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BioPharmGuy
It's officially been a year since we launched this weekly newsletter. When we started, the idea was simply to have a (boring) means to stay connected with our website visitors. But after a few weeks, our inner snarkiness could no longer be caged. Whether it was absurdities in the biotech industry, government or just any random stuff, they all get the BPG treatment now.
Many of you have commented that you enjoy the contrast between our tone and the standard, stodgy tone of most industry newsletters. Happy to provide you with our occasional wit and attitude! Really it's been a lot more fun than expected. Hopefully all 8000 of you will stick around for another year (and spend more time telling all your Zoom friends about the glory that is BioPharmGuy News).
Thanks for a great year, everyone. Here's to Year 2 being a little better.
January Funding
We tracked $4.4B in private funding at 67 companies plus a couple IPOs for $459M. Expect the IPOs to pick up in February. Summary on our downloads page.
Addition & Attrition
17 companies added, 28 removed. Seemed like a lot of companies that were bought a while back were subsumed into the new parent in January. When that happens they get removed from our active database. Summary of changes available on our downloads page.
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Moderna
The latest attempt to alleviate their vaccine filling bottleneck is a request to the FDA to allow them to add 5 more doses per bottle. This begs the question - why didn't they do that in the first place? There was just extra space in there that can now be used? Probably a more technical explanation out there regarding fill volume limits, but the optics sure are weird.
Opertech Bio
Ok, if someone told you a biotech company was working on "a pioneering approach to measuring taste", would you not imagine a system that can analyze any input sample for all the various tastes and textures that may be useful to know? We would - that would be impressive technology.
Alas, Opertech failed to deliver on our dreams. Their 'technology' is a machine that pulls samples from a well-plate and then requires the human to manually deposit flavor into their mouth. The human then enters their tasting opinions into a computer.
The video on their homepage is almost like a comedy sketch. The guy explains in unnecessary detail how automated sampling works and the lady squirts stuff into her mouth from a giant pipette. This system probably wouldn't have been cutting edge 15 years ago. This is just too much. Then again, things probably move a little more slowly in the taste industry, no doubt thanks to the stranglehold of Big Flavor.
Rebrand Tragedy
Herophilus was recently rebranded as System1 Biosciences. Makes sense - who wants a company to be named after a Greek physician from 2300 years ago? System1 Biosciences sounds a lot more 2021.
Wait, hold up, what's that you say? We got it backwards? System1 Biosciences just rebranded as Herophilus? Come on. No. No. No!!!!!
Clover Health
Now this is some intrigue. Just out this morning, Hindenburg Research has released a summary of their investigation into Clover Health. Clover is a Medicare Advantage insurance company, so basically all their revenues are based on signing up and managing Medicare-insured patients (in New Jersey specifically). They're also one of those companies who got some silicon valley investors and created an app and therefore they are going to change the entire healthcare system and make the world a better place.
One of their wholly-owned subsidiaries has been making claims such as "We don’t work for insurance companies. We work for you". Alternative facts are back! We haven't gotten through the whole report, but it looks juicy.
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Government Transparency
We all understand that some details of vaccine deals between nations and manufacturers may need to be kept secret for business purposes, but this EU agreement with AstraZeneca is a bit much - it redacts every mention of how much the vaccines will cost. The entire "Cost of Goods" section is blacked out (page 4 on the Related Documents) . Seems like EU citizens should have a right to know how much they're paying for these.
Bird Breath
Birds breathe unidirectionally, meaning air goes in and out via different paths so that no "old" air remains. Pretty neat animation you can check out here comparing the breathing of humans, birds & grasshoppers.
Vaccine Cheat of the Week
It appears Canadian casino CEOs are not the only slimeballs tryin' to jump the line for the Covid vaccine. This week we have an online spin-class instructor who passed herself off as an "educator" to get in on the vaccine fun in New York City. She even posted about it on her Instagram. The CEO of her employer, SoulCycle, had to write a memo indicating that it did not believe its instructors' status as online bike-motivators qualified them for the Covid vaccine.
The bike instructor gave a formulaic apology, but is probably only sorry she got caught. Jerk!
Chameleons of Madagascar
We may have a new title holder for world's smallest reptile. The male of the newly catalogued chameleon species Brookesia nana measures 0.5 inches long and fits on a fingertip. As you may have guessed, yes, it is adorable. Or at least as adorable as a chameleon can be. It was found in northern Madagascar.
Also recently found in northern Madagascar were two female Voeltzkow’s chameleons whose species was presumed extinct after having not been seen for over a century. You'd think maybe it was found deep in the rainforest, but no, it was chillin' in a hotel garden. The exact location has, thankfully, not been disclosed.
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If you can think of it...
When they come for the Worcestershire, who among us will speak out? The Association for Dressings & Sauces, that's who. Which is a totally real organization for some reason. By visiting their website you too may discover that the Clorox company owns Hidden Valley Ranch. What a synergistic business tie-up.
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