Biotech leaders call for free press

Posted on 18 Sep 2018 by Brady Huggett

To the Editor: We, the undersigned, are biotechnology executives, entrepreneurs, academic leaders and investors. We are gravely concerned about trends in the United States that are undermining our news media, such that more than 300 news publications across the country recently found it necessary to run coordinated editorials in defense of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press.

Why do we, in particular, feel compelled to speak out? We dedicate our lives to discovering and developing new medicines. In recent years, we have witnessed astonishing advances in medicine, including treating diseases at the level of genes and cells. These modern miracles rely, more than anything else, on the free and public exchange of ideas. This encompasses the ability to collaborate, debate, and test one another’s ideas and findings, and to publish data regardless of political, religious or other external pressures or considerations. This is foundational to the scientific method, without which we all might still be living in caves and have an average life expectancy of 30.

The Framers of the US Constitution understood this well; in 1774, the First Continental Congress wrote, in the Appeal to the Inhabitants of Quebec:

The last right we shall mention regards the freedom of the press. The importance of this consists, besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in … its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated into more honorable and just modes of conducting affairs.

We believe it is critical to recognize that a free press is not equivalent to a perfect press. Reporters, just like scientists and every other variety of human being, at times make mistakes, can be biased, or may be just plain wrong. We see no compelling evidence to indicate that this is more prevalent now than it was 250 years ago at the time of our country’s founding, or any time thereafter.

The great virtue in having a free press is that everyone’s mistakes, including those of politicians, scientists and the press itself, have the opportunity to be exposed and ultimately corrected. Thomas Jefferson, who, like many presidents, chafed under the scrutiny of the press while he was in office, nevertheless wrote: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” To consider our press “the enemy of the people” is antithetical to this key founding principle of our nation.

Technology now provides near instantaneous access to almost every vehicle for news; perversely, this has created more silos of news consumption, as we citizens receive news from outlets that are tailored to our particular tastes and prejudices, and we are less and less frequently exposed to alternative perspectives.

The progress of science and medicine requires that their practitioners not only be exposed to, but actively seek out, such perspectives. This is just as true for the progress of our country and our citizens at large. For America to remain the world’s foremost beacon of liberty and human progress, as well as the world’s leader in science and medicine, we must be resolute in upholding the rights guaranteed us by the First Amendment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This letter represents solely the individual and personal views of the authors and signatories, and not those of their employers, companies, universities or any other organization or agency.

COMPETING INTERESTS

John Maraganore is CEO and board member of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and on the board of Agios Pharmaceuticals and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Steve Holtzman is president, CEO and board member of Decibel Therapeutics, and on the board of Molecular Partners. Ron Cohen is president and CEO of Acorda Therapeutics and a board member of VBL Therapeutics. Jeremy Levin is an officer at Ovid Therapeutics and on the board of Lundbeck A/S, Biocon Limited and ZappRX.

John M Maraganore¹, Steven Holtzman², Ron Cohen³& Jeremy M Levin⁴

Signatories to the statement

Michael Aberman⁵, Chris Adams⁶, Julian Adams⁷, Jeffrey Albers⁸, Bonnie Anderson⁹, Mara G Aspinall¹⁰, James E Audia¹¹, Martin Babler¹², David Baltimore¹³, Stephane Bancel¹⁴, Peter Barrett¹⁵, Zoe Barry¹⁶, David Bartel¹⁷, Jean-Jacques Bienaime¹⁸, Burkhard Blank¹⁹, Robert I Blum²⁰, Daniel M Bradbury²¹, Eugene Braunwald²², John P Butler²³, Bruce Carter²⁴, Gustav Christensen²⁵, Isaac Ciechanover²⁶, Chip Clark²⁷, John K Clarke²⁸, Michael D Clayman²⁹, Jeffrey L Cleland³⁰, David Clem³¹, N Anthony Coles³², Charles L Cooney³³, Robert K Coughlin³⁴, Zoltan Csimma³⁵, Sally J Curley³⁶, Bassil Dahiyat³⁷, Daniel A de Boer³⁸, Elisabet de los Pinos³⁹, Ronald A DePinho⁴⁰, Douglas Doerfler⁴¹, Daniel Dornbusch⁴², Richard H Douglas⁴³, Deborah Dunsire⁴⁴, Neil Exter⁴⁵, Nima Farzan⁴⁶, Jean-François Formela⁴⁷, Robert Forrester⁴⁸, Maureen N Franco⁴⁹, Cedric Francois⁵⁰, Heather Franklin⁵¹, Scott Garland⁵², Simba Gill⁵³, David V Goeddel⁵⁴, Maxine Gowen⁵⁵, Kurt Graves⁵⁶, Mary Ann Gray⁵⁷, Barry Greene⁵⁸, David-Alexandre C Gros⁵⁹, Faheem Hasnain⁶⁰, Michael Hammerschmidt⁶¹, Elma S Hawkins⁶², Russell Herndon⁶³, Paul Hastings⁶⁴, Andrew Hindman⁶⁵, Annalisa Jenkins⁶⁶, Cigall Kadoch⁶⁷, Emil D Kakkis⁶⁸, Johanne Kaplan⁶⁹, Laurie Keating⁷⁰, Rachel King⁷¹, Vanessa King⁷², Scott Koenig⁷³, Peter Kolchinsky⁷⁴, Daphne Koller⁷⁵, Marc Kozin⁷⁶, Paul Laikind⁷⁷, Robert Langer⁷⁸, Donna L LaVoie⁷⁹, John J Lee⁸⁰, Jonathan Leff⁸¹, Alan Levy⁸², Judy Lieberman⁸³, Christine Lindenboom⁸⁴, David R Liu⁸⁵, Uri Lopatin⁸⁶, Ted W Love⁸⁷, David N Low Jr⁸⁸, Nagesh K Mahanthappa⁸⁹, Tony Martignetti⁹⁰, W Eddie Martucci⁹¹, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw⁹², Tracey L McCain⁹³, Corey M McCann⁹⁴, David J McLachlan⁹⁵, David Meeker⁹⁶, Ravi Mehrotra⁹⁷, Steven J Mento⁹⁸, Rachel Meyers⁹⁹, Gregory Miller¹⁰⁰, Ken Mills¹⁰¹, Kenneth I Moch¹⁰², Michael M Morrissey¹⁰³, Robert Mulroy¹⁰⁴, Imran Nasrullah¹⁰⁵, William J Newell¹⁰⁶, John F Neylan¹⁰⁷, Bernat Olle¹⁰⁸, Eric T Olson¹⁰⁹, Douglas E Onsi¹¹⁰, John E Osborn¹¹¹, Julia C Owens¹¹², Stelios Papadopoulos¹¹³, Steve Paul¹¹⁴, Brian J G Pereira¹¹⁵, Doris Peterkin¹¹⁶, Cary Pfeffer¹¹⁷, Mark Pruzanski¹¹⁸, Gerald E Quirk¹¹⁹, Michael Raab¹²⁰, Paula Ragan¹²¹, Amit Rakhit¹²², Bill Rastetter¹²³, Ron Renaud¹²⁴, Jason P Rhodes¹²⁵, Scott M Rocklage¹²⁶, Michael Rosenblatt¹²⁷, William J Rutter¹²⁸, Camille Samuels¹²⁹, James Sapirstein¹³⁰, Amar Sawhney¹³¹, David Scadden¹³², George Scangos¹³³, John A Scarlett¹³⁴, Stuart L Schreiber¹³⁵, Paul J Sekhri¹³⁶, Eric Shaff¹³⁷, Bennett Shapiro¹³⁸, Thomas Shenk¹³⁹, Nancy Simonian¹⁴⁰, William Slattery¹⁴¹, Erika R Smith¹⁴², Bruce Steel¹⁴³, Harald F Stock¹⁴⁴, Clifford J Stocks¹⁴⁵, Michael Su¹⁴⁶, Tim Surgenor¹⁴⁷, Jean-Christophe Tellier¹⁴⁸, Charles Theuer¹⁴⁹, Martin Tolar¹⁵⁰, Eric Topol¹⁵¹, Beth Trehu¹⁵², Akshay K Vaishnaw¹⁵³, Christi van Heek¹⁵⁴, Michael J Vasconcelles¹⁵⁵, George P Vlasuk¹⁵⁶, Michel Vounatsos¹⁵⁷, Christopher T Walsh¹⁵⁸, Jane Wasman¹⁵⁹, Andrew Weisenfeld¹⁶⁰, Yaron Werber¹⁶¹, Christoph Westphal¹⁶², Wendell Wierenga¹⁶³, Terry Winters¹⁶⁴, Eugene Williams¹⁶⁵, Chuck Wilson¹⁶⁶, Peter Wirth¹⁶⁷, Kleanthis Xanthopoulos¹⁶⁸ & Sanford (Sandy) Zweifach¹⁶⁹

¹Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ²Decibel Therapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ³Acorda Therapeutics, Ardsley, New York, US. ⁴New Milford, Connecticut, USA. ⁵Quentis Therapeutics, Inc., New York, New York, USA. ⁶Cydan II, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁷Gamida Cell, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁸Blueprint Medicines, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹Veracyte, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. ¹⁰Health Catalysts Group, Tucson, Arizona, USA. ¹¹Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²Principa Biopharma, South San Francisco, California, USA. ¹³Caltech, Pasadena, California, USA. ¹⁴Moderna, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁶ZappRx, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁷MIT/Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁸BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Novato, California, USA. ¹⁹Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., Ardsley, New York, USA. ²⁰Cytokinetics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. ²¹Equillium, Inc., La Jolla, California, USA. ²²Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ²³Akebia Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ²⁴Novo Nordisk (retired), Seattle, Washington, USA. ²⁵Morphic Therapeutic, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. ²⁶Atara Biotherapeutics, South San Francisco, California, USA. ²⁷Genocea Biosciences, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ²⁸Cardinal Partners, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. ²⁹Flexion Therapeutics, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. ³⁰Graybug Vision, Redwood City, California, USA. ³¹Lyme Properties 2, LLC, West Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA. ³²Yumanity Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ³³Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ³⁴MassBio, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ³⁵Csimma LLC, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA. ³⁶IRC, CGIR, LLC, Savannah, Georgia, USA. ³⁷Xencor, Monrovia California, USA. ³⁸ProQR Therapeutics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ³⁹Aura Biosciences Inc., Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. ⁴⁰Department of Cancer Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA. ⁴¹MaxCyte Inc., Gaithersburg Maryland, USA. ⁴²Dornbusch & Company, Oakland, California, USA. ⁴³Aldeyra Therapeutics, Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. ⁴⁴Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals, København, Denmark. ⁴⁵Third Rock Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁴⁶PaxVax, Redwood City, California, USA. ⁴⁷Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁴⁸Verastem, Inc., Needham, Massachusetts, USA. ⁴⁹Cambridge BioMarketing, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁵⁰Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Crestwood, Kentucky, USA. ⁵¹Blaze Bioscience Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA. ⁵²Relypsa, a Vifor Pharma Group Company, Redwood City, California, USA. ⁵³Evelo Biosciences, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁵⁴The Column Group, San Francisco, California, USA. ⁵⁵Trevena Inc., Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA. ⁵⁶Intarcia Therapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁵⁷Gray Strategic Advisors, LLC, New York, New York, USA. ⁵⁸Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁵⁹Imbria Pharmaceuticals, Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA. ⁶⁰Gossamer Bio, San Diego California, USA. ⁶¹Science History Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. ⁶²Redpin Therapeutics, New York, New York, USA. ⁶³Hydra Biosciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁶⁴Nkarta Therapeutics, South San Francisco, California, USA. ⁶⁵Acorda Therapeutics, Ardsley, New York, USA. ⁶⁶Cell Medica, London, UK. ⁶⁷Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School/MIT/Foghorn Therapeutics, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁶⁸Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., Novato, California, USA. ⁶⁹ProMIS Neurosciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁷⁰Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁷¹GlycoMimetics, Rockville, Maryland, USA. ⁷²Virion Biotherapeutics LLC, London, UK. ⁷³MacroGenics Inc., Rockville, Maryland, USA. ⁷⁴RA Capital Management, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁷⁵Insitro, South San Francisco, California, USA. ⁷⁶Naples, Florida, USA. ⁷⁷ViaCyte, San Diego, California, USA. ⁷⁸MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁷⁹LaVoieHealthScience, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁸⁰Decibel Therapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁸¹Deerfield Management, New York, New York, USA. ⁸²Tasso, Inc., Bellevue, Washington, USA. ⁸³Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁸⁴Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁸⁵Broad Institute/Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁸⁶Assembly Biosciences, San Francisco, California, USA. ⁸⁷Global Blood Therapeutics, South San Francisco, California, USA. ⁸⁸MTS Health Partners, New York, New York, USA. ⁸⁹Scholar Rock, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹⁰Inspired Purpose Coaching LLC, Canton, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹¹Akili Interactive Labs, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹²Biocon Pharma Inc., Iselin, New Jersey, USA. ⁹³Blueprint Medicines Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹⁴Pear Therapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹⁵Skyworks Solutions, Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts, USA. ⁹⁶KSQ Therapeutics, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. ⁹⁷MTS Health Partners, New York, New York, USA. ⁹⁸Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc., San Diego, California, USA. ⁹⁹Third Rock Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁰⁰Visterra Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁰¹Regenxbio Inc., Rockville, Maryland, USA. ¹⁰²Cognition Therapeutics, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. ¹⁰³Exelixis, Inc., Alameda, California, USA. ¹⁰⁴PTX Partner Therapeutics, Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁰⁵Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁰⁶Sutro Biopharma, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA. ¹⁰⁷Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁰⁸Vedanta Biosciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁰⁹Marblehead, Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹⁰HealthCare Ventures, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹¹BioVentures/Egalet Corporation, Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA. ¹¹²Millendo Therapeutics, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. ¹¹³Biogen Inc., Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹⁴Karuna Pharmaceuticals, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹⁵Visterra, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹⁶OncoPep, Inc., North Andover Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹⁷Third Rock Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹¹⁸Intercept, New York, New York, USA. ¹¹⁹Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²⁰Ardelyx, Inc., Fremont, California, USA. ¹²¹X4 Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²²Ovid Therapeutics, New York, New York, USA. ¹²³Grail/Neurocrine Biosciences/Fate Therapeutics/Daré Bioscience/Regulus Therapeutics, Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA. ¹²⁴Translate Bio, Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²⁵Atlas Venture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²⁶5AM Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²⁷Flagship Pioneering, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹²⁸Synergenics, LLC., San Francisco, California, USA. ¹²⁹Venrock, Palo Alto, California, USA. ¹³⁰Contravir Pharmaceuticals, Edison, New Jersey, USA. ¹³¹Ocular Therapeutix, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. ¹³²Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹³³Vir Biotechnology, Inc., San Francisco, California, USA. ¹³⁴Geron Corporation, Menlo Park, California, USA. ¹³⁵Broad Institute/Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹³⁶Lycera Corp., New York, New York, USA. ¹³⁷Seres Therapeutics, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. ¹³⁸Puretech Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹³⁹Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. ¹⁴⁰Syros Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁴¹Deerfield Management, New York, New York, USA. ¹⁴²ReNetX Bio, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. ¹⁴³Equillium, Inc., La Jolla California, USA. ¹⁴⁴CognifiSense, Inc., Park City, Utah, USA. ¹⁴⁵OncoResponse, Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA. ¹⁴⁶Decibel Therapeutics Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁴⁷Red Sky Partners, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁴⁸UCB S.A., Brussels, Belgium. ¹⁴⁹Tracon Pharmaceuticals Inc., San Diego, California, USA. ¹⁵⁰Alzheon, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵¹Scripps Research Translational Institute/Molecular Medicine, La Jolla, California, USA. ¹⁵²Jounce Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵³Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵⁴Bio Point Group, Punta Gorda, Florida, USA. ¹⁵⁵Unum Therapeutics Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵⁶Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵⁷Biogen, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁵⁸ChEM-H Institute/Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. ¹⁵⁹Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., Ardsley, New York, USA. ¹⁶⁰MTS Health Partners LP, New York, New York, USA. ¹⁶¹Ovid Therapeutics, New York, New York, USA. ¹⁶²TScan Therapeutics, Boston Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁶³Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, California, USA. ¹⁶⁴Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. ¹⁶⁵ProMIS Neurosciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁶⁶Unum Therapeutics Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁶⁷Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ¹⁶⁸Irras, San Diego, California, USA. ¹⁶⁹Nuvelution Pharma, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA.

First Rounders: John Maraganore

Posted on 08 May 2018 by Brady Huggett

The First Rounders podcast with John Maraganore can be found here. If you’d like more background on John, read this profile in Xconomy from 2014. Here’s John being interviewed at BIO after being elected chairman of the lobby group. And here’s the Nature paper on RNAi in 2001 that helped crack the field open.

Podcast is sponsored by the Master’s in Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship program at Johns Hopkins University.

Is yellow fever back in Brazil?

Posted on 23 Mar 2018 by Brady Huggett

The answer to this question is, Not exactly. Yellow fever never left Brazil. I earlier wrote that Oswaldo Cruz eradicated yellow fever in Brazil in the 19^th century. In fact the extraordinary work done by Cruz focused on yellow fever in urban areas in Rio de Janeiro, but the illness persisted in the jungles.

Basically, there are two kinds of yellow fever. The virus is absolutely the same in both, an arbovirus, but the vectors are geographically different. In the forests the vector is mosquitoes of the genus Haemagogus and Sabethes, and they acquire the virus from monkeys and transmit to humans entering the forests. The monkeys also die of the disease and thus are an important indicator of the presence of yellow fever.

In urban areas the vector is Aedes aegypiti, the same mosquito that transmits the virus that causes dengue, zika and chikungunya in cities.

The issue is that today’s urban areas and forests have boundaries that are more confluent than in the past. Brazil now has 90% of its population in urban areas. People go into the forests, get contaminated by the vectors that acquired the virus from monkeys. Once back in cities, the Aedes vector transfers the virus to others. In Brazil, 846 people have confirmed yellow fever, and 260 have died as of early March, and the number is growing all the time. The Minister of Health says we do not have epidemic occurrence of yellow fever in urban areas in Brazil. Deaths occurred so far because people are contaminated in the forest and may die in urban areas. In fact these are considered sylvatic yellow fever in nature.

Brazilians initially understood the threat from yellow fever, and many sought out the vaccine. Soon the demand outstripped the supply, and vaccines began to be given out at doses one-quarter of the usual amount. It works, but protects for only ten years. Campaigns have been established to vaccinate millions, particularly in the State of São Paulo, and there the supply was adequate because many thought the vaccines could harm them and others didn’t believe yellow fever could cause their death.

Vaccines in Brazil are produced in eggs, an old technology. This takes six months and people allergic to eggs cannot be vaccinated. We need to begin producing vaccines in plants as Medicago is doing in Canada located in Quebec for influenza.

A safe and effective vaccine against yellow fever exists, and some countries require vaccinations for travelers. In areas where yellow fever is common and vaccination is uncommon, early diagnosis of cases and immunization of large parts of the population is important to prevent outbreaks. Once infected, management is symptomatic with no specific measures effective against the virus. Death occurs in up to half of those who get severe disease. In 2013, yellow fever resulted in about 127,000 severe infections and 45,000 deaths, with nearly 90% of these occurring in African nations, according to Wikipedia.

Also, we have been waiting four years to begin using commercially in Brazil the GM mosquito developed by Oxitec Brasil that has the headquarters in Piracicaba in the State of São Paulo. So far Oxitec Brasil can only release the GM mosquitoes experimentally , celebrating contracts with the government of counties. This is because ANVISA, which in Brasil is equivalent to FDA, has not registered the GM mosquito to be released commercially. CTNBio, the Biosafety Commission, approved the release of the GM mosquitoes in April of 2014. It is possible that Aedes does not transmit yellow fever as well as it does dengue, zika and chikungunya. But the problem of yellow fever in urban areas will increase if the population of Aedes increases, and that can be prevented by the GM mosquitoes developed by Oxitec Brasil.

Luiz Antonio Barreto de Castro

First Rounders: Jeffery Leiden

Posted on 22 Feb 2018 by Brady Huggett

The First Rounders podcast with Jeff can be found here. A Boston Globe article on Leiden taking the CEO position at Vertex is here and one from Xconomy is here. Read the Forbes piece on Vertex’s success in cystic fibrosis. A profile on Jeff in STAT can be found here. Click here for a video on Vertex’s learning lab.

Brady Huggett

The Survival of Erich Jarvis

Posted on 22 Dec 2017 by Brady Huggett

In researching and reporting our feature, Biotech’s Pale Shadow, I came across Erich Jarvis, a professor and researcher at Rockefeller, and his essay, Surviving as an underrepresented minority scientist in a majority environment, which he wrote for winning the 2015 Ernest Everett Just Award from the American Society for Cell Biology. It’s a great read, and Jarvis has an incredible backstory, including winning scholarships to the Joffrey Ballet and the Alvin Ailey Dance school, and overcoming the murder of his father while Jarvis was in grad school.

I suspect the parts of the essay about grad school and his post-doc will feel familiar to many underrepresented minorities in the sciences, and it certainly resonated with what biotech’s minorities were saying in interviews for our feature. I spent maybe an hour with Jarvis on the phone, talking about his life in science and why he decided to write the essay he did. He told me that most people, in their acceptance essay, focus on the moment of scientific serendipity or the big breakthrough that led to their hallmark discovery or technology, but he didn’t want to do that. Because he’s questioned so often about his life as an underrepresented minority in science, he decided he’d write about that topic instead and hopefully give it “a wider audience,” he said.

The essay has been added to some classrooms as required reading, and has been assigned in workshops on microaggressions, but it’s not often cited, and it hasn’t received that longer life that some papers in scientific journals do. “What that suggests is that the topic isn’t being written about much in the scientific community,” he said.

Through the course of his career Jarvis broke barrier after barrier, simply by doing his job. In 2007, he became just the second African American basic science professor in the Duke medical school to be hired and tenured in 28 years. He was the second African American to receive full professorship at Duke. He became the first and currently only African American full professor at Rockefeller in the history of the institution, which began in 1901. And in November, Jarvis was asked to give a presidential lecture for the Society for Neuroscience.

“I’d been hoping one day to be invited to do this,” he said. “Afterward, someone told me that I was the first African American to give this presentation. That lead me to think, internally, about where I am in my own life. And what I feel is, it’s a lonely place. It might sound like bragging to say you’re the first African American to do this and the first to do that, but in truth it means there aren’t other people around that I can relate to. And it’s not a happy feeling.”

His “surviving” essay can be found here. Our feature on racial disparities in biotech can be found here. Here’s a great bit of storytelling he does at The Moth about his life. Follow Jarvis on Twitter.

Brady Huggett

First rounders: Susan Windham-Bannister

Posted on 19 Dec 2017 by Brady Huggett

The First Rounders podcast with Susan Windham-Bannister can be found here. This podcast episode accompanies Biotech’s Pale Shadow, our feature on racial diversity in the biotech sector, which can be found here.

In this podcast, Windham-Bannister discusses the troubling racial incidents in Boston’s past, and in mid-December The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative team published a series on racism in Boston, focused on the black experience. That can be found here. She also mentions the book Hillbilly Elegy, and this The New Yorker article examining the book can be found here. Here is an article gauging the success of Governor Deval Patrick’s $1 billion initiative to grow the life sciences sector in Massachusetts. Here is a radio segment with Windham-Bannister looking at her tenure at the head of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

Podcast is sponsored by the Master of Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship program at Johns Hopkins University.

Brady Huggett

First rounders: Stelios Papadopoulos

Posted on 15 Nov 2017 by Brady Huggett

The First Rounders podcast with Stelios Papadopoulos can be found here. Here is his bio page as chairman of the board for Biogen. He is still the record holder for most goals in a game at Bethany college. A video of Stelios being interviewed by BioBusiness TV is here. And here is the “godfather of biotech” on CNBC discussing biotech stocks.

Brady Huggett

First Rounders: Greg Winter

Posted on 20 Aug 2017 by Brady Huggett

The First Rounders podcast with Greg Winter can be found here. Here is a profile of him in The Lancet, and an interview about his work and startups can be found here. Interested in more information on Trinity College Cambridge? Here’s a page on its history. And here is the Wikipedia page for the very long list of the Masters of Trinity. There are a few photos of Trinity and the Master’s Lodge below.

Brady Huggett

BIO’s Diversity Principles

Posted on 28 Jun 2017 by Brady Huggett

Opening reception, Petco Park.

Last week the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) held its annual international convention, this year in San Diego. For four days more than 16,000 attendees gathered to meet, sit in panel meetings, network and attend receptions, like the opening gala at Petco Park, pictured above.

On the first full day of the conference, BIO released a set of principles on diversity. The need for an official set of principles is obvious, even to BIO itself. Julie Gerberding, the executive vice president and chief patient officer at Merck, spent the past year chairing BIO’s workforce development, diversity and inclusion (WDDI) committee and establishing the principles. It is “striking,” she says, “when you first come into the organization and take a look around the table and realize, at least in terms of visible diversity, you’re not really looking like we should in this day and age.”

BIO is the largest and most prominent trade association for the global biotech industry, she noted, and its medicines, its crops, its fuels and enzymes, are aimed at everyone. The leadership needs to reflect that, Gerberding says, never mind that companies “with a broad and diverse leadership framework do better. No one refutes that position anymore.”

The principles include a commitment by BIO to “be outward-facing” in its diversity efforts, with diversity defined as a “wide-range of similarities and differences among persons and perspectives,” which follows the definition set forth by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Inclusion is described as “a business culture and environment that recognizes and effectively leverages the talents, skills, and perspectives of diverse employees,” and workforce development entails “ensuring all employees have the opportunities to develop the capabilities and skills required to meet the challenging needs in the biotechnology industry.”

How all this will be accomplished both inside BIO and in its member companies isn’t yet clear. The committee has identified eight areas around diversity to focus on, and over the coming weeks it will prioritize them and establish goals. Helen Torley, president and CEO of Halozyme, and new WDDI committee chair, says the idea is to gather metrics for each area and then measure progress. But, for starters, BIO will lead by example and undergo training for unconscious bias, which can cause discrimination against minorities in the hiring process, and the committee will also analyze the biotech pipeline of biomedical researchers. For instance, Torley says, “we know a lot of women graduate with [STEM] degrees but they are not advancing. This is a loss of people that could be future leaders or board members.”

It isn’t the first time BIO has considered diversity. The group held panel discussions at previous conferences and has long supported organizations such as Women in Bio. But it is the first time it has adopted specific principles it can be held accountable for. Over the past year, the biotech industry has been facing its gender inequality, and the principles come amid a broader global reckoning on race, gender, sexuality, immigration, and more. The principles are only a starting place, and the industry has a long way to go, as BIO freely admits, but there are two types of organizations: ones that recognize a problem when it arises, and ones that ignore it. BIO can be credited for recognizing the problem.

Brady Huggett

First Rounders: Jan Vilcek

Posted on 12 Jun 2017 by Brady Huggett

The Jan Vilcek podcast can be found here. Here is a link to the Vilcek Foundation, and Jan’s research page at NYU. Here’s a NY Times article on his huge donation to NYU. His memoir, Love and Science, can be bought several ways, and the Goodreads page is here. The National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library have an exhibit on Jan, and it’s displayed here, with a collection of clips from a video interview.

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First Rounders: Jan Vilcek