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New Top Dog, Same as the Old Top Dog
bluebird bio just had another gene therapy approved and, in pricing it, eclipsed the record for most expensive drug in the world. They beat their own record by $200k and priced this puppy at $3 MILLLION.
As we know, insurance companies in America love nothing more than to shell out money unquestionably, so this will undoubtedly lead to immense riches for bluebird. Even better, bluebird is not doing the same outcome-based pricing as they have for other gene therapies. So, you pay the $3 million and whether it works or not, they keep the cash.
Good luck with all that. Mostly you have to feel bad for the patients and their loved ones who have watched these clinical trials progress for years, seeing a treatment that may actually offer some hope, only to find out it’s for other people, not them. Sad.
Nope-in-a-Pill
If a company is offering a technology and branding it as “Surgery in a Pill” one’s mind can run wild. Will it flip open and begin its pre-programmed hacking at some point along your alimentary canal?
At least in the case of AltrixBio, no. Their product is a pill that sticks to your gut and slowly releases some sort of modulator of glucose uptake to help Type 2 Diabetes patients lose weight. The ‘surgery’ reference is gastric bypass.
Huh. So if the default is gastric bypass, using their same nomenclatural logic, going on a diet might be referred to as “Surgery in a Salad”, which is a restaurant we definitely would not patronize.
*Psygh*
Shockingly, we saw some PR from yet another publicly traded 'shroom company. This brain trust named themselves Psyence. So effing clever.
This simple name sort of points to the root of how the psychedelic business works. These companies know only one thing matters – Can male retail investors between the ages of 20-50 identify that they work on psychedelics simply by looking at the company name? Because that’s all it seems to take for their stock prices to rise and executives to get rich. And let's be honest, that's the whole purpose here. The business actually profiting is irrelevant to the executives.
In related news, BioPharmGuy is proud to announce our new spinout: PsyoPharmGuy. (And don't even try to grab the domain - already did)
Name Game
Celsion
Celsion decided their name was no good anymore, on which point they were incorrect. But for a new name, they thought the unbelievably boring choice of “Imunon” was somehow better. 100% wrong.
Why didn’t they go with the even-more-boring Immunon, you may be wondering? Probably because someone bought that domain in 2003 and has it linking to this 2 minute youtube video of an old Hollywood visual effects guy talking about his weight loss plan. Riveting stuff. 2/10
Respiras
Respira Technologies is a company focused on aerosol delivery of drug products. Not to be confused with Respira Therapeutics which is a company focused on aerosol delivery of drug products.
Understandable that a name change was in order here and henceforth Respira Technologies shall be known as Qnovia. That's a solid improvement and has a cool capital Q. 7/10
(If only Respira could go back in time to 2018 and choose a different name from the get-go considering the other Respira had been around for eight years at that point. FYI - we list 10,873 active companies plus another 6,728 defunct ones in our directory, so it could be a nice resource in your biotech-naming efforts)
Board Service
This week Roquefort Therapeutics added to their board. New appointments include Trevor Reginald, Martin Evans & Darrin Dinsley. They join current board members brie, some olives and a pile of almonds.
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