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Reva Medical
As an investor in a public company, you would likely think the company will protect your assets to the death. While usually technically true, sometimes it’s better for the company to die, wipe your ownership clean, then be reborn as a new company to which you have no claim.
One recent practitioner of this strategy was Reva Medical, a publicly traded company who declared bankruptcy, wiped out shareholders, and emerged as a private company. Fast forward to this week they racked up a $45M series B funding. (If investors are willing to pony up that many millions, you do have to wonder if their underlying IP was valued properly in the bankruptcy)
While off putting, the absolution granted by such bankruptcy laws does prevent the existence of thousands of zombie companies wasting talent and resources. It’s a weird system at times, but works better than most.
Avivagen
Just so you know, a big customer bought some stuff from Avivagen. They’re not going to tell you who made the purchase, but rest assured the client was big. And Asian. They managed to use ‘Asia’ four times in a two paragraph press release, but couldn’t fit the customer's name in there. Sorry, couldn't fit the Asian customer's name in there.
Plus Therapeutics
Living up to its name, Plus Therapeutics received a plus-sized grant from the state of Texas. Not known as a haven for taxpayer largesse, Texas seemed an unlikely resource for a $17.6M grant, but it happened. And at the same time, Emtora Biosciences hauled in $16.9M from the Lone Star State.
Last week Democrats voted against the interests of drug companies residing in their states, this week Texas gives away a bunch of money. What the hell is happening in America?
Stramsen Biotech
A no-name biotech has published a pledge on its website to donate 100,000 shares to any nonprofit “that works with disabled army veterans in the United States, children that live in poverty in third world countries or refugee camps overseas.”
Those 100,000 shares are probably never going to be worth anything, but still slightly better than thoughts and prayers. Go get your organization some of them free shares now.
Team Roast – Kira Biotech
When it’s time to take a biotech team photo, most women opt for a blazer, blouse, dress...you know, work attire. But every now and then someone loses a bet and throws on a beautiful straitjacket.
We confirmed from deeper web searches that she does indeed have arms. Must also have a secretary, because the modern world of work is pretty tough on those who choose not to make their arms accessible.
And how many times do they have to refer to her as “Associate Professor” in such a small write-up? Four seems overboard. Even if it's technically the job title, no one would give a rip if they just said Professor. Outside of academia, no one knows the difference anyways.
2015 Called
PurMinds Is working on neurotherapeutics, so brains are their business. On their careers page they show a small stack of books which evokes such braininess. On top, you’ve got Malcolm Gladwell with the Tipping Point, and underneath you will see Thinking, Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman. That second one is an excellent read – 100% recommended. But books aren’t the problem with this page, it’s the calendar being open to September 2015, which was five years before this company was even founded. Details, PurMinds, details!
Rover Diagnostics
The only acceptable business model for a life science company with this name is canine diagnostics. But no – this company is working on that wide open, totally competition-free space of COVID TESTING. Right, but Covid testing for dogs? No!
Listen, if they think there is any chance of making money in the Covid testing space these days, good luck to them and their investors. But for the love of all that is sacred, you cannot name your life science company 'Rover' anything and not be working on a product for dogs. Blasphemy!
Moderna
Moderna's been working on a flu vaccine and the IP attorneys have started to file some trademark applications. You can check out the whole list here, but for our money, MCOFLUPIK really rolls off the tongue.
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