Industry news

Native advertising for pharma: Winning format or slippery slope to regulatory headaches?

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Did you see that ad? In many cases of native advertising, the answer is no--because people can't always tell what's an ad and what isn't. A study in the December Journal of Advertising found that the majority of consumers can't tell the difference between native advertising and editorial content. As more pharma marketers begin to embrace the format, and as the Federal Trade Commission continues to home in on native advertising for any deceptive practices, the findings are worth noting.

Med tech VC HealthQuest aims for $175M new fund

Stacy Lawrence / Fierce Medical Devices

HealthQuest Capital raised a $110 million med tech fund and spun out of Sofinnova Ventures last year. That kind of commitment is remarkable in a segment long stigmatized as offering poor returns and few exit opportunities. But now the firm has gone even further.

11 January 2016

Epic Sciences Receives CAP Accreditation

Epic Sciences announced today that they have received notice of their accreditation from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) for its San Diego laboratory. The CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program is recognized bythe United States government as being equally or more stringent than the federal inspection program and is designed to specifically ensure the highest standard of care for all laboratory samples.

2015 in Review: What we saw this year in M&A, PE and VC

PitchBook Blog

As the end of the year arrives, it's time to reflect. And to close out 2015, the PitchBook Editorial team discusses what we saw this year in M&A, private equity and venture capital, while also looking ahead to what may be in store in the year to come.

The biggest news makers and trending stories of 2015

BioWorld

Despite turbulent capital markets, it was another record year for biopharmaceutical company financings, both public and private. Significant advances were seen in the burgeoning, complex world of biosimilars. And the behemoth China has repositioned itself to be a drug development powerhouse, giving credence to its new status as the second largest pharma market. Even though great scientific strides were also included in BioWorld's top 10 list (CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology) and mega deals rocked the sector, what choked its way up to the top of the list of most impactful stories was, undeniably, the drug pricing debate. 

Success Rate for Biopharma Companies Rising as FDA Approves Near-Record Number of NMEs

Peter Winter / Life Scoences Connect

It was a busy December for the FDA as it gave the green light to five more new molecular entities (NMEs), boosting the number of NMEs and new therapeutic biological products approved by the U.S. agency in 2015 to 45, an almost 10 percent increase over the 41 NMEs that were approved last year.

China continues to fine-tune drug, food safety procedures

Matthew Driskill / FiercePharmaAsia

The government of China continues to refine its legal powers to deal with drug safety issues, according to a release from the country's Supreme Court that says investigations will be streamlined to identify administrative cases that potentially involve major criminal breaches.

08 January 2016

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering

Clearside Biomedical, Inc., a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company developing innovative first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to Clearside’s proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not been determined. 

08 January 2016

Sherer and White to Receive 2016 Georgia Bio Industry Growth Awards

Todd Sherer, PhD, Associate Vice President & Executive Director of the Emory University Office of Technology Transfer, and Daniel White, President and CEO of Clearside Biomedical Inc. are the recipients of the 2016 Georgia Bio Industry Growth Awards.

07 January 2016

Tobira Therapeutics Announces Initiation of Program to Evaluate Cenicriviroc for the Treatment of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

Tobira Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TBRA), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other serious immuno-inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada have accepted the company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application and Clinical Trial Application (CTA), respectively, for cenicriviroc (CVC) for the treatment of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).