Vividion Therapeutics part of Bayer's $10B plan

[kmall]

Interesting article on Bayer's pursuit for $10B in sales by 2030......seems like 2030 is everyone's target these days. -Kmall

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/jpm ... sales-2030

[LWS]

I went back and reviewed some posts about Vividion and Dr. Rizo's very important 'two hats' (Geron & Vividion). There has been talk about a European partnership. Bayer AG and Dr. Rizo are deeply involved with Imetelstat. We will see where that leads.
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For Review

Berlin, Germany, August 5, 2021 – Bayer AG today announced the acquisition of Vividion Therapeutics, Inc. (Vividion), a US-headquartered biopharmaceutical company utilizing novel discovery technologies to unlock high value, traditionally undruggable targets with precision therapeutics. Vividion’s platform is able to produce a variety of small molecule therapies across indications, with an initial focus on targets relevant to oncology and immunology. Vividion’s lead programs include multiple-precision oncology targets and precision immunology targets, with ongoing efforts on a transcription factor NRF2 antagonist for the potential treatment of NRF2 mutant cancers, as well as NRF2 activators for various inflammatory diseases such as irritable bowel disease – among other pre-clinical programs.
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Summary---The European Connections:

1/ Bayer AG (Germany)
2/ Novo Nordisk (Denmark)
3/ Novartis (Switzerland)

These 3 companies are interested in the future development of Imetelstat. We know most about Bayer AG and its research subsidiary (Vividion). The other 2 companies have been mentioned recently in association with Geron and Imetelstat.

The two hats of Dr. Rizo now include Geron and Bayer AG (Vividion). Bayer is fully aware of her involvement with Imetelstat, and certainly has the deep pockets to support both Dr. Rizo and Imetelstat in any way that they wish.

Dr. Rizo's two very important jobs (advisor/consultant to Geron and President of Vividion/Bayer AG) are interactive and point to the bright future of Imetelstat as a very important and transformative cancer medicine.
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Vividion Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on transforming the future of human health through the creation of highly selective small molecule medicines that drug traditionally inaccessible targets. The company is advancing a broad, diversified pipeline of multiple, selective small molecule therapeutics for highly sought-after disease-causing target proteins in oncology and immunology. As our knowledge of druggable pockets on disease-related proteins increases, our covalent chemistry-based library of small molecules expands.

Our platform has enabled us to identify hundreds of previously unknown or cryptic functional pockets on well-validated protein targets implicated in a wide range of oncologic and immunologic diseases, while simultaneously identifying compounds from our proprietary covalent chemistry library that interact in a highly selective manner with those pockets.

[kmall]

LWS - While I share your enthusiasm for an external entity entering the picture with Geron, through either a partnership or total Buy Out, it's important to stick to the facts here. Of the 3 Big Pharmaceuticals you have mentioned, the only correlation as of now that we absolutely know about are through personel connections.

1- Dr. Rizo is now CEO at Vividion Therapeutics as well as a Scientific and Regulatory Advisor to Geron. This does not necessarily mean that Bayer is "interested" in Geron. Although her being appointed to CEO at Vividion may equal something big soon for Geron.

https://vividion.com/publication/aleksa ... erapeutics


2- John F. McDonald was named to Geron's BOD. John F. McDonald is currently Corporate Vice President, Global R&D Business Development, for Novo Nordisk A/S, however, Mr. McDonald was recruited by Geron through Occam....a corporate recruitment firm.

https://occam-global.com/occam-places-j ... -of-geron/


3- From October of 2019 until January of 2020, a C-Level Executive Assistant (Jenny Z) from Novartis came to Geron in a supportive role to Geron C-Level Executives, specifically the CMO, CBO and COO for meetings with the FDA and Geron at FDA Headquarters in Silver Springs, MD.

"Jennifer Z. - Executive Assistant, Geron Corporation
Oct 2019 - Jan 2020 4 mos

Support to C-Level executives (Chief Medical Officer, Chief Business Officer, Chief Commercial Officer) at biotechnology company
Coordinate logistics for Board of Directors meetings including all hotel, transportation and catering arrangements
Coordinate travel logistics and compile all necessary information required for onsite FDA meetings in Silver Spring, MD
Domestic and international travel arrangements, expense report processing"


It's important to remember that although any of the above 3 companies are more than capable of becoming partners with or acquiring Geron altogether, as of now they have not shown any intention of doing so publicly. -Kmall