Published by Patricia Van Arnum on September 20, 2011
under Ingredients, Outsourcing, Trends
The Pharma ChemOutsourcing conference, an annual event that brings together pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and CMOs to discuss industry trends and perspectives, was held in Long Branch, New Jersey, last week. The central question at the heart of many of the discussions was a fundamental but important one: where is the opportunity in pharmaceutical outsourcing, specifically in pharmaceutical chemical development and manufacturing? Read more »
Published by Erik Greb on September 19, 2011
under Biotech, Global Health, Manufacturing, North America News, Trends
As I wrote last week, the market for vaccines is expanding, and the newswires have stories about these products almost daily. Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, to name just two major players, are increasing investments in research and manufacturing capacity for these therapies. Kalorama Information predicts that sales of pediatric vaccines will grow even more quickly than sales for adult vaccines. Yet drugmakers have surely noticed that not all publicity about vaccines has been positive. Read more »
Published by Stephanie Sutton, PharmTech Europe on September 16, 2011
under Drug Delivery, R&D
Every now and then, media headlines become excited by a new potential ‘cure’ for cancer. Usually, this excitement stems from the results of very early research, which often involves a vegetable. Tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts and beetroot have all had their turn in the spotlight over the years. Read more »
Published by Patricia Van Arnum on August 31, 2011
under R&D, Trends
Roche took a step forward in personalized medicine with the approval earlier this month of a new drug and related diagnostic to treat certain forms of metastatic melanoma. Roche’s strategy of developing drugs and related diagnostics shows the potential business and therapeutic value of personalized medicines. Read more »
Published by Patricia Van Arnum on August 16, 2011
under Ingredients, R&D, Trends
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 »
Published by Erik Greb on July 18, 2011
under Biotech, Manufacturing, North America News, Outsourcing, R&D, Trends

Some drugmakers have blamed what they see as a slow and overly cautious FDA for the industry’s weak pipelines. Last week, I cited drug-approval figures to show that the agency was not standing in the way of innovation. A closer look at the figures contradicts another part of the critics’ argument—the industry’s pipelines may not be so weak after all. Read more »
Published by Erik Greb on June 20, 2011
under Biotech, Manufacturing, R&D, Trends
Biologics are still the hot commodity in the drug industry. Observers call large-molecule drugs the therapies of the future, and these medicines’ complexity makes them difficult for would-be follow-on manufacturers to create. Big Pharma companies that have not yet acquired biopharmaceuticals firms are considering doing so to bolster their pipelines and profits. But not all biologics companies are living large, as data from Ernst & Young remind us. Read more »
Published by Erik Greb on March 28, 2011
under Biotech, Manufacturing, R&D, Trends
Big Pharma has offered many explanations for its anemic pipelines. All of the easy drugs have been discovered. Patent law (or another particular form of regulation) stifles innovation. The economy is forcing us to retrench. Although these explanations may be plausible, they all lay the blame elsewhere. Could Big Pharma’s own actions be discouraging research and development (R&D)? Read more »
Published by Erik Greb on February 14, 2011
under Manufacturing, Outsourcing, R&D, Trends
A sizeable chunk of Big Pharma’s sales will fall off the dreaded patent cliff before the year is out. Patent expirations will allow competitors to market, and patients to buy, generic versions of branded drugs. A renewed focus on discovering and developing new therapies would seem to be the obvious solution for Big Pharma. Yet at least one observer predicts cuts in research and development (R&D) spending throughout the industry. Read more »
Published by Erik Greb on January 31, 2011
under Manufacturing, North America News, R&D, Regulation, Uncategorized
Pharmaceutical companies can no longer take strong growth for granted, and CEOs and shareholders are lowering their expectations about future performance. The industry’s global sales growth likely will be limited to 1.3% until 2015, according to Joe Dixon, a spokesperson for Datamonitor. Compare this anemic figure to the 7.1% growth rate that manufacturers enjoyed from 2003 to 2009, and you’ll see little reason for joy in drugville. Read more »
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