Syncona restructures biotech fund; Lilly’s $1B Verve bet; FDA’s two-track future — a BioCentury podcast

Plus: Biopharma IPOs, obesity readouts, Makary’s priority pathway and the view from BIO’s chair

Publicly traded U.K. investment firm and company builder Syncona Ltd. (LSE:SYNC) is restructuring its fund amid ongoing market challenges in the biopharma industry. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how the firm will steer its portfolio toward returns for shareholders, while aiming to build a new fund away from public markets.

BioCentury’s analysts then assess the takeout by Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) of cardiovascular base editing company Verve Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VERV), and what Washington Editor Steve Usdin calls FDA’s new “two-track” future for evaluating new therapies for approval — those with clear-cut benefits and those with ambiguous efficacy safety and efficacy profiles — in light of the many departures of senior FDA staff. 

They also discuss NASDAQ’s largest biopharma IPO — by Caris Life Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:CAI) — in two years, the latest obesity readouts, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s priority pathway and Usdin’s Q&A with new BIO Chair Fritz Bittenbender. 

This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was sponsored by Icon.