Industry news

Novo will soon open plant in Russia

Eric Palmer, FeircePharmaManufactoring

The Russian ruble maybe in rubble, but the economic challenges will not deter Novo Nordisk ($NVO), which is finishing up a plant in Russia. Five years in the planning and nearly three in construction, execs say it is needed to fulfill the drugmaker's long-term goals there.

FDA to publish guidance on social media and clinical trial e-consent in 2015

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech IT

The FDA has released a list of almost 100 draft drug guidance documents it plans to introduce or update in 2015. The documents cover a range of biotech IT-related topics, including electronic informed consent in clinical trials, links to third-party sites in social media adverts and statistical approaches to showing biosimilarity.

Nanotechnology Markets in Healthcare & Medicine

Drug Development & Delivery

In the field of nanomedicine research, the US accounts for one-third of all publications and half of patent filings. A comparison between Europe as a whole and the US shows that while Europe is at the forefront of research, the US leads in the number of patent filings. The strong patenting activity of US scientists and companies indicates a more advanced commercialization status.

$4B VC shop lays out its vision for the future of digital health

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech IT

Anyone with a passing interest in tech startups is unlikely to be shocked by Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz listing digital health as one of its top 16 trends. But as one of the organizations with some power over how these trends play out, the reasoning behind Andreessen Horowitz's list makes for interesting reading.

Innovent's $100M deal signals how biotech is ready to explode in China

EJ Lane / Feirce Biotech

China biotech Innovent's recent success in raising $100 million in venture capital to help it build a pipeline of biosimilars could be a signal of how the industry may be set to explode in a country about to invest $6.45 billion in startups.

Booming biotechs bank $2.7B in follow-on cash

Damian Garde / Feirce Biotech

Much of the focus in biotech's recent boom has been on the ease with which companies are making their way onto Wall Street. And, over the past week, a host of drug developers illustrated the benefits of being a publicly traded company, raising roughly $2.7 billion in follow-on offerings to bankroll R&D and potential acquisitions.

Challenger says 2015 a year to send out your resume, pharma folks

Eric Palmer / FiercePharma

Venture capital funding for UK life sciences surged in 2014

Denise Roland / The Telegraph

Venture Capital (VC) backing for UK life science companies soared by 41pc last year to hit $713m (£527m), according to figures seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

U.K. biotech VC funding jumps 41% to blast past $700M mark

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

The United Kingdom biotech sector finally has some venture funding numbers to crow about. After a tricky few years, British life science companies raised $713 million (£470 million) in 2014, a 41% jump over 2013, according to figures compiled by London & Partners.

EU IPO figures for 2014 dwarf previous 5 years combined

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

The biotech IPO boom was slow to cross the Atlantic. From 2009 to 2013, European biotechs raised €303 million ($350 million) in home-turf IPOs, around 10% of the amount their U.S. peers pocketed in just one of those years. The situation improved dramatically in 2014, though.