[Source: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ageing/innovation/index_en.htm] Identifier: H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020Pillar: Societal ChallengesPlanned Opening Date: Deadline: Tue, 3 Sep 2019 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)Modification Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2018Latest information: The submission session is now available for: LC-SC3-CC-3-2019(CSA), LC-SC3-JA-3-2019(PCP), LC-SC3-ES-9-2019(ERA-NET-Cofund), LC-SC3-JA-2-2018-2019(CSA)
Expansion Therapeutics has hired Elliot Ehrich as its chief medical officer.
Ehrich was most recently CMO and executive vice president of research and development at Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS). He is also a venture partner at 5am Ventures, which incubated Expansion and co-led its $55.3 million Series A financing with Kleiner Perkins, Novartis Venture Fund, and Sanofi Ventures.
Expansion, based in San Diego, CA, and in Jupiter, FL, is developing small molecule drugs to target a group of genetic diseases caused by dysfunctional RNAs.
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
[Source: Research & Innovation] We know that the world needs a climate friendly energy system that can provide power for more people than we are now, and create less emission than today. This changes need to happen so fast that it historically will be equal to a revolution.
However, we must find out what the different alternatives for energy mixes will be, and how we will get there. This conference will represent the possibility to assess the current state of implementation and debate about the best possible future steps towards an integrated climate friendly energy system.
In particular, we expect to focus on two relevant aspects. The integrated energy system we might see in the future, and how consumers can be included in this system
[Updated 11/12/18, 10:31 am, with deal terms.] Athenahealth has reached an agreement to be bought for approximately $5.7 billion in cash by private equity firms Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital, an affiliate of activist hedge fund Elliott Management.
The acquisition was announced Monday morning. Reuters first reported the deal Sunday and said an official announcement was imminent. The agreement values the Watertown, MA-based healthcare IT company’s shares (NASDAQ: ATHN) at $135 apiece. Athenahealth’s shares ended Friday trading at $120.35. They were up more than 9 percent Monday morning, trading around $131.70 after news of the sale broke…. Read more »
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
Two months ago, the medical community was all abuzz over a big clinical study that showed a prescription fish-oil supplement could reduce the risk of heart disease. Today, a fuller look at the data presents a more nuanced picture.
Doctors working on the REDUCE-IT trial, which enrolled more than 8,000 people, published the full set of data today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented it at the American Heart Association conference in Chicago. The big takeaway, which caused cardiologists to do a double-take in September, remains unchanged. The prescription-grade pill, branded Vascepa, reduced the risk of… Read more »
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
A 10-person team of researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has been awarded an eight-year, $19.2 million grant to investigate mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease and aging-related cognitive decline and uncover new therapies.
The grant, announced Friday by the research institute in San Diego’s La Jolla community, is part of a $43 million initiative by the American Heart Association and the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group to fund brain health research. The AHA-Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment, which also involves contributions from other, unnamed funders, was announced in May.
No therapies exist to effectively treat Alzheimer’s… Read more »
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
One of the biggest gambles in biotech history is about to be tested on Wall Street.
Moderna, the high-flying yet secretive developer of messenger RNA therapeutics, filed papers on Friday afternoon outlining its long-awaited IPO. In its prospectus, Moderna set an initial target of $500 million for the offering, which would make it the largest biotech IPO in history. That figure is subject to change as the company gets closer to its debut.
Moderna will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “MRNA,” should it complete the offering.
Moderna’s IPO has been anticipated for years. Formed in 2010 by Flagship Pioneering,… Read more »
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[Source: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ageing/innovation/index_en.htm] Identifier: ERC-2019-SyGPillar: Excellent ScienceOpening Date: Deadline: Thu, 8 Nov 2018 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)Modification Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2018Latest information:
The ERC-2019-SyG was closed on 8 November 2018.
A total of 288 proposals were submitted in response of the ERC 2019 Synergy Grant Call (ERC-2019-SyG).
The next call (ERC-2020-SyG) is planned to be published and be opened for submission on the the Funding & Tenders Portalduring summer 2019.
The biotech industry recently realized its 300th IPO since the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was enacted in 2012. This marks an important milestone for our young and quickly growing industry, culminating in $25 billion raised by promising companies developing potentially life-saving medical advances. Over 18 percent of these companies have a lead drug candidate that targets a rare disease, and companies developing novel therapeutics to address cancer, neurology disorders, and infectious diseases make up almost half (46 percent) of these newly public companies. In that sense, the JOBS Act did more than spearhead capital formation for innovative startups-it channeled historic investment volumes into some of the most promising companies developing treatments for some of the most daunting health challenges of our time.
In just six years, the JOBS Act has left a significant imprint on the biotechnology industry by significantly accelerating the pace of biotech IPOs, which is up 270 percent since the same period before its enactment. For emerging growth companies (EGCs), the JOBS Act strikes an important balance between easing the ability of early-stage biotechs to access public capital markets while keeping important investor protections in place.
And I’m happy to say that 2018 so far has been a banner year for EGCs, with 53 companies going public year-to-date – the second-best year for issuances since the law’s passage.
While the JOBS Act has helped pave the path for an unprecedented number of innovative biotechnology companies to go public, additional reforms are necessary to allow these companies to stay public.
One of the most important provisions of the JOBS Act is a temporary five-year exemption for qualifying companies from Sarbanes-Oxley section 404(b) requirements for an auditor attestation of a company’s internal controls over financial reporting. As helpful as the five-year exemption is, the fact remains that the biotech development timeline is a decades-long affair. Many of the biotech companies that have gone public as EGCs under the JOBS Act remain in the lab and clinic when their five-year exemption expires, and they are forced to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars away from research and development toward superfluous financial disclosures that do not benefit their investors. In just two short months, at the dawn of 2019, over 80 emerging biotech companies will lose their EGC status and be forced to siphon off funds from clinical trials and research and development towards an additional audit that often doubles their financial reporting costs without improving investor confidence in their companies.
BIO calls on the Senate to build on this success by passing the bipartisan Fostering Innovation Act (S. 2126/488), which would extend important regulatory relief to JOBS Act companies that maintain a public float below $700 million and average annual revenues below $50 million. Extending this regulatory relief provision would allow growing companies to focus their capital on groundbreaking R&D, rather than one-size-fits-all disclosure requirements.
The road to 300 wasn’t easy, but America’s small business innovators have fought tirelessly to bring medical breakthroughs like gene therapy, immunotherapy and RNAi therapy to the market. By continuing to adopt sensible capital markets reforms like the Fostering Innovation Act, Congress can support the innovation economy, helping patients to benefit from America’s unparalleled biopharmaceutical research ecosystem.
