Innovative medical IoT devices and healthcare applications can improve patient care and maximize efficiencies, but cybercriminals target their vulnerabilities.
Verimatrix offers innovative solutions to secure patient data, healthcare apps, and medical devices —protecting your revenue and reputation. Verimatrix’ security solutions are used by leaders in the toughest markets and have been deployed in hundreds of millions of mobile devices.
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BioPharmGuy
Been a minute since I’ve had to apply for a job, so I knew the landscape would have changed since 2008. However, I got an email this week from someone seeking help for an upcoming job interview. This individual was assigned a case study project that was really specific and actionable…almost as if the company was using interviewees to do unpaid work. Very, very uncool, but maybe this is normal nowadays? Hope not.
On that careers note, our friends at BioCentriq are looking for a new Director of Business Development and hopefully they won’t make you do unpaid consulting work as your interview. They do contract manufacturing and development out of New Jersey. They’re hoping for someone with 10 years experience in cell & gene therapy, but considering how new that field is, maybe they’ll give you a look with slightly less than that.
Finally, as a longtime Detroit Lions fan, I'm torn on who to root for this Super Bowl Sunday (though it should be on Saturday and that's a whole different rant). On the one hand, the Lions QB left this year and is now in the Super Bowl, and he's a good dude. On the other hand, two years ago the Bengals were a very Lions-like 2-14 and for them to win it all so quickly after being trash would bring me much hope. This decision would have been a lot easier if my former schoolmate Tom Brady were in the game...
-BPG
January Company Funding
With the public markets shriveling up, the IPO window duly slammed shut. Only four this month for $486M.
Private rounds were largely immune to market turmoil. 52 companies were funded to the tune of $6.4B, though admittedly, that's a little misleading. One company raked in $3B for the most mind-boggling cash avalanche in biotech, probably ever.
Summary file available on our downloads page.
Companies Added & Removed
We added 18 companies and removed 19 this week.
Best new name:
Robocath
You won't be missed:
Lisa Cryobanking
Best reason for removal:
"Seems to have been a shell to transfer pain asset"
Summary file available on our downloads page.
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Off-the-Chain Website Roast
When a website has a menu tab labeled “FUN” you know you’re in for a treat. What’s all this fun about you’re surely wondering? It’s a bunch of the latest Instagram memes - very germane to the business of gene/biologics products and services.
And if that wasn’t zany enough for ya, they put a screenshot and quote from Braveheart a bit further down the page. So fun!
Lastly their ‘Tribe’ page won’t disappoint, giving you even more of that free-wheeling craziness you expect from such a cool company. Normally that would be known as a ‘Team’ page, but not at this company – they simply will not be chained by accepted website layout standards!
FREEDOM!!!!!
(To anyone at Unchained Labs who subscribes to this newsletter: Not sorry, but please don’t leave)
?Sanofi¿
Companies don’t know how to spend money, so they give it to consultants to come up with new logos. Then the consultants make up crazy explanations for what the new logo represents. It’s entertaining. This week it was Sanofi’s turn. They dropped this thing on us:
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The disappearing S is not, in fact, meant to represent the future business prospects of Sanofi. Rather, this logo:
"..is a representation of Sanofi’s new purpose and ambition, which is inspired by the simple and motion-oriented codes of the tech industry. The two purple dots embody the scientific journey between a starting point – the curiosity of questioning the status-quo and wondering “what if?” – and a finish line – the eureka moment where innovative solutions are unlocked to impact people’s lives."
Motion-oriented codes? The hell they talkin' about?
If undercutting letters is the wave of the future, we decided we'd better be ready. Boom - just added Riopharmguy.com to our stable of domains. Future-proofed.
The Crunch
They had become a rare breed for a long, long time it seemed, but biotech layoff announcements are back. It’s part of a very normal cycle for this industry, but whenever it starts you have to wonder how deep the axe will go. At the end of 2021 there was a spate of layoff announcements, and that has continued, the latest being Biosplice. Biotech stocks crashing combined with layoffs has the makings of a legitimate crunch. If you hate your job, start looking for a new one now while you can. And if your company starts cutting your department's budget, GET OUT.
Know Your Role (or Not)
Last week Mammoth Biosciences had a job posted on BioSpace for a Misfit Mammoth. From the description: "You get excited about a company and their mission...you have a mammoth amount to offer...but you don’t see the role for you on our careers page."
Pretty funny to post an open application on a job board, but hey, whatever. They deactivated it quickly so maybe an HR person got a talking-to.
Team Roast
The group picture for your company career page is always a good way to show prospective employees that you are a bunch of normal people - not weird, not weird at all. This company largely achieved that goal. It's a bunch of regular people. But wait...look closely at the jungle in the back and there's your red flag - a lady hiding in the foliage.
Phew, that was a close one - sayonara, weirdos!
Birgi Mefar
This Turkish CDMO asked to be included in our directory. While we wish they were already listed, it’s always nice when companies help us improve things a bit. When we asked how many employees the company has, they stated “over 850”. But when scrolling to the end of their ‘About’ page, it says they have “800+ dedicated employees”.
So only about 50 undedicated employees? Not too bad.
Speak no Evil
Quick follow-up on old Martin Shkreli, who was recently banned from working in the pharmaceutical industry. A judge has declared that he can’t even publicly talk about the business side of the pharma industry.
Ok, now it’s getting a little over the top. Why even set him free then? What's the point in letting a guy like that be free if he can't even fulfill his purpose in life by ripping people off?
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Polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) offers alternative to nylon in components for single-use systems
The global supply chains for many raw materials and finished goods are experiencing unprecedented shortages and supply interruptions, in particular, the supply of plastic resins.
Learn how polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) is being used as an alternative to nylon in the manufacture of sanitary clamps and tube clamps, which play an essential role in the production of vaccines.
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Alas, He Barely Took Off
Super-scientist Eric Lander, who was confirmed as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy less than a year ago has resigned following numerous allegations of being a general prick. A full 10% of his office said he was a bullying and demeaning leader.
If every boss had to resign for being an a**hole, we would have ourselves quite the anarchic economy. At a private company, while not an ideal way of running things, it’s certainly not unheard of. However, when you have a government job, you really can’t demean and deride your inferiors nonstop. (Unless you’re the President, of course)
CDC Wastewater
Why should Massachusetts have all the fun of tracking viral RNA in their sewage? Two years in, the CDC finally decided it would be beneficial to bring the wastewater data together and put it on a map. One drawback is the timeliness of these data points. If one was sampled today and another last week, they could be quite different yet both appear on the map simultaneously.
Launching it this late in the game almost makes you think the government is settling into perpetual pandemic mode. Not a great omen.
Covid
Nationwide US case counts are down about 65% from the peak a few weeks ago. Hospitalizations are coming down and the death rate seems to have plateaued. What comes next is anyone’s guess, but for a time things should be pretty quiet given the amount of natural immunity present.
29 Years Away
An old joke has it that fusion as a power source is always 30 years away. We may have to modify that number down slightly after the results from a UK fusion reactor experiment actually yielded decent results. It still did not generate more power than was used in the experiment, which is the utopian goal of fusion, but the next generation of fusion reactor scheduled to begin running in 2025 (translation: 2028 at the earliest) very well could be the first to generate net positive energy. Imagine that – effectively limitless, zero carbon energy with no nasty nuclear waste. No wonder fusion has always captured peoples’ attention.
Nonprofit Mega-Merger
Two hospital systems on either side of Michigan merged to create a 22-hospital, non-profit behemoth. These hospital systems are executing mergers and acquisitions like multinational corporations, all while earning no profit. Without the profit motive, you may wonder what’s the motivation to merge? Answer: More money for the executives.
As long as they pay all the extra money out to executives – ($7M to the CEO of one of the merging entities in 2020), they’re left with no profit. Magic!
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