Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. Before joining Xconomy, he was the national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News, based in San Francisco. There, he led coverage of major medical meetings like the American Society of Clinical Oncology and broke news about the industry’s top companies, including Amgen, Genentech, and Biogen Idec. His stories appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and International Herald Tribune. From 2001 to 2006, his passionate coverage of the biotechnology industry won many awards for The Seattle Times.
While at the Times, Luke was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, the Sigma Delta Chi prize from the Society of Professional Journalists, an honorable mention Gerald Loeb Award, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in public service.
Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2005-2006, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. In his spare time, Luke runs marathons, climbs mountains and roots for the Green Bay Packers.
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The story of Infinity Pharmaceuticals can be told through three people. Steve Holtzman got the company started, and raised the money for the company’s proprietary chemistry. Julian Adams brought the focus... Read more »
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Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics’ experimental drug for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was tested in “substantially fewer” patients than planned in a pivotal clinical trial, and the data that it gathered to support its application... Read more »
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One of the buzzwords I keep hearing is that biotech investors want companies that are “de-risked.” This is kind of amusing, because the complex nature of biology makes biotech drug development... Read more »
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Zafgen arrived on the Boston biotech scene about 18 months ago with blue-chip venture backing, a highly regarded scientist as CEO, and an audacious idea. The Cambridge, MA-based company was developing... Read more »
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[Updated: 2/5/2010, 5:45 pm Pacific, with Infinia CEO comments.] Infinia is raising another truckload of money. The Kennewick, WA-based company, backed by Paul Allen and Vinod Khosla, has snapped... Read more »
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San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals has nailed the second big trial designed to prove it has a new antibiotic for a deadly infection people can get in hospitals.
Optimer (NASDAQ: OPTR)... Read more »
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Alkermes is known for making drugs stable and long-lasting in the bloodstream. Today, the Waltham, MA-based company is announcing it has invented a new way to do the same thing, but... Read more »
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The Seattle biotech beat is about to get a dose of drama over the next week, as one of the oldest companies in town prepares for a make-or-break moment in suburban... Read more »
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Ironwood Pharmaceuticals showed today that an IPO market does exist for a serious biotech company without a moneymaking product on the market, but that investors’ appetite for the speculative business of... Read more »
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NanoString Technologies, the Seattle-based developer of genetic analysis tools, said today it has named William Young as its new executive chairman. Young is the chairman of Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec... Read more »
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Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) and its partner, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, said today they are starting a clinical trial of the brentuximab vedotin “empowered antibody” for patients newly... Read more »
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Google is the undisputed king of Internet search and advertising, but its second act as a company might be to invent a new computer model for efficiently discovering targeted antibody drugs.... Read more »
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Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics will find out in seven days whether it has a legitimate shot at getting a new cancer drug on the U.S. market. This company has a long and... Read more »
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San Diego-based BrainCells Inc. surprised the field of psychiatry last August, when a clinical trial showed that it could relieve symptoms of depression with an odd combination of an anxiety drug... Read more »
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BioBehavioral Diagnostics, the Westford, MA-based maker of a tool for diagnosing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, said today it has raised $10 million in a Series B financing. Sevin Rosen Funds and Tullis... Read more »
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Hemaquest Pharmaceuticals, the Seattle-based company developing a new treatment for sickle cell anemia, has pocketed a $6 million equity financing, according to a regulatory filing. The financing could eventually... Read more »
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AVI Biopharma doled out an interesting little morsel of news on its muscular dystrophy drug right before Christmas that showed encouraging results in three boys. This year, the Bothell, WA-based... Read more »
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Everybody with a financial stake in biotechnology will be watching Ironwood Pharmaceuticals this week, as it attempts to pull off the biggest initial public offering the industry has seen in years.... Read more »
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San Diego-based Illumina has made its second big bet in the past two years on U.K.-based Oxford Nanopore Technologies. The investment is another show of confidence in a startup that... Read more »
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Allylix, the San Diego-based company that uses genetically engineered yeast to make specialty chemicals, has raised $6 million in new equity capital, according to a regulatory filing.
The document... Read more »
