Industry news

Drug Spending Slowed in 2015 After Discounts, CVS Health Says

Robert Langreth / Bloomberg Business

CVS Health Corp. said drug costs for its plans grew a modest 5 percent in 2015, far less than the 11.8 spending growth rate from a year before.

‘Extraordinary’ t-cell therapy results could change the face of cancer treatment

Victoria White / Europian Pharmaceutical Review

Dr Stanley Riddell, an immunotherapy researcher and oncologist at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, has presented ‘extraordinary’ results from adoptive T-cell strategies for cancer at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Will pharma advertisers pay the price for Google's pared-down search pages?

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Is Google's latest ad move going to cost pharma money? The tech giant says it's removing desktop search advertising on the right side of the page, often referred to as right rail ads. With ad inventory available only at the top or bottom of search pages, some advertising experts are worried about cost increases.

Top employers aim at Big Pharma with group project to bring down drug costs

Emily Wasserman / FiercePharma

Skyrocketing drug prices have lawmakers, payers and the public up in arms. Now, a consortium of top employers is joining the fray with its own joint plans to bring down prices for expensive meds.

Saudi researchers show linking drugs to nanotubes helps them battle breast cancer

Varun Saxena / FierceMedicalDevices

Saudi Arabian researchers are deploying single-walled carbon nanotubes as drug delivery agents in the fight against breast cancer. A combination of tubes containing paclitaxel or salinomycin resulted in an almost 19-fold reduction in breast cancer tumor size, compared to conventional administration of the two drugs, at least in mouse models, Nature Middle Eastreports. 

Money and policy appear to mix well in China biopharma

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

China's cabinet leadership State Council has said it wants to move intellectual property faster out of its elite research centers into commercial realms that allow developers to cash in, a move that fits with a rush of cash into biopharma plays that has captured attention.

U.S. and EU regulators urge Indian drug companies to step up standards

Zeba Siddiqui / Reuters

U.S. and EU drug regulators called upon India's pharmaceutical sector on Tuesday to step up efforts to improve manufacturing standards and ensure the reliability of data if it is to maintain its dominance in the generic drugs industry.

As India restructures pharma sector to rev up drug discovery, private equity remains scarce

T.V. Padma / BioWorld

Despite reservations private equity players might have about a sector with longer gestation periods and stringent regulations, India’s biopharmaceutical industry appears to be in an upbeat mood with new investments on the way and at least one state government announcing a land bonanza to set up biotech parks.

Can BIO's heartfelt image campaign win hearts and minds? Pharma skeptics aren't convinced

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

The pharma industry is once again trying to move the national drug conversation beyond cost and profits--this time with an emotional ad campaign featuring patients young and old who've been given longer lives thanks to biopharma drug discoveries.

Academic medical centers get an F for trial transparency

Ben Adams / FierceBiotech

Leading U.S. schools are failing to report their clinical trial results as just one-third are bothering to show their completed data for scrutiny. This is according to a new report published in The BMJ by Harlan M. Krumholz of the Yale School of Medicine and his colleagues.