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
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Abeona plans to offer an outcomes-based payment model for Zevaskyn, which likely will see complementary use with Krystal’s Vyjuvek in recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa patients.
The AstraZeneca CEO again calls for rich European countries to pay more for new drugs because "a model where the US funds innovation in our industry for the entire world doesn't work."
The AKT inhibitor proves ineffective for metastatic castration-resistant disease in a Phase III trial.
Funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health, big pharma’s US onshoring moves, GCC partnerships and talks with the Indian government to solve intellectual property challenges are discussed in an interview with Aragen’s CEO, who is also keenly watching the Trump administration’s moves on pharma tariffs
The AstraZeneca CEO again calls for rich European countries to pay more for new drugs because "a model where the US funds innovation in our industry for the entire world doesn't work."
The AKT inhibitor proves ineffective for metastatic castration-resistant disease in a Phase III trial.
First-quarter results season featured tariff talk but without any full-year quantitation. As tariffs and foreign exchange movements bump up against capped drug prices, profitability could suffer.
