Industry news

The Digital Marketing Platforms That Will Stick Around

Peter Houston / PharmExec.com

2016 will be the year of… well… take your pick. Content marketing, Face-to-Face marketing, Virtual-Reality marketing. Spend long enough looking and you’ll find someone predicting the meteoric rise of some new digital marketing platform or, equally, the death of a channel we have all just managed to get our heads around.

Europe Implements Measures to Prevent Falsified Medicines

BioPharm International

On Feb. 9, 2016, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Commission (EC) announced a plan to implement packaging safety features as part of the Falsified Medicines Directive (Directive 2011/62/EU) (FMD), adopted in July 2011. The implementation plan for centrally authorized medicines was created as a guide for applicants and marketing-authorization holders so they can meet the FMD requirements. These safety measures are part of Europe’s fight against falsified medicines. EMA defines falsified medicines as “fake medicines that pass themselves off as real, authorized medicines.”

Gold nanoparticle clusters and bursts of infrared light eliminate postsurgery tumor cells

Michael Gibney / FierceDrudDelivery

After tumor removal surgery, any part of the tumor that is left could potentially once again be harmful and spread. Now, using clusters of gold nanoparticles and short bursts of infrared light, researchers have homed in on those remaining cells to eradicate traces of the tumor with precision.

Fine Tuning the Focus on Biopharma Analytical Studies

Cynthia A. Challener / BioPharm International

Although just a few decades old, the biopharmaceutical industry has evolved significantly since its inception. Many candidate biologics today—antibodies and antibody fragments, highly potent antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), virus-like particles, cell- and gene-based therapies, etc.—are different from the first simple, recombinant proteins. Manufacturers have been continuously challenged to develop analytical methods for timely and accurate determination of the chemical, physical, and therapeutic properties of these different actives, as well as potential contaminants throughout the production process, from raw material selection to process analysis, formulation development, and release testing.

“Brand new principles” of cancer therapy developed in Tomsk

Marchmont Innovation News

Researchers at Tomsk Polytechnic (TPU), a leading university in Siberia, working in partnership with their colleagues from the Siberian Institute of Physics of Strengths and Material Science (IPSMS) and international teams, claim to have found a new strategy to fight cancer by exposing cancerous cells to “hunger torture,” thus slowing down their growth and development. Special nanodimensional agents have been developed to do the job, the TPU website  announced . 
 

Pharma dot-gov: A New Business Model

Richard Burcham / Pharmaceutical Executive

Regulatory intensity and its impact on pivotal economics (pricing, LOE, NDAs, etc.) has put the biopharma industry’s traditional business model under tremendous pressure. According to a recent  Forbes/KPMG survey of  CEOs, regulation is now the  issue with the greatest impact on corporate success in the “new economy” marketplace

Supply Chain Integration or Bust… or Both

Michael Kleinrock / PharmExec.com

The supply chain for pharmaceuticals is becoming more integrated and the recent formation of three mega supply-chain purchasing groups (Walgreen’s-AllianceBoots-AmerisourceBergen-Rite-Aid, McKesson-Celesio, CVS-Cardinal) acts as a harbinger of a shift in the balance of power between wholesalers, chains, generic pharmaceutical companies and branded pharmaceutical companies, particularly in the U.S. and Europe. 

Vaccines Prove Effective and Cost-Effective

Jill Wechsler / BioPharm International

Vaccine R&D has grown exponentially in recent years, spurred by ethical and medical needs to combat lethal infectious outbreaks and increased funding from public and private agencies and organizations. The Ebola outbreak in 2015 and the current stampede to develop a new vaccine to combat the Zika virus illustrate global recognition of the important role of vaccines in promoting public health. Consequently, both small biotech firms and more leading pharmaceutical companies have expanded vaccine research and production in the past decade, as returns on investment have become more attractive.

Canada’s innovation opportunity

Jay Taylor / PhRMA

Next month’s visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Washington is a chance to strengthen a vital trade and investment partnership and to resolve problems left over by Canada’s previous government. Addressing a series of misguided Canadian court decisions that are harming patients and threatening jobs, growth and innovation on both sides of the border must be high on the agenda.

The biopharmaceutical industry’s commitment to quality

Camille Jackson / PhRMA

America’s innovative biopharmaceutical companies are leaders in innovation and quality—not just in research and development, but also in manufacturing technology.