Drug discovery in Japan has been steadily declining, and it has reached a crisis point where swift action is needed or pharma companies will leave Japan or stop listing products here, said speakers at the BioJapan 2023 meeting held Oct. 10 to 13 in Yokohama, Japan.
Precision cancer biotech Abion Inc. announced a positive interim phase II readout for ABN-401, its novel c-mesenchymal-epithelial transition (c-MET)-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lighting a runway to its next trial as a combination regimen.
Japan’s economy has remained stagnant for the last few decades, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has heralded the biotech industry as a strategic industry to attract global partners, which was also one of the expectations for the BioJapan 2023 conference held Oct. 10-12 in Yokohama, drawing attendees from more than 37 countries and was the first live biotech industry event that welcomed foreigners since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Insanity has often been defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results, and Japan seems to be trapped in that rut largely because it can’t seem to do innovation differently, said speakers at the BioJapan 2023 meeting held Oct. 11 in Yokohama, Japan.
For most psychiatric illnesses, the precipitating event is mysterious. Many conditions are thought to result from a mix of genetic risk and environmental factors, but the specific trigger remains unknown. In post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the environmental trigger is usually clear. In many cases, it is all the affected individuals can think about. “Intrusive reliving” of the triggering situation is one of the core features of PTSD.
To get ahead in a tough market like the industry now finds itself, companies are advised to know themselves and their business well, better than they probably think they know themselves. A panel of investors at the BioFuture 2023 conference cautioned that CEOs must have a deep understanding of how their companies are differentiated from their competition in order to thrive.
Unlocking the future of drug development often means removing obstacles that currently stand in the way. Reimbursement is one of those obstacles, as is keeping humans deeply involved as innovators and patients even as artificial intelligence (AI) increases its role. A panel of developers spoke about what they anticipate will be the biggest changes in the coming 10 to 20 years at the BioFuture 2023 conference in New York on Oct. 5. A common theme was reforming the structure of reimbursements, which has traditionally been a problem in the digital therapeutic realm, according to Eric Elenko, chief innovation and strategy officer at Puretech Health plc.
In July 2023, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy ramped up efforts to kickstart the so-called “Bio Economy 2.0,” the newfound initiative that banks on the biopharmaceutical industry to potentially revitalize the country’s slowing economic and social growth. Highlighting four major areas – biopharmaceuticals, biomaterials, bioenergy and digital technologies – as the four “wheels” to carry the biopharma industry, the new plan underscored the government’s unwavering support for the sector while highlighting its vision to become the “number one bioeconomy” worldwide.
Despite China’s near-frozen startup scene and increasingly cautious foreign investors following the COVID-19 pandemic, multinational pharmaceutical firms continued to scout for innovative up-and-coming Chinese biotechs in Shanghai at Chinabio Partnering Forum 2023 over its two-day run.
Raising capital has always been a challenge for small to medium biotech firms worldwide, but the economic whiplash and the wider downturn across international markets post-pandemic have pushed Chinese biotechs to make-it-or-break-it scenarios for crossing the IPO threshold, speakers at the Chinabio Partnering Forum 2023 said in Shanghai.
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