March 13, 2019 Comments (0) Views: 1568 Biotech, Biotech Briefing, Blog

Biotech Briefing: Silvia Mah Named President of Connect

Plus: Neurocrine Reports Positive Interim Phase 2 Trial Results for Rare Disease Drug

Silvia Mah Named President of Connect

Connect, San Diego’s longtime innovation and startup accelerator, has appointed Silvia Mah president. Mah is executive director of Hera Labs, an accelerator for women-owned business, and a partner in Ad Astra Ventures, a San Diego-based business accelerator and venture fund focused on helping female-led startups. According to Xconomy, Mah will be full-time at Connect starting April 1.

Neurocrine Reports Positive Interim Phase 2 Trial Results for Rare Disease Drug

The interim results from a phase 2 study of a treatment for congenital adrenal hyperplasia lays the path for a pivotal trial. The rare genetic disorder is characterized by over production or cortisol and adrenal steroids. As reported in FierceBiotech, the interim results showed in more than half the patients at least a 50% reduction of these hormone levels from baseline after treatment with Neurocrine’s drug.

Erasca Raises $22 Million for AI Drug Discovery in Cancer

Erasca adds $22 million to the $42 million raised in December to apply big data analytics to cancer drug discovery. The new funds come from new investors, Arch Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Reneo Capital, and new unnamed private and strategic investors. Xconomy reports that Erasca will apply machine learning and automation to mine publicly available and proprietary information on cancer genomics, drug targets, and pathways of interest to identify “what parts of discovery we can just fundamentally change or accelerate.”

Read + Listen

POW: Podcast of the Week

BBC Radio’s The Life Scientific interviews a single researcher taking a deep dive into their life and work.

It’s Happening Here

March 14-15:

The Future of Individualized Medicine (formerly the Future of Genomic Medicine) will take place March 14-15 in La Jolla.

April 2:

SDBN is launching a new series of called “SDBN After Work” to provide more regular networking opportunities. The first one will take place April 2 at Gravity Heights in Sorrento Valley.