16 Jan

Five Prime’s Shakeup Cuts Staff 20%, Keeps Focus on Clinical Programs

Five Prime Therapeutics is cutting its headcount by 20 percent, part of a cash-saving effort the company is making to focus on the cancer drugs it has already advanced into clinical trials.

South San Francisco, CA-based Five Prime (NASDAQ: FPRX) said Tuesday that the corporate restructuring will reduce operating expenses by $10 million in 2019 to support on clinical-stage programs expected to report key data later this year.

“This was a hard decision to make, but we believe that effective use of capital is crucial to supporting our strong pipeline of anti-cancer drug candidates,” CEO Aron Knickerbocker said in a… Read more »

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16 Jan

It Starts with One-Partnering Meeting Leads to Unique Public-Private Partnership

Roy Zwahlen took a long shot when he requested a meeting with an investment firm at the 2017 BIO International Convention in San Diego. As Assistant Dean for Innovation and Strategy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, Zwahlen was in search of a partnership that could help bring the University’s science to the marketplace. He was aware of the firm’s  interest in unique partnerships with leading academic research institutions and discovered, to his delight, the firm  was participating in BIO One-on-One Partnering™.

BIO One-on-One Partnering facilitates upwards of 45,000 one-on-one meetings among 7,000 partnering delegates during the four days of the Convention. It has an intuitive interface that allows participants to search company and investor profiles to identify the right prospects and begin a direct dialogue with potential partners. The impressive database includes biopharma and medical technology companies, in-licensors, investors, and others across the life sciences. The program will automatically add scheduled meetings to Outlook calendars and retains meeting histories across multiple conferences.

So Zwahlen took his shot. “I didn’t actually think it would be a good place to connect with them. I presumed the VCs get a lot of requests at these meetings and have limited capacity to field meeting requests.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that they were available and interested in meeting.

Zwahlen was strategic in his use of the partnering system. He sent his meeting requests early on (participants can sign up as early as February!) and he made sure his pitch to the firm aligned with what they were interested in.“UNC was looking for unique public-private partnership models that could both increase our chances of taking research from the bench to the bedside and accelerate the process. When we learned that the investment firm was exploring unique partnerships with leading research institutions and that they were in the BIO partnering system, we hoped BIO would be the perfect place to begin discussions about a potential partnership and we were pleasantly surprised.”

The rest, as they say, is history. In October of last year, UNC-Chapel Hill and the investment firm announced a $65 million commitment promising new drug research at UNC-Chapel Hill across a wide range of therapeutic areas through the creation of a company called Pinnacle Hill. Profits from successful projects will be shared by the firm  and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Preparation, planning and research were the keys to Zwahlen’s success. Getting started early allowed him to evaluate the partnering database and meet those with mutual interests. BIO provides guidance for using the partnering system with webinars like this every year and a team is available to answer questions anytime.

As Zwahlen noted, “The Convention was really the critical starting point for the relationship. The process took several phone calls, several onsite visits by the investment firm to evaluate our science, a process of learning how the other partner works and how best to streamline our efforts…”

UNC-Chapel Hill  can attest to the BIO 2019 theme-It Starts with One. A promising partnership “started with one” meeting and blossomed into a solid collaboration.

16 Jan

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR ACTION GRANTS UNDER 2018 RIGHTS, EQUALITY AND CITIZENSHIP WORK PROGRAMME

[Source: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ageing/innovation/index_en.htm] Identifier: REC-AG-2018Pillar: REC Programme 2014-2020Opening Date: Deadline: Thu, 11 Oct 2018 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)Modification Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2019Latest information: A call update flash info document has been added under Topic conditions and documents -Additional documents.

15 Jan

Anonymous Twitter Guy Turns Out To Be Better Reporter Than Jim Acosta

This is bad, you guys, and you might have missed it. An anonymous Twitter user spent his Friday night absolutely dismembering the border diary of …

15 Jan

Roche Veteran Khwaja Named Voyager Therapeutics Chief Medical Officer

Omar Khwaja has been appointed chief medical officer of Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VYGR). Khwaja comes to the Cambridge, MA-based gene therapy developer from Roche, where he was most recently global head of neuroscience translational medicine and global head of rare diseases. Voyager’s lead drug, VY-AADC, is in mid-stage studies testing it in advanced Parkinson’s disease.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

          

          

            

15 Jan

It Starts with One-Partnering Meeting Leads to Unique Public-Private Partnership

Roy Zwahlen took a long shot when he requested a meeting with an investment firm at the 2017 BIO International Convention in San Diego. As Assistant Dean for Innovation and Strategy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, Zwahlen was in search of a partnership that could help bring the University’s science to the marketplace. He was aware of the firm’s  interest in unique partnerships with leading academic research institutions and discovered, to his delight, the firm  was participating in BIO One-on-One Partnering™.

BIO One-on-One Partnering facilitates upwards of 45,000 one-on-one meetings among 7,000 partnering delegates during the four days of the Convention. It has an intuitive interface that allows participants to search company and investor profiles to identify the right prospects and begin a direct dialogue with potential partners. The impressive database includes biopharma and medical technology companies, in-licensors, investors, and others across the life sciences. The program will automatically add scheduled meetings to Outlook calendars and retains meeting histories across multiple conferences.

So Zwahlen took his shot. “I didn’t actually think it would be a good place to connect with them. I presumed the VCs get a lot of requests at these meetings and have limited capacity to field meeting requests.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that they were available and interested in meeting.

Zwahlen was strategic in his use of the partnering system. He sent his meeting requests early on (participants can sign up as early as February!) and he made sure his pitch to the firm aligned with what they were interested in.“UNC was looking for unique public-private partnership models that could both increase our chances of taking research from the bench to the bedside and accelerate the process. When we learned that the investment firm was exploring unique partnerships with leading research institutions and that they were in the BIO partnering system, we hoped BIO would be the perfect place to begin discussions about a potential partnership and we were pleasantly surprised.”

The rest, as they say, is history. In October of last year, UNC-Chapel Hill and the investment firm announced a $65 million commitment promising new drug research at UNC-Chapel Hill across a wide range of therapeutic areas through the creation of a company called Pinnacle Hill. Profits from successful projects will be shared by the firm  and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Preparation, planning and research were the keys to Zwahlen’s success. Getting started early allowed him to evaluate the partnering database and meet those with mutual interests. BIO provides guidance for using the partnering system with webinars like this every year and a team is available to answer questions anytime.

As Zwahlen noted, “The Convention was really the critical starting point for the relationship. The process took several phone calls, several onsite visits by the investment firm to evaluate our science, a process of learning how the other partner works and how best to streamline our efforts…”

UNC-Chapel Hill  can attest to the BIO 2019 theme-It Starts with One. A promising partnership “started with one” meeting and blossomed into a solid collaboration.

15 Jan

Call for proposals for action grants 2019

[Source: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ageing/innovation/index_en.htm] Identifier: JUST-AG-2019Pillar: Justice programme 2014-2020Planned Opening Date: Deadline: Wed, 15 May 2019 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)Modification Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2019Latest information: The submission session is now available for: JUST-JCOO-AG-2019(JUST-AG)

15 Jan

San Diego Life Science Companies See Stock Bumps, Slips in JPM Wake

The massive life sciences meeting now known as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference started out as a clubby get-together hosted by investment bank Hambrecht & Quist.

Back in the days of H&Q, bankers and entrepreneurs flocked to San Francisco to get information about biotech companies that was otherwise hard to come by. Investors, thrilled-or spooked-by the details proffered by company representatives, would rush to a trading desk set up in the Westin St. Francis Hotel, says long-time conference attendee Joe Panetta, president and CEO of California’s Biocom, who returned this year for the 37th annual. (Read Xconomy’s annual reporter’s notebook-style JPM Read more »

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

          

          

            

15 Jan

It Starts with One-Partnering Meeting Leads to Unique Public-Private Partnership

Roy Zwahlen took a long shot when he requested a meeting with an investment firm at the 2017 BIO International Convention in San Diego. As Assistant Dean for Innovation and Strategy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, Zwahlen was in search of a partnership that could help bring the University’s science to the marketplace. He was aware of the firm’s  interest in unique partnerships with leading academic research institutions and discovered, to his delight, the firm  was participating in BIO One-on-One Partnering™.

BIO One-on-One Partnering facilitates upwards of 45,000 one-on-one meetings among 7,000 partnering delegates during the four days of the Convention. It has an intuitive interface that allows participants to search company and investor profiles to identify the right prospects and begin a direct dialogue with potential partners. The impressive database includes biopharma and medical technology companies, in-licensors, investors, and others across the life sciences. The program will automatically add scheduled meetings to Outlook calendars and retains meeting histories across multiple conferences.

So Zwahlen took his shot. “I didn’t actually think it would be a good place to connect with them. I presumed the VCs get a lot of requests at these meetings and have limited capacity to field meeting requests.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that they were available and interested in meeting.

Zwahlen was strategic in his use of the partnering system. He sent his meeting requests early on (participants can sign up as early as February!) and he made sure his pitch to the firm aligned with what they were interested in.“UNC was looking for unique public-private partnership models that could both increase our chances of taking research from the bench to the bedside and accelerate the process. When we learned that the investment firm was exploring unique partnerships with leading research institutions and that they were in the BIO partnering system, we hoped BIO would be the perfect place to begin discussions about a potential partnership and we were pleasantly surprised.”

The rest, as they say, is history. In October of last year, UNC-Chapel Hill and the investment firm announced a $65 million commitment promising new drug research at UNC-Chapel Hill across a wide range of therapeutic areas through the creation of a company called Pinnacle Hill. Profits from successful projects will be shared by the firm  and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Preparation, planning and research were the keys to Zwahlen’s success. Getting started early allowed him to evaluate the partnering database and meet those with mutual interests. BIO provides guidance for using the partnering system with webinars like this every year and a team is available to answer questions anytime.

As Zwahlen noted, “The Convention was really the critical starting point for the relationship. The process took several phone calls, several onsite visits by the investment firm to evaluate our science, a process of learning how the other partner works and how best to streamline our efforts…”

UNC-Chapel Hill  can attest to the BIO 2019 theme-It Starts with One. A promising partnership “started with one” meeting and blossomed into a solid collaboration.

14 Jan

San Diego Life Science Companies See Stock Bumps, Slips in JPM Wake

The massive life sciences meeting now known as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference started out as a clubby get-together hosted by investment bank Hambrecht & Quist.

Back in the days of H&Q, bankers and entrepreneurs flocked to San Francisco to get information about biotech companies that was otherwise hard to come by. Investors, thrilled-or spooked-by the details proffered by company representatives, would rush to a trading desk set up in the Westin St. Francis Hotel, says long-time conference attendee Joe Panetta, president and CEO of California’s Biocom, who returned this year for the 37th annual. (Read Xconomy’s annual reporter’s notebook-style JPM Read more »

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS