In recent years, most venture capital firms have focused on investing in companies with well-developed product pipelines. In this issue of START-UP, we profile two trendsetters: Fred Cohen, managing director at Texas Pacific Group Ventures; and Christoph Westphal, formerly a partner at Polaris Ventures and now vice chairman and CEO of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. Both men are physician scientists turned investors, who have tapped into their scientific and clinical knowledge to make investments in "high concept" discovery stage companies. And although the investments are intriguing, it's too early to say whether or not the strategies adopted by these two men will yield returns for their backers.
By Ellen Foster Licking and Christopher Morrison
Fred Cohen, MD, DPhil, and Christoph Westphal, MD, PhD, despite not having the track record of some of their more...
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Highlights from day one of the BIO convention include advice for firms hoping to go public, a call for companies to push the US Congress on rare disease priority review vouchers, and updates on next-generation gene therapies.
With two deaths in non-ambulatory DMD patients, Sarepta is attempting damage control and will ask the US FDA to advise, setting up a possible confrontation with CBER director Prasad.
Supernus agreed to pay $561m upfront plus a contingent value right that could add $234m to buy Sage, topping a previously rejected offer from Biogen.
First results for a first-in-class mutCALR-targeted therapy in essential thrombocythemia presented at EHA point to a lucrative future for the early-stage product.
In this week's episode: breaking down big pharma’s executive pay; US vaccine panel upheaval; Merck’s RSV approval; MFN and Japan; and the future of Pfizer and Arvinas’s partnership.
UroGen’s Zusduri was approved despite an advisory committee vote recommending against it in May. It is the first approved drug for a type of recurring bladder cancer.
Private Company Edition: Antares’ lead asset will enter the clinic in 2026 after Lilly committed up to $2.5bn for Scorpion’s Phase I/II PI3Kα inhibitor STX-478. Also, Amplify raised $200m for its first biotech VC fund and Mosanna raised an $80m series A round, among other financings.
