Industry news

Venture capital flowing, but BIO study points to fewer start-ups

Jennifer Boggs / BioWorld

The Biotechnology Industry Organization's (BIO) first-ever venture capital study, which analyzed U.S. venture investments during a 10-year period – 2004 to 2013 – turned up several positive trends such as the increasing shift toward biologics and novel drug development, but there was one set of data that gave investors pause. (

Patient engagement as important as the data

Mari Serebrov / BioWorld

The thought of having unfettered access to all the medical and genomic data of a million Americans had researchers gathered at the National Institutes of Health’s first workshop on precision medicine licking their lips. 

India mulling plans to build bulk drug manufacturing capacity

The Economic Times

The government will shortly come out with strategies to improve bulk drug manufacturing capacity in India in order to reduce dependence on China for import of bulk drugs. 
 

24 February 2015

Epic Sciences Announces Presentation of Three Studies on Novel CTC Liquid Biopsy Assays for Metastatic Prostate Cancers and Bladder Cancers at 2015 ASCO GU Cancer Symposium

Epic Sciences announced today that results from studies in metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) and muscle-invasive, metastatic bladder cancers using Epic's circulating tumor cell (CTC) technology will be presented at the 2015 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium which will be held February 26 to 28 at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Fla.

SAIS’s Roger Leeds Discusses Private Equity in Emerging Markets

Allen Wagner / Pitch Book Blog

Emerging market countries may well represent the greatest opportunity for growth in the private equity industry over the coming years, and in fact, we’ve already seen PE investing in developing countries expand since the financial crisis. PitchBook data show that private equity and venture capital investing in emerging markets hit a record in 2014, with more than $65 billion invested across roughly 1,500 deals, a number that has grown every year since 2009. 

Big Data digging yields unprecedented road map of the epigenome

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

A massive data generation and analysis program has uncovered a map of the epigenome, the switches that turn genes off and on. Researchers published their findings in a series of papers in Nature and released the data for further analysis through the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

FDA Sets Policies to Enhance Drug Security and Safety

J. Wechsler / BioPharm International

FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) director Janet Woodcock’s top priorities for 2015 are to establish new rules to ensure safe drug compounding, while also implementing a new track-and-trace system for monitoring drugs and ingredients moving through the pharmaceutical supply chain. 

Ten Years of Therapeutic Venture Capital Inside BIO Industry Analysis

BIOTechNow

What therapeutic areas have received the most funding in private drug companies over the last decade? How much of this has been for new drugs vs drug delivery? How much into biologics vs small molecules?

Pharma's top 10 M&A deals of 2014

Carly Helfand and Eric Palmer / FiercePharma

2014 was quite the banner year for pharma M&A. According to EY's annual firepower report, deals topped $200 billion--well over twice the average volume from over the past decade.

NIH-supported researchers map epigenome of more than 100 tissue and cell types

U.S. National Institute of Health

Much like mapping the human genome laid the foundations for understanding the genetic basis of human health, new maps of the human epigenome may further unravel the complex links between DNA and disease. The epigenome is part of the machinery that helps direct how genes are turned off and on in different types of cells.