Endpoints News
Startup investigates universal flu vaccines made with mRNA Read in browser
Endpoints News
Thank you for reading, dupa dupackia!
basic
UPGRADE
M Tue W Th F
8 July, 2025
2025'S BREAKOUT STARTUPS. WHO'S ON THE LIST?
The biotech companies everyone will be talking about in 2025 get revealed live in Boston this September. Endpoints 11 isn’t just any list — it’s where industry insiders gather to see which bold bets might pay off. Find out who wins in real time at the State Room — reserve your spot now and save with the Early Bird rate.
presented by Biogen
Un­cov­er­ing the Po­ten­tial of Tar­get­ing the CD38 Path­way for Im­mune-Me­di­at­ed Dis­eases
top stories
1. Biopharma's 20 highest-paid CEOs of 2024 with $20M+ paydays
2. Exclusive: Startup raises $45M for universal flu vaccines made with mRNA
3. ProKidney's stock shoots higher after mixed Phase 2 data
4. Quanterix closes Akoya deal after competing bid
5.
news briefing
Recursion takes full rights to rare genetic disorder drug; CStone out-licenses cancer drug in Europe
6. Shell company Concentra has found its rhythm, with Cargo Therapeutics as its latest buyout target
7. FDA chief calls for 'meaningful' reduction of animal testing for new drugs
8. Novartis maps launch of malaria drug for newborns after Swiss approval
9. Singaporean biotech gets China thumbs-up for study of potentially curative HBV cell therapy
more stories
 
Reynald Castaneda
.

We've got a couple of long reads for you this morning. The first one comes from Andrew Dunn, with his annual review of the highest-paid CEOs in biopharma. Meanwhile, Ryan Cross has a story on a biotech called Centivax and its mission to develop a universal flu vaccine with its mRNA tech. Read more below.

.
Reynald Castaneda
Deputy Editor, Endpoints News
1
by Andrew Dunn

The typ­i­cal CEO of a pub­lic bio­phar­ma com­pa­ny made $4.73 mil­lion in 2024, a 40% jump from last year’s me­di­an fig­ure.

But a hand­ful of CEOs hauled in much larg­er pay­days. End­points News com­piled da­ta on pay pack­ages for 475 CEOs at life sci­ences com­pa­nies as part of our an­nu­al pay analy­sis. These com­pa­nies range from multi­na­tion­al drug gi­ants to tiny pre­clin­i­cal star­tups. Though me­di­an pay came in at $4.73 mil­lion, the av­er­age pay for CEOs was $6.56 mil­lion — dri­ven high­er by those few ex­tra large pay pack­ages.

At the high end, 20 CEOs brought in com­pen­sa­tion pack­ages worth over $20 mil­lion. Most of that pay is from stock op­tions or shares that vest over time or re­quire com­pa­nies to hit cer­tain mile­stones.

Click here to continue reading
2
by Ryan Cross

It’s not an easy time to raise mon­ey for vac­cine de­vel­op­ment, es­pe­cial­ly shots that re­ly on mR­NA tech­nol­o­gy. But against all odds, one start­up has cinched $45 mil­lion to be­gin test­ing an ex­per­i­men­tal uni­ver­sal flu vac­cine next year, End­points News has learned.

The com­pa­ny, called Cen­ti­vax, de­signed a vac­cine that con­tains a whop­ping 22 dif­fer­ent mR­NA mol­e­cules en­cod­ing pro­teins from flu strains span­ning the past cen­tu­ry. The South San Fran­cis­co-based com­pa­ny claims an­i­mal stud­ies show that the im­mune sys­tem can spot the com­mon­al­i­ties be­tween the strains and fo­cus its at­tack on the tid­bits of the virus that are un­like­ly to change from sea­son to sea­son.

Click here to continue reading
3
by Max Gelman

Kid­ney dis­ease drug de­vel­op­er ProKid­ney vault­ed above $1 per share this morn­ing, de­spite mixed open-la­bel Phase 2 da­ta.

The com­pa­ny is study­ing whether its lead pro­gram, a cell ther­a­py called ril­paren­cel, can treat pa­tients with chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease, di­a­betes and low kid­ney func­tion as mea­sured by eGFR lev­els. The Phase 2 tri­al is be­ing used to sup­port the piv­otal Phase 3 pro­gram, where one study is planned and the oth­er was dis­con­tin­ued last year.

In the Phase 2, ril­paren­cel sta­bi­lized kid­ney func­tion in 24 pa­tients who re­ceived two in­jec­tions by a sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin. These pa­tients’ “eGFR slope” de­clined by 78% af­ter one year. But a sec­ond group of 25 pa­tients who on­ly re­ceived one dose did not achieve a sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fit (p=0.085), and their eGFR slope de­clined by 50%.

Click here to continue reading
Manufacturing Day 2025
What are the new rules for biopharma manufacturing? The Trump administration’s tariff policies have thrown the world economic order off its axis, and manufacturing is squarely in the middle of the upheaval. Join us as we break down what’s really happening behind the scenes — get your spot.
Masoud Toloue, Quanterix CEO
4
by Jared Whitlock

Quan­ter­ix has com­plet­ed its ac­qui­si­tion of Akoya Bio­sciences, fol­low­ing in­ter­est from a third-par­ty bid­der who threat­ened to tor­pe­do the deal that has a to­tal en­ter­prise val­ue of $127 mil­lion.

The trans­ac­tion was first an­nounced in Jan­u­ary. But in May, Akoya an­nounced that it was con­sid­er­ing an un­so­licit­ed, all-cash buy­out of­fer it re­ceived from an undis­closed third par­ty.

Akoya did not re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment on why Quan­ter­ix was pre­ferred.

The trans­ac­tion is cre­at­ing what the com­pa­nies call a ful­ly in­te­grat­ed plat­form for de­tect­ing pro­tein bio­mark­ers in both tis­sue and blood. That ca­pa­bil­i­ty, Quan­ter­ix CEO Ma­soud Toloue said in an in­ter­view, seeks to change how dis­eases like can­cer and Alzheimer’s are di­ag­nosed, mon­i­tored and treat­ed.

Click here to continue reading