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We’re seeing some rays of hope that this ghastly biotech job market might loosen up a bit. Additionally, Bernie Sanders needs to subpoena some pharma CEOs, and as all the time, we’ve obtained a rad podcast for you at present.
Hope on the horizon for the biotech job market?
When it got here to jobs, biotech was beastly in 2023. However the temper on the J.P. Morgan convention final week was jubilant — and there’s optimism on the horizon now that the biotech job market shall be vastly improved. The reset final 12 months has been good for the business, opines government recruiter Christopher Palatucci. Salaries have since right-sized, and the “vacationer traders” who have been attracted by biotech’s glitz — and finally helped inflate valuations — have backed off. Many “me-too” firms have folded, clearing the best way for extra modern startups.
Now, there’s hope that the IPO window will proceed to open. Tutorial analysis is presently ripe for the choosing, and there shall be extra want for early-stage preclinical and translational expertise, he says.
Learn extra.
Why are wealthy biotechs reducing prices?
Has JPM Week already worn off? And what’s going to maneuver markets in 2024? We cowl all that and extra this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast.
Our colleague Jason Mast joins us to debate an rising development in biotech: Money-rich startups are shedding staff and tweaking their methods amid a tricky marketplace for enterprise capital. We additionally look forward to the most important biotech tales coming in 2024, together with some main knowledge readouts and some pivotal FDA choices.
Hear right here.
Bernie Sanders needs to subpoena J&J, Merck CEOs
Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate well being committee, is trying to subpoena the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck following an investigation into excessive drug costs. That is uncommon, since this explicit committee hasn’t issued a subpoena in additional than 40 years. The executives have refused to testify at a listening to on excessive prescription drug costs — a transfer that Sanders calls “completely unacceptable.”
Now, Sanders will convene a vote Jan. 31 to resolve whether or not to subpoena the CEOs and examine excessive drug prices.
“These CEOs might make tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in compensation. The pharmaceutical firms they run might make billions in earnings,” Sanders wrote. “However that doesn’t give them a proper to evade congressional oversight.”
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Groundwork for a attainable lengthy Covid diagnostic?
Lengthy Covid is elusive; it’s arduous to diagnose and deal with it, and there’s little understanding of its fundamental biology. New analysis printed in Science, nonetheless, exhibits excessive ranges of sure immune-related proteins in blood of individuals with lengthy Covid. These findings set the stage for creating new diagnostics for lengthy Covid, and maybe might encourage new therapeutic targets.
Lengthy Covid carries a stigma, since it’s arduous to diagnose — however the research confirmed that folks with lingering signs have elevated irritation, immune dysregulation, and elevated antibody responses. The scientists discovered broken crimson blood cells and platelets that sign hurt to endothelial cells lining blood vessels.
That is the primary sign {that a} biomarker can reliably point out lengthy Covid. Based on one immunologist not concerned within the research, the research is “fascinating,” however she added that “it’s unlikely {that a} single biomarker can be utilized to diagnose lengthy Covid given the heterogeneity of the situation.”
Learn extra.
Extra reads
- Ex-Pfizer worker convicted of insider buying and selling on Covid capsule, Bloomberg
- After 17-year courtship, Solar and Taro lastly agree on $348 million buyout, FiercePharma
- The Supreme Court docket might overturn the Chevron doctrine. Right here’s how that would damage the FDA, Endpoints
