A non-traditional route for financing has been the path to success for Fibrobiologics Inc. In the newest BioWorld Insider podcast, CEO Pete O’Heeron offers insight into the company’s unusual path to a Nasdaq listing in January. SPACs, reverse mergers and traditional IPOs weren’t attractive enough for Fibrobiologics’ management or board, so they decided to go public through a direct listing with no banks as underwriters. It took about seven months to get the company ready for its listing, an...

BioWorld Managing Editor Karen Carey joins the podcast to talk about the numbers from the first quarter of 2024, along with a look back at some 2023 deals and indicators that signal better times are on the way. Financings for the quarter were better than expected, sporting some of the best numbers of the past 13 years. It’s part of a larger trend, Carey says, of investors being a lot pickier about where they put their money and demanding better data. The result is a strengthened market and a...

In one of the biggest financings of the year so far, former Prometheus Biosciences Inc. CEO Mark McKenna helped raise $400 million to launch a new company, Mirador Therapeutics Inc. He didn’t sit on the sidelines for long after Merck & Co. Inc. bought Prometheus for $10.8 billion in 2023. He recruited key Prometheus executives to focus on Mirador’s genetic approach to drug discovery and precision medicine. McKenna said there was too much left undone to just hang back. In this BioWorld...

Because artificial intelligence is such a new technology it comes with a mountain of unknowns. Integrating it into a pharmaceutical company presents a unique series of challenges, as a new survey from Verix shows. The report is based on responses from directors, vice presidents and C-suite executives in sales, marketing and brand management at pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. that have more than $100 million in annual revenue. Doron Aspitz, the CEO of Verix, talked about the new findings...

One aspect of 2023 our group of executives completely agreed on: the past year was tough financially. And they all foresee a more vibrant year ahead for the market. Giving all of them hope were technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence, game changing weight loss drugs, the surging fascination with ADCs and hope for lower interest rates. But uncertainty looms about the upcoming general election in the U.S. and ground-shifting gene therapies. In a preview of the annual ...

Google’s Scott Penberthy joins the podcast for a visionary discussion that scans the horizon for startling changes artificial intelligence will bring to drug development in the relatively near future. Among the gems and eyebrow raisers is talk of dramatic reductions in the time it takes to identify the right molecule for development and how digital clinical trials in the not-too-distant future will substantially shrink study times. This episode also provides a preview of the annual Biofuture...

Guests Karen Carey, BioWorld’s managing editor, and Mike Ward, Clarivate’s global head of Life Sciences and Healthcare Thought Leadership, discuss the deals, financing and M&A landscape for the first half of 2023 and how U.K. biopharmas are faring post Brexit.

A lot of biosimilar sponsors and wannabes are watching as the biosimilar competition in the U.S. unfolds to challenge the all-time biggest-selling drug, Humira from Abbvie Inc. While the competition started at the beginning of the year with the launch of Amgen’s Amjevita, the true test of the strength of the competition is taking place now as other adalimumab biosimilars hit the market. There are eight launching a challenge to Humira and all are likely to have a lower price tag than...

Free, no-prescription-required access to naloxone has reduced deaths from opioid overdoses by 11% in some communities, but they only work if someone with the reversal agent is available when a person overdoses. Resilient Lifescience Inc. hopes to save those lives, too. The company is developing a wearable patch that monitors vital signs and automatically administers naloxone when needed. In this edition of the BioWorld Insider podcast, Brad Holden, CEO of Resilient Lifescience, explained how...

It used to be a lot easier to find partners. After two years of strong dealmaking, the volume and value of partnerships slid in the first quarter of 2023. M&As also are down compared to prior years. But there are some reasons to be cheerful. Looking at first quarter numbers and surveying the big picture on this BioWorld Insider podcast are Karen Carey, BioWorld’s managing editor and senior data analyst, along with Tim Shannon, a general partner at Canaan. Carey just wrote about biopharma...

It all goes to show how a good idea can’t be kept down. Madam Curie started radiopharmaceuticals in the late 1800s and now it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. BioWorld’s seven-part series on a new era of radiopharmaceuticals reveals their increasing importance as part of cancer treatments because they have fewer side effects and cause far less damage to tissue than previously. The big idea is taking the hallmarks of two cancer therapies – radiology and chemotherapy – and merging them. That’s...

As James Peyer, the CEO of Cambrian Biopharma Inc., watched his grandfather fail every cancer treatment and pass away, he also saw the structure of his future company being born. Waiting until people became sick was the wrong way to treat disease, he found. Instead, Cambrian was created to develop anti-aging therapies, a unique business model that fits the new field of geroscience. To do that, Cambrian became a biotech business, a VC fund and an incubator. Peyer spoke to the BioWorld Insider...

After many years of research and development, drug-induced weight loss has matured into a viable therapeutic option. But do the drugs directly help people become healthier or is it the weight loss? There are longstanding concerns that the health effects of weight might be overrated. And new studies show fitness improves health outside of weight. So, can a person still be considered healthy despite being over a “normal” weight? How will future medical science consider what is called the...

We wrapped up 2022 and are preparing for 2023 on this BioWorld Insider podcast. Staff writer Lee Landenberger talked to four CEOs, visionaries of companies producing new science and drug development. The CEOs offered their insights into what happened this year and looked at the challenges and opportunities for next year.   Karen Zaderej, CEO of Axogen Inc., detailed a successful phase III study of its peripheral nerve repair product, Advance Nerve Graft, despite staffing challenges at...

An analyst recently observed that mental health treatments are stuck where cancer was 50 years ago. However, there have been major advancements in developing psychedelic medicines to address that problem. BioWorld staff writer Lee Landenberger talked with James Lanthier, the CEO of Mindset Pharma, which is developing what it calls “next-generation” psychedelic medicines to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders. Lanthier discussed challenges facing companies developing psychedelic...

BioWorld writers bring you the details of new R&D alliances, financings, IPOs and M&A every day. These stories are the heartbeat of the relationships between industry giants and their smaller, more innovative peers. But what's the top-line read for dealmaking these days? With nearly 1,000 biopharma deals completed through early August amid a volatile economic climate, there's a lot to talk about. Join the BioWorld Insider podcast as we talk with Senior Analyst Karen Carey, whose...

In Extending the human lifespan, a BioWorld special report, the team examined the latest science, the key biological drivers that can be targeted pharmacologically and the companies developing potential “Fountain of Youth” candidate drugs. In this episode of the BioWorld Insider Podcast, the team discussed the report’s highlights and key takeaways. In what could be a holy grail for humanity, anti-aging drugs would simultaneously reduce the risk of multiple age-related illnesses in...

As multidisciplinary care extends survival and improves the quality of life for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), can a host of new ALS drugs vying to slow its progression make a difference? A surprise extension of the U.S. FDA review for Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s AMX-0035 to review new data, plus near-term readouts from a major ALS platform trial may soon provide answers. Join the BioWorld Insider podcast as we talk with executives from Amylyx and Clene Inc., and a key...

Could investments in biopharmaceutical companies in 2022 be as aggressive as 2021, which saw a record 1,968 biopharma deals worth about $213.5 billion? So far, 2022 may be the lowest financing year since 2017 overall. But, drilling down to venture capital, private companies raised $5.7 billion in Q1 through 129 transactions, making it the second-best first quarter in history with 2021 at the top. Apparently, investors and private companies have maintained their appetite into 2022....

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) always had a full schedule, but COVID-19 amped it up tremendously. Some public health policy observers wonder whether the increased responsibility meets the CDC’s needs and if the CDC pays enough attention to the committee. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine in the Department of Health Policy as well as professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine,...

With the study of long COVID-19 continuing to evolve, the BioWorld team is taking a closer look at the condition -- a complex syndrome affecting more than 100 million people globally -- and what's being done about it. In this episode, BioWorld Senior Science Editor Anette Breindl and Staff Writer Lee Landenberger, fresh off writing a pair of detailed stories about these issues, join us to talk about how consensus around what long COVID is has emerged. Why is that consensus important and what...

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across all stages of drug development is presenting interesting new challenges around the world. One key question of growing importance: Can an AI algorithm be an inventor? If so, can the AI system apply for or receive a patent? We spoke to Ryan Abbott, a professor of law and medicine, as well as the leader of the Artificial Inventor Project and Jim Belfiore, senior vice president of innovation at Clarivate, to learn more about...

In another record year for biopharma fundraisings, more money than ever pulsed through the industry. The volume and value of pharma IPOs and venture capital financings are at their highest levels. Private financings for 2021 easily outdistanced those from 2020, much of it powered by SPACs. Where is it all going in 2022? Two experts joined BioWorld to share their thoughts. Kleanthis Xanthopoulos is a co-founder and executive chairman of Shoreline Biosciences. For more than 20 years he’s been...

The FDA’s June 2021 approval of Aduhelm (aducanumab), the first plaque-targeting therapy, rattled the company, regulators and the market. BioWorld brought together two experts to get their thoughts as each is involved in developing vaccines or treatments for Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Michael Agadjanyan is the president of Nuravax Inc., which is developing antibodies for preventing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. We also spoke with Robert Glanzman, who is chief medical officer...