Andrew Cheng spent close to 20 years at Gilead, ending as its chief medical officer after playing a key role in developing a string of blockbusters. Now, after making a recent exit at Gilead in an exodus of top execs, he’s surfaced at the helm of an upstart biotech with plans to play a disruptive role in the burgeoning NASH field.

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Biotech is booming, with eye-popping new financings seemingly announced daily. The sector is having an epic year for startup fundraising, breaking records for what will end up as the most active private biotech financing year ever.

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Elon Musk has a flare for the dramatic, shocking Wall Street (and others) the first week of August with his tweet announcing his intentions to take $TSLA private.

This blog was written by Jeb Keiper, CFO & CBO of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC.

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The FDA has just approved Alnylam’s patisiran (Onpattro), making it the first medicine specifically cleared to treat a rare and deadly disease called hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (hATTR). The decision is a scientific milestone too: it marks the first-ever approval for a medicine that uses RNA interference (RNAi), a method cells can use to silence a gene before it makes a harmful protein. The FDA’s approval is specifically for the treatment of the peripheral nerve damage suffered by hATTR patients. The agency’s press release doesn’t mention the heart problems patients also often deal with.

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IFM Therapeutics is hiving off its NLRP3 stable into a subsidiary dubbed IFM Tre. The new unit, which starts out with $31 million in series A funding, expects to bring its lead asset into phase 1 in 2019.

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