Industry news

CRISPR patent battle heats up as new email disputes Zhang’s claims

Ben Adams / Fierce Biotech

The ongoing patent battle over just who owns the rights to the cutting-edge CRISPR-Cas9 technology has heated up this week with a new email from a junior scientist putting more confusion over who invented the gene-editing process first. 

Don’t Blow Up FDA

Jill Wechsler / BioPharm International

Biopharmaceutical companies no longer consider FDA an obstacle to innovation and in need of major reform, according to leading observers of the drug regulatory process. “We now have clear expectations about review times,” said Jim Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), at a forum sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. So we “don’t need someone saying this place is a disaster and let’s blow it up.”

Launching a drug? Be prepared to show it's cost-effective up front, consultant says

Eric Sagonowsky / FiercePharma

On the heels of Trinity Partners’ first medicines index, president John Corcoran said the biopharma industry can expect a continued focus on specialty drugs and drastically different drug launches in the years to come.

Pharma and healthcare ahead of other industries in implementing mobile strategies: survey

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharmaMarketing

Pharma and healthcare companies are ahead of the curve when it comes to mobile business strategies, according to a new survey from Red Hat. In the survey, 82% of healthcare and pharma companies said they have a fully implemented mobile strategy, compared with just 52% of all commercial enterprises surveyed in Red Hat’s broader study last year.

A new strategic direction for behavioral and social sciences research at NIH

U.S. National Institute of Health

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health has released a new strategic plan for 2017 through 2021. The plan focuses on scientific priorities, which reflect key research challenges that OBSSR is uniquely positioned to address. Developed with considerable input from internal and external NIH stakeholders, the plan ensures OBSSR continues to fulfill its mission.

Real world evidence: a reality check for pharma?

Matt Fellows / PharmaLife

Rising demands on the industry has pharma firms calling for a more-effective, fit-for-purpose methodology for generating clinical data. Could the answer be real world evidence? Originally published in the November issue of Pharmafocus, Matt Fellows examines this promising research practice and how it could revamp the pharma R&D landscape.

Continuing progress and promise in pediatric drug development

Dr. Christopher-Paul Milne / PhRMA

It has been almost two decades since the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) and the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) were passed in order to increase the number of medicines appropriately labeled for safe and effective use in children. 

Biotech Venture Capital Mythbusting Redux

Bruce Booth / LifeSciVC

Venture capital has been on a good run over the past few years across a range of sectors; even with recent slowdown relative to 2014-2015, venture-backed investments remain above historic averages.  In fact, the first three quarters of 2016 alone are already higher than the annual rate of venture investing in all but two years since 2002.

Reflecting on terrific progress in treating diabetes

Bill Chin, M.D. / PhRMA

There is no doubt that diabetes is a complex disease to diagnose and treat. That’s something I’ve seen firsthand as an endocrinologist. Over the years, I treated a number of patients that had a variety of endocrine disorders, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes. For each patient, finding the right treatment and helping them manage the disease was a challenge.

Biotech breakthroughs that broke down

Ben Adams / Fierce Biotech

An FDA “Breakthrough” tag, which has been around since 2012, was once a highly coveted badge that in essence allows the regulator to help speed up development of new meds, and it was believed initially that these would be fairly rare occurrences held back for some truly innovative treatments.