By Matthew Herper
January 6, 2017
Most drug companies are retreating from the business of creating drugs against viruses and, especially, bacteria. But a well-funded startup being announced today is taking the challenge head-on.
The new company, called Vir Biotechnology, will be lead by George Scangos, who recently stepped down as the chief executive of Biogen, the Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech firm. It will be funded with a still-undetermined sum of hundreds of millions of dollars. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeking new solutions for scourges like HIV and tuberculosis, will be among its biggest backers.