BioPharmGuy News

June 16, 2022

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BioPharmGuy

Someone subscribed to our YouTube channel last week. We have a message for them - don’t get your hopes up.

BIO

I took a journey over to the BIO after-party scene on Tuesday. Scored an invite to the sweet EpiVax party at Puesto and was welcomed with open arms. A newsletter fan wanted to take a picture with me, which was definitely bizarre, but also fun. Had several good newsletter-related chats and met some nice people in the process. As a bonus, the food did not run out, unlike another party happening simultaneously at the same restaurant *cough* California Life Sciences *cough*, and the margaritas were delightful.

I realize they most people came straight from the conference, but was a bit surprised by how dressed-up everyone was. I really thought a biotech conference would have a less formal attire, but I was totally wrong – my t-shirt and sneakers did not fit in.

Yet whenever I go back, t-shirt and sneakers will again feature (in spite of the person who condescendingly asked me if I jogged to the party), because that's how I roll. There's not a whole lot left in the world that's real and I'll de damned if I'm going to be part of that trend.

Another cool thing – I met two people working at very small companies and they were respectively shocked/surprised that we had them listed in our directory. Guess some people just can’t believe how good we are at finding and tracking biotech companies.

-BPG

Popular Pages - May

Five most popular BioPharmGuy directory pages in May:

1) United Kingdom

2) Northern California

3) Germany

4) Netherlands

5) Small Molecules

Those European geographic pages have been increasing in popularity for years and they show no sign of slowing. Can't explain it, won't complain it.

Five most clicked company websites in May:

1) Veristat

2) TE Connectivity

3) Pfizer

4) AbbVie

5) ACRO Biosystems

Yes, two of those companies have taken advantage of our Premium Listings. No, Charles River still won't answer our emails. They're sitting at #7 with absolutely no effort at all - could be a contender.

Companies Added & Removed

BIO this week - no time for many changes.

Monthly Funding Summary

For May we tracked $2.2B in funding at 36 companies, plus an already public company from London did a US IPO for a huge $2.5M. The funding gears are starting to grind. Summary file available on our downloads page.

Industry

Board Refreshment

Couple weeks ago Alkermes announced “continued board refreshment”, which sounded like a hell of a gig if you could get it. Sadly, it was merely a way for them to say they were cycling out Board Members.

Team Roast

After that all-time roast on Tuesday, how could we not serve up a new helping this Thursday?

Volastra knew they wanted pictures of their team, but also had a short deadline and the only photographer available was the guy who does the local high school senior pics. Enjoy this cornucopia of people leaning against brick walls, doorways, brick walls, railings and brick walls. A Volastra varsity jacket woulda really brought down the house.

(Bonus: VP of Chemistry is apparently a bridge.)

Team Roast

And why stop there - ten23's CEO refers to himself as "Chief Enablement Officer", and the fun continues down the line. The big finish is the person whose job is "Fairstainability Officer". Half surprised they don't have a Chief Virtue Signaling Officer.

Pfizer

Does Paxlovid work? With the anecdotes of Covid resurgence after having taken a course, it's a fair question. The Mayo clinic did a small study of 483 patients (inside FDA joke?) who were given Paxlovid and showed all survived and two had rebound symptoms, though they were mild. This study was admittedly small, but it points in the same direction as the vaccination studies - the drug saves lives, if not totally preventing infection/resurgence.

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Health & Science

Fly High, Eagle

The US rescinded re-entry Covid testing requirements for citizens returning from abroad via air travel. It hasn’t made much sense to test returning citizens for some time – not like the US was ever controlling Covid domestically. This will relieve much unnecessary stress for travelers who feared being stuck in a ratty Belizean motel for a 10-day quarantine.

Psychobiotics

The latest buzzy biotech term is ‘psychobiotics’. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is yet another avenue to get psychedelics into the brains of the general public. Psychobiotics are actually molecules that act upon the gut to affect the mind. There is real science backing that connection, chiefly revolving around the concept of the Gut-Brain axis. You are what you eat could be true in more ways than one.

What About the Chickens?

Remember when China was upset about Covid being called the China virus, or South Africa got annoyed about a variant they discovered being branded with their country's name? That sort of geographical stigma is reasonable to avoid as it provides a disincentive for countries to be transparent in discovering new diseases/outbreaks. But who exactly is the victim when a virus is called Monkeypox? Has there been a rash of simian hate crimes we missed? Is there a new vigilante group out there called Guerillas Against Gorillas?

Whatever's going on, the WHO has said they are going to come up with a new name for it. And since no nut jobs ever use the term 'China virus' anymore, we know this renaming will work perfectly to fully combat any and all negative connotations this virus may evolve.

Labiotech/Podcasts

Our friends over at the Labiotech newsletter, which covers European biotech news, have launched a new podcast dubbed Beyond Biotech. Title makes one think they will be talking about stuff other than biotech...you know, because they used the word 'Beyond'.

Nope - just talking about "what's happening in the world of biotech". Could have been about 50% more efficient with word usage in that podcast name.

On the podcast topic, someone at BIO asked if we'd considered doing a podcast. The answer is no. Anyone can throw together junky content every week (hold the jokes), but it takes a lot of effort to create good content consistently. With this newsletter, we're able to (usually) gather together some good news/notes/humor to share with you while simultaneously doing work on improving our directory. The added time cost for creating this newsletter is not enormous - happen upon some interesting things, write some commentary dripping with sarcasm, repeat next Thursday. A podcast would be a major time cost for us, and time is life. Thus, no BPG podcast.

If you’re looking for a Research Associate position at a young and small biotech company, check out the Research Associate postings at Work in biotech.

Positions range from entry-level to Senior and Principal Research Associate. The positions cover a broad range of areas, including cell/molecular biology, bioprocessing, pharmacology, analytical/assay development, protein engineering, and more. All companies are in biotech hubs and have <250 employees, so if you’re coming from a larger company or academic institute, you can find a role with more responsibility and impact.

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