Citing “family health reasons,” Johnson & Johnson’s Alex Gorsky will hand the CEO role over to Joaquin Duato, current vice-chair of the company’s executive committee, at the start of the new year. Gorsky oversaw a near-decade of significant growth at the medtech and pharma giant. His tenure ultimately will be capped off by Johnson &…
Mission Bio completes $70M Series C for its tech to enable better cancer treatments
Mission Bio has secured $70 million in Series C financing to scale its single-cell multi-omics technology, according to the company. Novo Growth, the growth equity of Novo Holdings, led the round that included new investor Soleus Capital. Previous investors Mayfield, Cota, and Agilent also participated in the financing, which brings the company’s total funding to…
Mammoth deal with GSK could lead to home COVID-19 test
CRISPR startup Mammoth Biosciences will partner with GlaxoSmithKline’s (NYSE:GSK) consumer healthcare division to develop a home-based diagnostic capable of detecting active SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The collaboration will use Mammoth Biosciences’ CRISPR-based Detectr platform to design “guide-RNA” that can identify and signal the presence of viral strands obtained through a simple nasal swab, according to Mammoth…
Fountain secures $6m to fund anti-aging research
Fountain Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company building a pipeline of therapeutics to treat age-related diseases by reversing cellular age, closed on an additional $6 million in a Series A, bringing its total to $11 million. Khosla Ventures led the round that drew capital from Nan Fung Life Sciences, the provider of initial $5 million in 2018.…
Mammoth preparing to seek EUA for CRISPR COVID-19 test
CRISPR-startup Mammoth Biosciences will file for an emergency use application from the FDA after publishing a study in Nature Biotechnology that suggests its platform can detect SARS-CoV-2 from a respiratory swab RNA extracts in less than 45 minutes. The company says the paper contains the first peer-reviewed data using CRISPR diagnostics for COVID-19. In a…
Clara Health, tech leaders form COVID-19 clinical trial initiative
Clara Health, a company connecting patients to clinical trials, is partnering with two Silicon Valley tech leaders to create a free public health initiative that connects people with clinical trials targeting COVID-19. World Without COVID will help COVID-19-positive and -negative people find trials testing new diagnostics, treatments and vaccine discovery. Raj Kapoor, chief strategy officer…
How is coronavirus vaccine development going in the U.S.?
Researchers in Pittsburgh and Boston are moving forward with research into two separate vaccine programs against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers is detailed in a paper published recently in EBioMedicine, which is published by the Lancet. Delivery of the vaccine involved…
Study tests proven blood clot buster against COVID-19
While vaccines and pharmaceutical treatments for COVID-19 might be far off, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Colorado are exploring a stopgap measure that could buy time for critically ill patients, according to a release by the two institutions. In a clinical trial being planned for hospitals in Massachusetts and Colorado,…
GenapSys secures $90 million in bid to upend sequencing
Following the raising of a $90 million Series C, privately held GenapSys will begin rolling out a line of low cost electronic-based genetic sequencing machines that it says could upend the research and clinical testing industries. CEO Hesaam Esfandyarpour says the Redwood City, Calif.–based company’s Sequencer, a table-top device that carries a price tag that’s…