Ashley Kalinauskas

Interesting in-depth blog post on PacBio challenges by Keith Robison, well worth a read. My view is broadly similar. Stock is now down 6X since I made my 2024 prediction: (https://lnkd.in/gecsqHTe): "PacBio - Tough spot as again LR market is limited and Oxford Nanopore Technologies is coming at them from below with less expensive instruments so it'll be a battle over a small patch of ground. Hence PacBio buying Omniome, but not clear that it has a SR value proposition that can compete with Illumina (and Element Biosciences)." As Keith points out it's hard to see an M&A deal that would work here even at this low price. IMO private equity isn't going to be interested as they look for good growth potential and that's not showing up; Keith suggests Thermo as a buyer - an interesting idea as they have a decent onco business around Ion Torrent; PACB would give them a more scalable SR technology for liquid biopsy and LR *might* be nice for onco too. Hmmm. Maybe Element or Ultima would be a better fit for them...and much less complex a deal.

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Cormorant Asset Management, LP is very pleased to be supporting Altrubio’s Series B financing. I’m quoted in this WSJ article by Brian Gormley highlighting recent advances by biotech companies like AltruBio Inc. and our former portfolio company Prometheus (acquired last year by Merck for $10.8B), bringing novel targets and approaches to the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as ulcerative colitis. Altrubio is in the vanguard of efforts to exploit checkpoint inhibition in T-cells to restore proper balance of the adaptive immune system in inflammatory disorders. Blockade of checkpoint inhibition to stimulate anti-tumor T-cell immunity has revolutionized the treatment of cancer. Altrubio is now taking an inverse approach leveraging the novel immune checkpoint inhibitor PSGL-1 to combat T-cell-driven inflammation in ulcerative colitis and other autoimmune/inflammatory disorders.

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🎉 Feedvax powers growth with annual distribution offerings of over $20 million! 🚀 At Feedvax, we are on a mission to revolutionize animal health and we are excited to share a milestone that validates our vision and technology. We recently closed a second distribution agreement, securing purchase commitments worth more than $20 million annually. 🤝💼 What does this mean? It is a huge vote of confidence in our innovative oral vaccine platform that is transforming the way farmers manage animal health. By eliminating the need for stressful animal handling we are unlocking unprecedented efficiency and welfare gains. And with these partnerships, we are poised to accelerate our global impact and market leadership. 🌍🥇 For our investors, this is an exciting validation of Feedvax's tremendous growth potential as we continue to expand our footprint reducing the $300 billion losses in the animal health industry due to diseases. 📈🔬 Thanks to all the FeedVax team, investors, and the people who support our growth every day. The future of animal health is simple, without stress  and powered by Feedvax. 🚀 #Feedvax #AgTech #Sustainability #AnimalHealth #theendofanimalhandling

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How is the weather in Boston warmer than Los Angeles right now? Headed to the plenary session at #BIOIT - if you're here, let's connect! I'm here through Wednesday. #BioIt #Bioinformatics #PrecisionMedicine

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Dear Manager: Thanks for Saving Me From My Dumb Ideas On the drive up to Seattle for the National Med Chem Symposium, I remembered some moments from nearly ten years ago when I was proposing some of my first compounds to synthesize. We were trying to improve the PK of a lead, and I brought my then-manager (Hilary Beck) a list of several targets with hydroxyl groups all over the place, hoping to impress her with my initiative in designing my own targets. I had already placed orders for the building blocks (with her budget) and was ready to show her how quickly I could get these things done. Having just gotten out of grad school, I thought these were great ideas, since natural products have plenty of hydroxyl groups, and hydroxyl groups can make lots of hydrogen bonds, which could make them bind more tightly to our protein of interest... right? Needless to say I was disappointed by her muted reaction, which was the quiet "hmm" many managers have when they think their reports' ideas are dumb but are too polite to say so 🤣 I can't remember what she said exactly, but it was something along the lines of, "you should consider prioritizing your compounds based on what problems you think they're going to solve." I took the hint and decided against making my little monstrosities, which likely saved me a few weeks in the lab and our company a lot of money (though not all of it, since I'd already bought the starting materials...). I tend to be pretty action-oriented, and the reflection was a nice reminder that sometimes it's better to pause and really think through what actions we're going to take next, and why. A key role of a manager is to help their reports prioritize their work, and provide them with the knowledge and context they need to ultimately make great decision on their own. A challenge that I'm sure many managers find though, is that your ability to provide mentorship doesn't scale with the size of your team. While we would all love to be able to whiteboard ideas with our team members every day, once you have 8, 15, 25 people in your organization, it's physically impossible to give and get the facetime everyone needs. One of the reasons Drug Hunter exists is to help scientists grow their knowledge on their own in the limited time they have, without needing to rely solely on the advice of more experienced colleagues whose time is also limited. I hope it helps other scientists at all career stages to find and apply the knowledge you need to solve your drug discovery problems, without needing to first embarass yourself in front of your manager like me :) Would love to hear how you've seen mentorship and knowledge transfer scaled across teams. -DH

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Demonstrating the technical leadership of SK pharmteco! 🧬 Catch up with our team at ASGCT to discuss how SKPT can support your #cellandgene development!

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Tomorrow I'm heading to Baltimore for this year's ASGCT conference. A friend asked me what innovations Gator Bio will have in gene therapy this year, and I told him there will be many surprises. One of these is a novel hybridization BLI immunochemical assay for genome integrity assessment (Full/Partial/Empty AAV ratios), different from dPCR, ddPCR and other methods, which is the only assay on the market today that can independently titrate the positive and negative strands. This method could further be used to titrate RNA without the need for reverse transcription, making analysis of lentivirus and mRNA-loaded LNPs easier. Look forward to meeting you at booth #631 and welcome to visit three posters (May 8th, poster #563; May 9th, poster#952; May 10th, poster#1854) #ASGCT #AAV #GatorBio #BLI #GeneTherapy #Hybridization #BLIimmunochemical #Full/Partial/Empty #Integrity #Lentivirus #LNPs #mRNA #qPCR #ddPCR

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Ramping up on the conference circuit...I'll be presenting some of the latest from Manifold Bio at the MassBio 2024 Align Summit on Thursday (April 25) at 11:15am. The conference theme is AI/ML methods in biotech, and I suspect we'll hear a lot about the importance of generating the right data. To make drugs, the right data is in vivo data, measurements of drug candidates navigating actual living systems. At Manifold, we have a unique and critical edge on this point: we've solved high-throughput in vivo data generation. This uniquely empowers our ability to design medicines that get to the right tissues. We're using this superpower to build a pipeline of brain-shuttled biologics. Excited to share more! https://lnkd.in/e_3chz4J #AlignSummit24 #AlignSummit #AIDrugDiscovery  

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After a turbulent few years, 2024 has given the biotechnology industry some signs of a return to normalcy. For one, venture investment appears to have stabilized at levels seen prior to a pandemic-era spike. Data presented by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization at the group’s annual meeting this week in San Diego showed private drug companies in the U.S. raised $3.8 billion during the first quarter.... Venture capital firms are also active in raising cash, reloading for new investment in the sector. Several new groups have launched this year, including Regeneron’s venture arm and Goldman Sachs’ first life sciences fund, which raised $650 million. Established investors are busy, too: ARCH Venture Partners outlined plans in February to raise $3 billion, while Canaan Partners X LLC recently added $100 million to its 13th fund.... #investing #investment #IPO #MergersandAcquisitions #funding #financing #biotech #biotechnology #returningtonormal #capitaldeployment Biotechnology Innovation Organization #celltherapy #genetherapy #cellandgenetherapy #advancedtherapies #regenerativemedicine #lifesciences #lifescience #BIO2024

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Aanika Biosciences, Inc. is helping food preservation companies create novel ways to insure distributors and retailers against spoilage / contamination. We operate at the intersection of biotechnology and insurance and are scaling quickly. If you're developing biologics or other technologies for the food / ag space please reach out and see how we can accelerate adoption of your products. #agtech #insurance #foodsystem

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When should biotech platform companies choose to remain independent and grow to become the next big pharma, versus exit via M&A? To answer this, we should first ask: Why do biotechs typically position themselves for M&A rather than long term independent growth? Biopharma M&A is the preferred route of exit for most founders and investors for two key reasons: 1) Rapid, lump sum cash liquidity for shareholders. 2) Hand off risk to partners. Sell assets to big pharma to leverage their capabilities in navigating the long, expensive and risky path to commercialization (e.g., FDA approval, payer negotiations, manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution) One downside of this is that, post M&A, the hard-earned platform capabilities (the people, knowledge, technology and practices that constitute a biotech) are stripped for parts and largely lost. In the choice between independent growth vs. M&A for biotechs, I propose a simple heuristic for identifying "platform escape velocity". When the risk adjusted return yielded by a (continuously compounding) biotech platform outweighs the value of a wholesale M&A exit for the same timeframe, then the balance tips in favor of independent growth over acquisition. Factors to consider: (1) Time frame to exit. Weighing a sizable M&A in 3 years versus a theoretically larger public market cap in 10 years can be challenging. (2) Sharpe Ratio. What is the projected delta in profit between independent vs. M&A commercialization? (3) Platform rate of compounding. How much does compounding economies of scale in your platform bend your PoS/RAR for each incremental asset? (4) Cost of Commercialization. Are you capitalized, equipped, and staffed as an independent biotech to commercialize? H/T David K. Yang

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Does your startup focus on oncology therapeutics? Check out this Bullpen interview to explore in-kind resources available by partnering with the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research!

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🧑‍💼 The Business of Biotech - 4th Edition In our last edition of The Business of Biotech, we discussed the common pitfalls in the FDA approval process, and how Cytonics is prepared to avoid them. Leading the charge is Joey Bose, Cytonics Corporation's President & CEO. Joey has a multi-faceted background in biomedical engineering, investment banking, and biotech R&D. Here's how Joey Bose navigates a day filled with challenges in spearheading the company’s mission. From managing emails and operations to engaging in international collaboration and physical activities, his day is a mix of intense focus and personal zen. The company's lean, passionate culture mirrors his own ethos. https://lnkd.in/eJc4pijh #biotechnology #arthritis #osteoarthritis #investing #crowdfunding #venturecapital #healthcare #drugdevelopment #clinicaltrials #regenerativemedicine #orthopedics #orthopaedics #surgery #investor #FDA #medicine #lifesciences #researchanddevelopment #capitalmarkets

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🌟 Attention Biotech and Venture Capital Leaders 🌟 This morning, I picked up the #NVCA Quarterly report (1Q'24) for some reference data and came across a statement that made me pause: “However, many biopharma startups are pre-revenue and need to burn a significant amount of capital while making advances clinically.” While this statement is factual, it opens up significant opportunities for interpretation and, more importantly, ACTION. Today, I pose the following questions to our community: 💰 Investors: Besides leveraging AI what steps are you taking to support emerging biopharma companies through this historically challenging paradigm? 🕴 Biopharma Executives: Have you considered adopting an alternate business model to sustain the biotech business? At #UbuntuResearch, we have a unique perspective based on our current work, but I would love to hear from the community. Let’s engage meaningfully to address the complex issue of biotech financing. How can we collaborate to find innovative solutions? Source: Venture Monitor - Q12024 #Biotech #VentureCapital #GlobalDrugDevelopment #UbuntuResearch #BiotechExec

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Very interesting panel discussion last night at the BOSTON BIOTECH FORUM, LLC organized by Wendy Webber Nelson, PhD on the current and evolving fundraising landscape for biotech. Olga Danilchanka brought the MRL corporate VC perspective, with Peter Day with the banking angle from Piper Jaffray, John Alam sharing insights from his recent (wildly successful) CervoMed reverse merger, and John Alessi and Anna Tomczyk rounding out the group with the legal considerations from Dechert. Everyone, at all stages, is struggling to adjust to moving goalposts and uncertain pricing. The consistent north star seems to be the well-established value inflection points - Development Candidate molecule selection is the new minimum for series A financing, and teams on both sides of the table are aiming to fund enough to clear human proof of concept in hopes of derisking the IPO/M&A that might be expected at that milestone. Creative financing with grants, strategic deals, and reverse mergers are gaining ground, diligence levels are high, deals are slow, and those that do get done are often insider-led. I think Peter Day said it best "Whatever you see in the flashy big number headlines, every single team that closes their funding comes out feeling like they've walked a million miles through the desert." While these are undoubtedly difficult times for biotech fundraising, it's refreshing and encouraging to be able to talk with others who have been through it before from every aspect. It's also great to see so many people dedicated and focused on delivering life changing medicines. This field, so densely packed in this town, is blessed with brilliant people working ridiculously hard to make the world a little bit better.

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🔬 My quick expert take on the newly priced ~$500M market cap of liquid biopsy pioneer, GRAIL Firstly, it's important to note that the market cap here is quite arbitrary, as it is linked to the amount of cash Illumina left in GRAIL’s bank account for the spin-off. What really matters is the implied firm value that the market is attributing to GRAIL. In this case, it assigns a negative $400M firm value to GRAIL ($500M market cap minus $900M in net cash). This implies that the market believes the management will simply burn through the cash without meaningful results, destroying economic value in the process. This situation is not uncommon in biotech companies where the lead program has allegedly failed but the cash is trapped and management refrains from distributing it to maintain their jobs and people's hope. This outcome aligns with my previous GRAIL valuation article 📈, which has garnered over 4,000 unique reads by the way - and appear as the top search on Google 😅. All other comments I made in my article about potential pivot, M&A catalysts, and strategic changes still apply: https://lnkd.in/emnGF4AJ Meanwhile, liquid biopsy company Natera now boasts a $13.3B market cap, up 74% year-to-date. And next-generation technologies are on the horizon with greater business models 🌟😊 Mursla Bio #LiquidBiopsy #GRAIL #Cancer #Diagnostics #NextGen #Mursla #Natera

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“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” This is just a tip of an iceberg, stay tuned for more news! #CancerDiagnostics #CancerResearch #LiquidBiopsy #BridgeCapture #Genomill #MedicalInnovation

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Some proteins are just difficult to express. They have their own acronym (DTEPs). If you have a challenging protein - consider Culture Bioscience's fleet of over 200 cloud connected bioreactors to run your DoEs. We can speed up your research and help execute your strategy with totally transparent data. #processdevelopment #DTEPs #MAbs #recombinantproteins https://lnkd.in/eJH9Z5ab

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🚀 Big News in Biopharma! 🚀 Profluent is making waves at the intersection of biotech and AI. Their innovative approach promises to revolutionize gene editing, and they're doing it with a bold move: open-sourcing their work! 🌐🔬 Introducing OpenCRISPR 🧬 Profluent's OpenCRISPR initiative is set to provide customizable gene-editing proteins designed entirely by AI. Imagine AI-generated CRISPR-like proteins that have never been seen before, capable of editing the human genome with unparalleled precision. 🔍 Highlights: AI-Powered: Trained on vast databases of protein sequences, Profluent's AI can generate hundreds of thousands of CRISPR-like proteins. OpenCRISPR-1: Their top-performing AI-created gene editor boasts 400+ mutations compared to CRISPR-Cas9, reducing off-target editing by 95% and keeping unwanted genetic changes below 1%. Why This Matters Attempting to edit human DNA with AI-designed systems is nothing short of a scientific moonshot. Profluent's success points to a future where AI can design bespoke cures for diseases, democratizing gene editing. 🔬 Real-World Impact: While AI-designed drugs have been in clinical testing for years, CRISPR tech just got its FDA green light last year with Casgevy for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. These treatments show the incredible potential of gene editing to transform lives. Open Collaboration Profluent invites researchers to test and provide feedback on OpenCRISPR-1. Their goal is to partner with top research institutions and drug developers to expedite the development of new genetic therapies, ensuring safe and ethical practices. Recent Milestones $35M Funding: Backed by Spark Capital, Insight Partners, Air Street Capital, and top angel investors from OpenAI, Salesforce, and Google. Join the Revolution This is a watershed moment in gene editing. Profluent is not just pushing the boundaries of what's possible; they’re opening the doors for global collaboration. Let's build the next generation of genetic medicines together! 👉 Read more and get involved: https://lnkd.in/gN9p-H6j #GeneEditing #CRISPR #AI #Biotech #OpenSource #Innovation #Profluent #HealthcareRevolution

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