Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (Photo by Vachira Vachira/NurPhoto via AP)
Homegrown mRNA Thai vaccine for Covid-19 could be ready by year end — report
Josh Sullivan
Associate Editor
The Thai Food and Drug Administration will soon review trial results from its country’s first locally-developed Covid-19 vaccine, which uses the same mRNA technology that successful vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have also employed. If all goes well, Thailand will roll out its first homegrown vaccine by the end of this year, its government has said.
The first lot of the vaccine was produced by BioNet-Asia, and developed by Chulalongkorn University researchers, the Bangkok Post reported. The jab, dubbed ChulaCov19, has yet to begin clinical trials in humans but expects to later this year, the Chula Vaccine Research Center said. The center worked in collaboration with UPenn Professor Drew Weissman, who also worked on the mRNA vaccine tech that Pfizer/BioNTech deployed.
The vaccine’s production was spurred by a 2.31 billion baht ($67 million) investment from the government last year.
BioNet-Asia can make 20 million doses a year. More than a dozen vaccines are being developed, according to Bloomberg, in an effort to cut back reliance on foreign supply. Chulalongkorn’s is the most advanced. Thailand is also home to AstraZeneca’s only manufacturing site in southeast Asia.
Rachada Dhnadirek
Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek told the Bangkok Post that Thailand’s goal of producing its own vaccine aligns with its 10-year strategic plan to become a medical hub by 2026.
“The goal was set before the Covid-19 pandemic began, and by becoming a vaccine production center, more Thai people will have access to the vaccine,” she told the outlet.
Last July, AstraZeneca ran into vaccine distribution issues in Thailand and was forced to ask the government for a five-month extension of the timeline to deliver 61 million doses, bringing its deadline all the way to this May. The hiccup led Thailand to reportedly consider imposing export bans on locally produced doses of the jab, as waves of the virus hit its population hard.
Two weeks ago, the Quad Vaccine Partnership handed over a consignment of Covdi-19 vaccines from India to the government of Thailand. More than 200,000 made-in-India doses of Covovax were given to the Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul on April 21 in Bangkok.
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May 9, 2022 06:00 AM EDT
Biotech investors: how to find value in a bear market
Chris McCarthy
Healthcare Desk Sector Strategist, RBC Capital Markets
How are top investors navigating the longest biotech bear market in almost 20 years? RBC Capital Markets Healthcare Desk Sector Strategist Chris McCarthy discusses key fundamentals, macro-awareness and the continued impact of COVID with HealthCor’s Ben Snedeker and Omega Funds founder Otello Stampacchia.
Picking biotech winners
Biotech indexes may be down, but both Snedeker and Otello Stampacchia, Ph.D., Founder and Managing Director of Omega Funds, see opportunities in the market. In Snedeker’s opinion, investors need to seek out companies with the potential for meaningful revenue growth, particularly those that are mispriced in the current bear market.
Vijay Pande (L) and Jorge Conde
May 9, 2022 09:47 AM EDTUpdated 4 hours ago
Is this Silicon Valley duo the future of biotech?
SAN FRANCISCO — Seven years ago, Silicon Valley’s brashest venture capitalist invited a soft-spoken Stanford biophysicist out for pancakes not far from here, planning to make a request he publicly swore he’d never make.
By that point, Marc Andreessen had already completed his rise from tech prince — Time magazine literally put him on the cover on a throne in 1996 — to tech kingmaker. The baby-faced founder of Netscape, briefly the world’s dominant web browser, re-emerged in 2009 as head of Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z for short, that quickly became one of the industry’s most sought-after VC firms.
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Damien McDevitt, Aspen Neuroscience CEO
May 9, 2022 09:00 AM EDTUpdated 10:29 AM
Exclusive: Aspen Neuroscience collects large Series B to compete against Bayer’s Parkinson’s cell therapy
Kyle LaHucik
Associate Editor
Damien McDevitt thinks frequently about the name Aspen Neuroscience. Specifically, should the neuroscience portion be dropped as the San Diego biotech considers expanding beyond the CNS?
McDevitt, the 21-year GlaxoSmithKline veteran and former Akcea Therapeutics CEO who took over the helm of Aspen in January 2021, now has even more deep-pocketed investors to help him and his 60-plus employee team consider their voyage beyond Parkinson’s thanks to a $147.5 million Series B.
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CEO Clay Siegall (L) and CMO Roger Dansey, Seagen
May 9, 2022 07:05 AM EDTUpdated 07:20 AM
In wake of domestic violence allegation, longtime Seagen CEO Clay Siegall goes on leave
Clay Siegall, the co-founder and longtime CEO of Seagen, is on a leave of absence following an alleged incident of domestic violence, the company revealed Monday morning.
While Siegall — who informed the company that he’s in the middle of a divorce — denied those allegations, the Seagen board of directors formed a committee to conduct an investigation, with the help of a law firm.
In the meantime, Roger Dansey, CMO since 2018, will step in as interim CEO to lead the company as it navigates the expansion of its commercial antibody-drug conjugates while plotting the clinical advancements of experimental ones.
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Michael Kloss, eureKING CEO
May 9, 2022 10:16 AM EDTUpdated 10:39 AM
Ex-Sanofi CEO on board, a new $158M SPAC debuts looking to shake up the European CDMO market
Josh Sullivan
Associate Editor
What do you get when some of the most powerful CDMOs in the world join forces? The first SPAC dedicated to meeting the critical demand for biomanufacturing on the continent.
eureKING will be a publicly listed shell company. It is backed by eureKARE, the investment company focused on developing synthetic biology and microbiome innovation across Europe.
The company has plans to raise 150 million euros, Reuters reported. It will list on the Euronext Paris, and has identified 40 manufacturing targets. Michael Kloss, formerly of PHC Holdings, told Reuters that it plans to swallow three CDMOs that each make roughly 50 million euros a year over the next few years.
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Trying to avoid a CRL? New FDA draft guidance talks benefit-risks on quality assessments
Zachary Brennan
Senior Editor
As manufacturing-related issues continue to plague the biopharma industry and lead to dozens or more FDA rejections, or CRLs, each year, the agency on Monday released new draft guidance spelling out how it assesses quality risks, sources of uncertainty, and possible mitigation strategies.
The FDA’s product quality assessment, according to the 12-page draft, determines whether an applicant’s product development studies, manufacturing process, and control strategy will consistently result in a finished drug or biologic of acceptable quality when manufactured at the facilities named in the application.
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Illumina forced to pay almost $334M as it loses DNA sequencing patent case
Tyler Patchen
News Reporter
A federal jury in Delaware on Friday ordered Illumina to pay Complete Genomics Inc., a subsidiary of the BGI Group, the world’s largest maker of commercial genetic sequencers, almost $334 million, finding Illumina infringed on two DNA sequencing patents.
The case, began in 2019 when CGI sued the San Diego-based biotech over the patents, alleging that Illumina’s “two-channel” sequencing system and its kits that prepare DNA fragments for sequencing violated CGI’s patent rights.
Timo Lappalainen, Orion CEO
Sweeping reorg at Orion — centered around cancer and pain — claims 30 staffers
More than a month after Orion signaled that it’s going to bring out the budget axe in search of a major shift, the Bayer partner has settled on a plan — and finalized how deep the cuts are going to be.
The Finnish biotech has decided to focus on cancer and pain moving forward while moving out of neurodegenerative and rare diseases. In addition, it’s dropping the development of a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment.
Clay Siegall, Seagen CEO (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation)
May 9, 2022 03:17 PM EDTUpdated 03:35 PM
Seagen CEO Clay Siegall was placed on leave after an April 23 arrest for domestic violence gross misdemeanor
Kyle LaHucik
Associate Editor
Clay Siegall was placed on leave from his posts as CEO and chairman of prominent Seattle-area biotech Seagen after an arrest by the Edmonds Police Department on April 23.
At 3:41 a.m. local time on April 23, police were dispatched to Siegall’s home, where he was arrested on charge of 4th degree assault domestic violence gross misdemeanor, the police department’s public information officer confirmed to Endpoints News. Siegall had a court appearance the next day, the officer said, noting the investigation is now in the court’s hands.