Bio/Pharma Business

A roundup of developments on corporate social responsibility and sustainability from the bio/pharmaceutical industry, its suppliers, and other organizations.

Tablets and capsules are mainstay product forms, so what are the spending and innovation trends for solid-dosage manufacturing equipment and machinery?

T cell therapy is an investigational approach that is being assessed for the patient?specific treatment of cancer.

The second annual Pharmaceutical Technology Bioprocessing Survey offers a snapshot of the industry following 2009's megamergers.

The University of California, San Francisco (CA, USA; UCSF) has signed an agreement with Genentech with the aim of discovering and developing drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases.

The Director of Operations at a security firm explains pharma's need for intelligence and security.

The contract services industry may not be as robust in 2009 as it has been in previous years, but it's not as bad as many people think.

A Pharmaceutical Technology report looks at trends in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. This article contains bonus online-exclusive material.

The world's top 50 pharmaceutical companies accounted for prescription drug sales of $558 billion (413 billion euro) in 2008.

Patent infringement claims and a lack of clear global trade distribution routes may be unraveling the country's generic-drug export industry.

Despite the market downturn and financial meltdown, private equity investors are lining up for pharmaceutical services businesses.

Scientists studying epilepsy have traditionally focused on the comings and goings of ions through molecular channels in nerve cells, and many current antiseizure therapies seek to modulate that dynamic.

Pharmaceutical Technology's annual survey on equipment and machinery shows fewer companies increased spending in 2008 and still fewer will increase spending in 2009 as overall economic conditions affects purchasing decisions.

Pfizer is no normal company. As recently as 2007 it was still the industry's largest player with $47.5 billion (36.8 billion euro) coming in from pharma sales alone.

Conflict between departments costs money, wastes time and hinders strategy implementation. But we can reduce it and manage it if we understand it, says Dr Brian D. Smith.

A new year, all things being equal, is a time of looking to the future with positive intent and traditional bonhomie. At the very least, it suggests new beginnings. As we enter 2009, however, the world is moving into a major recession and things are far from equal.

Paul Gardiner and Andrea Sobrio explain why most companies need 'organizational polygamy' to maximize profit and best serve their customers.

Results from Pharmaceutical Technology's Annual Employment Survey.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that a biotech start-up in possession of little fortune must be in want of venture capital (VC). Perhaps less well acknowledged, however, is that VC investors operate in a way consistent with being rational economic entities...

TranScrip Partners' Flic Gabbay explains why an approach that provides expertise on an 'as needed basis' is flourishing.

...the new administration is not anti-science or even anti-industry. It just wants lower prices.

You don't have to spend any time in the company of its chairman to see that there is no other Big Pharma company like Servier.

Molecules called "chaperones" facilitate correct protein folding.

I confess I am no financial expert. My knowledge about the current credit crisis can be summed up in six words: 'debt is bad; cash is good', which was pretty much the limit of my understanding about money before it all began.

The most public argument against direct-to-consumer advertising in Europe is essentially paternalistic: to protect people from companies who are considered unable to present an objective account of their drugs.

The days of a 'job for life' at a Big Pharma company seem to be well behind us, whether we're at the bench or in the boardroom, but that doesn't mean we should view the employment landscape with trepidation.

...some companies complained that what they received was not joint advice or combined advice but parallel advice, without coherence...

Pharmaceuticals used to be such a simple business when everyone knew their place.

Survey results indicate a healthy market, but increasing competition.

Drugmakers seeking to block the activity of a protein may have a new strategy at their disposal.