📰 Spotlight on Alex Philippidis, Senior Business Editor, GEN

Background

–Name: Alex Philippidis

–Home Base: New Rochelle, NY (NYC suburb)

–Role: Senior Business Editor at GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News)

–Expertise: Specializes in biopharma business news, with a career spanning over 20 years in journalism.

Beat Overview

–Publication: GEN, founded in 1981 as the first publication devoted exclusively to biotech, according to Alex. “We go where the industry goes,” he says.

–GEN’s core pillars: AI, bio-processing, cancer, drug discovery, genome editing, infectious disease, omics, translational medicine.

–Coverage Areas: Business aspects of biopharma, with a particular interest in emerging technologies and industry trends.

–Angles of Interest: Merging business developments with in-depth scientific insights.

What to Watch

–What Catches Alex’s Eye: CRISPR, synthetic biology, spatial biology, AI’s role in biotech, significant financial events, companies undergoing transformation, and late-phase clinical trials with potential for major impact.

–GEN Edge: Alongside Jonathan Grinstein, delves into business aspects of biopharma with deep analyses.

–New “Touching Base” Podcast: A blend of past week’s stories, analyses and interviews, aiming for weekly episodes to make high-level biotech news understandable to a wider audience. Format may vary from roundtable discussions to focused interviews.

Pitching Tips

–Communication Style: Emphasizes the importance of clear, concise information in pitches directly related to his beat.

–Ideal Timing: Prefers receiving pitches after 10 a.m. ET, especially on work-from-home days.

–Embargoed News: Appreciates early hints about embargoed news to assess relevance and impact.

Pet Peeves

–Irrelevant Pitches: Advises to eschew unrelated topics (e.g., medical devices, generics, biosimilars). Direct topics like informatics, molecular diagnostics, patient care, oncology, precision medicine and translational research to sister publication, Inside Precision Medicine.

–Bait and Switch: OK to speak with a non-CEO C-suite leader or expert, but be up-front with Alex from the get-go, instead of pitching him on speaking with the CEO and making a last-minute change, for example.

Events and Conferences

–JPM 2024: Plans to attend with Jonathan Grinstein. Note that Jonathan often focuses on West Coast companies due to his San Diego base, but this is not a hard-and-fast coverage division with Alex.

–Regional events: Frequently attends conferences in the New York area, including select investor conferences like Chardan’s (see Oct. 2023 coverage here).

–Other Events: Sometimes attends BIO International Conventions and various STAT events.

Key Quote

“My background is less technical, although I’ve had years of experience as a business writer. … Part of [my job] requires one to really kind of wrestle with the material to understand it. … That way, you’re able to convey it to somebody else. So, I find that a challenge, but also one that’s really fun when it comes together.”

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