are high for multi-billion dollar companies fighting to dominate this market.
Read more from STAT’s Jonathan Wosen.
Read more
- Novo Nordisk is betting 600 million biobucks on NanoVation’s ability to take genetic medicine beyond the liver, Fierce Biotech.
- Q&A: Former NIH director Francis Collins on the Trump administration, science and God, STAT
- Opinion: Medicaid must be prepared to cover HIV prevention vaccine twice a year, STAT
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