Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jun 26

Huge congrats to the ProFound Therapeutics and @novartis.bsky.social teams on kicking off this exciting relationship to discover and develop novel protein drugs and drug targets in cardiovascular disease. www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/nova...

Novartis pens ProFound pact, offering up $750M biobucks per cardiovascular target

Novartis is penning a four-year pact with ProFound Therapeutics to create new therapeutics for heart disease, with $750 million in biobucks up for grabs per target. | Novartis is penning a four-year p...

www.fiercebiotech.com

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jun 18

Who’s at #BIO2025 ?

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · May 24

My son’s piano teacher asks me to practice duets with him… I feel like I’m the one taking lessons again!

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Apr 12

Congrats Sam!

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Apr 4

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 31

Unbelievably rapid shift in landscape. Curious how this compared to other industries. This is a massive injection of pharma funding into Chinese biotech industry (and continued injection as milestones and royalties are triggered) that will also have downstream implications on innovation.

Pearl Freier @pearlf.bsky.social · Mar 30

41% of external molecules licensed by large pharma so far in '25 are coming from China said Stifel's Tim Opler on Fri's Biotech Hangout. This is up from 31% in '24. It was 0% in '19. Data from DealForma/CEO Chris D. The # of upfront $ for China biotech licensing deals increased too he said #biosky

Biotech Hangout @biotechhangout.bsky.social · Mar 28

#BiotechHangout: Chris Garabedian, Tim Opler, Bruce Booth & Sam Fazeli on investor mood, PIPEs, startup contraction, policy updates: (FDA, NIH, CDC, HHS) data: ($CGON, $SLNO), #ELCC2025: ($JNJ, $AZN, $BNTX), $NVO’s obesity deals, aging report, $LYRA wind-down & more: twitter.com/i/spaces/1MY...

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 22

Good PoV. While Canada does need to strengthen its domestic market, it won’t be sustaining a standalone ecosystem anytime soon.
The key near-term opportunities will be to double-down on investments into science/biotech and lock in its place as the next preferred global partner for innovation.

Chris Hannay @hannay.bsky.social · Mar 21

For Canada's life-sciences sector, the U.S. has always been market #1.

The trade war is a huge threat to that - but also an opportunity to address some long-standing red-tape issues like domestic procurement.

@seansilcoff.bsky.social and I write: www.theglobeandmail.com/business/eco...

Are U.S. tariffs a threat to Canadian health sciences innovators – or a golden opportunity?

The Trump administration’s unpredictability could make Canada an attractive destination for American researchers

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 20

Congrats to Jason and Ampersand team on the raise.

Endpoints News @endpts.com · Mar 19

Ampersand Biomedicines raises $65M in Series B with backing from Eli Lilly to advance targeted biologics.

Flagship's Ampersand gets Eli Lilly's support in $65M Series B

Ampersand Biomedicines, a biotech working on medicines

endpts.com

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Reposted by Michael Wong

Endpoints News @endpts.com · Mar 19

Ampersand Biomedicines raises $65M in Series B with backing from Eli Lilly to advance targeted biologics.

Flagship's Ampersand gets Eli Lilly's support in $65M Series B

Ampersand Biomedicines, a biotech working on medicines

endpts.com

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 19

🍀 👌

Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 16

Really cool application of technology leading to uncovering of new biology.

Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · Mar 11

Exciting discovery by Svensson lab and collaborators @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social, computational discovery of 2500 new bioactive peptides, including 12-mer named BRP that reduces food intake leading to weight loss w/o nausea in mice!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prohormone cleavage prediction uncovers a non-incretin anti-obesity peptide - Nature

Computational drug discovery is used to identify a 12-mer peptide derived from BRINP2 with potent anti-obesity effects that are independent of leptin, glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor and melanocortin...

www.nature.com

Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 14

Canada (and much of the world) is overly reliant on the US for biopharmaceutical innovations.

The NIH cutdown combined with an ensuing trade war will inevitably impact our future access to medicines from the US.

Canada needs to build up its own scalable, sustainable biopharmaceutical sector.

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 9

Hopefully will have a chance to connect at another mutual event before the Timmerman 20th!

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Mar 7

Amazing event indeed. Roast was a bit on the light side, but it’s hard to roast such a nice guy!

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Feb 6

Love this visualization from the pharmas FY financials showing breakdown of where money came in from and how it was spent.

Joanna Sadowska aka Dr Jojo 🌸 @jmsadowska.bsky.social · Feb 3

AbbVie reported their financial performance on January 31st. Here is the recap from their interim financial report.

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Feb 4

Not the most inspiring title…

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 27

Great to see continued growth on “Pill Hill” 🇨🇦

www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/astr...

AstraZeneca invests $570M to grow in Canada, plans to add 700 jobs

AstraZeneca is expanding its boot print in Canada with a $570 million investment designed to create 700 jobs. | AstraZeneca is expanding its boot print in Canada with a $570 million investment designe...

www.fiercebiotech.com

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 23

Organelle transfer is an area of biology that never ceases to amaze. A lot of creative mechanisms that cancer cells could teach us for avoiding immunogenicity.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Immune evasion through mitochondrial transfer in the tumour microenvironment - Nature

Mitochondria with mutations in their DNA from cancer cells can be transferred to T cells in the tumour microenvironment, which leads to T cell dysfunction and impaired antitumour immunity.

www.nature.com

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 21

US biotechs need to ensure they are spending $$ innovating in highly novel and differentiated biology, as it is going to be near impossible to outcompete China head-on. Their growing prominence was clear in ADC deal boom 2 yrs ago, obesity and multispecifics last yr - where next?

Endpoints News @endpts.com · Jan 21

Chinese drug developers are pursuing novel drug targets and hot therapeutic areas like obesity. The exploding trend has sent shocks through the biotech industry and its center of gravity, which has long been anchored in a handful of cities in the US.
endpts.com/chinas-drug-...

China's biotech boom is threatening US drugmakers' dominance

In 2019, Stanford University professor Irv Weissman and a colleague published a paper that represented a new way to target some aggressive cancers. Shortly after, they did what many researchers ...

endpts.com

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 20

Recharged by the inspiring discussions with current and prospective partners at #JPM2025. Our industry undoubtedly has flaws but there are a lot of great people at the helm seeking to make a difference in drug discovery and healthcare.
Now back to the bitter cold week ahead in Boston…

Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 10

Tons do this, but perhaps this is of a much larger scale with $500M from a single pharma

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 7

As a Canadian, it is painful to watch #Canada continue to struggle with global leadership. This is not only true of national politics - but also of Canada’s #biotech sector, where the lack of leaders generally has been a key bottleneck to realizing the potential of its science and current ventures.

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Reposted by Michael Wong

Daphne Zohar @daphnezohar.bsky.social · Jan 4

We are having #JPM2025 networking event on 1/14 at Persona. Meet our #BiotechHangout co-hosts and other colleagues with open bar thanks to our generous sponsors register here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #BioSky

https://bit.ly/41LDMIP

t.co

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Jan 3

Who’s going to be at #JPM2025?

What’s the Bluesky equivalent of a Tweet-up?

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Michael Wong @michaelwong.bsky.social · Dec 20

Well, this has got to be one of the coolest and funniest gifts I’ve ever received.

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