In this issue:
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Wow: Sparrow Pharmaceuticals officially launches with $50 million Series A
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Kudos: OHSU plays key role in study of blood test to detect cancer
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Wow, redux: Biogen gets FDA approval for Alzheimer's Rx
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Member news: Cascade Chemistry expands, acquired by Aceto
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Partner event: The smarts you need to update your practices and P&Ps in the post-Covid workplace
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Training and Certificates: Don't be just any pro, be a BioPro
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Research Solutions - Learn via video if Bio Business Solutions is for you
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Event wrap up: Were you at the Oregon Bio Virtual Career Fair? Check out who was and the 10+ companies, hundreds of jobs and matches made
ICYMI (news/updates we announced last time):
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Voice of Industry: Meet Twist Bioscience and find out why they're coming to Oregon
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Creating relationships that matter for you and your organization: Spotlighting Oregon Bio partners
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BIO Digital 2021 - will you be 'there'?
BIO Digital is right around the corner! For 2021, the BIO International Convention will be held virtually as BIO Digital. This virtual gathering of the global biotech industry provides access to key partners via BIO One-on One Partnering (TM), educational resources to help drive your business and the insights you need to continue critical research development.
You can explore the event and the many engagement opportunities such as the Innovation Stage, Startup Stadium, Global Marketplace, Solutions Exchange, Patient Central and the myriad 2021 sessions and speakers/presenters. These and more are for you to discover, as well as ‘meet’ strategic partners to advance your company.
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#ORBioMember Sparrow Pharmaceuticals launches and helps to advance therapy pipelines |
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Sparrow Pharmaceuticals has launched with a $50 million Series A led by OrbiMed and a lead corticosteroid lowering candidate geared up for Phase II trials.
The company’s lead drug, an oral HSD-1 inhibitor dubbed SPI-62, helps cut excess corticosteroids circulating in patients, whether naturally or through steroid therapy, which can cause toxicity in tissues, Sparrow said.
In other Sparrow news, the company is working to advance the therapy pipeline for Cushing’s Syndrome. Several novel therapies are under research and development to address Cushing’s Syndrome, also known as hypercortisolism, is a rare hormonal disorder caused by prolonged exposure of the body's tissues to high levels of the hormone cortisol. It mostly affects people of age group aged 20 to 50. The condition can be further divided into two categories, namely, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-dependent and ACTH-independent.
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#ORBioMember OHSU helps develop simple cancer detection test |
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Oregon Health & Science University's Knight Cancer Institute has played a significant role on the national stage in a new clinical study demonstrating that a single blood test is capable of detecting multiple types of cancer, many of which have no current screening method and can go undiagnosed until much later in their progression.
The "Galleri" test was developed by Grail Inc., based in Menlo Park, California. OHSU was the lead site, with 1,700 volunteers from Oregon and Washington of the 6,600 participants at centers across the U.S...
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#ORBioMember Biogen gets FDA approval for Alzheimer's drug |
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Biogen’s Aduhelm is the first treatment to address a likely cause of Alzheimer’s—and the first new treatment for the disease in nearly two decades.
“The approval of Aduhelm represents a crucial inflection point in our collective battle against Alzheimer’s disease. By addressing a defining pathology of the disease, this novel therapy has the potential to help fundamentally change the way patients are diagnosed and treated,” said Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos—read his entire letter.
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#ORBioMember Cascade Chemistry expands and announces acquisition |
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(Port Washington, NY - June 2, 2021) Eugene-based Cascade Chemistry, which announced earlier this year its $14-million expansion of its cGMP pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, has been acquired by Aceto, a leading global provider of specialty materials for life sciences and advanced technology end markets. Cascade Chemistry manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), regulatory starting materials and advanced intermediates. With this acquisition, Aceto now provides customers enhanced support throughout the drug development process and greater access to expanded North American manufacturing, particularly for APIs and advanced intermediates.
Cascade Chemistry is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that specializes in tackling challenging synthetic problems for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, helping clients develop new APIs and move them through the ...
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Partner event: The Next Steps ~ Policies, Practices and Procedures in a Post-Covid Workplace
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In an online/Zoom-based event, we’ve invited Jean Back, an attorney with Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt; Lori Olund, president of Miles Fiberglass; and Russell Frankel, consultant with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to answer your questions and help you prepare for a post-Covid workplace. Each will give a short presentation, followed by ample time to discuss and answer your questions. Don’t miss this opportunity to prepare for your post-Covid workplace while keeping your team(s) and business safe. Join your colleagues and those of the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition for this insightful discussion.
What: The Next Steps: Policies, Practices & Procedures in a Post-Covid Workplace
When: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 | 10 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. (PDT) - online/Zoom event
Use discount code: FREE
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How do you create data visualization? Are you up to date on Lean Six Sigma tools and methods? Can you get more training in data creating and analysis?
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Are you (or is your employee base) fully trained on the skills they need to ensure your organization can successfully compete in our global industry? Upgrade your skills in the marketplace and be one of the 2,500 local bio professionals who are trained at targeted industry skills. |
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Check out these popular member- and industry- created BioPro Workforce Training classes and certificates. See how these upcoming sessions can provide a pipeline of new talent and boost retention.
Companies that provide resources to educate and train their workers are providing them with new skills that allow them to advance in their career, which helps reduce the costly turnover, provide employee satisfaction, and can aid in recruitment. Companies that win in the long term are the companies that don't neglect the talent they already have.
June 11 - 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
June 17, 18, 24, 25 - 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
July 15, 16, 22, 23 - 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Rolling class entry - 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
To see the full list of classes, click on the box below. Our robust workforce training program is nimble - if there is a class or training you are interested in for your employees and do not see it on our schedule, please submit a request here.
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Video: Research Solutions shows how your Oregon Bio membership means more |
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Research Solutions / Reprints Desk (NASDAQ: RSSS) simplifies how R&D organizations access scientific literature, such as peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, patents, and other content. More than 70 percent of the top pharmaceutical companies, prestigious universities, and emerging life science businesses rely on Article Galaxy, Research Solution’s cloud-based SaaS platform, for simplified and lowest cost access to the latest scientific content, including Open Access content and subscription holdings.
Oregon Bio members are eligible for many BIO Business Solutions® (BBS) programs. Click on the video to learn about Research Solutions or the orange bar to see all the partners of BBS. There is no fee for Oregon Bio members to participate.
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Success! Notes from the Spring '21 Career Fair
Last month, 10+ #ORBioMember companies from around the region participated in the virtual Oregon Bio Spring Career Fair ‘21. High-profile Pacific Northwest companies sought to recruit
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potential employees from those with high school diplomas to advanced degrees, and the range of experience levels in between. Examples of open positions among the exhibiting companies included:
- Logistics Coordinators
- Project Managers
- VP of Marketing and Strategic Insights
- Quality Systems Engineer
- Software Engineers
- Scientists
- Method Development Scientists
More than 100 job seekers engaged in nearly 300 chats with potential employers and as reported by the company representatives; 75 percent of those chats resulted in candidates being moved forward in the process from being added to the pipeline to a follow-up screen or actual interview.
The virtual platform allows for quick screening of potential candidates via a chat function with the ability to convert to virtual video-based interview on the fly. Of company representatives surveyed, 100 percent indicated that the career fair met their expectations and have a high interest in participating in a future career fair.
What reps had to say when asked about their experience: “The user interface was easy to navigate and user friendly,” and “I liked that candidates came in through the chat feature and that you could engage with them 1:1.” This and other Oregon Bio events are planned by committees of our member company employees. Oregon Bio would like to give a special acknowledgement to our 2020 and 2021 career fair committee chair, Jennifer Hovinga, Science at Kelly Services.
The committee is planning our next career fair for the fall of 2021. Anyone interested in learning more about exhibiting or participating on the committee, email julie@oregonbio.org. In the meantime, remember member companies can post their jobs at no cost on our Career Catalyst Web page.
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Voice of Industry: Oregon Bio interviews Twist Bioscience about gene making
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Oregon Bio is excited to introduce you to Twist Bioscience, a California, Bay-Area company that announced late last year they are opening up their state-of-the-art manufacturing and processing facility just south of Portland.
And bringing 400 jobs. Twist is hiring and met with candidates at Oregon Bio's Spring '21 Career Fair last month.
We met with Twist’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Angela Bitting, to ask a few questions and see how the plans are shaping up.
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OR Bio: Tell us about Twist Bioscience’s products and services.
AB/Twist: At Twist, we make synthetic DNA and DNA products using our silicon-based platform. This DNA is used by our customers to modify yeast, algae and E. coli to produce chemicals by fermentation instead of fossil fuel; they modify plants or bacteria to deliver nitrogen at the root of plants instead of using fertilizer. The develop therapeutics, biologics and diagnostic tests. We even take DNA and use it to store digital data.
We have four areas of our business: Synthetic biology, next-generation sequencing (NGS), biopharma and DNA data storage.
For synthetic biology, we provide genes and gene fragments, variant libraries for protein engineering, oligos pools for gene editing and other applications, products for pharma and drug discovery including proteins called IgG. For NGS, we offer tools that go before the sequencer which are target enrichment tools and library preparation tools. These tools are used for a wide range of applications including liquid biopsy (using a blood sample to detect a range of cancers), rare disease detection, oncology, population genetics and infectious disease. We have a biopharma group that discovers and optimizes antibody therapeutics that are human derived and fully human. Additionally, we have a division which houses the data storage as well as uses our libraries and optimization tools to identify new antibodies for therapeutic diseases, both for partners and our internal pipeline. Our fourth business opportunity is in DNA data storage, where we take digital data and convert it from 0s and 1s to As, Cs, Gs and Ts.
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Creating relationships that matter for
you and your organization
We invite our service partners to share their thought leadership and contribute articles to this newsletter so all members and recipients can learn more about your business/ platform/company. What knowledge and experience do you want others to know? What trends and topics do you foresee? How are you growing and can you advise other companies/organizations? Be a voice of industry. Send an email and/or submit your articles to news@oregonbio.org.
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Oregon Bioscience
2828 S. Corbett Ave. Suite 115
Portland, Oregon 97201
503-548-4432
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