Robert Grubbs (Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images)
Nobel laureate and Caltech professor Robert Grubbs passed away on Sunday — a legendary chemist who was an ‘equally remarkable husband, father, grandfather, friend, and colleague,’ according to Dennis Dougherty, a fellow Caltech professor.
He was 79.
Grubbs is perhaps best known for developing the metathesis method in organic synthesis — a feat that earned him and two other chemists (Richard Schrock and Yves Chauvin) a Nobel Prize in 2005. Metathesis, which means ‘change places,’ is a type of chemical reaction in which double bonds between carbon atoms are broken and reorganized at the same time as atomic groups change place. Around 1992, Grubbs discovered a metallic compound that effectively facilitates metathesis, and is stable in the air.
The method has led to more effective and efficient industrial and pharmaceutical processes that leave behind less waste.
‘Bob was an inspiration to Caltech colleagues and to scientists around the world, for his human qualities as much as for his pathbreaking contributions to research and society. We will keenly miss his wisdom and vision,’ Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum said in a statement.
On Monday, former students and colleagues took to Twitter to share their condolences.
‘Such sad news and huge loss to our community,’ University of Minnesota professor Theresa Reineke posted. ‘Bob was a fabulously creative scientist, awesome mentor to his students, and highly valued family- just a flat out amazing and welcoming human. He will always be a hero of mine.’
Such sad news and huge loss to our community. Bob was a fabulously creative scientist, awesome mentor to his students, and highly valued family- just a flat out amazing and welcoming human. He will always be a hero of mine. My sincere condolences to the Grubbs family. https://t.co/7uzRVjUiWJ
— Theresa M. Reineke (@Theresa_Reineke) December 19, 2021 ‘Bob Grubbs was an amazing person, generous mentor, brilliant scientist and loyal family man,’ UCLA professor Heather Maynard tweeted. ‘I am so fortunate he was my PhD advisor. Such a tremendous loss. My thoughts are with his family and the entire@Caltech/Chemistry/Grubbs community during this difficult time.’
Bob Grubbs was an amazing person, generous mentor, brilliant scientist and loyal family man. I am so fortunate he was my PhD advisor. Such a tremendous loss. My thoughts are with his family and the entire @Caltech /Chemistry/Grubbs community during this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/w5oYqQuagu
— Heather D Maynard (@HeatherDMaynard) December 20, 2021 Grubbs was born in rural Kentucky in 1942, in the house his father built, he wrote in his Nobel biography. Both his parents were from small farm families, and childhood jobs hauling hay and cutting tobacco at other farms led him to pursue a degree in agricultural chemistry at the University of Florida. One of his summer jobs was in an animal nutrition laboratory analyzing steer feces — then a friend brought him to an organic chemistry lab, which smelled better and ‘saved me from a life of analyzing animal matter,’ he wrote.
Grubbs worked in the lab of Merle Battiste, who was at the time a new faculty member at the University of Florida. While Grubbs always had a knack for building things — he’d use his money to buy nails instead of candy as a kid — building molecules was even more fun, he said.
He graduated with his master’s in organic chemistry in 1965, then went on to Columbia University to pursue his PhD while working with Ron Breslow. During his second year, he met his wife Helen O’Kane, who was his ‘best friend since that time.’ They have three children, Barney, Brendan and Kathleen.
In 1969, as he was finishing up his fellowship, Michigan State University was the only school that offered him a position. It was there that he started his work in olefin metathesis. In 1978, he moved to Caltech, and the rest is history. He’s worked with more than 200 students and postdoctoral fellows, according to his biography.
‘Bob’s passing creates a huge hole in the CCE Division, Caltech, and, indeed, the entire world of science,’ Dougherty said.
CALQUENCE is a registered trademark of the AstraZeneca group of companies.
At the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, blood cancer researchers from around the world gathered virtually to discuss the progress that has been made in the field of hematology. Over the past decade, that progress has been tremendous. We’ve seen not only breakthrough approaches to care, but also significant improvement upon existing novel treatments and exploring combinations within those medicines.1 These advances have transformed expectations of what a blood cancer diagnosis now means for patients. While we’ve come a long way, I believe the most exciting scientific discovery is yet to come, and that future advances will truly transform patient care.
Michel Vounatsos, Biogen CEO (Credit: World Economic Forum/Valeriano Di Domenico)
In a surprise move, Biogen announced Monday that it will cut the price of its controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm in half, slashing the cost from $56,000 to $28,000.
The sudden discount marks a sudden turnaround for the big biotech as it struggles to turn around a drug whose stuck-in-the-mud sales and political ramifications have sent the company into turmoil and triggered the ousting of its longtime chief scientist. Biogen’s leadership had resisted calls since June to reduce the price of the drug.
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Angie You and Volker Schellenberger, Amunix
Sanofi is crashing the year-end M&A party with a deal of its own.
Immuno-oncology is the name of the game as it swallows Mountain View, CA-based Amunix for $1 billion upfront and up to $225 million in biobucks, tagging a suite of T cell engagers and cytokine therapies as well as a tech platform for making ‘conditionally activated biologics.’
‘The Amunix technology platform utilizes a next generation smart biologics approach to precisely tailor-deliver medicines to become active only in tumor tissues while sparing normal tissues,’ said Sanofi R&D chief John Reed, ‘thus bringing the promise of more effective and safer treatment options for cancer patients.’
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Graphic: Alexander Lefterov for Endpoints News
Drug pricing reform has been a political football for years, with both Donald Trump and Joe Biden championing changes during their presidencies. Little has moved the needle on Capitol Hill, however, thanks in part to the drug industry’s powerful lobbyists.
In the most recent example, Democrats tried to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices — an immediate non-starter for biopharma proponents. After months of negotiation, the measure fell apart in favor of provisions on a small subset of drugs that passed the House but marked a far cry from Biden’s promises and what many activists had hoped for. The bill, included as part of Biden’s broad social policy agenda, now appears dead after Democrats failed to secure 50 votes in the Senate.
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Right as the new Omicron variant is poised to increase rapidly across the US, the federal government has effectively run out of the only monoclonal antibody treatment that works against it, and at least one major hospital system is now halting all mAb infusions.
Late last month, the federal government paused shipments of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir’s mAb treatment sotrovimab in order to conserve supplies of the only treatment that might work against the Omicron variant. Last week, however, HHS told Endpoints News that the move to hold back sotrovimab was unrelated to Omicron, and due to a surplus of Eli Lilly mAbs, which aren’t effective against Omicron.
One of Pfizer’s new vaccine TV commercials never mentions its vaccine brand Comirnaty. In fact, it doesn’t mention vaccines or Covid-19 at all and doesn’t show people wearing masks or social distancing. Yet it’s clear the ad is talking about the pharma’s Covid-19 vaccines.
The ad’s voiceover talks about the unremarkable moments and routines that matter, like getting a coffee refill at a diner or Sunday grocery shopping. The images shift from those everyday moments to a scientists and purple lidded glass vials spinning off a production line and being packed into freezers.
As the new year rapidly approaches, and gyms and health food stores across America prepare for a wave of people seeking weight loss, Novo Nordisk has announced that it does not expect to meet demand for Wegovy, its prescription injectable weight-loss medication for obesity, until the second half of 2022 in the US.
The shortage comes due to manufacturing issues at a contract manufacturer that was tasked with filling syringes for the pens. The news comes just days after Novo announced that it would invest roughly $2.58 billion to expand its manufacturing hub in Kalundborg, Denmark with three new facilities and the expansion of a fourth to keep up with the success of its diabetes and obesity med semaglutide, Wegovy and Rybelsus.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) at the Capitol on Friday, Dec. 17 (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images)
Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday derailed President Biden’s trillion-dollar spending package, effectively halting the Democrats’ best chance yet to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, among a bevy of other health-related provisions tacked onto the Build Back Better Act.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, stunned by Manchin’s announcement on Fox News, said in a statement: ‘Senator Manchin claims that this change of position is related to inflation, but the think tank he often cites on Build Back Better — the Penn Wharton Budget Institute — issued a report less than 48 hours ago that noted the Build Back Better Act will have virtually no impact on inflation in the short term, and, in the long run, the policies it includes will ease inflationary pressures.’
Brian Culley, Lineage Cell Therapeutics CEO
In a lucrative market for ocular degeneration, Roche has long sat on a gold mine with its drug Lucentis — but the times are changing, and the drugmaker is looking to add to its ocular portfolio. Now, Roche will bet on a regenerative approach to eye disease with a small biotech with some very early but promising data.
Genentech will pay $50 million upfront and a potential $620 million in downstream milestones for licensing rights to Lineage Cell Therapeutics’ OpRegen program, a cell therapy that aims to regenerate healthy versions of retinal pigment epithelial cells in patients’ eyes, the companies said Monday.
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