Summary:
Dominique Verhelle, CEO of NextRNA Therapeutics, was fired amid the biotech downturn, highlighting personal and professional impacts.
NextRNA raised tens of millions in funding and partnered with Bayer for cancer treatment research before facing setbacks.
The broader biotech winter in Boston is causing company shutdowns and job losses, endangering progress on diseases like cancer and autoimmune disorders.
The Crisis in Boston's Biotech Sector
On a Friday in August, Dominique Verhelle was fired over Zoom. Three days later, on a Monday, she realized it was the first time in her life without a job.
"It's my baby," Verhelle said of NextRNA Therapeutics, the biotech startup where she had been CEO. "I created the company."
In 2020, Verhelle left her job at Takeda Pharmaceutical to take a chance on commercializing research that began at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. NextRNA raised tens of millions of dollars, rented lab space in Brighton, and then, last year, entered into an agreement with the pharmaceutical giant Bayer to partner on new approaches to treating cancer.
Local companies have shut down or scaled back in the industry's decline, threatening scientific progress on cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other diseases.
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