How Katherine High, M.D., cofounder, president, and head of R&D at Spark Therapeutics, helped reinvigorate the life sciences industry’s interest in gene therapy.
Generation Bio made its official debut in January 2018 after operating under-the-radar for over one year with $25 million in Series A financing from Atlas Venture. While in stealth mode, the company conducted the proof-of-concept studies on its gene therapy approach that would attract $100 million in Series B financing from new investors.
With the FDA’s approval of three new gene therapies, researchers and manufacturers must now figure out how streamline the development process.
A Nevada woman’s death in 2016 from an untreatable bacterial infection called attention to the possibility of an “antibiotic apocalypse,” when even the most deadly bacterial strains will prove resistant to all available antibiotics. “Antibiotic development is not keeping pace with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains,” said Kevin Outterson, executive director of the new global public-private partnership, Combatting Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X).
For Aratana Therapeutics, 2016 was a banner year. The biotech company, founded in 2010, achieved FDA approvals for three of its 10 pipeline drugs. Last year the Kansas City-based company also forged a global partnership with the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, a track record that any young biotech company would like to achieve.
Sandesh Seth was not considering leaving his position as head of healthcare investment banking at Laidlaw & Co. U.K. Ltd, when the board of small-cap biotech Actinium Pharmaceuticals asked him last year to serve as the company’s executive chairman.
Executives from Merial (the animal health division of Sanofi) and Zoetis discuss why the financial community is considering the animal health industry a promising short- and long-term investment opportunity.
Millennials, the single largest demographic in the workplace today, are often derided as lazy, disrespectful, and needy. They’re also criticized as being so addicted to technology that they email and text message information that should be communicated face-to-face to supervisors and coworkers.
“GSK is willing to make a small return now because we have a long-term view of the market potential of Africa,” says Allan Pamba, M.D., GSK’s VP of pharmaceuticals for East Africa and VP for government affairs for Africa.
Kurt Graves, the 47-year-old chairman, president, and CEO of Boston-based Intarcia Therapeutics, got his first major break in the life sciences industry 25 years ago as a sales representative for Merck in his home state of Michigan.
