Head Trauma at BIO in San Francisco

That’s Will Smith up there, talking to Dr. Bennett Omalu about the movie “Concussion,” which Will starred in and is based on the life of Dr. Omalu. The trailer tells you enough, but the idea is Dr. Omalu came to America and discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and when he raised the flag on this disease to the National Football League (NFL), they tried to keep it buried. This is a still-unfolding story in the world of sports. It’s been suggested the movie was “softened” to avoid antagonizing the NFL, and the NFL has pulled funding for studies examining the effects on the brain of repeated head trauma.  Read more

The Aging of BIO International Convention

The Aging of BIO International Convention

Before BIO CEO Jim Greenwood interviewed broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw during Tuesday’s plenary lunch, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter took the podium. This is standard fare for a BIO convention: the hosting mayor gets a chance to brag a little bit about their city, and thank BIO for bringing all these people to local hotels and restaurants.  Read more

BIO 2015 in Philly

BIO 2015 in Philly

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention begins next week in Philadelphia. Running from June 15-18 this year, the conference is historically the industry’s largest gathering. The last time Philly played host (2005), the conference was slightly larger than today’s expected version, with more than 18,000 attendees. There were also more protesters than we see today – enough, in fact, for a group to clash with police, leading to, somewhat indirectly, the death of a cop.  Read more

Annual private biotech feature

Annual private biotech feature

2014 was a great year for private biotech. Venture capital (VC) investment into the biotech sector as a whole—from recent startups all the way to enterprises in late-stage financings—jumped to a record $9 billion. The number of series A financing rounds also remained strong. These trends held true for the subset of private companies that Nature Biotechnology considers in its annual survey. Data from Dow Jones show that money from combined exits (initial public offerings [IPOs] and buyouts) for private investors reached mythic levels last year—a 78% increase over an already strong 2013. Although the number of overall VC rounds into innovative biotech did not expand from 2013’s totals, the total amount invested did, and the global count of private biotech companies jumped from 1,133 in early 2013 to 1,361 as 2014 began.  Read more

The E is silent

The E is silent

I’ve already mentioned Wake Forest and tech transfer, but the picture above was shot on the University of South Dakota campus here in the US. The university, which has the state’s only medical school and an overall enrollment of more than 10,000, is located in Vermillion, SD. The official mascot is a coyote — though pronounciation of the word in South Dakota drops the long “E” at the end, so it rhymes with “oat.” This is common in western parts of the US, and thus, when rooting on the local team in The Dakota Dome, the correct phrase is “Go Yotes.”  … Read more