Industry news

Focusing on Only 1% of Spending Will Not Solve Nation’s Health Care Challenges

Robert Zirkelbach / PhRMA

Commentary published today in Mayo Clinic Proceedingshighlights a critical challenge facing cancer patients: the ability to access the medicines they need. But rather than address this issue directly, the authors outlined a series of proposals that focus solely on the 1 percent of health care spending that goes toward life-saving cancer medicines. 

Report: U.K. academic R&D alliances are expensive but worth it

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

A report commissioned by the United Kingdom government has found data to corroborate a widely held belief: R&D collaborations with British universities are expensive. Yet with such institutions performing world-class science--and tax breaks and funding schemes offsetting the upfront costs--Big Pharma is lining up to strike deals. Just ask Pfizer.

China state-owned drug firms move to direct consumer sales, prescriptions next?

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

China's Shandong Freda Pharmaceutical Group has obtained a license to sell direct to consumers, China Daily reports, highlighting a trend that has gathered pace across over-the-counter remedies and healthcare products as companies also eye Beijing for a nod on ethical drugs.

Israeli biotechs scoop $209M as Nasdaq ATM keeps pumping out dollars

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

A trio of Israeli biotechs have bagged $209 million (€192 million) through share offerings on Nasdaq. Chiasma ($CHMA) led the way with a $101.8 million IPO, trailed by follow-on offerings by NeuroDerm ($NDRM) and RedHill Biopharma ($RDHL) that pulled in $66.9 million and $40 million, respectively.

I'll prescribe it if you do: Prescribers susceptible to peer pressure, study finds

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Like teenage girls unsure of the latest fashion, doctors are susceptible to the social influence of their peers when it comes to prescribing both new and repeat drugs, according to a new Wharton School study. And not unlike said teens, peer influencers change over time. With doctors, however, the study found that the changes occur as a drug moves from new and risky to recurrent status.

UK aiming to match investment strategy to research timelines

Nuala Moran / BioWorld

With the amount of funding available for biotech in the UK finally rebounding from the financial crisis, there is now a push to extend the timelines over which it is made available, to better accommodate the 10 to 15 years it takes to develop a drug.

What The Tech Bubble Means Outside Silicon Valley

Idriss Al Rifai / Tech Crunch

It’s a place, a mindset, a nickname, a metonym, an innovation hub, a TV show and a standard against which all cradles of technology are measured. Silicon Valley prides itself on having a meta-status that defies easy categorization, but this cannot save it from the impending bubble. 

Biosimilars will cut top 10 vulnerable biologics almost in half by 2020: Morningstar

Carly Helfand / FiercePharmaMarketing

Biosimilar competition may take a bigger bite out of branded sales than we think. The top 10 biologics facing biosimilar competition will see sales fall to $49 billion by 2020, consensus estimates say. That's down from $62 billion last year. But according to Morningstar analysts, that 2020 sales number is too high.

Drugmakers like Gilead, Mylan and Novo--not Big Pharma--are job creators

Eric Palmer / FeircePharma

With a couple of exceptions, including 12% job growth at AstraZeneca ($AZN), little changed last year when it came to Big Pharma's employment numbers. But drop down to midtier players and the employment picture changes significantly, both in terms of how many jobs were added last year, and in one very notable case, how few.

Singapore's biopharma industry: Where the jobs are

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

Hays Recruiting in Singapore says jobs in biopharma niches in manufacturing, regulatory and sales are up for grabs in the island nation, topping its latest quarterly regional outlook of skills in demand through September 2015, according to a press release.