Industry news

China plans public health push on cancer, wants to expand screening

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

China plans a public health campaign on cancer that over the next three years will see screening for early detection expanded by nearly one-third, spur new drug development and direct focus on prevention that covers smoking, China Daily reported.

Undiagnosed Diseases Network launches online application portal

U.S. National Institute of Health

The Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN), a clinical research initiative of the National Institutes of Health, has opened an online patient application portal called the UDN Gateway. Introduction of this application system sets the stage for the network to advance its core mission: to diagnose patients who suffer from conditions that even skilled physicians have been unable to diagnose despite extensive clinical investigation. These diseases are difficult for doctors to diagnose because they are rarely seen, have not previously been described or are unrecognized forms of more common diseases.

Big Pharma misses the cut for new list of top healthcare tweeters

Tracy Staton / Fierce Pharma Marketing

Pharma execs are still sitting on the social media sidelines, according to one new assessment. BrandFog social media consultancy has come up with its first top 20 list of healthcare and pharma Twitter influencers and not one pharma company staffer is on it.

Pharma digital marketing is on the cusp: What's next?

Tracy Staton / Fierce Pharma Marketing

Big Pharma is at a crossroads. Should companies take the full-fledged digital path traveled by other industries? Or continue as-is? Or simply stall there, waiting?

Big Pharma's Foe Takes Victory Lap as Drug Price Increases Slow

Robert Langreth / Bloomberg Business

A new analysis shows that attempts by drugmakers to raise prices on their prescription medications are being wiped out in negotiations with managers of drug insurance benefits, led by Paz’s company, Express Scripts Holding Co., and his biggest rival, CVS Health Corp. Express Scripts said Wednesday that Paz will retire in May, making way for the company’s president, Tim Wentworth, to take over.

15 September 2015

Tackling presbyopia with an inlay

Vanessa Caceres, Jeffrey Whitman MD / Ophthalmology Times

The Raindrop Near Vision Inlay (ReVision Optics) to treat presbyopia provided good near visual acuity without glasses in a study conducted and presented by Jeffrey Whitman, MD. The inlay, which is still an investigational device in the U.S., is inserted under a LASIK flap. It is a microscopic hydrogel inlay that creates a central steepening of the cornea to give a greater depth of focus, said Dr. Whitman, Key-Whitman Eye Center, Dallas.

Study: Cancer-cell mopping implant could stop disease in its tracks

Emily Wasserman / FierceMedicalDevices

Researchers have long searched for ways to track cancer cells as they proliferate and stop them from spreading. Now, scientists in the U.S. are developing a spongelike device that can mop up cancer cells as they move through the body, potentially offering an early warning sign to doctors.

NIH awards nearly $35 million to research natural products

U.S. National Institute of Health

Five research centers will focus on the safety of natural products, on how they work within the body, and on the development of cutting-edge research technologies. The centers, jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), include three Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Centers and two Centers for Advancing Natural Products Innovation and Technology. Natural products include a wide variety of substances produced by plants, bacteria, fungi, and animals that have historically been used in traditional medicine and other complementary and integrative health practices.

Reviews Show Research, Growth Fueled by EU Biomedical Initiatives

Nuala Moran / BioWorld

An analysis of journal papers published by participants in Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) shows the €3.3 billion (US$3.6 billion) public/private partnership is now turning out high volumes of high-quality research.

Pharmas want Japan to maintain its price stability scheme

Catherine Makino / BioWorld

Domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies want Japan to maintain a scheme that adds price premiums to certain drugs, which makes it easier for drug companies to recoup research and development costs. The program, supported by the National Health Insurance (NHI), is coming under scrutiny as the government looks for ways to cut ballooning health care costs.