Endpoints Media Bias

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Novavax and CureVac among several biotechs with new CEOs; Michel Vounatsos, John Tsai land board appointments

tech

Stanley Erck → Stanley Erck finally crossed a regulatory goal line at Novavax. And now he’s ready to walk off the field for the last time as CEO. Erck will retire on Jan. 23 and will look on from the sidelines in an advisory role until…
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

Scoop: Roche-backed startup gives up on CD47, lays off all employees

tech

Arch Oncology ended its work on developing an anti-CD47 antibody and most employees have left the company, Endpoints News has learned. The Brisbane, CA, and St. Louis biotech scrapped clinical development of the antibody, dubbed AO-176, according to an automatic reply email from a former clinical operations director. Laurence Blumberg All Arch employees were let go and the company “was in a wind-down situation,” according to the LinkedIn bio of Arch’s former VP of human resources. Ex-CEO and president Laurence Blumberg declined to comment, redirecting questions to board chair John McKearn. The RiverVest Venture Partners managing director did not reply to Endpoints inquiries as of publication time.
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

Myovant, Pfizer debut first branded campaign for prostate cancer med Orgovyx

Myovant and Pfizer are pointing up the fact that prostate cancer treatment Orgovyx is a pill in the first direct-to-consumer campaign for the brand. The advertising pulls the middle syllable from the brand name, encouraging people to “GO with the facts” and talk to a doctor about the oral androgen…
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

EMA developing physician guidance for potential liver damage after taking Zolgensma

The European Medicines Agency is working on new advice for healthcare providers treating patients with Zolgensma, five months after two child patient deaths in Russia and Kazakhstan. That includes monitoring the liver function of patients treated with the gene therapy and quickly assessing cases of suspected liver damage, Reuters first reported. The EMA released its own statement after thePharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee meeting on Jan. 12: Healthcare professionals should promptly assess patients with worsening liver function tests and/or signs or symptoms of acute liver illness. If patients do not respond adequately to treatment with corticosteroids, treating physicians should consult a paediatric gastroenterologist or hepatologist and consider adjustment of the corticosteroid regimen.
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

Ex-Takeda staffer's 'small hustle' ends with arrest and $2.3M fraud scheme charge

tech

A former senior staffer at Takeda was arrested this week over an alleged scheme to defraud the company of about $2.3 million. Priya Bhambi, a former employee in Takeda’s technology operations group, has been charged with wire fraud along with Samuel Montronde. The defendants, who live together in Boston, were accused of scheming via text message and using the stolen funds to buy a Mercedes-Benz, according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Brendan Donlan. “… I have put some wheels in motion to pursuit [sic] a small hustle, lol… You know how we talked about other types of work a few days ago?
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

California sues insulin heavyweights, PBMs over 'excessive' prices

California is taking three big pharmas and three pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to court over their alleged roles in keeping insulin prices so high. The state filed a superior court complaint on Thursday accusing Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly of aggressively raising the list price of their insulin products…
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

Cambrian's anti-aging mission expands with new fibrotic disease biotech

tech

Cambrian BioPharma has a new pipeline company focused on a disease target that hasn’t met much success. The new drug developer, called Isterian Biotech, emerged from stealth Thursday morning, Cambrian announced. Georg Terstappen, Cambrian’s EVP of drug discovery, will be Isterian’s president and board chair. Georg…
Endpoints     Jan 14, 2023

WHO issues alert over contaminated cough syrups

tech

The World Health Organization is issuing an alert for batches of two cough syrups manufactured by an Indian company that were found to be contaminated. The contaminated products, Ambronol syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup, were identified in Uzbekistan and reported to the WHO on Dec. 22 of last year. According to the WHO, an analysis conducted by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Health identified “unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and /or ethylene glycol.” The WHO lists Marion Biotech, based in Uttar Pradesh, India, as the manufacturer. Ethylene glycol is commonly used in antifreeze, while diethylene glycol, or DEG, is mainly used in brake fluid and cooking fuel, among other uses.
Endpoints     Jan 13, 2023

Q&A: Can inhaled vaccines mount comeback for one-time leader in China's Covid race?

SAN FRANCISCO — In the still-unfolding chronicle of Covid-19 vaccine history, March 16, 2020 might bear an entry on how the NIH dosed the first volunteer with Moderna’s mRNA vaccine. Much less remembered, though, is the fact that on the same day, a then-11-year-old Chinese vaccine maker received the greenlight…
Endpoints     Jan 13, 2023

A Takeda-backed GI and pain biotech quietly shutters

tech

A biotech aiming to treat various gastrointestinal ailments, as well as develop a non-opiate pain med, quietly shut down last year after failing to find a buyer. OrphoMed’s former CEO and president Gary Phillips confirmed to Endpoints News the San Francisco biotech closed shop. He joined Basel-based, IL-2 biotech Anaveon…
Endpoints     Jan 13, 2023

LinusBio secures Series A for diagnostic platform that uses a single strand of hair

technology

LinusBio, a Mount Sinai spinoff starting out focused on neurological disorders like autism, announced Thursday it raised $16 million in Series A funding. Proceeds will go toward building its platform that uses exposome biomarkers with the aim of improving and quickening the diagnosis of health conditions as well as measure responses to environmental exposure. According to the New York-based company, the platform examines patients at the molecular level and can provide data from a single strand of hair equal to over 500 liquid biopsies or blood samples to catch health conditions that genomic biomarkers can’t and “maps the molecular dynamics of human physiology in a time-dependent manner.” The platform is already involved in two sponsored trials.
Endpoints     Jan 13, 2023

Pfizer, BioNTech team up with Martha Stewart for Covid booster campaign

tech

Martha Stewart means business in Pfizer and BioNTech’s new TV ad encouraging updated Covid booster shots. The commercial opens with Stewart noisily sharpening a long sword on a large electric wheel knife grinder. She says, “You know that unwelcome guest everyone wishes would just leave already? That’s Covid-19.” She goes…
Endpoints     Jan 13, 2023