Industry news

MSF wants Indian PM to stand up to Big Pharma peer pressure

Emily Wasserman / FiercePharma

Western drugmakers have long struggled with India's populist attitude toward patents, and hoped there would be some light at the end of the tunnel with the latest spate of trade negotiations over generic drugs in the country. But Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a vocal critic of Big Pharma's patent tactics, is none too pleased with the proposed trade changes. 

Pharma M&A and Financial Trends: The Frenzy and Risks Escalate

Peter Young / Pharmaceutical Executive

Every day the newspapers are filled with stories about the pharma industry. Many are very positive, with reports of breakthroughs and novel approaches to solving difficult health issues, the commitment of the industry to attack some of the most difficult diseases and break through a myriad of structural roadblocks and escalating development costs. Others are more critical with complaints about drug pricing, the seemingly endless stream of take-overs, and the rush towards orphan drugs.

16 June 2015

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces Favorable End-of-Phase 2 Review with the FDA

Clearside Biomedical, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye, today announced a favorable End-of-Phase 2 review with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its lead drug triamcinolone acetonide (TA) administered via injection into the suprachoroidal space (SCS) for the treatment of macular edema associated with non-infectious uveitis. Agreement was reached with the FDA for the overall development plan with a single pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial, and the company is finalizing plans to initiate this global study.

16 June 2015

Tobira Finishes Patient Enrollment for NASH Study

Leonor Mateus Ferreira / Hepatitis News Today

Tobira Therapeutics, Inc. has finished recruiting patients for its phase 2b CENTAURstudy, which was designed to evaluate a therapy called cenicriviroc (CVC) in patients who suffer from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver fibrosis. The company, which is focused on developing and commercializing therapeutic options to treat liver and inflammatory conditions, announced enrollment completion in a press release.

16 June 2015

Coda Therapeutics $3.43 million Fundraising. David Pool Published Jun 12 SEC Filing

Octafinance.com

Coda Therapeutics Inc, Corporation just submitted form D announcing $3.43 million debt financing. This is a new filing. Coda Therapeutics was able to finance itself with $1.21 million so far. That is 35.16% of the financing offer. The total private financing amount was $3.43 million. The form was filled on 2015-06-12. The reason for the financing was: Total Offering Amount includes estimated amounts receivable by the Issuer upon the exercise of certain warrants to purchase the Issuer’s preferred stock (assuming no net issue exercise, where applicable). 

16 June 2015

New System to Detect Patient's Antibiotic Resistance to Take Just 30 Minutes

Drug Discovery & Development

A new device being developed by medical experts will transform the time it takes to detect antibiotic resistance in patients from several days to just half an hour.

VBlockbuster 2.0: Eight Ways to Follow that Leader

Stan Bernard, Janet Wells / Pharmaceutical Executive

Over the past decade, many industry journalists, analysts, and consultants presumed that specialty markets, pricing pressures, and pharmacogenetic testing would kill off billion-dollar products. However—to paraphrase Mark Twain—reports of the death of the blockbuster have been widely exaggerated. 

New Study: Policy Environment Has a Significant Impact on Biopharmaceutical Investment

Meir Perez Pugatch / PhRMA

Economies’ policy trajectories have a significant impact on biopharmaceutical investment decisions, perhaps more than costs and market size, according to local executives. A new study from Pugatch Consilium consultancy finds that economies with policy environments that support investment and innovation rank as the most attractive for biopharmaceutical investment in the eyes of top level executives operating on the ground. 

Biotech payrolls boom along with sales, while Big Pharma jobs keep disappearing

Tracy Staton / Fierce Pharma

Biotech is booming, there's no escaping that fact. And once again, an employment report shows that the biotech boom extends to job growth that beats pharma. Once again, biotech payrolls are burgeoning as pharma's falter.

Indian feds stake out plan to become a global hub of device manufacturing and innovation

Varun Saxena / FierceMedicalDevices

India plans a federal National Medical Device Authority to promote its nascent med tech sector through such industry-friendly measures as the creation of industrial parks, tax concessions and direct government funding of startups. But price controls and preferential treatment of manufacturing devices domestically are also part of the plan, to the concern of industry bigwigs, who are largely based in the U.S.