In a session chaired by at BIO 2009 John Lechleiter, CEO at Eli Lilly, speakers discussed patent reform, biosimilar bills and why certain options on the table could be a "stake in the heart" of the biotech industry.
US drug firms’ qualification of overseas API vendors will be subject to increased FDA scrutiny in the coming years according to a new industry report by analysts Hogan & Hartson (H&H).
eClinical provider Datatrak has posted flat revenues in Q1 but its operating loss was badly affected by the severance packages of two executive officers.
PDI posted a larger operating loss in Q1 2009 than in the previous year, with the company blaming the decline on the expiration, termination and postponement of contracts.
Sanofi-Aventis has expanded its collaboration with Pilgrims to include its Dagenham, UK facility, which will now be guarded by the security services company.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to take a 16 per cent stake in Aspen in exchange for a manufacturing facility and eight medicines, building on the companies’ relationship and the big pharma’s profile in Africa.
A new $60m (€43m) manufacturing suite is operational at the South Carolina, US plant where Roche makes APIs for some of its leading products, including for its anti-flu drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir).
Cambridge Consultants has developed its ‘connected patient’ technology, which creates a communication network between drug delivery devices and healthcare professionals to increase compliance.
BioClinica is continuing its expansion in eClinical by proposing to acquire etrials, which underwent significant restructuring in 2008 but still suffered repeated quarterly losses.
The FDA plans to increase field tests in imported drugs by over 100 per cent and has requested a 19 per cent rise in its budget for 2010 to enable it to achieve this and other targets.
UK software group Cisiv has unveiled a web-based EDC platform, Baseline Plus, which is specifically tailored to meet the demands of post market trials.
Drug delivery specialist Hospira has set up a “biologics clock” that counts the amount spent on cell culture-derived medications in the US in a bid to highlight the potential savings greater use of generics could provide.
CRO Eurotrials has brought in US business consultant AmeriStart to publicise and sell its trial services to pharmaceutical and biotech firms in North America.
Creative thinking is required by biotechs if they are to stay afloat despite the lack of funding, according to a report by Ernst & Young, and this could reshape the landscape of the industry.
French drug major Sanofi Aventis has unveiled plans for a €200m ($268m) biotechnology investment at its manufacturing facility in Vitry-sur-Seine near Paris, under its collaborative Biolaunch project.
Pharmafreight and Kryotrans have teamed up to offer a one-way, temperature-controlled shipping service that they claim will help pharmaceutical exporters cut costs and boost efficiency.
Perceptive Informatics has expanded its offering for trials involving Alzheimer's disease with a new medical imaging method, which it claims produces higher quality, reproducible and regulatory compliant assessments.
Greek authorities have banned the export of the anti-virals Relenza and Tamiflu to prevent the country’s stockpile being sold off through parallel trade as global demand for the drugs increases on concerns about a H1N1 influenza pandemic.
Outsourcing-Pharma provides its latest round up of movements in the pharmaceutical outsourcing sector, including appointments at Cardiocore and HUNT Biosciences.
Suspicious spikes in the trading of Schering-Plough shares prior to its merger with Merck & Co are being investigating by the SEC, according to media reports.
US strategic consultants CourtSquareGroup say that while optimisation of operations is key for the drug industry, companies risk losing the business knowledge required to undertake such action in the scramble to cut costs in the global downturn.
Clinical trial software provider Phase Forward posted strong Q1 financial results, with CRO related revenues jumping by 52 per cent despite the difficulties facing companies in the sector.
Pfizer is monitoring opportunities in follow-on biologics and continuing to look for small to mid-sized deals as it plans for life without Lipitor, global revenues of which fell by 13 per cent in Q1.
Sanofi-Aventis has halted development of four Phase III drugs in a “rigorous” pre-patent loss pipeline review that has also seen it drop four Phase II candidates and six Phase I projects.
US software giant Microsoft has unveiled its new Amalga Life Sciences data aggregation and modelling platform in a bid to capitalise on the demand for IT infrastructure solutions currently sweeping the drug R&D and trials sectors.
Pfizer’s development deal with stem-cell researchers at University College of London’s (UCL) Institute of Opthalmology, aimed at reversing vision loss in AMD, has drawn a great deal of interest from investors and the drug industry alike.
Novartis, Roche, GSK and Sanofi Pasteur are poised to start the months of work required to make a vaccine for the swine flu virus that, according to an AFP interview with Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova, is linked to 103 deaths in Mexico.
Affymetrix’s service division posted a 37 per cent increase in revenues in Q1 but overall the company slumped, going from $46m (€35m) profit in 2008 to a $25m loss this year.
Winpak appears to have benefited from the current economic turmoil, with lower raw material costs and favourable currency rates helping it post net earnings of $9.7m (€7.4m), up by 62 per cent on 2008.
A committee appointed by the Indian government has submitted a report into whether patent issues around microorganisms and NCEs are in compliance with TRIPS.
GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) $2.9bn (€1.8bn) cash acquisition of US skin drug specialist Stiefel Laboratories “re-energises” the UK firm’s dermatology range, according to CEO Andrew Witty.
In a radical departure from Big Pharma’s traditional business model Pfizer and GSK have formed a jointly controlled company to develop and distribute their combined HIV portfolios and pipelines.
Merck Serono, the small molecules development division of Germany’s Merck KGaA, will use Aegis Analytical’s Discoverant data management and analytics platform at its manufacturing facility in Vevey Switzerland.
Although the downturn has slowed Big Pharma’s investment in China, the country’s wide ranging healthcare reforms and changing economic landscape still provide considerable opportunities says PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Massachusetts Biotechnology Council’s (MBC) 2015 strategic plan has outlined the difficulties the state faces in attracting biomanufacturing and called for increased focus on R&D.
Pfizer is the latest company to seek greater control of its Indian subsidiary, falling into step with Swiss drug major Novartis which made a similar move late last month.
Art Levinson is to step down from his role as Genentech’s CEO but will play “an active role” at the company as part of Roche’s attempts to integrate and retain the biotech’s key staff.
The annual sales growth of the top 20 pharma companies will fall below two per cent over the next five years, according to Datamonitor, and the stimulus packages are predicted to offer little direct aid.
SAFC Biosciences has launched a service for clients undertaking CHO media screening optimisation projects, speeding up an aspect of the development process.
The new chairman of US trade body the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) – AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan – has laid out his vision for reforming the “broken” healthcare system.
Pfizer has outlined its post-Wyeth takeover operating structure, which it believes will ensure the mega-merger boosts R&D and create the “world's premier biopharmaceutical” company.
Genentech has withdrawn its psoriasis drug Raptiva (efalizumab) from US shelves on continuing concerns about its link to the brain disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).
Biopharmaceuticals firm Shire will cease manufacture at its plant in Owings Mills, Maryland, US with the loss of 260 jobs in the latest stage of its plan to wind up the in-house production of small molecule drugs.
The USP and Roszdravnadzor, a Russian public health body, are collaborating in an attempt to improve the standards of ingredients and finished products and reduce the availability of counterfeits.
Clinical Data is to sell Cogenics division, which provides services including sequencing and gene expression, to Beckman Coulter’s Agencourt Biosciences' business for $17m.
