Life Science Today 046 – Vertex, CRISPR, Versant, GSK, Syneos + Medable, Velocity
Originally Published as The Niche Podcast
Introduction
Welcome to The Niche Podcast – Your weekly rundown of the biotech, clinical research, and life science industries. I’m your host, Dr. Noah Goodson. This week, billion-dollar amendments, billion-dollar funds, GSK gets oncology nod from FDA, and two stories in clinical research.
Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics make Billion-dollar Amendment
CRISPR Therapeutics was co-founded in the early days of CRISPR back in 2013, by Emmanuelle Charpentier, the Nobel Prize winning co-discoverer of CRISPR/Cas9. CRISPR Therapeutics has gone on through a series of successes to become a clini cal and pre-clinical stage biotech company. Their lead candidate CTX001 is an ex vivo gene therapy in development for beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease. Vertex has been their key partner in this pipeline. This week, their partnership has shifted. This latest amendment moves from the 50/50 partners to 60/40 partners. Vertex will pay $900M upfront along with $200M in milestones. The shift sees Vertex become the lead on later stage trials and role-out.
Vertex is on the rise with massive increases in revenue and profits last year they are much better positioned to move CTX001 to market. CRISPR Therapeutics can the roll billion dollars back into their pipeline and focus on their technology development and their key skillsets.
The Billions Don’t Stop
Versant Ventures has raised just shy of a billion dollars for investment into 20 new biotechnology companies. The fund has been up and running for some time, with major growth across the last 4 years and a self-reported $3.2B under management. Their most recent public increases including $400M in 2017, and $700M and $100M in separate raises through 2018. This latest $950M raise focuses on three specific vehicles. $560M will go to ~20 early-stage biotechnology companies. $140M for series A or later, and then $250M are earmarked for series Bs. Their current list of companies includes numerous startups that passed through sales or acquisitions pipelines. Of note in light of today’s show, Versant was the sole $25M investor in CRISPR Therapeutics series A. Small picture; Versant Ventures continues solid progress. Big picture; still a lot of money flowing into Biotech.
Sponsor
Developing a new product in the biopharma space is incredibly challenging. There are design barriers, capital to raise, and regulatory hurdles. The Scope Method provides consultative solutions to navigate industry specific challenges. We’ve helped companies pivot into new therapeutic spaces, change trajectory through clinical insights, and empowered CEOs with tools that turns their data into stories that raise capital. The Scope Method will help you develop data driven strategic processes. Find out more at thescopemethod.com.
Jemperli Receives FDA Approval
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has received FDA approval to treat recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer with Jemperli. The infusion contains a monoclonal antibody that works as a PD-1 inhibitor. This is unlikely to be a mega-block-buster in a market full of PD-1 inhibitors. However, it does show that the FDA is ready to seriously consider analogous treatment approaches that have a unique outputs for specific diseases. Since cancers often have tissue specific mechanisms of action this kind of personalized medicine approval may continue to advance therapies to the market that are similar but applied to unique disease states.
Two Stories in the Clinical Research Space
Story 1: Medable, the decentralized clinical trials platform, has been on a role raising millions in capital, including $78M just this month. Now they’ve signed a major deal with Syneos as a decentralized clinical trials solution. The partnership seems on the surface to be all-encompassing for everything from eConsent to eCOA. But I’m not sure what this means for the competition since Syneos also launched a deal with Science 37 to do seemingly similar st uff just over a month ago. Is Syneos just trying to offer folks a choice pitting venders against each other? I don’t have the inside information to tell you. But Syneos certainly seems willing to play the decentralized field.
Story 2: One of the key components in clinical trial execution is partnerships with sites. Yes, I am always going on about how decentralized clinical trials are on the rise. But that doesn’t mean owned sites are going away any time soon. However, they are evolving. This evolution means that who owns these sites may also be shifting. Two weeks ago, NaviMed, a private equity firm focused on Healthcare, announced the acquisition of Velocity Clinical Research from GHO Capital. Velocity Clinical Research owns 16 research sites and has been involved in more than 5000 clinical trials. The value of this deal is not disclosed, nor is the long-term vision for NaviMed to grow VCR. Maybe this deal is just portfolio shifts. But, we’ll definitely keep our ear to the ground across the next couple of years to see how the role of these owned site networks evolves in the clinical research space.
Quick Announcements
Two quick announcements: First is that next week’s episode might be a bit late. I’ve got back-to-back engagements and won’t be able to record till Monday (May 3rd)) at the earliest. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to pre-record the news.
Second, we’ve got an amazing interview with Dr. Amir Kalali, the founder of CNS Summit and DTRA. If you listen to this podcast, than you 100% want to hear about the work he is doing. That should drop into the feed at the back end of the first week of May. Stay tuned!
Closing Credits
Thanks for joining me on The Niche Podcast; your weekly summary of top news in the biotech, clinical trials, and life science industries. You can learn more at thenichepod.com or find us on your favorite podcast app. Like, comment, subscribe, and most of all share with your friends. If you like what you hear, please rate and review, it really helps us. Once again, I’m Dr. Noah Goodson, I’ll see you next week.
Sponsors
https://www.thescopemethod.com
Story References
https://tinyurl.com/Niche-046-1
https://tinyurl.com/Niche-046-2
https://tinyurl.com/Niche-046-3
https://tinyurl.com/Niche-046-4
https://tinyurl.com/Niche-046-5
Music by Luke Goodson
https://www.soundcloud.com/lukegoodson