Biotech Hangout

On this week’s episode, hosts Daphne Zohar, Josh Schimmer, Tim Opler and Sam Fazeli discuss the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), private financings, drug pricing and more. The hosts jump right into SVB, summarizing how the fall happened and the potential threats and implications to the industry. They comment on how this would have been an otherwise great week for private biotechs, but now many may be scrambling. The discussion turns to President Biden’s budget proposal impacting drug pricing and how Eli Lilly has responded, unique financing structures and the merger between Adaptimmune and TCR2 Therapeutics. The hosts pivot to some of the good news from the week including BridgeBio’s positive data from its dwarfism drug, AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso demonstrating strong overall survival in Phase III trial for patients with early-stage EGFR-mutated lung cancer and FDA panel votes. They close the discussion hoping for a positive resolution. *This episode aired on Friday, March 10 as events were occurring.*

Hosts Daphne, Josh, Tim and Otello are joined by special guest and biotech investor, Brad Loncar, to discuss the current M&A landscape, data announcements from the week and recent FDA and regulatory movements. Otello began the episode with his observations of trends in M&A including speedy execution of deals and lack of competition to get them. Daphne goes into detail about this week’s deals, including a new, high-stakes partnership between Summit Therapeutics and Akeso to in-license a bispecific antibody, a deal that could be worth up to $5 billion. Brad reflects on the popularity of cell therapies in 2022, covering Gilead and Kite’s announcement of a collaboration with Arcellx to develop its phase 2 cell therapy for multiple myeloma. Josh transitions the conversation to data, highlighting Nkarta’s positive clinical data from its CAR-NK cell therapy for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and how this approach compares to CAR-T treatments. Finally, the conversation turns to a discussion on the relationship between big pharma and biotech and where smaller companies should focus business development relationships.

Community of experts and insiders joining Biotech Hangout (formerly known as Biotech Clubhouse) include Daphne Zohar, Josh Schimmer, Bruce Booth, Tim Opler, Chris Garabedian, Michal Preminger, Dawn Bell, Rob Perez, Otello Stampacchia and more.

On this week’s Biotech Hangout, hosts Daphne Zohar, Josh Schimmer, Brad Loncar, Dawn Bell and Sam Fazeli discuss the latest in biotech news, including their takeaways from last week’s JPM 2024 conference and Brad’s BiotechTV interviews with several attendees. The hosts also discuss the many deals from the week including Merck’s acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics ($680M), Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of Ambrx ($2B), GSK acquires Aiolos Bio ($1.4B), Boston Scientific acquires Axonics ($3.7B) and several Novartis deals including their dropped pursuit of Cytokinetics, acquisition of Calypso ($250M), their licensed drugs from a China biotech ($185M) and their deal with Eli Lilly and Isomorphic Labs ($3B). Other topics include two preclinical companies, Metagenomi and ArriVent file for IPO, Vertex pauses its diabetes cell therapy trial and Astellas gets a CRL. *This episode aired on January 12, 2024

On this week’s Biotech Hangout, Daphne Zohar, Josh Schimmer, Grace Colon, Paul Matteis and guest host Yuval Cohen, Corbus CEO, discuss the latest industry news including Corbus’ recent data and offering, plus Immunocore’s private offering ($352M), Vaxcyte’s public offering ($750M) and Alto Neuroscience’s IPO ($120M). They also cover Evaluate’s top 10 most anticipated drug list, Vertex’s non-opioid drug meets its goal in trials, Dyne Therapeutics weighs takeover interest options and Biogen ends development and sales of Alzheimer’s Disease drug. The hosts debate whether the week’s deals (Regeneron buying 2seventy bio’s pipeline and Protagonist Therapeutics and Takeda’s licensing deal) create or destroy shareholder value. Other topics of discussion include biotech advocacy, including bipartisan R&D tax credit restoration bill and Janet Woodcock’s exit interview, plus Vanda Pharmaceuticals’ claim against the FDA. *This episode aired on February 2, 2024

On Biotech Hangout this week, hosts Daphne Zohar, Brad Loncar, Josh Schimmer, Mike Yee & Tim Opler discuss biotech sentiment & cover the big news of the week. M&A as a topic including Bristol Myers Squibb to acquire Mirati Therapeutics for $4.8B, plus the 14 biotech acquisitions in 2023 over $1B and Illumina ordered to sell Grail after completing a $7.1B acquisition deal. A lot of data came out this week from companies including Akero, Alnylam, Ventyx, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Immunic and PMV Pharmaceuticals. Mike and Brad also share takeaways from Jefferies CNS Day and HLTH 2023. *This episode aired on October 13, 2023*