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Heather McKenzie

Heather McKenzie

Senior Editor

Heather McKenzie is a professional journalist with more than 8 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since joining BioSpace, she has written more than 300 features and breaking news articles, including multiple award-winning stories. Her particular focuses are neuroscience, rare disease and regulatory science. She has also traveled internationally to cover global biotech hubs, including Israel. In previous roles, she has covered current affairs, sports, education and politics. She previously spent eight years as a senior content producer for executive-level business conferences in the pharma/biotech, legal, energy and business strategy sectors. In her free time, Heather enjoys creative writing, watching her American League champion Toronto Blue Jays, spending time with family and playing with her energetic Russian Blue cat Roofus. She hails from Toronto and has also lived in Chicago and Chesapeake, Virginia. You can reach her at heather.mckenzie@biospace.com.

JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
Policy
Sackler Family Side-Step Personal Responsibility for Opioid Crisis
In their first appearance in years, the notorious Sackler family, who previously headed OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, apologized to victims of the opioid crisis but stopped short of admitting personal responsibility during a nearly four-hour grilling from the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee.
December 18, 2020
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2 min read
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Heather McKenzie
FDA approved Ascendis Pharma’s Skytrofa.
FDA
FDA Approvals: Therapies for Lupus, MS, Cancer and a Genomic Alteration in Pigs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had several approvals this week. Read on to see what the regulatory agency gave the go-ahead to.
December 17, 2020
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6 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Drug Development
Four Potential Biotech Market Movers to Watch Going into 2021
As we eagerly look ahead to 2021, BioSpace spoke to four biotechs hoping to seize this opportunity in the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies – or make an impact in the second.
December 17, 2020
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9 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Business
A Bright Day for Two Companies as New CEOs Announced
On Wednesday, Sage Therapeutics and Samsung Biologics announced that they had found just that in their new chief executive officers.
December 17, 2020
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3 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Courtesy Taljat David/Getty Images
Drug Development
Novartis’ KESTREL Study Reaffirms Positive Results of Beovu in DME
On Tuesday, Novartis announced the first interpretable results from its Phase III KESTREL study of humanized single-chain antibody fragment (scFv) Beovu, demonstrating significant improvement in central subfield thickness in Diabetic Macular Edema.
December 15, 2020
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2 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Business
Difficult Decisions, Strategic Streamlining Lead to Workforce Reductions
Mergers and acquisitions are a well-known fact in the life sciences industry, and anyone working within the sector knows to expect them at any time.
December 15, 2020
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4 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Courtesy of uniQure
Drug Development
uniQure Phase III HOPE-B Trial Signals Hope for Hemophilia B Patients Everywhere
In a shining moment that signaled hope for hemophilia B patients, uniQure presented data on Tuesday showing that its gene therapy treatment, etranacogene dezaparvovec (AMT-061), substantially increased production of the blood-clotting protein factor IX in nearly all pivotal Phase III HOPE-B trial participants.
December 11, 2020
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3 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Bio NC
Innovative Companies Diving into The Neuro Market Ahead of 2021
With the expected Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines providing hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will soon be resolved, 2021 is going to need a new primary healthcare campaign. Could it come from the field of neuroscience?
December 9, 2020
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4 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Drug Development
Biotechs Developing Innovative Ways to Activate the Immune System Against COVID-19
BioSpace spoke with a few companies that have some ingenious ideas at different stages of preclinical and clinical development.
December 8, 2020
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7 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Business
Survey Says There is a Disconnect Between Good Intent and Action in D&I Initiatives
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) have been at the forefront of the national conversation during this momentous year, so BioSpace felt it imperative to reach out to employees in the life sciences industry on this subject in our wide-ranging Fall 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Survey.
December 7, 2020
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7 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Drug Development
Abionic’s cSOFA Score Could Help Hospitals Anticipate COVID-19 Complications
Swiss medtech company Abionic SA announced that they have developed the first COVID-19 severity test, the cSOFA (Covid Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) score, to help doctors quickly and accurately triage cases that come into emergency rooms.
December 7, 2020
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5 min read
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Heather McKenzie
STRO-002 to spread it's wings soon.
Drug Development
Solid Safety Profile in Hand, Sutro Will Expand Reach of Ovarian Cancer Drug STRO-002
As the dose of Sutro Biopharma’s ovarian cancer drug, STRO-002, increased in an ongoing Phase I dose-escalation trial, survival rates have also increased.
December 4, 2020
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3 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Business
Frontier and AbbVie Team Up Against Elusive Protein Targets
Therapies developed using E3 ligase proteins will get a potent infusion, as AbbVie combines its commercialization expertise with Frontier Medicine’s proprietary chemoproteomics platform to develop potentially efficacious therapies for difficult-to-drug protein targets.
December 3, 2020
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3 min read
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Heather McKenzie
BioCapital
AstraZeneca Most Recent Victim of Hackers Posing as Recruiters
As if attempting to steal hard-won research wasn’t bad enough, hackers are now hitting people where it really hurts – with e-documents containing malicious code embedded in false offers of employment.
December 3, 2020
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4 min read
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Heather McKenzie
Taljat David/Shutterstock
FDA
FDA Approves Roche COVID-19 Test that Aims to Test Vaccines’ Antibody Response
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to a COVID-19 test developed by Roche that measures antibodies within the blood.
December 2, 2020
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2 min read
 · 
Heather McKenzie
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