[Updated: 6:45 pm ET] Last week, I made a case that Twitter has begun to come of age in biotech, and it’s now a must-read source of real-time industry news and information. But one helpful reader (on Twitter, of course) pointed out something was missing in that column: a list of people in the biotech industry to follow.
Your wish is my command.
Before offering up this list, I should say I’m not the world’s most avid user of Twitter. I personally have been using it a little more than three years at my account @ldtimmerman. Over that time, I’ve built my own list of almost 600 different people, news outlets, and companies that I follow because their perspectives are interesting and useful for me as a biotech journalist.
These folks collectively put out way more microblog commentary than any one person can absorb in a day. I don’t try to read everything these people write, but like most Twitter users, I tend to check on it a few times a day when I’m taking a break from other tasks.
That said, here’s a list of people from all kinds of walks of life in the healthcare industry that I consider worth following. The group includes scientists, investors, physicians, and journalists. If you’ve got other folks you’d suggest adding to the list, just leave a comment at the bottom of the story or send me a note on Twitter, and I’ll update the post over time. For those of you who like lists on Twitter, here’s the complete list you can join.
Journalists:
@adamfeuerstein. Adam Feuerstein is a veteran biotech columnist for TheStreet.com. He follows publicly traded biotech stocks, small and big, like no other writer. Adam has strong opinions, doesn’t pull any punches when he identifies an underperforming or shady company, and he loves to engage in witty real-time debate.
@matthewherper. Matt Herper is another longtime life sciences writer for Forbes, a consistent blogger at Forbes.com, and a frequent Twitter conversationalist. He writes a lot about biomedical science, particularly genomics, as well as the struggles of the biotech and pharma industry in developing new drugs.
@JohnCFierce. John Carroll is the editor-in-chief of FierceBiotech (@FierceBiotech), the widely read online publication that rounds up industry news each day. John sends out the usual headlines on his Twitter account, and sprinkles in plenty of analysis.
@InVivoBlogChris. Chris Morrison writes for Elsevier Business Intelligence. Besides engaging in conversations about biotech industry trends, followers of his Twitter account know he is a frustrated Philly sports fan.
@RyanMFierce. Ryan McBride is the executive editor at FierceBiotech, and a former colleague here at @xconomy. Ryan writes about drug development, but also focuses on bioinformatics and health IT.
@BNHealthSci. Bloomberg News wasn’t the first news organization to embrace social media, but the financial newswire where I used to work has a deep, strong lineup of health reporters who are increasingly mixing it up on Twitter. Key folks to follow are @mslopatto @RS_Flinn @megtirrell @RobertLangreth @FayCortez @Kristen_Hallam @SPettyPi @AnnaEdney and @HealthSciReg.
@amy_harmon. Amy Harmon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer at The New York Times, digs deep into the societal and ethical implications of biotech and genomic advances.
@Loftus. Veteran reporter Peter Loftus and colleague Jonathan Rockoff (@JonathanRockoff) are go-to sources on biotech at Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal.
@ivanoransky. Ivan Oransky of Reuters is one of the leading health editors out there, and a tough-minded advocate for high standards in journalism and honest science communication. The media world would be a better place with more guys like Ivan.
@OncologyTimes. Serena Stockwell and team cover a lot of ground in the world of cancer, especially the treatment of blood cancers.
@ScottHensley. Scott Hensley covers the health world for NPR, and brings a business savvy from his past experience at The Wall Street Journal.
@pharmalot. [Added: 2 pm ET] Veteran pharma reporter Ed Silverman rounds up all kinds of pharma news in his widely read blog, including lots of things pharma companies might prefer to keep swept under the rug.
@rleuty_biotech [Added: 6:45 pm ET] Ron Leuty of the San Francisco Business Times keeps a close eye on the biotech people and companies in the SF Bay Area, one of the world’s top two life sciences hubs.
Company Insiders/Executives
@popsalks. Richard Pops is the CEO of Alkermes (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALKS]]). As discussed in last week’s column, he’s not afraid to engage on Twitter, and show a little bit of personality, despite some of the risks he faces as the CEO of a publicly traded company. Earlier this year, when the FDA approved a diabetes drug important to Alkermes, he sent out a celebratory note on Twitter: “Game On.”
@Michael_Gilman. Gilman cut his teeth on Twitter while running a three-guys-and-a-dog startup in Boston called Stromedix. He was able to show his knowledge and wit on Twitter, without any real fear of litigators who eat nails for breakfast. Even now that his company got bought and he’s a senior vice president at Biogen Idec, he’s still the same @Michael_Gilman, setting a standard for biotech communication on Twitter.
@Gautamkollu. Kollu offered up sharp regular analysis of the cancer drug business while he was a vice president of marketing at South San Francisco-based Exelixis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXEL]]). He recently took a job at Natera, a company working on prenatal tests to screen for Down syndrome and other genetic abnormalities—a field with lots of potential and lots of potential for controversy. I, for one, will be watching what he has to say about this field.
@scientre Laura Strong, the president of Quintessence Biosciences in Madison, WI, has made clever use of Twitter. She’s raised her profile, her company’s profile, and raised awareness of what’s going on in biotech in Wisconsin.
@RubyGadelrab. Ruby Gadelrab is a senior director of marketing at Affymetrix, and as she says on her Twitter bio, “Marketing professional in Biotech, Genomics and Cancer Research. Diva. Fashionista. Foodie. Lover of Social Media and Shoes.” Now, I ask, how can you ignore that?
@DShaywitz. David Shaywitz likes to write about biotech and pharma industry trends in blogs, papers, Tweets, what have you. And Shaywitz isn’t one of those commentators who just passes along more of the same old conventional wisdom. He’s a creative thinker, and skilled writer.
Venture capitalists
@LifeSciVC. Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture has established himself over the past couple years as the best blogging VC in biotech. He’s similarly comfortable sharing his views about biotech investing, and misperceptions in the market, on Twitter.
@DaphneZohar. Daphne Zohar was one of biotech’s early adopters on Twitter, and has helped many of her colleagues at Boston-based PureTech Ventures, including former Pfizer executive @John_LaMattina, to see the light. PureTech has gone beyond just participating on Twitter, and has gone so far as to create a new app called Appeering which catalogs conversations on Twitter so that users and non-users of the service can get a quick and easy rundown of which subjects are hot each day in life sciences.
@BobMoreVC. Bob More of Frazier Healthcare Ventures has emerged over the past year as an outspoken voice
