Archive for the 'Oncology' Category
July 29th, 2010 by admin
Milestone payments are becoming an increasingly familiar aspect of many biotech deals, as buyers try to mitigate the risks inherent with big purchases. Take Celgene’s $2.9 billion buyout of Abraxis; the biotech giant set aside $650 million in milestone payments if Abraxis’ key drug Abraxane hit certain goals. “These structures are a great way for buyer and seller to share the risk that’s related to drug development,” says analyst Brett Skolnik. Milestones also encourage buyer and seller to look beyond the merger, making it more likely the deal will be beneficial to both sides in the long term.
Continue reading ‘Milestones Mitigate Risk in Biotech Deals’
July 27th, 2010 by admin
Oncologics, lipid regulators, respiratory agents, antidiabetics and anti-ulcerants are the five largest drug classes by sales. But annual sales are only half the story. Which drug classes are booming, and which have plateaued–or even dropped? IMS Health has released top-line industry data revealing the 15 largest drug classes, and we’ve crunched the numbers to take a closer look at the average sales growth of the 15 largest therapeutic classes over the last five years.
Continue reading ‘Fastest Growing Therapeutic Classes (by Sales)’
July 26th, 2010 by admin
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) is looking to its pipeline to fill the gaps left by a number of high-profile drugs coming off patent. In October 2011, blockbuster Zyprexa will fall to generic competition; additionally, about three-quarters of Lilly’s current revenue comes from eight drugs that will lose patent protection between now and 2017. ”We have the challenge of replenishing our product portfolio from our pipeline,” says CEO John Lechleiter in a USA Today interview. “Fortunately, we have the most exciting pipeline today in our history.”
Continue reading ‘Pipeline to Soften Lilly Patent Losses’
July 20th, 2010 by admin
In the quest for a cancer vaccine, Merck KGaA is again stepping into the ring. Vaximm Holding AG, the company’s joint venture with a Switzerland’s BB Biotech Ventures III, will start testing a therapeutic cancer vaccine in patients next year. The vaccine, VXM01, harnesses the body’s immune system to fight cancer by using T-cells to close off the tumor’s blood supply. Roche’s Avastin also focuses on the tumor’s blood supply, but it focuses on eliminating a protein that creates the blood vessels to the tumor.
Continue reading ‘Merck KGaA’s Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Ready for Testing’
July 14th, 2010 by admin
Chang Lu and his chemical engineering research group at Virginia Tech have discovered how to “greatly enhance” the delivery of DNA payloads into cells. The description of their work will be featured on the cover of Lab on a Chip, the premier journal for researchers in microfluidics. Lu’s ultimate goal is to apply this technique to create genetically modified cells for cancer immunotherapy, stem cell therapy and tissue regeneration.
Continue reading ‘New Spin on DNA Delivery: Enhanced Delivery Method of DNA Payloads into Cells’
July 2nd, 2010 by admin
Craig Venter has never been reluctant to credit himself for a lead role in sequencing the human genome. And he’s certainly not the least bit shy about placing a high value on the overall significance of the work. “I think it’s far more important than walking on the Moon; not much has happened since walking on the Moon,” he tells the BBC on the tenth anniversary of the grand achievement, which took 2,000 scientists more than 10 years and $2.7 billion to accomplish.
Continue reading ‘Importance of Human Genome Sequencing Still Debated – 10 Years Later’
June 29th, 2010 by admin
Cytori Therapeutics may need to spend $10 million more than anticipated to get clearance for its first product because of a stricter-than-anticipated regulation. Cytori had laid out $200 million in eight years on the device and was seeking ”fast-track” clearance for the body-tissue repair device. But now it must take the slower regulatory path used for about one in every 10 experimental devices.
Continue reading ‘FDA Imposes Hurdle for Cytori Breast Repair Device’
June 15th, 2010 by admin
What three trends are most important to pharma these days? Generics, emerging markets and personalized medicine, according to the Harvard Business Review. Branded generics are the wave of Big Pharma’s future, HBR says. These branded versions of off-patent meds sell at higher prices than regular generics do, but are cheaper than the branded meds themselves. They give a measure of assurance to patients worried about counterfeit meds–and to those concerned that unbranded generics won’t work as well as their branded counterparts. They also offer drugmakers a niche in emerging countries.
Continue reading ‘Pharma Trifecta: Generics, New Markets and Personalization’
June 7th, 2010 by admin
While many medical professionals continue to debate the effectiveness of mammograms for women prior to age 50, a new study concludes that such tests are becoming more precise in their ability to “detect and intercept” breast cancer, the Group Health Research Institute recently announced. Data from more than 2.5 million screenings for more than 970,000 women ages 40 to 79 determined that by 2004, radiologists were able to correctly identify cancerous lesions in women nearly 84 percent of the time, up from 71.4 percent in 1996. While over the same time period, the accuracy with which radiologists correctly identified non-cancerous lesions decreased from 93.6 percent in 1996 to 91.7 percent in 2004, researchers were not overly concerned with the “false-positive test results.”
Continue reading ‘Breast Cancer Detection through Mammograms Improved’
May 25th, 2010 by admin
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have reported evidence that the orphan generic drug dichloroacetate (DCA) may hold promise as potential therapy for perhaps the deadliest of all human cancers: a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. The report is published at the journal Science Translational Medicine, a journal of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.
Continue reading ‘Generic Drug May be Potential Treatment for Deadly Brain Cancer’
