Latest Posts

• Could Facebook’s Crypto Break Financial System? Congress Airs Fears

  In late 2017, a federal watchdog unit assigned a working group to keep an eye on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and to sound an alert if those alternate currencies showed signs of becoming a risk to the stability of the US... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey7/19/19

• Bio Roundup: Opioid Exposé, Gilead’s Gambit, Life Science IPOs & More

  The opioid crisis reaches all corners of the nation, and newly released data this week revealed how the growth of the epidemic tracked with a massive increase in the production and distribution of these drugs.

  From 2006 to 2012, the number... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan7/19/19

• Genmab, Mirum Pharma & Fulcrum Raise $653M in Wall Street Debuts

  Initial public offerings took a brief summer break the week of Independence Day, but healthcare IPO activity resumed this week as three more companies joined the US public markets. Here’s a recap of the biotech companies that priced IPOs Wednesday evening.... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan7/18/19

• Trefoil Therapeutics Raises $28M and Eyes the Clinic for Cornea Drug

  Trefoil Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for diseases that affect the cornea, the outermost layer of the eye, has raised $28 million to move its lead drug candidate into human testing.

  The company is developing an engineered form of fibroblast growth... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo7/16/19

• Bio Roundup: Michael Becker, Suzanne Eaton, Gene Therapy Moves & More

  The life science and healthcare worlds are vast. We often talk about impact in terms of millions of patients and billions of dollars. But these worlds can be small, too. It seems at times we’re never far removed from any one... Read more »

  Alex Lash7/12/19

• Trump Kills His Administration’s Plan to End Secret Drug Rebates

  Donald Trump’s criticism of high drug prices began during the 2016 presidential campaign and continued through his presidency, perhaps most famously just before his inauguration when he said that drug companies were “getting away with murder.”

  This week has... Read more »

  Alex Lash7/11/19

• Record Exit Value for VC-Backed Startups Could Fuel Investment

  More than a third of the companies that went public in the first half of this year were backed by venture capital.

  That, plus robust merger and acquisition activity, set a record for venture-backed exit value—$165.2 billion in money returned to... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo7/11/19

• How Do YOU Think the Internet Will Evolve? A Sampling of Your Tweets

  [Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.... Read more »

  Wade Roush7/9/19

• Future of the Internet: What Scares Networking Pioneer Radia Perlman

  [Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.... Read more »

  Wade Roush7/8/19

• Why Bob Metcalfe Is an Optimist About the Internet

  [Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.... Read more »

  Wade Roush7/8/19

• Bio Roundup: Duchenne Race, Warren v. Gottlieb, A $599 Genome & More

  As we pause to celebrate the 4th of July, another birthday is top of mind: A third baby whose embryonic DNA was edited by Chinese scientist He Jiankui. As Xconomy reported in November, He hinted about a second pregnancy after his... Read more »

  Ben Fidler7/5/19

• The Next Internet: Usability Guru Don Norman Calls for Starting Over

  [Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.... Read more »

  Wade Roush7/3/19

• Special Report 2069: Predicting the Internet’s Next 50 Years

  [Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.... Read more »

  Wade Roush7/2/19

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• Tracing the ARPANET Roots of the Internet’s Cybersecurity Crisis

  [Editor’s note: This is part of a series examining the internet’s first 50 years and predicting the next half century. Join Xconomy and World Frontiers Forum on July 16 for Net@50, an event exploring the internet’s past and future.... Read more »

  Brian Dowling7/2/19

• Peter Gabriel Joins Net@50 Lineup; Tix Going Fast for July 16 Event

  Legendary rock musician and longtime internet evangelist Peter Gabriel has joined the all-star cast of speakers for Net@50, a historic event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first net message—while also looking ahead to the internet’s next 50 years.

  The... Read more »

  Robert Buderi7/1/19

• As Cities Ban Face Recognition, Body-Cam Firm Axon Also Nixes It

  This week’s decision by police equipment manufacturer Axon to forego using facial recognition software in its body cameras follows a string of other actions against the use of face-matching technology by public agencies. They include a pioneering ban in San... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey6/28/19

• Bio Roundup: Merger Drama, FDA Trauma, Big IPOs, CRISPR Fights & More

  It was a busy week. If we had to choose a theme, it was all about getting together. Two huge drug companies, AbbVie and Allergan, said they’d be better as one. Two more huge drug companies, Celgene and Bristol-Myers Squibb, learned... Read more »

  Alex Lash6/28/19

• What’s Worth $34B? IBM Gets OK in Europe for Acquisition of Red Hat

  IBM’s acquisition of open-source software maker Red Hat cleared the hurdle of approval from European regulators Thursday because it raised no concerns about competition, according to the European Commission.

  The $34 billion deal, which the companies plan on closing in the... Read more »

  David Holley6/27/19

• Degreed Raises $75M to Expand in Growing Workforce Training Sector

  Degreed, which helps businesses upgrade the skills of their staffers through an online gateway to learning resources, announced Thursday it has raised $75 million to grow the service and expand internationally.

  San Francisco-based Degreed is among the educational technology companies... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey6/27/19

• Led by Tech, Healthcare Debuts, IPOs in 2019 Show Positive Returns

  Even as Uber, Lyft, and other high-profile initial public offerings underperformed out of the gate, the average share price of companies that have gone public in the US this year is up by almost 33 percent.

  That’s according to data based... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo6/25/19

• AbbVie to Pay $63B for Allergan to Prepare for Life Without Humira

  [Updated, 10:11 am ET, see below.] Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie this morning agreed to acquire Allergan in a $63 billion deal meant to provide the pharmaceutical giant with enough revenue to brace for the loss of patent protection for the... Read more »

  Ben Fidler6/25/19

• Review: Inside the House of Lies at Theranos

  Youth. Charm. Fearlessness. Ruthless focus. These can be positive attributes in an entrepreneur, but in a more rational world, technology investors wouldn’t overvalue them. Risk capital would be allocated based mostly on evidence, data, progress towards milestones—in short, on proof.

  In... Read more »

  Wade Roush6/24/19

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• Bio Roundup: Array Bio Acquired, IPO Spree, Sanofi’s Job Cuts & More

  [Corrected 6/24/19, 12:08 p.m. See below.] Cancer remains one of the hottest areas for pharma deals and this week saw a big one: Pfizer’s proposed $11.4 billion buyout of Array Biopharma.

  The announcement comes less than a month after... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan6/21/19

• Four More Through the IPO Door as Life Science Firms Raise $465M

  It’s been a strong year for biotech IPOs and Wednesday shaped up to be a particularly busy day as four life science firms debuted on the public markets.

  So far this year, 72 companies have gone public, according to IPO research... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan6/20/19

• Bio Roundup: Roche-Spark Drags On, GSK Taps CRISPR, Diabetes News & More

  Is one of the bigger biopharma acquisitions of the year in trouble?

  This past week, antitrust regulators once again delayed Roche’s planned $4.8 billion buyout of gene therapy developer Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ONCE). The US Federal Trade Commission wants yet... Read more »

  Ben Fidler6/14/19

• IPO Scorecard: CrowdStrike Gains 70 Percent on First Trading Day

  Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike delivered the kind of market debut this week that was an unfulfilled dream for the much-anticipated IPOs of Uber and Lyft earlier this year.

  Sunnyvale, CA-based CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) priced 18 million shares of common stock at... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey6/12/19

• With Yale Tech and $12M, Artizan Aims for Root Cause of Gut Disease

  A number of startups are targeting the gut microbiome as a way to potentially treat disease, but identifying specific microbes at the root of illness is a challenge. Although software that analyzes troves of biological data helps, the trillions of gut... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan6/10/19

• Bio Roundup: ASCO Wrap, Bluebird’s EU Tap, CRISPR Baby Risk & More

  Welcome to conference week. That’s not an official moniker, but is there any busier time on the biopharma calendar? As the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting wrapped up in Chicago, the annual BIO conference kicked off in Philadelphia, and a... Read more »

  Alex Lash6/7/19

• ASCO 2019: The Long Game, Targeted Pills, First-Ever Buzz & More

  The American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago has wrapped up for another year.

  Last week, we featured two stories that you wouldn’t find at the ASCO frenzy: Immunotherapy’s lack of progress in treating breast cancer, and one woman’s... Read more »

  Alex Lash6/5/19

• Bayer and Arvinas Join Forces in $115M Pharma & Ag Research Alliance

  Bayer is committing $115 million to Arvinas in a partnership focused on turning the biotech’s technology for getting rid of harmful proteins into new products for both human health and agriculture.

  According to the deal announced Tuesday, the German life sciences... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan6/4/19

• Study: Gene Edits in CRISPR Babies Could Boost Risk of Earlier Death

  The Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who revealed last fall that he used CRISPR gene editing to try to make twin newborn girls immune to HIV infection, might have also given them a higher risk of death. That’s according to a new... Read more »

  Alex Lash6/3/19

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