Originally Published as The Niche Podcast
Thermo Fisher Scientific spends a billion, Boston Scientific also spends a billion and gets FDA approval, Verve pulls $94 million for CRISPR in humans, and Vera raises $80 million for Berger’s disease
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Music by Luke Goodson
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Life Science Today is your source for stories, insights, and trends across the life science industry. Expect weekly highlights about new technologies, pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions, news about the moves of venture capital and private equity, and how the stock market responds to biotech IPOs. Life Science Today also explores trends around clinical research, including the evolving patterns that determine how drugs and therapies are developed and approved. It’s news, with a dash of perspective, focused on the life science industry.
Introduction
Welcome to The Niche Podcast – Your weekly rundown of the biotech, clinical research, and life science industries. I’m your host, Dr. Noah Goodson. This week, Thermo Fisher Scientific spends a billion, Boston Scientific also spends a billion and gets FDA approval, Verve pulls $94 million for CRISPR in humans, and Vera raises $80 million for Berger’s disease.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Making Moves
Thermo Fisher Scientific had a record-breaking year in 2020. While there was a slight sales slump in certain research sectors in Q2, the back-half of the year provided enormous income. While their Q4 totals are not publicly available yet, but we reported that they saw a 36% increase in revenue in Q3 alone. Driving these profits are a combination of normal research demand and a surge from COVID19. Thermo Fisher’s core business model is as a supplier. When demand skyrockets, for example for novel COVID19 testing kits, supplies become a major concern. Thermo Fisher, along with others were able to step up and meet this crisis of demand.
However, a global pandemic is not a long-term strategy. It’s no surprise to see Thermo Fisher making major acquisitions. First, they acquired Novasep’s viral vector manufacturing business for $880 million. Based in Belgium, Novasep has quietly built a substantial viral vector manufacturing business with an estimated $95 million revenue in 2020. Their facilities provide Thermo Fisher access the European manufacturing and should pair well with existing product lines, as well as give them expanded contract manufacturing capabilities. It’s not clear if Thermo Fisher is planning on expanding their contract development/contract manufacturing services, or if they are going to utilize Novasep’s facilities to supplement direct supply sales and product development. Hard to imagine buying a 20-year-old almost $100 million business without a vision to incorporate it into larger offerings.
While Novasep may be in line with long term strategy, the acquisition of Mesa Biotech for $450 million in cash + $100 million in milestones is a clear COVID19 related move. Mesa has developed an easy-to-use point of care COVID19 test that is approved by the FDA and works in just 30 minutes through PCR. It’s simple function and rapid response makes it very scalable for COVID19 diagnostics. Additionally, the benchtop tool has clear integrative potential with the rest of Thermo Fisher’s diverse diagnostic testing portfolio. This platform has also been approved for use in other diseases including the Flu, giving it the potential to exist in every clinic across the planet.
Thermo Fisher has let on that the expect a 25% increase in revenue in 2021. Those are numbers of a company that is in early growth, not in its 75th year of business. However, with a lockdown on wide swaths of the scientific supply market, expanded access to the downstream needs of researchers, and 20 million COVID19 kits being manufactured weekly, I think we can expect Thermo Fisher to carry through on its goals. The real question is how will they position for the long-term? Does Novasep signal a move to more CMDO work?
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Boston Scientific Spends a Billion, Gets FDA Approval
Boston Scientific has acquired the medical wearables company Preventice Solutions in a deal worth more than $1.2 billion dollars. Preventice has grown a $158 million revenue company delivering cloud-based integration of wearable cardiac monitors. Boston Scientific has recently pushed into implantable cardiac monitors. The acquisition of Preventice is complimentary to their growth in a space they estimate to be worth $2 billion dollars. Along with FDA approved devices, Boston Scientific gets the algorithms and programs that underpin these cardiac systems including BeatLogic, which is a deep learning AI designed to interpret heart rhythm variations. In the short-run, they will likely continue to push sales of the existing Preventice technologies. Long-run, they may see this as a ramp into their own solutions. As in, oh you like our wearable? You’ll love our implant. Boston Scientific has owned 22% of Preventice since 2015, so this is not a surprise move.
In other Boston Scientific news, the FDA has granted approval to their Vercise Genus deep brain stimulation system (DBS). The latest iteration of their Parkinson’s implant provides DPS with directionality to give peak performance. The device boasts 15-year battery life, which is amazing. But keep in mind changing the battery requires a meeting in the surgery suite. Probably the biggest performance move is the ability to place the stimulators with directionality to control stimulation dosing and improve outcomes for patients. While DBS does not treat the underlying disease state, it can offer massive relief for certain patients and dramatically improve their long-term quality of life, living with Parkinson’s.
Verve Therapeutics Targets CVD via CRISPR
There were a number of funding rounds announced last week. Two quick ones: Verve Therapeutics raised a $94 million series B. The gene editing company is focused on heart disease via the liver using a form of CRISPR technology. Their non-human primate data suggests they can utilize a single dose of gene editing to change a single A to G, resulting in decreased production of a certain protein. The net results is lower LDL cholesterol. They are not projecting clinical trials till 2022. I’d guess there is some significant refinement of their protocols before it’s ready for the limelight.
Vera Therapeutics Targets Berger's Disease
Vera Therapeutics has raised an $80 million series B for the clinical development of atacicept. They are under license from Merck to develop atacicept for all indications globally. Their first target is the autoimmune condition IgA Nephropathy also called Berger’s disease. The first round of clinical trials showed that atacicept is generally safe, has a strong dose-response curve with clinical markers, and looks like it will reduce certain kinds of autoantibodies. This funding round will get Vera into a phase II clinical trial for IgA Nephropathy in the middle of 2021.
Programming Note
Quick programming note before I go. Throughout 2021, we are going to be dropping interviews with industry experts. Rather than take over your weekly news summary, we’ll be giving you these episodes as bonuses once a month. Later this week we’ll release an interview with John Reites, the founder and CEO at Thread Research. He educates me on eCOA, the complexities in the space, and how we can think about decentralized clinical trials moving into 2021. If you’re interested in clinical research at any level you’ll want to check it out.
Closing Credits
Thanks for joining me on The Niche Podcast; your weekly summary of top news in the biotech, clinical trials, and life science industries. You can learn more at thenichepod.com or find us on your favorite podcast app. Like, comment, subscribe, and most of all share with your friends. If you like what you hear, please rate and review, it really helps us. Once again, I’m Dr. Noah Goodson, I’ll see you next week.