Billionaire-backed VC firm launches, led by former Flagship partner

From my colleague Allison DeAngelis: Private equity billionaire Tony James is backing a new life sciences investment firm that launched today, the firm told STAT exclusively.

The new organization, Jefferson Life Sciences, is being led by managing partner Laura Lande-Diner, who most recently served as the business chief at startup Satellite Bio and as a partner at Flagship Pioneering. The new firm is tied to James’ family office Jefferson River Capital, which he created a few years before he stepped down as president and chief operating officer of Blackstone Group in 2022.

Large private equity firms like Blackstone have been most interested in established, commercial health care companies, buying up hospital systems, nursing homes, and specialty medical practices across the country. That has shifted over the last decade, with firms investing in earlier and earlier-stage companies. During James’ tenure, Blackstone acquired a life sciences investment firm and funded more growing biotech companies.

James is Jefferson Life Sciences’ sole investor, and with only one boss to please, the firm doesn’t have to adhere to the normal rules of venture capital. The small team isn’t starting with a set pool of capital to invest, but will get money as needed. There’s also no push to invest in a given number of startups within a certain timeframe. However, Lande-Diner hopes to make five investments by the end of the year.

Jefferson is launching with two deals under its belt – an investment in Character Biosciences and another in Juvena Therapeutics. Lande-Diner said that she is also interested in the neuro-psychiatric field and, as someone who has lifted weights recreationally for over a decade, she has a penchant for muscle and metabolic therapies.

Lande-Diner added that she feels privileged to join an investment firm that can work on a longer timeframe than most others, and can invest in public companies too. “My time at Flagship really taught me to think in a boundless way,” she said. “My time as an operator gave me all the scars, showed me how hard it is to make all of this reality.”

pharma

Peter Marks lands his new job at Eli Lilly

Peter Marks, the former top vaccine and gene therapy regulator at the FDA, joined Eli Lilly this week to oversee molecule discovery and infectious diseases.

Marks lost his job at the FDA in March after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. forced him to resign. Some have accused Marks of being too friendly with drugmakers in his regulatory decisions, and his move already instigated renewed criticism of the revolving door between the FDA and industry.

politics

Medicare allowed to negotiate prices for larger number of drugs

A federal appeals court rejected a Novo Nordisk challenge to Medicare’s drug price negotiation program, a ruling will allow the government to lump together products with the same ingredient when choosing drugs for negotiation.

Novo raised the challenge because during the first year of Medicare negotiations, the agency counted six of Novo’s insulin products as one since they contain the same active ingredient. Novo argued the government should negotiate the price for each of its insulin products separately.

This ruling also has implications for the current round of negotiations, in which Medicare lumped together three of Novo’s blockbuster diabetes and weight loss products — Ozempic, Rybelsus, and Wegovy — as they all contain the same ingredient of semaglutide.

gene therapy

Sarepta suffers setback on coverage for Duchenne treatment

A New York panel late last week voted to recommend the state Medicaid program should pause coverage of Sarepta Therapeutics' gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, following the safety controversy this past summer.

It's not clear whether the state will adopt the recommendation, but the vote suggests that other states may also start to track the issue closely.

“This is a conversation that has been brewing for a very long and I suspect you’ll see some of this escalate in the near term,” one Medicaid expert said.

politics

Drugmakers scramble to secure White House MFN deals

Last week's drug-pricing announcement between Pfizer and the Trump administration has sent other companies rushing to make their own deals, with some hoping to declare an agreement with the White House as soon as this week, according to Washington representatives and lobbyists for the companies.

“They have to now,” said one lobbyist of their clients’ thinking, noting the “anger” with Pfizer for effectively adding to their pressure to come to an agreement with the administration.

biotech

Kernal secures ARPA-H funding for mRNA therapies

Kernal Biologics, a private biotech company, said yesterday that it's been awarded up to $48 million by ARPA-H to help develop its mRNA cancer therapy.

The funding is notable since Kennedy has staunchly opposed mRNA vaccines. Earlier this year, he announced that another government agency, BARDA, would terminate $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts.

As Kernal's deal shows, it appears that Kennedy's opposition is directed more at mRNA vaccines than therapies.

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