Tech Talk

The development of new treatments and preventives to combat the lethal Ebola virus has been slow, marked by caution at public health agencies to approve testing of high-risk compounds, and reluctance of biopharmaceutical companies to invest in a field with limited market potential. All that has changed now, as thousands of people have been sickened by the virus, and the death rate has escalated.

In Part 1 of this blog, Richard Freeman looked at some of the challenges faced by pharma firms today as a result of growing competition, regulation and globalization, and argued that more effective communication and collaboration was key to their continued success.

For an industry that saves millions of lives, pharma is sometimes unfairly perceived by the public as being aloof, unresponsive, or occasionally worse.

After months of speculation about prospects for biosimilar development in the United States, Novartis announced on July 24 that FDA has accepted Sandoz’ biologics license application (BLA) for a similar version of Amgen’s Neupogen (filgrastim).

A potential treatment for sickle cell disease has come through the “valley of death” of early-stage development due to support from a collaborative partnership established by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Life sciences and biotech research clusters across the UK, including those linked to university research departments are benefiting from an improved funding climate and ongoing consolidation in the pharmaceutical sector.

The Rx360 pharmaceutical supply chain consortium celebrated its first five years with an anniversary conference the week of June 5, 2014 in Washington, D.C. The conference featured key FDA officials and industry leaders.

A national publicity campaign recently succeeded in obtaining early access to an experimental treatment for a seriously ill child, touching off a broader discussion of compassionate use policies and their impact on drug development and approval.

In anticipation of the 200th anniversary of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) in 2020, the organization’s new leadership is taking a fresh look at its role in setting standards for pharmaceutical development and production and how that has been altered by new regulatory policies and industry globalization.

Britain’s Sunday Times has reported that Pfizer approached AstraZeneca with a $101 billion purchase offer.

Even though the just-released Medicare data on payments to individual doctors.

A number of top management positions at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) need to be filled, and CDER leaders are looking for experienced industry managers to help rebuild its staff.

We all know that the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming was a turning point in medical history, which led to the development of lifesaving antibiotics.

The shift to personalized medicine, which supports medical treatment tailored to individual patient characteristics, has been hindered by uncertainty over the value, accuracy, and clinical utility of companion diagnostic tests.

In an abrupt about-face, the Obama administration halted its ill-timed effort to launch an overhaul of the Medicare Part D program and announced it would not pursue changes in some key rules as proposed earlier this year.

Despite a slight boost in funding for the Food and Drug Administration and stronger tax incentives for investment in R&D, significant changes in Medicare drug reimbursement and coverage policies have biopharmaceutical companies up in arms.

Despite recent legislation to establish a more secure pharmaceutical supply chain to deliver high quality, approved medicines to American patients, efforts to block the import of substandard, fraudulent, and counterfeit drugs remains an uphill fight.

Despite notable successes in preventing and mitigating short supplies of important medicines, the drug shortage crisis still disrupts medical treatment and gives drug manufacturers a bad name.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to issue a number of new guidances in 2014 that will address drug development and manufacturing practices.

After two years in budget limbo, Congress finally enacted federal spending legislation for fiscal year 2014.

The Washington health policy world is headed for a major shake-up next year, as more long-time leading legislators opt for retirement.

India has a name when it comes to generic drug development. According to a recent research on patent applications carried out by Withers & Rogers, innovation by Indian pharmaceutical companies has increased over the past few years; however, the quality did not match the standard seen in Europe.

If FDA is going to establish standards for assessing the quality of manufacturing sites and products, it should seek data on a few well-defined measures that reflect longer-term results and trends, rather than “snapshots of current numbers.

Moving fast to bolster its authority over compounding pharmacies that operate as manufacturers of prescription drugs, FDA is urging “outsourcers” to register, seeking state support, and moving to issue more rules and guidance.

The critically acclaimed television show Breaking Bad told the tales of a high school chemistry teacher who, after a diagnosis of advanced cancer, started a methamphetamine laboratory in order to support his family. While this is not the career path the chemical industry wants to endorse, the popular show did demonstrate applied science in action. At InformEx 2014, Donna Nelson, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Oklahoma and a scientific advisor for the program, will discuss her role in the program.

As expected, FDA approved only 27 new molecular entities (NMEs) in 2013. There was no late-December surge in approvals to bring the tally closer to the near record of 39 innovative new drugs approved in 2012.

While the Affordable Care Act, Pope Francis, and the government shutdown were top general news stories in 2013, the bio/pharmaceutical industry had its own headlines.

FDA is moving fast to implement the drug compounding provisions of the new Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA), issuing new guidance to spur registration by outsourcing facilities just days after President Obama signed the new bill into law.

The bacterial meningitis outbreak at Princeton University in recent weeks has raised questions about why there is no vaccine in the United States to prevent this deadly disease, when such a therapy is approved in Europe and Australia.

Congress gave final approval this week to new legislation to strengthen FDA authority to oversee large pharmacy compounders of sterile injectables and to require more comprehensive tracking of prescription drugs moving through the global supply chain.