Industry news

The Tide Stays High

Jim Miller / BioPharm International

A year ago, the outlook for contract services was a little uncertain. Equity markets’ appetite for public offerings from emerging bio/pharmaceutical companies had significantly diminished: valuations of emerging bio/pharma companies, as measured by the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (NBI), had declined by 15% from their highs in mid-2015, and by mid-February, they were off another 28%. Because contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and contract research organizations (CROs) get so much of their business from externally-financed companies, the negative energy surrounding emerging bio/pharma did not bode well for the industry.

Russia May Start Particle Accelerator Cancer Treatments by 2020

Sputnik

Pavel Lobachev, the director of the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, said that his institute will do the accelerator in order to begin clinical trials of the latest boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) by 2020.

Global Drug Spending: A Look Ahead

Rita C. Peters / BioPharm International

Drug availability and pricing were hot issues in the past few years. The QuintilesIMS Institute provides a pricing perspective in its annual projections for global drug sales (1). The report estimates that global medicine spending will reach nearly $1.5 trillion on an invoice price basis by 2021; the total volume of medicines consumed globally will increase 3%. The types of therapies and use of innovator versus generic drugs, however, will vary depending on where patients live.

Drug Quality Key to Innovation and Access

Jill Wechsler / BioPharm International

FDA plans to advance initiatives for ensuring reliable production of drugs and biologics in 2017. Amidst multiple challenges to the structure and governance of the US healthcare system, bio/pharmaceutical manufacturers will face a host of issues in bringing safe and effective new therapies to patients. The demand for affordable personalized, or precision, medicines to treat lethal diseases requires efficient and cost-effective operations that promote innovation and avoid shortages.

The high potential of the Russian clinical trials market

World Courier

Why has Russia emerged as an important study market? Gurinder Shinmar, Vice President of Clinical Operations at World Courier discusses why Russia has emerged as an important study market and explores the opportunities for sponsors looking to embark on trials in the country.

New Year, New Challenges Ahead

Rita C. Peters / BioPharm International

The outlook for the biopharma industry itself—as well as the healthcare system, patient access to affordable medicines, speedy drug approvals, and global regulatory compliance‑was uncertain as the calendar turned to 2017.

12 January 2017

Venture Monitor: 2016 ended with a total of $69.1 billion invested into the US venture ecosystem, representing the second highest annual total—after 2015—in the past 11 years

PitchBook

Through the first half of 2016, venture investment activity in the US seemingly continued the frenetic pace of 2015, which was a headline year for the industry. However, a slowdown in VC investment activity began in the third quarter that continued into the fourth quarter when just $12.7 billion was deployed to 1,736 companies. Nonetheless, 2016 ended with a total of $69.1 billion invested into the US venture ecosystem, representing the second highest annual total—after 2015—in the past 11 years. More than 7,751 companies raised capital across 8,136 deals in 2016, with both measures reverting toward 2012 annual levels.

Top 20 pharma brands dropped more than $2B on national TV ads last year

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Pharma companies spent $2.2 billion last year on TV ads for their 20 top brands, and nine of the biggest spenders each went over $100 million with their national media budgets, according to data from real-time TV ad tracker iSpot.tv.

Pharma’s R&D Dilemma: Blockbuster Costs Without Blockbuster Revenues

BioPharm International

In  “Balancing the R&D Equation: Measuring the Return from Pharmaceutical Innovation,” its latest look at the return on investment (ROI) from pharmaceutical R&D, Deloitte analysts have found that the industry’s ROI for research has continued to slip.  The researchers have been examining these trends since 2010.

The forecast for biotech IPOs in 2017? Not nearly as hot as the industry would like

John Carroll / Endpoints News

Last year only 28 bio­pharma com­pa­nies man­aged to com­plete an IPO in the US, the worst record since the bad old days of 2012. And the smart money at Sil­i­con Val­ley Bank says you can ex­pect a re­peat, or maybe some­thing just slightly bet­ter, in the year ahead.