Stock prices have fluctuated wildly in response to factors such as persistently high unemployment, impending cuts in federal spending, and the downgrade of America’s credit rating. The already conservative pharmaceutical industry is hunkering down and socking away cash to be safe. Since January, Merck has saved $1 billion in cash, and Johnson & Johnson has saved $3 billion. The savings have come at the expense of R&D budgets, making observers wonder where the new drugs will come from.

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The reduction in the pharmaceutical R&D force has been in the news for the past several years, with well-publicized reductions by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, to name a few. However, the process of discovery has become, if anything, more complex over the years. Large pharma is no longer able to support stables of scientists that perform basic research but do not directly contribute to drug development. How to reconcile the need for information with the constraints of a reduced R&D force? Read more »

Good news on the drug-approval front. Through the end of July, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research had approved 21 new drugs (new molecular entities and new biologics license applications), which equals the total number of new drugs approved in all of 2010. Although not enough to claim a reversal of the recent downward trend in drug R&D productivity, the numbers are a good sign for the industry. Read more »

Botox is a household name when it comes to vanity and related calls for cosmetic surgery. Produced by bacteria (Clostridium botulinum), botulinum is a powerful neurotoxin—it seems strange to me that people have overcome such dangerous sounding words to repeatedly request that it be injected in their face. But then again, fans of tattoos and piercings are not phased by thick needles, pain (or disfigurement), and (off-topic but interesting) a British student recently had her tongue surgically lengthened to help improve her Korean pronunciation. We’re ok with body modification then. And why not? Read more »

It’s a well-known fact that new product approvals in the pharma industry have been in decline in recent years. In 2010, for instance, the FDA only approved 21 new drugs compared with 26 and 24 in 2009 and 2008, respectively. July 2011, however, saw the FDA approve its twenty-first product for 2011 with AstraZeneca’s blood-thinner Brilinta, so it seems as if the agency is set to outpace 2010’s dreary approval numbers. Read more »

The past decade has been marked by a series of large mergers between medium and large pharmaceutical companies. Such mergers are attractive from a short-term business perspective, in that they result in instant growth, a pumped-up pipeline, and bigger dividends for shareholders. No company embraced this strategy with as much enthusiasm as did Pfizer. Over the course of a decade, Pfizer initiated three large mergers: with Warner-Lambert in 2000, Pharmacia in 2003, and Wyeth in 2009, and in addition, made numerous smaller acquisitions. Now that the deals are done, and the dust has settled, the industry is beginning to evaluate whether mega-mergers have been good for business over the long term. Read more »

Identifying influenza strains each year and developing the appropriate vaccines to combat those strains has been the strategy of combating influenza, including potential pandemics. Finding a way to develop a universal vaccine has been a desired, but elusive goal, but several researchers have recently reported on promising developments for developing a universal influenza vaccine. Read more »

A dosage form that delivers several drugs, either at once or in succession, can have many benefits for patients. The administered drugs could have synergistic effects when delivered together, and the convenient dosage form could improve patient compliance. And, of course, reformulating several drugs for codelivery could help breathe new life into a company’s patents. All of these advantages came to mind when I learned about a multiple-compartment gel capsule developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Read more »

Last week, I complained about the British weather (which is still awful by the way) and outlined how the pharma industry is already preparing for this year’s winter flu season. Following on from that, I’ve just read a really interesting story about the holy grail of flu vaccine manufacturers — the possibility of a super, universal vaccine that could protect against all common strains of influenza. Read more »

As the White House and Congress battle the looming deadline to raise the country’s debt ceiling, what are the potential implications of the various debt-reduction proposals on the pharmaceutical industry? Read more »