SAN DIEGO – A session that is scheduled on the final day of a conference usually takes place with a limited audience as delegates leave the event to get an early jump on their travel plans. It is a testament to not only the quality of the speakers but also the subject matter that the Immune-Oncology Drugs: Ready for First Line Therapy? panel at the BIO 2017 conference on Thursday attracted a packed room as well as an overflow one to accommodate all the delegates who wanted to attend.
SAN DIEGO – Data is the currency of the industry and masses of it are generated every day adding to the rapidly swelling repositories of public accessible and private databases around the world. The problem, however, remains that biopharma companies are whizzes at generating big data but this hasn't, as yet, helped them improve upon the number of new medicines that they bring over the goal line annually.
SAN DIEGO – One of the central topics of the BIO 2017 International Convention is "breakthroughs." For four days, San Diego will be at the epicenter of discussions about the exciting future that biotechnology will create in terms of new medicines and products and services that will make our lives better. From a scientific point of view, we appear to be on the verge of a number of tipping points in our understanding of disease biology and pathways that will lead to new creative medicines.
SAN DIEGO – The Biotechnology Innovation Organization's (BIO) International Convention, which runs June 19-22, returns to the thriving southern California biotechnology hub of San Diego just three years since it last hosted the giant event in 2014. The meeting allows a chance for industry leaders to take stock of progress that has been made to date. Overall, it appears that the report card is good. The biopharmaceutical sector, despite some major challenges in the intervening years, is continuing to generate support from investors, and that is reflected by the 10 percent growth in the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index in that period, and the almost $140 billion collectively raised by public and private companies to fuel their product development activities.
SAN DIEGO – The Biotechnology Innovation Organization's (BIO) International Convention, which runs June 19-22, returns to the thriving southern California biotechnology hub of San Diego just three years since it last hosted the giant event in 2014. The meeting allows a chance for industry leaders to take stock of progress that has been made to date. Overall, it appears that the report card is good. The biopharmaceutical sector, despite some major challenges in the intervening years, is continuing to generate support from investors, and that is reflected by the 10 percent growth in the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index in that period, and the almost $140 billion collectively raised by public and private companies to fuel their product development activities.
The curtain closed last week on the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting. Like the past couple of meetings, immunotherapies received the lion's share of attention and created the most buzz, which is hardly surprising since the ability to turn cold tumors hot, either with new monotherapies or an ever-expanding number of combination therapies, is certainly a promising direction for the future of cancer research.
Treatment outcomes for various cancer indications certainly benefit from both early detection and the selection of the most appropriate targeted therapeutics, which are often guided in their use by companion diagnostic tests. In this second part of our series on bladder cancer we review how the new evolving ecosystem of precision medicine is playing a significant role in the research and development of new treatments for this condition.
As the month draws to a close, the biopharma sector appears to be holding its own during a period of political instability in Washington that threatens to delay the implementation of long-awaited tax and health care reforms.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which starts later this week in Chicago, is closely watched by analysts and investors alike. Favorable data presented at the event can advance a company's stock valuation significantly. Equally, candidate cancer therapies that do not live up to expectations will see their developers face the ire of investors.
As the month draws to a close, the biopharma sector appears to be holding its own during a period of political instability in Washington that threatens to delay the implementation of long-awaited tax and health care reforms. Although those dramatic developments in the nation's capital would usually reinforce the traditional trading mantra advising investors to sell their stock holdings in May to avoid a seasonal decline in the equity markets, it appears that this year they have not followed that advice when it comes to biotechnology.
