The “attacks,” as they’re known, are debilitating and even possibly fatal. A patient with the ultra-rare genetic disease acute hepatic porphyria (AHP) is struck with excruciating abdominal pain and rushes to a doctor’s office or hospital for some type of pain relief—even a surgery—to feel better. And then another attack could come, and another, driving […]

Locally based biotech companies receive fresh funding from investors. A software startup launches games that it says may help children with disorders that cause attention difficulties. Get the details on these developments and more in San Diego life sciences news: —Evofem Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVFM) struck a deal to raise up to $80 million in a […]

David Dvorak has been appointed chairman of the board and CEO of Jintel Health. Ping Zhang, founder of Richmond, CA-based Jintel, will become president of the company. Dvorak is the former chief executive of medical devices giant Zimmer Biomet (NYSE: ZBH). Jintel says it has developed technology uses analytics and machine learning for clinical and […]

Executives from five of the companies that negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers testified Tuesday before the Senate finance committee. It was the latest in a series of hearings centered on the rising cost of prescription medication, which has captured attention on both sides of the political aisle and is likely to become a […]

If you’ve been following venture capital trends, what you expected to happen in the first quarter of 2019 did: More money is being invested in fewer deals, and women founders still are getting less of it than men. Venture firms sent $32.6 billion into startups nationally during the first three months of 2019, the second […]

Roger Pomerantz is now chairman and CEO of infectious diseases drug developer ContraFect (NASDAQ: CFRX). He succeeds Steven Gilman, who is retiring. Pomerantz has been vice chairman of Yonkers, NY-based ContraFect for five years. He was also CEO of Cambridge, MA-based microbiome drug developer Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB) from 2014 until January of this year. […]

Scott Gottlieb’s last day as FDA commissioner is today. His resignation announcement last month surprised some, given the earlier denials about leaving. But after two years of commuting between Connecticut, where his family remained, and the FDA’s Maryland headquarters, he decided to step down from the agency. What will Gottlieb’s legacy be? His efforts to […]

So far this year, NGM Biopharmaceuticals has licensed a drug to Merck, extended a research agreement with that partner, and laid the groundwork to continue mid-stage testing of its wholly-owned lead compound. Now it can add a $107 million IPO to the list. Late Wednesday, NGM sold appoximately 6.7 million shares for $16 apiece, the […]

Two months after Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) terminated its top financial executive for “personal behavior,” the Boston company has named a permanent replacement. Vertex, a developer of drugs for cystic fibrosis and other diseases, announced Charles Wagner will join the company as executive vice president and CFO. Wagner is currently CFO and executive vice president […]

Wendy Dwyer has joined Surface Oncology (NASDAQ: SURF) as chief business officer, the same role she had most recently at privately held Portal Instruments. Her experience also include positions at AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and Ipsen Biosciences. Cambridge, MA-based Surface, which went public last year, is developing cancer immunotherapies.