We’ve suffered a protracted downturn in general interest in biotech. That downturn has been compounded by rising interest rates undercutting equities in general. Now we must determine 1) how much worse this downturn might be and 2) how we’ll do things differently once we reboot. Here, Peter Kolchinsky explains why he believes we’ve emerged from the downturn but must reboot biotech with more honest and efficient processes and better defend our industry’s value proposition to policymakers and the public.

2020 and 2021 were the heyday for special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. We got in on the act ourselves – twice! – and we’ve learned a lot about why SPACs can sometimes work for a biotech in very particular circumstances, but also why mostly they don’t. We would also note that in certain market conditions, chasing merger targets with a SPAC can be extremely challenging. So we pulled the plug on our second SPAC. Here’s the story.

Outgoing Forma Therapeutics CEO Frank Lee talks with Rapport about bringing a patient-centric mindset to a biotech steeped in science and Forma’s acquisition by Novo Nordisk.

The biotech sector is experiencing the most severe downturn of at least the last 20 years. There have been many other downturns in the more recent past, but this one is different. Here Peter Kolchinsky discusses why - and how we’ll rebound.