Marijn Dekkers, Novalis LifeSciences founder and chairman (Martin Meissner/AP Images)
Two years ago, life sciences VC Novalis LifeSciences announced that it had raised $85 million for its first fund, looking to invest into anywhere between 8 to 12 companies ‘in various segments of the life science industry.’ Novalis now wants to go bigger, announcing earlier this week it raked in $300 million for Novalis LifeSciences Investments II.
The New Hampshire-based VC, founded in 2017 by Ginkgo Bioworks board chairman and ex-Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers, plans to invest into anywhere between 10 and 15 more life science companies.
So far, Novalis has not listed from where — or who — it’s gotten its funding, but in total, the firm manages approximately $500 million in the two investment funds.
Over the past few years, Novalis has invested and backed quite a few companies under the biotech umbrella, from therapeutics to food production. On the therapeutics side, some of those biotechs include:
Ginkgo, where Dekkers is chairman of the board, and the biotech was the subject of a short sell attack last month — amidst it revealing itself as a target of a DOJ probe;
Decipher Biosciences, an oncology diagnostics company that emphasizes cancer genomics and was bought out by Veracyte earlier this year;
Cerevel Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA biotech focusing on CNS drug candidates that went public via SPAC in October 2020.
In addition, several other people had recently joined Novalis: trust operations veteran Constantine Pantelis as COO, and ex-Thermo Fisher scientist and former head of DNA synthesis at Ginkgo, Devin Leake, as managing director. Paul Meister, who as then-vice chairman of Fisher Scientific and worked with Dekkers closely on the Thermo Fisher merger back in 2006, has gotten on board and joined the VC firm as partner.
‘With Paul’s vast experience in Life Sciences, I look forward to working with him again on this second fund,’ Dekkers said in a prepared statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Images)
Back in January 2019, the late House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings kicked off a nearly 3-year-long drug pricing investigation that culminated today in a major new report detailing how prices for vital drugs have risen substantially since their launch, while calling on the Senate to pass a bill that will allow Medicare to negotiate some prices.
The committee’s investigation focused on 12 of the most expensive drugs for Medicare, showing massive price spikes that have accumulated over the years and made some drugs, like insulin, entirely unaffordable for some, to the point where some diabetics have had to ration their life-saving insulin, and some have died.
Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann (via Agreus Group)
While the ultimate fate of Novartis’ big generics arm Sandoz may still be up in the air, there’s no doubt it’s in play as a potential buyout target.
Overnight, Reuters picked up on a report out of Germany that EQT and the billionaire Strüngmann brothers — enjoying a huge windfall from the overnight success of BioNTech’s mRNA Covid vaccine — are kicking the tires at Sandoz. And Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan confirmed it.
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Please signup to continue — it’s fast and free. This article is sponsored by Catalent and produced by Endpoints Studio. Vlad Coric, Biohaven chariman and CEO
Days after reporting positive Phase III results for intranasal migraine med zavegepant, Biohaven chairman and CEO Vlad Coric is talking about marketing plans. It’s a month or more before Biohaven will file for FDA approval and likely a year before launch, but Coric is already thinking about messaging and commercialization.
His plan? A dual strategy to attract potential patients around speed to relief – zavegepant study results show the spray can provide relief in as fast as 15 minutes and a return to normal in 30 minutes – along with a secondary anti-nausea benefit in using an intranasal versus a pill.
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Stéphane Bancel, Moderna CEO (AP Images, Boston Herald)
Moderna says that it’s on its way to having an mRNA vaccine against not one, but two different seasonal viruses.
The biotech released the first early data from its flu program Friday morning, announcing that all doses of the shot significantly boosted antibodies in younger and older adults without ‘significant safety findings.’
A 500-person Phase II will confirm dose levels and compare it to an approved flu vaccine, the company said, and preparations for a large pivotal trial are underway. Moderna said it is also advancing new designs that can have potentially broader coverage of different flu strains than current shots.
Boris Johnson at a press conference Dec. 8, after discussions on restrictions as a result of the Omicron variant (Adrian Dennis/Pool via AP Images)
With reports of Omicron cases in over 50 countries, and at least 19 US states, some regions like the UK are now expecting a rapid rise of Omicron as community spread takes off.
While the UK has only seen about 800 Omicron cases so far, the government’s Health Security Agency warned that if the recent growth rate continues, ‘we expect to see at least 50 percent of Covid-19 cases to be caused by the Omicron variant in the next two to four weeks,’ according to the New York Times.
Mathai Mammen, J&J EVP of pharmaceuticals, R&D (Rob Tannenbaum)
The new J&J has a fresh corporate face to show the public — several in fact.
As the healthcare conglomerate follows a now familiar pharma path in separating itself into an innovation-focused R&D-based group from its less appealing consumer side, it’s promoting some key individuals to the executive committee that steers the company.
Those fresh faces include Mathai Mammen, the global head of R&D who joins the inner circle as executive vice president of pharmaceuticals, R&D. External innovation chief Bill Hait becomes executive vice president, chief external innovation, medical safety and global public health officer. Jim Swanson, until today simply the chief information officer, adds the EVP part to his title in moving onto the committee. And Vanessa Broadhurst, company group chairman, global commercial strategy organization, has been appointed EVP, global corporate affairs.
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Each year, we aim to highlight 20 extraordinary women who are leaving their mark on drug R&D — and this year’s group was no exception.
Our list, while by no means exhaustive, includes scientists, CEOs, researchers and professors who are supercharging the discovery and development of new therapies worldwide. Our team of writers spent time with each honoree (with a few exceptions), learning their stories and sketching profiles, which you’ll find in our special report.
For the second time, we brought the celebration to a live virtual audience, featuring an award presentation followed by a panel on what it takes to break the glass ceiling in biopharma with Kojin Therapeutics CEO Luba Greenwood, AskBio CEO Sheila Mikhail, and Silverback Therapeutics CEO Laura Shawver. Our panelists had a lively discussion on how the industry’s culture has changed, how to handle sexual harassment, the progress we’ve made and the challenges that still hold women back today.
We applaud each of our honorees for scaling the heights of biopharma R&D. You got to meet most of them via brief recordings we played during our live event. Below, you’ll find bonus videos offering a longer glimpse into those interviews. And if you didn’t get a chance to tune in to our main event live, you can replay the entire show.
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Members of the public disembark a train at King Cross Station in London, on the day that extra measures are put in place to fight the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Since Nov. 30, it’s been mandatory for people in England to wear face coverings in shops and on public transport. (Ben Cawthra/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images)
Like hundreds of other virologists and epidemiologists, Benjamin tenOever’s Thanksgiving weekend was interrupted with emails about an emergency Omicron meeting.
But when he logged onto a WHO conference call 9 a.m. Monday morning, officials had a surprisingly upbeat spin on the little-understood variant that had already prompted leaders around the world, fearful the strain could evade vaccines, to close their borders to broad swaths of Southern Africa.
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