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Should drug companies be free-speech advocates?
Is your retirement dependent on CRISPR? And how useful is a glow-in-the-dark dog?
We discuss all that and more on the latest episode of “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. First we talk about how the fallout between the NBA and China raises questions for the drug industry and its international interests. Then, we speak to the co-directors of “Unnatural Selection,” a Netflix documentary series that dissects the stories, science, and ethics behind genome editing. Later, STAT’s Kate Sheridan joins us to explain the surprising roots of the billions of dollars that go into biotech startups.
You can listen to the episode here. To listen to future episodes, be sure to sign up on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Sean Parker’s science project breeds a startup
Facebook billionaire Sean Parker has spent the last few years investing his time and money into cancer immunotherapy, and now he’s got a biotech startup to show for it.
As STAT’s Adam Feuerstein reports, ArsenalBio has come into the world with a plan to use newfangled technologies like CRISPR to build improved tumor killers. The company traces its roots to a 2018 retreat hosted by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, where, according to ArsenalBio’s founders, scientists of disparate expertise joined forces to collaborate.
As for the exact focus of that collaboration, we’re a little unclear. According to its founding press release, the company will use “CRISPR-based genome engineering, scaled and high throughput target identification, synthetic biology, and machine learning to advance a new paradigm” in immunotherapy. So there’s that.
Read more.
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Sponsor content by STAT Expert Advantage
October conference call: Preparing for the unexpected FDA advisory panel on Amarin’s Vascepa
As the FDA prepares for an unexpected advisory committee meeting in November that will help it weigh whether or not to approve Vascepa, join us for our conference call: Preparing for the Vascepa panel. STAT’s Adam Feuerstein will be joined by Dr. Robert Rosenson, director of cardiometabolic disorders at Mount Sinai & professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine, for a discussion about what the realistic (and unrealistic) outcomes will be. Join STAT Expert Advantage to access this call — and other ones like it throughout the year.
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We’re finally going to see behind the Mirati curtain
Mirati Therapeutics has been one of 2019’s most curious biotech stories. The small company’s stock price has roughly doubled since the start of the year, but not because of success in a clinical trial, a rumored buyout, or a lucrative deal with pharma. Rather, it’s because the world is increasingly convinced so-called undruggable targets might actually fall prey to drugs.
Mirati has a treatment targeting KRAS, a protein implicated in a host of cancers that has largely proved impervious to medicinal chemistry. We’ve never actually seen human data on this drug, but a similar medicine from Amgen showed unprecedented results in lung cancer (its effects on colon cancer were less impressive), and thus the bull theory for Mirati is that its therapy will meet or even exceed that bar.
Soon none of this will be theoretical. Yesterday, Mirati disclosed that it will at last present human data on Oct. 28. We don’t know how many patients have been treated, how long they’ve been followed, and, of course, whether the drug had any effect. But at least we have a date.
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What it’s like to be the serious company in an often absurd room
The past few years have seen cannabidiol, or CBD, go from a fairly obscure little compound to a hazily regulated product marketed as a solution for pain, anxiety, and myriad other maladies.
Watching from the sidelines has been GW Pharmaceuticals, a traditional drug company that has “very much played by the rules” on the way to winning the first-ever FDA approval for a CBD-based therapeutic, CEO Justin Gover told STAT.
That meant spending decades on research and then going through the rigorous process of FDA review, which led to last year’s approval of Epidiolex to treat two rare and devastating forms of epilepsy. Now, as GW presses forward with more CBD-derived therapeutics, Gover welcomes the sudden influx of interest in cannabinoid treatments — albeit with a caveat.
“The only note of caution I would add is when I see companies that are doing some form of research that I would consider more for promotional reasons rather than because they’re serious about drug development,” he said. “That is something I don’t welcome.”
Read more.
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More reads
- Competitor accuses 23andMe of ‘false negatives’ in cancer-gene testing. (STAT)
- Sanofi investing in gene therapy as R&D focus turns toward rare disease. (BioPharma Dive)
- European medical investor Sofinnova wraps $368 million fund. (Wall Street Journal)
- These four companies are betting big on CBD-based prescription drugs. (STAT Plus)
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Thanks for reading! Until next week,
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