Industry news

Study shows health improving globally, but progress is patchy

Kate Kelland / Reuters

Globally, people's health is improving and life expectancy is rising, but progress is far from universal with chronic diseases bringing long-term illness and causing seven out of 10 deaths, according to research published on Thursday.

New Drug-Delivery Methods: From Concept to Patient

Cynthia A. Challener / BioPharm International

Increasing complexity is a trend in the bio/pharmaceutical industry. Both small- and large-molecule drug substances are becoming more complex and presenting both manufacturing and formulation challenges. Market pressures are also more complicated today than ever before. Expectations for lower-cost drugs that are easy to administer and offer significantly improved outcomes over existing treatments are growing.

CRISPR technology inactivates cancer mutations

Niamh Louise Marriott / Drug Target Review

As for many other biomedical and biotechnology disciplines, the genome scissor “CRISPR / Cas9” opens up completely new possibilities for cancer research. Scientists have shown that mutations that act as cancer drivers can be targeted and repaired. The most relevant mutations could therefore be diagnosed faster, improving personalised therapies.

Lifestyle vs bad luck? New stem cell evidence provides insight to what causes cancer

Niamh Louise Marriott / Drug Target Review

Researchers, funded by UK charity Worldwide Cancer Research, have found that the DNA code of human stem cells acquires errors at a fairly constant rate, even in organs with differing cancer incidence, providing new insight into the cancer bad luck vs lifestyle debate.

Pfizer offloads Hospira infusion therapy unit to ICU Medical for $1B

Amirah Al Idrus / Fierce Medical Device

Pfizer closed its $17 billion acquisition of Hospira just over a year ago, but is already offloading the infusion therapy business in a $1 billion deal. The deal will see ICU Medical picking up all of Hospira’s infusion offerings, including intravenous drugs and infusion pumps.

Brexit hits European life science M&A in Q3, as smaller deals set to become the norm

Ben Adams / Fierce Biotech

In the first quarter after Britain voted to leave the European Union, life sciences deals took a nosedive--and while Asia booked impressive surges in M&A activity, the U.S. also saw a drop in deals as tax inversion rules and pricing pressures kick in.

Pfizer offloads Hospira infusion therapy unit to ICU Medical for $1B

Amirah Al Idrus / Fierce Pharma

Pfizer closed its $17 billion acquisition of Hospira just over a year ago, but is already offloading the infusion therapy business in a $1 billion deal. The deal will see ICU Medical picking up all of Hospira’s infusion offerings, including intravenous drugs and infusion pumps.

Anticorruption law to clean up South Korea pharma industryPharma using social media but strategy needs tweaking

Brian Orelli / BioWorld

A new report from health communications company Ogilvy Healthworld released last week revealed a high level of social media activity by the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, but argues that pharma's social media strategy could use some tweaking.

Ethics in gene editing: U.K. taking deeper look at practical applications

Nuala Moran / BioWorld

A U.K. enquiry into the moral and ethical issues raised by genome editing has concluded existing regulations provide sufficient oversight for the majority of applications but that its potential uses in treating inherited diseases by altering the germline in humans, and to increase production in livestock, requires urgent scrutiny.

Nobel Prize goes for autophagy research

Anette Breindl / bioWorld

So said Yoshinori Ohsumi, honorary professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, after winning the 2012 Kyoto Prize in Life Sciences for his research.