Wellington Life Sciences general partner Regina Hodits, during a talk with CBT Advisors CEO Steve Dickman at the recent Biopharm America meeting, said the disaster scenario feared for European investments when COVID-19 struck “turned out very different. We never have a lot of time off in summer, not as much as we would want to, but this year we certainly had no time off,” as portfolio firms found money and Wellington tapped new opportunities.
As Johnson & Johnson (J&J) made public the launch of a phase III trial with its COVID-19 vaccine, officials from the company and others at the virtual Biopharm America meeting discussed modes of innovation in the pandemic era.
Deals by Bayer AG’s “impact investment unit” called Leaps that build upon each other let the Leverkusen, Germany-based firm “basically renew [the company’s] technology platform” by tapping fresh sources, said Leaps head Jurgen Eckhardt. And the unit is casting nets widely.
