Lawrence Blatt, Ph.D., cofounder and CEO of Aligos Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based biotech discovering and developing curative treatments for hepatologic diseases and viral infections, will be featured in an upcoming issue of Life Science Leader. Don’t miss out on learning about this executive’s fascinating entrepreneurial journey by becoming a subscriber today. 

BioMarin (NASDAQ: BMRN) of San Rafael paired with one-year-old Swiss company DiNAQOR AG to develop gene therapies to treat rare genetic heart diseases and Adverum Biotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVM) of Redwood City reported that the latest cohort in its early-stage clinical trial of patients with a blinding eye disease had fewer adverse events and patients in an earlier cohort had gone a year since their one and only injection.

David Johnson of GigaGen discusses how recombinant forms of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) could overtake current IVIG therapies and be used in the treatment of COVID-19. In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic there has been a rush to develop therapeutics to combat the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causing the disease and, most recently, a discussion about the possibilities of using convalescent plasma as a treatment for severe COVID-19 patients.

A group of US academic researchers has sparked a nationwide effort to encourage people who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma, which will be used to treat patients across the country. The convalescent plasma program was instigated by physicians and investigators from 40 institutions, including the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University, Einstein Medical Center and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, among many others working closely with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry partners.

Introducing 9 Meters Biopharma, the new company birthed from the merger of Raleigh-based Innovate Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and Israeli-based RDD Pharma, a startup focused on orphan and innovative therapies for gastrointestinal disorders.

Producing so many doses will require creating new facilities or commandeering those used for other vaccines. Critics of RNA and DNA vaccines point to the fact that we already have the established infrastructure to make traditional vaccines. “Governments are trying to build potential manufacturing capacities for [RNA and DNA vaccines], but they are not there yet,” says Thomas Lingelbach, the CEO of Valneva, which is working on a traditional approach to a COVID-19 vaccine. Not that it’s easy to just start producing any vaccine by the billions. He plans on using a facility that was intended for Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine, whether for Valneva’s vaccine or perhaps another company’s if Valneva’s is unsuccessful. “These are complicated biological processes, no matter what technology you use,” says Lingelbach. It’s a manual process too, featuring human beings in safety gear. “It’s not like producing a car,” he says.

It’s early, not even 7 a.m., in fact, and the above statement is prefaced with an apology for interrupting the free-flowing dialogue taking place between a gathering of five biopharmaceutical executives on day two of the 2020 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM). Among the incessant ringing of nearby cell phones, conversations, and the echo of flatware clinking on dishes, we’ve come together at the Marriott’s Level III restaurant in San Francisco for a roundtable discussion on corporate culture, only our table happens to be rectangular. And though all arrived early and have already met, we take a moment for each to formally introduce themselves (listed in order of introduction).