BEIJING – In the shadow of the Third Plenum – a gathering this week of China’s ruling Communist Party members who likely will deliver major government reforms – and the day after what’s billed as the world’s biggest e-commerce shopping spree known as Singles Day (during which Chinese consumers spent an estimated $5 billion), biopharmaceutical executives gathered at BIO’s Convention in China to sort through the challenges of this flummoxed industry.
"If you plan to be around five or 10 years from now, you have to have a Chinese strategy." That poignant comment in a BioWorld Today article came from Joshua Boger in 2011. The founder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and now executive chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals Inc., had just returned from China where Shanghai Syntheall Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., a manufacturing subsidiary of Wuxi Apptec Co. Ltd., is the manufacturing site for starting materials for Vertex's hepatitis C drug Incivek (telaprevir). A combined massive government investment, a growing appetite for capitalism, and a shift from pharmaceutical industry service...
It’s been 16 years since I first reported in BioWorld Today that David Blech was charged with securities fraud. In April 1997, I reached him at his New York office a few days after his arraignment in a U.S. District Court. Though he wouldn’t comment on the case, he chided me repeatedly for using the word “arrested,” insisting that I tell our readers he “appeared voluntarily” for the arraignment, still worried about his reputation ‑ as if it wasn’t already rubbish. Frankly, I’m satisfied he’s going to serve time. Angry that our judicial system can’t penalize him with a longer...
CHICAGO – Big pharmas and biotechs have been flirting with the concept of open innovation – collaborative sharing of data to speed up the drug development process – for years. In fact, it has been more hype than substance.
Partnering, networking and making new friends are all top-of-the-agenda for the biopharma industry’s largest U.S. gathering. As you’re preparing to join 16,500+ of your colleagues at the 2013 BIO International Convention in Chicago, we’d like to introduce you to a few standouts featured in the stories below. Also, come meet the BioWorld people, who are pretty interesting, too, at booth 1573. Plus, you can collect BioWorld’s giveaway, which is both practical and sentimental. For 15 years, Publisher Donald R. Johnston has masterminded the creation of our lids. It’s a hotly sought after gift, so come early before we run out....
When Nick Sitchon set out to identify a first product for his start-up, S1 Biopharma Inc., the medical school dropout turned entrepreneur chatted with his mother and hit (potential) pay dirt with her very first idea: "Why not develop something for me and my low libido?"
With an established reputation for its generic drugs, Mumbai, India-based Lupin Ltd. has expanded into biosimilars in its quest to become a global biopharma powerhouse. But like the foggy view from the 32nd-floor penthouse location of the Asia track at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Wednesday morning, the firm's chief financial officer provided limited insight into the company's biosimilars strategy despite audience questions.
If just 6 percent of diabetes patients who are obese take Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.'s Contrave (naltrexone SR/bupropion SR), the company will reach $1 billion in sales in short order – assuming the FDA grants approval. Given the agency's action this week, company execs have reason to feel confident.
BOSTON – "Chris Viehbacher, tear down this wall!" That was the Reagan-like plea from a venture capitalist to Sanofi SA's CEO in a keynote panel at BIO 2012, which featured industry heavyweights who predicted what will happen in the next decade for the biopharma sector and provided solutions for what's needed to keep the drug development engine fueled.
BOSTON ? Amid all of the excitement that comes with the biopharma industry’s largest annual gathering in Boston this week, I’m worried about the future. The U.S. has lost too much ground ? due to the obvious partisan gridlock in Washington, regulatory disincentives and the scarcity of funding ? so much that its powerful lead in developing biotech drugs will never recover. What worries me most is the passive acceptance of it all. A few examples to illustrate from BIO 2012: During Tuesday’s keynote luncheon, when two former U.S. treasury secretaries droned on about the dangers of our teetering world...
