Category Archives: External R&D

“May you live in interesting times” – or so goes the phrase. In 1966, RFK Jr’s father famously used that quote to capture the turbulence of the times, and continued: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They

Today IFM Therapeutics announced the acquisition of IFM Due, one of its subsidiaries, by Novartis. Back in Sept 2019, IFM granted Novartis the right to acquire IFM Due as part of an “option to buy” collaboration around cGAS-STING antagonists for

2023 couldn’t end fast enough for most of us in biopharma; its been a tough year in the capital markets, and the industry is facing it’s fair share of headwinds. Fortunately, despite all that, great science and medicine continues to

M&A is an omnipresent reality in the biopharma industry, from Big Pharma mega-mergers to smaller acquisitions of emerging startups. We’ve recently witnessed several large M&A transactions get closed or announced, including BMS-Celgene, Takeda-Shire, and AbbVie-Allergan; according to BMO Capital Markets

This blog was written by Aoife Brennan, CEO of Synlogic Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. New therapeutic platforms, like those based on cell and gene therapy, provide potential to address diseases in new ways

Today Nimbus and Celgene announced a significant partnership focused on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The alliance includes two pre-clinical autoimmune-focused programs in various stages of drug discovery. The most advanced program is a highly selective inhibitor of Tyk2, an immunokinase

Today BMS announced the acquisition of IFM Therapeutics, an emerging biotech focused on modulating core innate immune pathways to treat cancer and autoimmune disease. As described in the press release, BMS will acquire the company for $300M upfront, with potentially

Today Allergan announced a transformative deal with Lysosomal Therapeutics (LTI), an emerging biotech focused on Parkinson’s Disease through an understanding of human genetics and sphingolipid biology (here). This deal brings a new chapter for LTI as we move our lead

Pharma R&D productivity continues to be a critical issue for the industry. Making smart investments in R&D requires an understanding of the risk and return drivers across the product development cycle, as well as some good fortune. This week the

The maelstrom around drug pricing has continued its fury over the past month, which has led to considerable volatility in the biopharma stock market. Investor fears of draconian price controls that will eliminate the return of investment from innovative pharmaceutical

We’re excited to announce two new collaborations today from our neuroscience portfolio – Quartet with Merck (here) and Rodin with Biogen (here) – to advance their programs into early clinical development.  These are both young companies that we helped create

As 2015 comes to a conclusion, it’s a good time reflect on the year’s progress – celebrating the wins, thinking through the losses, and learning from both. One specific reflection of late regards this blog: I’ve looked back at the

Over the past seven years, Celgene has emerged as one of the most active and creative deal-makers in the biopharma industry. The Boston Consulting Group’s Biopharma Partnering Survey and Benchmarking analysis examines BD activity and perceptions across the industry, and

The exciting renaissance in cell and gene therapy over the past five years has yielded some of the most innovative medical advances in the industry’s pipeline today.  There are now multiple stories of patients getting “cured” of rare diseases, responding

External models of R&D innovation are the rage in Pharma today, as they should be – the future of our industry depends on a great deal more rather than less collaboration. In a very healthy way, lots of experiments are