Gwendolyn Wu

San Francisco

Reporting on drug discovery/VC @BioPharmaDive. Prev. @sfchronicle @houstonchron. Always @tblucsb @aaja @cspaworkshop, Chrome tab hoarder. 📸: @hannahlchinn

Articles

Bluebird says Ayrmid missed deadline for rival takeover bid

1 week ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Bluebird bio is still waiting on a binding takeover bid from Ayrmid Ltd., three weeks after the company said it would pay $15 million more than SK Capital and Carlyle Group offered for the gene therapy maker. In a Wednesday statement, Bluebird board chair Mark Vachon said Ayrmid has yet to present a binding offer or acquire the financing necessary to complete its $45 million proposal.
Startup Glycomine raises $115M to push rare disease drug deeper into testing

1 week ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Glycomine, a biotechnology startup working on a treatment for a rare genetic disorder, has raised a $115 million Series C round to push its lead program deeper into clinical testing. The funding announced Wednesday for the San Carlos, California-based company will support development of its therapy GLM101, which is designed to treat phosphomannomutase 2-congenital disorder of glycosylation, or PMM2-CDG.
Third Harmonic outlines plans for dissolution

1 week ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Third Harmonic Bio plans to wind down operations and sell its assets, including its lead drug candidate, in a liquidation plan the company announced Monday. If approved by stockholders at an annual meeting in early June, the immune drug developer will dissolve in the third quarter of 2025.
Tango Therapeutics cuts nearly one-fifth of staff

2 weeks ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Oncology drugmaker Tango Therapeutics has cut about 20% of its staff, following a year in which it twice trimmed its pipeline of experimental cancer drugs. The company “made the difficult decision” to reduce spending on preclinical research and lay off approximately 30 employees, Tango CEO Barbara Weber confirmed Monday to BioPharma Dive. The company had 155 full-time staff as of Dec. 31.
Biotech ‘megarounds’ hold steady as startups, VCs wait on IPOs

3 weeks ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Biotechnology company funding rounds remain larger than they were in 2022 and 2023, in a sign venture firms continue to favor bigger bets rather than parceling their money into smaller, but more numerous, financings. The median funding round involving one of the roughly two dozen venture firms tracked by BioPharma Dive was worth $93 million during the first three months of 2025, according to BioPharma Dive data.
RNA editing biotech Airna adds $155M in funding

3 weeks ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Dive Brief:Airna, a biotechnology startup developing RNA editing treatments, said Tuesday it raised $155 million in a Series B round that will help propel its lead program in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency into the clinic later this year. That medicine, codenamed AIR-001, repairs faulty RNA transcribed by the gene that’s mutated in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, or AATD.
Isomorphic raises $600M on big ambitions for AI drugmaking tech

3 weeks ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Isomorphic Labs, a British company developing new ways to design and develop medicines, said Monday it raised $600 million to advance its artificial intelligence technology. Isomorphic claims its AI platforms will help maximize laboratory scientists’ time by powering some of the tedious legwork involved in drug candidate research. It's also developing an internal drug pipeline focused on cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Epicrispr banks $68M to test epigenetic editing on rare muscle disease

4 weeks ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Dive Brief:Epicrispr Biotechnologies has raised $68 million in pursuit of a first-of-its-kind genetic medicine for a rare neuromuscular disorder called facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. EPI-321, the startup’s lead program, uses CRISPR tools to stop errant expression of a gene implicated in the muscle-wasting condition. Epicrispr will start a Phase 1 trial this year in New Zealand, according to the company’s Wednesday statement.
Character Biosciences raises $93M with an eye on vision loss drugs

1 month ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Character Biosciences, a biotechnology startup developing treatments for vision loss, said Tuesday it raised $93 million in a Series B round. The financing will help Character bring its two most advanced programs into clinical testing. One, dubbed CTX114, is being tested in geographic atrophy, a common eye condition and an advanced stage of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD.
Verve gets FDA green light to expand base editing trial into US

1 month ago | biopharmadive.com | Gwendolyn Wu

Verve Therapeutics is expanding a gene editing trial for a cholesterol and heart disease treatment into the U.S., the company said Monday after receiving clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. The treatment Verve is testing, dubbed VERVE-102, changes a single nucleotide, or base, in the gene PCSK9, which produces a protein that regulates liver cells’ uptake of cholesterol from the blood.