Pfizer’s pending $68-billion merger with Wyeth has raised the question on possible suitors in another merger among the pharmaceutical majors. A recent article in the New York Times gained the input of Wall Street analysts, who speculate that Merck, Sanofi-Aventis, and Johnson & Johnson may be next in line to seek acquisitions among their Big Pharma brethen or in select biotechnology companies. Read more »

As Roche promised earlier this month, it commenced a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Genentech it doesn’t own for $86.50 cash per share. And as Genentech promised, it evaluated the offer and issued a statement to stockholders on Monday. As expected, Genentech rejected the offer. Read more »

INTERPHEX 2009 is only a few weeks away and the editors of PharmTech are looking forward to getting some answers. This year, we’re talking to industry experts speaking at and attending the annual technology, education, and sourcing show to find out what’s new, what’s changing, and how industry is coping. We’d like to know what you want to know as well.

If you plan to make the trek to New York City’s Javits Center March 17-19, you’ll see our editors at Booth #500 conducting live interviews with the following:

* Richard Denk of Hecht Anlagenbau on Selection in High-Potency Manufacturing
* Carla Reed of New Creed on Supply-Chain Security
* William G. Marshall of William G. Marshall & Associates on Preapproval Inspection Trends
* Jane Lansing of Emerson Process Management on Automation Trends and Wireless Technology
* Cetin Cetinkaya of Clarkson University on New Methods for Solids and Tablet-Testing
* Packaging Forum Editor Hallie Forcinio on Packaging Trends
* Niels Guldager of NNE Pharmaplan on Next Generation Facilities for Producing Monoclonal Antibodies
* H. McCoy Knight of GEA Pharma Systems on Implementing Continuous Processing in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

A couple of years ago, the news media were inundated with stories of the most recent spread of the deadly avian flu infection. The certainty of facing a worldwide epidemic was looming, and I recall attending a conference session in which the presenter ran a computer simulation showing how the entire population of a small country could be infected in less than 6 weeks. Read more »

At the moment, the pharmaceutical industry is preoccupied with financial concerns, mainly because of patent expirations, weak pipelines, and our limping economy. But before the current crisis, many companies were devoting greater attention to minimizing the harmful environmental effects of their processes. What if there were a way to address these two concerns at once? Read more »

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers from Duke University raises concerns over the increased globalization of clinical trials and the need to strengthen regulation to address this phenomenon. As pharmaceutical companies conduct more trials abroad as part of overall cost-saving measures, such a finding has implications for all stakeholders—patients, suppliers, and the drug companies themselves. Read more »

In response to the changing economy, some companies are taking a different approach to supply-chain execution systems. This trend has businesses basing their strategies on reducing costs and streamlining operations rather than focusing on compliance with government or retailer guidelines. Read more »

So maybe you’re not getting the huge tax break you were hoping for, but there is some good news in the stimulus package for the pharmaceutical industry. Several pieces of the $787 billion plan focus on healthcare and medical research. Read more »

I remember clearly receiving the warning from my child’s pediatrician regarding claims possibly linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. I also recall my pediatrician, herself a new mother, saying she was going to wait for further evidence before allowing her child to be administered the vaccine. That was eight years ago. Has the question regarding the possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism finally been answered? Read more »

Biosimilars were among the topics on the minds of attendees at the BIO CEO and Investors conference in New York earlier this week. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has lobbied Congress for some time to grant innovators of biotech products a fairly long period—12 years, plus or minus—of exclusivity before follow-on products can be marketed. It was interesting, then, to hear the suggestion by Scott Gottlieb, Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs, US Food and drug Administration, that FDA was likely to exert such stringent regulations on follow-on biologics as to make the exclusivity issue practically moot. Read more »