Merck, J&J, and long Covid
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We’re seeing some rays of hope that this ghastly biotech job market might loosen up a bit. Additionally, Bernie Sanders needs to subpoena some pharma CEOs, and as all the time, we’ve received a rad podcast for you as we speak.
Hope on the horizon for the biotech job market?
When it got here to jobs, biotech was beastly in 2023. However the temper on the J.P. Morgan convention final week was jubilant — and there’s optimism on the horizon now that the biotech job market will probably be vastly improved. The reset final 12 months has been good for the trade, opines government recruiter Christopher Palatucci. Salaries have since right-sized, and the “vacationer buyers” who have been attracted by biotech’s glitz — and finally helped inflate valuations — have backed off. Many “me-too” corporations have folded, clearing the way in which for extra modern startups.
Now, there’s hope that the IPO window will proceed to open. Tutorial analysis is at present ripe for the choosing, and there will probably be extra want for early-stage preclinical and translational expertise, he says.
Learn extra.
Why are wealthy biotechs reducing prices?
Has JPM Week already worn off? And what’s going to maneuver markets in 2024? We cowl all that and extra this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast.
Our colleague Jason Mast joins us to debate an rising pattern in biotech: Money-rich startups are shedding staff and tweaking their methods amid a troublesome marketplace for enterprise capital. We additionally look forward to the most important biotech tales coming in 2024, together with some main knowledge readouts and some pivotal FDA selections.
Hear right here.
Bernie Sanders needs to subpoena J&J, Merck CEOs
Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate well being committee, is trying to subpoena the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck following an investigation into excessive drug costs. That is uncommon, since this specific committee hasn’t issued a subpoena in additional than 40 years. The executives have refused to testify at a listening to on excessive prescription drug costs — a transfer that Sanders calls “completely unacceptable.”
Now, Sanders will convene a vote Jan. 31 to resolve whether or not to subpoena the CEOs and examine excessive drug prices.
“These CEOs might make tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in compensation. The pharmaceutical corporations they run might make billions in earnings,” Sanders wrote. “However that doesn’t give them a proper to evade congressional oversight.”
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Groundwork for a attainable lengthy Covid diagnostic?
Lengthy Covid is elusive; it’s onerous to diagnose and deal with it, and there’s little understanding of its primary biology. New analysis printed in Science, nevertheless, reveals excessive ranges of sure immune-related proteins in blood of individuals with lengthy Covid. These findings set the stage for growing new diagnostics for lengthy Covid, and maybe might encourage new therapeutic targets.
Lengthy Covid carries a stigma, since it’s onerous to diagnose — however the examine confirmed that folks with lingering signs have elevated irritation, immune dysregulation, and elevated antibody responses. The scientists discovered broken purple blood cells and platelets that sign hurt to endothelial cells lining blood vessels.
That is the primary sign {that a} biomarker can reliably point out lengthy Covid. In line with one immunologist not concerned within the examine, the examine is “fascinating,” however she added that “it’s unlikely {that a} single biomarker can be utilized to diagnose lengthy Covid given the heterogeneity of the situation.”
Learn extra.
Extra reads
- Ex-Pfizer worker convicted of insider buying and selling on Covid tablet, Bloomberg
- After 17-year courtship, Solar and Taro lastly agree on $348 million buyout, FiercePharma
- The Supreme Court docket might overturn the Chevron doctrine. Right here’s how that might damage the FDA, Endpoints
