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BioPharmGuy
Hope you've all shaken off the tequila-aftermath. Didn't quite get to the April funding summary this week, so that will be in next week's newsletter.
Addition & Attrition
We added 14 companies this week, and removed 26. Summary available on downloads page.
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Patent Furor
So this whole patent waiver will do literally nothing to improve availability of vaccines in poor countries. But the message it sends - that the US government may get behind an international decision to waive a company's patent rights on a whim is a very serious concern for any company doing R&D on small molecule drugs which are easier to reproduce in places like China & India.
In fact, this may push a more intensive transition from easy-to-make small molecules toward high-tech biotechnology products that cannot be copied (and certainly can't be paid for) in poor countries, which could render developing countries even worse off down the line.
Overall a bad look.
Pfizer/BioNTech
Results from the adolescent Covid vaccine trial consisting of 2260 children aged 12-15 are in and it proved 100% efficacious. The trial was probably too small to get an exact number, so in reality it's probably more like the 95% result from the adult trial. FDA was expected to expand the emergency authorization for people 12+ soon, likely next week. Given the number of vaccines distributed and not yet administered, it seems like vaccinating 12-15 year-olds will happen relatively quickly.
Stryker
When it comes to joint replacement, you'll now instantly think about Stryker plus a league full of young men whose average wage is below the federal poverty level.
Neuroelectrics
Neurostimulation therapy is a pretty exciting field. Lot of companies doing a lot of interesting work on the subject. What they haven't figured out is how to make the devices look cool. The party this company put together for their homepage picture doesn't look like it's going to lure the fashionistas.
Hey, take your $1400, buy one of these things and you got yourself a Neurostimmy device.
CeQur
At this rate, the next "largest funding ever for a European MedTech" will be about $54M.
Red Menace
Remember the 90's when some punk kid would bring a laser pointer to the movie theater and annoy the crap out of everyone by shining it on the screen? Great news - you can now recreate that wonderful feeling simply by visiting Senda Biosciences website on your desktop . Annoying red dots for all!
Name Game
Aria Pharmaceuticals is the new name for the company formerly known as twoXAR Pharmaceuticals. twoXAR had one of the cooler name-genesis stories in the industry. A guy named Andrew Radin contacted another guy named Andrew Radin about buying his domain name (gotta assume it was andrewradin.com). He declined, but instead they ended up starting an AI biotech company together and named it twoXAR (two times AR). One AR left in 2019, so a name change was inevitable. Now they have a beautiful, boring name.
TwoXAR had a reason to change, whereas some companies just get bored. Sunshine Heart was renamed CHF Solutions in May 2017 and four years later they've decided they needed a new new name, so they're now Nuwellis which they say "better reflects its core therapeutic areas". How in the hell does that name tell you anything about their core therapeutic areas? Thumbs down.
Atnahs Pharmaceuticals decided to make the switch to Pharmanovia, which is bland, but certainly a net improvement on that mashup of letters they previously called a name.
CVS
The nationwide pharmacy chain launched a $100M fund to invest in early stage digital health startups. We can only imagine how long the receipt for a $10M funding round will be.
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Gene Drives in Gear
Scientists have been working on gene drives and looking to experiment with them on mosquitoes for many years. A gene drive is more or less a way to force a population to exponentially decay. The genome of a population of males is altered to ensure any females born from them will not survive. However, the ensuing males will also be altered in this same way. As time goes on, the population of males holding this genetic alteration goes up, and the number of viable female offspring plummets.
Predictably, some people are concerned. There are valid reasons - most importantly the chance that modified bugs make their way to places where A. Aegypti is an important part of the ecosystem. What's not a valid concern is the person in the article who thinks people might be allergic to the modified mosquitoes.
Scientists are eliminating a breeding ground for deadly diseases and someone thinks changing a couple genes in a mosquito will somehow make people extremely allergic to an existing pest.
Poor Rich People
Any Covid outbreak is a bummer, but a Covid outbreak at Mt. Everest basecamp is extra bad. Not because all those rich people won't get a chance to climb a mountain and brag about it, but because the local Sherpas/staff who don't really have a choice to not work and so face another obstacle to their survival.
30 people have been evacuated from basecamp with suspected pulmonary edema, but the Nepalese government is still denying the existence of any Covid outbreak on Everest. Bad situation there.
J&J Anxiety
A couple clusters of fainting events associated with the J&J shot were determined to be due to anxiety in patients, not the vaccine itself. Theory is that people who don't do well with needles are opting for the single-dose vaccine to minimize their shots. Makes some sense. Plus fainting can be contagious - BioPharmGuy felt a little woozy when he saw a woman pass out after getting her vaccine.
Free Stuff
Budweiser really got something going last week - New Jersey is now running a "Shot and a Beer" program granting each vaccinated person 21+ a free beer at 34 participating breweries throughout the state. A bit of an upgrade.
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Featured Job
Studylog - Software Trainer (Application Scientist) - East Coast / West Coast
Studylog is looking for a Software Trainer (Application Scientist) with a passion for animal research and training to instruct users of our world-class software. In this position you will represent the standards and quality of Studylog Systems, Inc. when training new users on Studylog software remotely and in labs and offices around the world. Join our small team making world-class software! Opening requires that you are familiar with Studylog's software.
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ETC.
Nopeshroom
If you're a fan of eating things that send chills down your spine simply from looking at them, have we got the food for you: the Lion's Mane mushroom. It supposedly has some health benefits and a meaty texture, but we are not about to investigate any of that. That thing is scary, though not as scary as the "technically edible, though unpalatable" bleeding tooth fungus. Dammit, researching fungus pictures is second only to researching images of dermatology illnesses.
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