Industry news

St. Petersburg start-up makes inroads into Bavarian market

Marchmont Innovation News

Data MATRIX, a St. Petersburg start-up developing clinical data processing solutions, has opened a rep office in Munich, in southern Germany, and joined the Bavarian biotech cluster, Russian portal Firrma.ru  reported , citing a source in the start-up. 

Biotech deals down by half and could be lowest since 2013: report

Ben Adams / FiercePharma

We all know that biotech M&A activity has been pretty sluggish in 2017, but new stats out from Bloomberg show just how quiet things have been. In a new report, the financial news service found that biotech deals this year “are on pace for almost half the yearly totals of the past two years,” with just $11.5 billion in takeovers made thus far in 2017, half the total over the 24 months prior.

Pfizer wins approval for blood cancer drug Besponsa

Eric Palmer / FiercePharma

Pfizer today won FDA approval for a new targeted drug for the treatment of relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The approval comes at a watershed moment for treating the disease as next-gen treatment options appear on the horizon.

Scientists give star treatment to lesser-known cells crucial for brain development

U.S.National Institute of Health

After decades of relative neglect, star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are finally getting their due. To gather insight into a critical aspect of brain development, a team of scientists examined the maturation of astrocytes in 3-D structures grown in culture dishes to resemble human brain tissue. The study, which confirms the lab-grown cells develop at the same rate as those found in human brains, was published in Neuron and funded in part by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). 

Surprise: A short list of TV-ad drug risks is easier to recall, FDA study finds

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Ready to say goodbye to the laundry list of risks in pharma TV ads? Don't hold your breath, but one newly published FDA study found shorter risk statements in DTC commercials led to better recognition and recall.

FDA under fire over accelerated approval data demands

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

Researchers have raised concerns with the level of evidence needed to win accelerated approval from the FDA. Regulators stand accused of waving through drugs on the basis of slight data and then failing to ensure confirmatory postapproval trials validate the decision.

Pharma's social status: LinkedIn and FB up, Twitter down, Instagram finally appears

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Facebook is the go-to platform for pharma marketers. In a new study, 73% of pharma marketing teams say they plan to use the platform during the next two years, an 8-percentage-point increase since Cutting Edge Information's previous survey in 2013.

Facebook is the go-to platform for pharma marketers. In a new study, 73% of pharma marketing teams say they plan to use the platform during the next two years, an 8-percentage-point increase since Cutting Edge Information's previous survey in 2013.

The Most Popular Social Media Platforms in the Pharma Industry for 2017 & 2018

Market Wire

A new study of pharmaceutical marketing teams found that the most popular social media forum groups plan to use in the next one to two years is Facebook (73%), according to data published by business intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information.

What’s worth $500M-plus? The Big 6 deals of Q2 show you where the money is — and isn’t

John Carroll / Endpoints News

You thought it was getting quiet on the deal front? You’re right. Those big licensing deals biopharma loves to boast about were on the wane in Q2. Analysts for Cortellis tracked the big licensing game potentially worth a half billion dollars or more, and came up with only 7 in Q2, way down from the 17 seen in Q1. Altogether, they recorded 967 new deals of all sizes, down 8% from the 1,050 seen in the first three months of the year.

Drug developers face increasingly risky tightrope walk between top-line results and hard data

John Carroll / Endpoints News

Even the biggest pharma companies can hype the results of a big drug study, given the curious dance-of-the-seven-veils choreography provided to late-stage data. And the Wall Street Journal is offering up an example to underscore just how perilous this dance can be for all players.