Gene&Cell Therapy >> AbbVie’s next CEO; $100B club refresh; Top 100 VCs, 2023;
More hope for CAR-T in autoimmune; and more: Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.
Is this the big turnaround year for biotech investment? If you missed John Carroll’s panel discussion on the topic, you can now watch the video on-demand here.
AbbVie’s next CEO
After months of speculation, AbbVie announced CEO Richard Gonzalez will hand the CEO post to president and COO Robert Michael on July 1. As the Chicago-area Big Pharma progresses through its transition from Humira with expectations of major revenue loss, Michael will be tasked with building a new empire, in part on two recently-inked acquisitions.
$100B club refresh
For the first time, Regeneron and Vertex have crossed the $100 billion market cap threshold — joining about 15 other drugmakers that count as the industry’s biggest and include other giants like Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Novartis. Andrew Dunn takes a look at what the induction of these new heavyweights says about the industry.
Top 100 VCs, 2023
2023 marks one of those years in life sciences when venture capital spent a lot of time looking for ways to preserve cash runways and finding bridges to human data. Endpoints’ John Carroll and DealForma chief Chris Dokomajilar break it all down with this year’s top 100 list of biotech investors, complete with analysis of trends regarding rounds, therapeutic areas and stages.
More hope for CAR-T in autoimmune
Just as new details from the first 15 autoimmune disease patients treated with CAR-T therapy added enthusiasm to the idea, Galapagos said it will pull out of the field, which it says is “very crowded.” As part of the decision, it will drop plans for a trial in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Proteomics reinvigorated
Once a scientific backwater, protein research has seen a surge of activity in recent months, attracting billion-dollar deals and high-profile publications. Jared Whitlock digs into how better instruments have let researchers tap the proteome to develop new tests and medicines, as well as the challenges in scaling the technology.
R&D
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Alnylam’s surprise change to the analysis plan for one of this year’s most anticipated clinical trial readouts set off a flurry of questions about the future of the company’s ATTR franchise and the outlook of its upcoming results. In an interview, CEO Yvonne Greenstreet told Lei Lei Wu the changes are a reflection that “we really are playing to win.”
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NodThera is moving its NLRP3 inhibitors into the clinic after preclinical data showed it reversed obesity and inflammation in mice in a study that compared it against Novo… #lucidquest #genetherapy #celltherapy
Congratulations on the progress with your internal program! It's exciting to see how this has contributed to your partnership with Roche.