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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Despite fears of cancer risks, despite abundant–and growing–competition, Lantus can power Sanofi-Aventis to its ambitious goals for growth in the diabetes arena. That’s what the company’s diabetes chief, Pierre Chancel, tells Bloomberg, anyway. Chancel says Lantus will continue to lead competitors, he says, even as longer-acting versions of insulin hit the market. “To beat Lantus, a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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