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☆ The 7 best-paying biopharma companies where workers can take home more than $400,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Zachary Tracer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Workers at biotech and pharma companies can command big paychecks. Read on to see the companies that pay workers the most, with annual salaries above $400,000. The executives, scientists, and other workers at biotech companies have a tough job: coming up with new medical treatments. Correspondent Andrew Dunn compiled public information from hundreds of biotech and pharma companies to reveal the median salaries they pay their workers. Read on to see the 7 best-paying biotech companies, listed from lowest to highest median pay.

Persons: Read, they're, Andrew Dunn Organizations: pharma, Morning Locations: San Francisco, San Diego, Boston

☆ How an AI breakthrough from Alphabet's DeepMind 'changed scientific history' and could lead to new cures
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

"AlphaFold has sparked a wave of innovation by showing people what's possible," said Chris Bahl, the chief scientist at AI Proteins, a Boston startup using AlphaFold to help develop drugs. "AlphaFold, amazing as it, is just the beginning," Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind, said on a podcast last year. AlphaFold2 was built with far more biological and physics knowledge of proteins, Jumper said. Next uses will be 'progressively harder' as DeepMind stays secretive on its future workJohn Jumper, a senior staff research scientist at DeepMind who helped develop AlphaFold. "But AI will also continue to progress rapidly, and the folks at DeepMind are very good, so I'm optimistic."

☆ CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang plans to 'break open the barrier' facing gene editing after raising $193 million for his secretive new startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Feng Zhang, Aera's founder and a CRISPR pioneer, spoke with Insider about his vision for the firm. Aera wants to "break open the barrier" of tech through methods like gene editing, Zhang said. The CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang spoke with Insider about Aera Therapeutics, his Boston-based biotech. "The goal is to break open the barrier that's facing genetic medicine," Zhang told Insider in his first interview about the company. In starting another company, Zhang said he felt it was important to have a dedicated team focused on delivery.

☆ The 8 leading biotechs using AI to upend how drugs are discovered
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A few biotech companies have used AI to develop drugs that are already being tested in people. Insider found eight AI biotechs now in the clinic, a critical stage in drug development. Some of the fastest progress has been in using AI to improve the process of creating medicines. At the start of 2020, AI-focused biotechs had zero drugs in the clinic, according to Air Street Capital. Here are the eight biotechs using AI to develop better drugs, in order of how many drugs they have in human testing.

☆ CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang's secretive gene-editing startup has hired ex-Alnylam leaders as CEO and chair
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The gene-editing startup Aera has hired biotech vets Akin Akinc as CEO and John Maraganore as chairman. CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang's newest gene-editing venture has attracted two longtime leaders of the biotech giant Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Insider has learned. Former Alnylam CEO John Maraganore is chairman of Aera. The SEND technology could allow gene-editing technology to treat more diseases. Based on Zhang's SEND research, Aera hopes to deliver gene-editing tools to more organs, ultimately expanding the number of diseases CRISPR can impact.

☆ Why biotech CEOs are growing more cautious about going public — and what they're waiting for
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Andrew Dunn | Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Biotech-startup CEOs are taking more nuanced approaches to going public amid a downturn. SAN FRANCISCO — After record years of initial public offerings in 2020 and 2021, biotech leaders told Insider that the "recipe" for going public no longer works. Most biotechs saw their valuations increase by between 20% and 50% after going public. Insider asked five startup CEOs about how they approach going public and their perspectives on the biotech-IPO market for 2023. But going public doesn't carry an importance of validation for herself or the field of biotech companies specializing in AI, she said.

☆ The recipe biotech startups use to go public is being thrown out. 5 startups CEOs reveal how they're changing their focus.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Andrew Dunn | Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

☆ Pharma CEOs say Mark Cuban's effort to upend the drug industry is 'a really great idea' but will be difficult to pull off
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Biopharma CEOs say his company Cost Plus Drugs could remove costs from the distribution system. Cuban told Insider in an email that he believed the company's pricing transparency was "an absolute positive for patients." The company started its pharmacy services last year and quickly racked up over 1 million accounts, Cuban told Insider recently. Cost Plus Drugs is focused on bringing down the price of generic medications, which no longer have patent protections but can still be expensive. Cuban told Insider that EQRx was in a "different business" than what he's attempting to build out.

☆ The CEO of a $1.6 billion biotech says his bet on AI is paying off with faster, cheaper research that could reshape the industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It has generated tons of data with AI and robots, aiming to find a better way to make drugs. For a biotech executive hoping to make something vast, Chris Gibson seems proudest in obsessing over the tiniest details. Gibson calls this the "human-y" element of research — and it's what Recursion is working hard to eliminate. What's happening in AI — and Recursion is emblematic of this — is we're at the second half of the chess board." Despite the progress in generating massive amounts of data, Recursion's leaders acknowledged that the goal of creating an approved medicine is likely still years away.

☆ EQRx promised to deliver cutting-edge drugs at half the cost of rivals. A cofounder shares why the once buzzy biotech is walking away from that mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After years of touting the idea of radically lower drug prices, EQRx has walked away from that plan. Cofounder Alexis Borisy said it was due to the FDA not OK'ing drugs based only on Chinese data. EQRx suddenly sounded like a typical biotech company, talking of "market-based pricing" that would "maximize value for shareholders." EQRx's stock is down over 75% since its record-breaking SPACAlexis Borisy, EQRx Chairman, and CEO Melanie Nallicheri. An unclear future for 'radically lower drug prices'EQRx CEO Melanie Nallicheri EQRxIn November, EQRx said it wouldn't pursue radically lower pricing for its first two drug candidates, both cancer therapies.

☆ Former CEO says Biogen 'shot themselves in the foot' by deciding to charge $56,000 for its controversial Alzheimer's drug
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Former Biogen CEO George Scangos said the biotech priced its Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm too high. After the FDA approved the controversial treatment in 2021, Biogen set a $56,000 list price. "They shot themselves in the foot with the pricing," Scangos, now CEO of Vir Biotechnology, said. SAN FRANCISCO — The former CEO of Biogen told Insider the Massachusetts biotech priced its controversial Alzheimer's drug, Aduhelm, "way too high." "I think Aduhelm works.

☆ Novartis' CEO is charging ahead in cutting tens of thousands of workers to transform the $220 billion pharma giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Novartis is laying off thousands of workers, CEO Vasant Narasimhan told Insider. Through layoffs and spinoffs, the Swiss giant expects to trim its headcount by about 30% by 2024. SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of layoffs are "happening now," Vasant Narasimhan, the CEO of Novartis, told Insider, as he hopes the $220 billion Swiss giant is entering the final steps of becoming a smaller, more-focused drug company. The Swiss giant had about 125,000 full-time employees at the time, and it has about 108,000 workers today. The restructuring will save Novartis about $1.5 billion annually, Narasimhan said during his Monday presentation at the JPMorgan conference.

☆ Here are 5 winners and 4 losers from the healthcare industry's most important event of the year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Andrew Dunn | Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

The healthcare industry's most influential investor conference was held in person this week. The J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference helps set the tone for the year for biotech. Insider identified five winners and four losers from the week. Amid severe-weather warnings and rain, about 8,000 attendees came to see over 400 healthcare companies present at the 41st annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference this week, kicking off a chaotic week of networking, pitching investors, and striking deals. Insider pinpointed five winners and four losers from this year's event.

☆ A tiny biotech just suffered a safety scare in a gene-editing trial, raising 3 big questions for the entire CRISPR field
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The biotech halted the trial while it investigates the case, which may impact other CRISPR companies. The small biotech company Graphite Bio said Thursday afternoon that it paused a study testing an experimental gene-editing therapy after the first treated patient suffered a serious side effect. The safety scare raises more questions than answers as Graphite's scientists investigate what exactly may have caused the side effect. Lehrer said it's too early to say whether this safety scare could have implications for the broader gene-editing field. Its next-closest product, a gene-editing therapy for beta-thalassemia, isn't expected to start initial human testing until 2024 at the earliest.

☆ Biotech investor Brad Loncar shares 10 predictions for 2023, including a hot new cancer target, Nobel Prize winners, and a biotech founder running for president
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Loncar shared his 2023 forecast, including new drugs, Nobel Prize winners, and more globalization. Brad Loncar isn't expecting a miraculous rebound for the biotech industry in 2023. In an interview with Insider, Loncar shared 10 predictions for biotech in 2023, ranging from Nobel Prize winners and presidential runs to hot cancer targets and bankruptcy worries. 2022 was a rough year for the biotech industry, which once again underperformed the stock market. The industry runs to the next super-hot cancer target: Claudin 18.2In cancer research, drug companies are always on the hunt for the next promising target.

☆ Kids with 'bubble boy' disease could finally get access to a life-saving gene therapy, as a study starts back up at UCLA
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

UCLA researchers are restarting a study to give a gene therapy to kids with an ultra-rare disease. Without gene therapy, doctors treat kids with SCID using enzyme-replacement therapies, if they are ineligible for bone-marrow transplants. In an email to Insider, Kohn said he expects to be able to treat between three and six patients with his current funding. Drug companies have shown little interest in the treatments because the complexity of the treatments and tiny number of eligible patients limit potential profits. Drug companies have deprioritized or shelved gene-therapy programs to treat a range of rare diseases, including Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, MPS, Batten disease, chronic granulomatous disease, Rett syndrome, and Fabry disease.

☆ Why tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos are all investing in biotech startups that want to link your computer directly to your brain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Andrew Dunn | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Tech moguls like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates are investing in brain-implant startups. Through their venture-capital funds, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates both recently backed the Brooklyn, New York, startup Synchron, which has tested its brain stent in seven humans. Peter Thiel, a billionaire cofounder of PayPal, invested last year in Utah's Blackrock Neurotech, an older BCI startup that has said it hopes to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval soon. That long-term potential has caught the attention of tech billionaires like Musk, Gates, and Bezos. No BCI startup has gone public, and most of their fundraising rounds have been modest compared with larger and more-mature biotechs.

☆ How a gene-editing breakthrough from a Harvard lab saved the life of a girl with leukemia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A 13-year-old girl was the world's first patient to get a cell therapy called base editing in May. Base editing is a new gene-editing technology that could lead to cures for many diseases. Alyssa, 13, was the first-ever patient to receive a base-edited cell therapy after enrolling in a clinical trial in May. Base editing allows scientists to make ultraprecise changes to single letters of DNA in cells. Alyssa, a teenager in Leicester, England, received a base-edited cell therapy to treat her leukemia.

Funding raised: $27 millionNumber of employees: 20Why it's set to take off next year: Provider burnout is getting worse, and it's exacerbating healthcare's staffing crisis. Nof said he expected Abridge's technology to be in demand next year as hospitals worked to reduce the administrative burdens on doctors. "They've reached a tipping point where people are desperate to gain efficiencies in their workday with all the physician burnout," he said. Abridge's technology takes the audio from doctor-patient interactions and automatically turns it into documentation for billing purposes or a summary of the visit for the patient. That means doctors are relieved of the "hours of pajama time in the evening that they previously spent doing clinical documentation," Cheatham said.

☆ Moderna's CEO predicts how the biotech's work in cancer vaccines could transform healthcare, starting with your annual physical
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Personalized cancer vaccines could provide a new way to fight early cancer cases. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Insider he thinks cancer vaccines can upend cancer care. In an interview, Bancel shared his vision on how these personalized cancer vaccines could transform cancer care. Based off the blood work, Moderna would design vaccines that target the genetic mutations in cancerous cells that stand out from healthy cells. The blood tests could find cancer before it grows too much, and mRNA vaccines could squash it.

☆ Moderna just used a personalized vaccine to treat cancer, and it could signal a major breakthrough in how we treat the disease
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Moderna's cancer vaccine lowered the risk of death or skin-cancer recurrence in a midstage study. Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel compared the cancer study results to the initial outbreak of COVID-19, when Moderna scrambled to respond and develop a vaccine. Bancel said Moderna and its partner, Merck, would launch multiple late-stage studies in 2023 to test the cancer vaccine in not just melanoma patients but other types of cancer. Merck paid $250 million earlier this year to jointly develop Moderna's vaccine, extending a partnership between the two drugmakers that began in 2016. Study results have yet to be presented at a conference or published in a journal.

☆ The most expensive drug in the world has a $3.5 million price tag. 2 potential patients share their hopes and fears for the one-time treatment.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The FDA has approved a new gene therapy to treat hemophilia B, a genetic bleeding disorder. The drugmaker CSL Behring set a $3.5 million price for the one-time treatment. Lackey is learning to live with a severe case of hemophilia B, a rare genetic condition that keeps blood from clotting properly. But a critical unknown in judging CSL's $3.5 million price is the durability of the treatment. Lojewski said the $3.5 million price wasn't guided by other gene-therapy prices.

☆ The most expensive drug in the world just got approved at $3.5 million, and hemophilia patients are conflicted: 'Compared to what we pay, it doesn't seem too terrible.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The FDA has approved a new gene therapy to treat hemophilia B, a genetic bleeding disorder. Hemophilia patients told Insider they're excited about the new drug but worried about the price. Lackey is learning to live with a severe case of hemophilia B, a rare genetic condition that keeps blood from clotting properly. While the treatment breaks ground as the first approved gene therapy for hemophilia, its price is also unprecedented. Lojewski said the $3.5 million price wasn't guided by other gene-therapy prices.

☆ How the founder of SiriusXM wants to tackle an organ shortage with 3D-printed hearts and lungs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She is the CEO of the $12 billion biotech United Therapeutics and founder of SiriusXM. Her company, the $12 billion Maryland-based biotech United Therapeutics, has already put gene-edited pig hearts, lungs, and kidneys into humans in clinical studies. Rothblatt previously founded SiriusXM before starting United TherapeuticsUnited TherapeuticsThe organ research is far from the first moonshot in Rothblatt's career. After that compound's owner, the pharma giant GSK, declined to test it against PAH, Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and bought the rights to the molecule. That drug helped save Jenesis, and United Therapeutics now sells a suite of PAH treatments that have helped over 12,000 patients.

☆ 100-hour workweeks and a bit of luck: How a 25-year-old CEO raised $50 million for his new drug discovery startup
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Andrew Dunn | Sarah Braner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

In June, Charm said it raised $50 million, valuing the firm at $100 million to $150 million. Charm has raised $50 million from top investorsDemis Hassabis, the CEO and a cofounder of DeepMind Technologies. In the spring, Aithani raised the $37 million million round that was announced in June, with investors like Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst joining OrbiMed and F-Prime Capital. The raise values Charm at between $100 million and $150 million, Aithani said, and brings the company's total funding to $50 million. This article was corrected on August 19 to show that Charm has raised two rounds of funding totaling $50 million.

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