Last year wasn't kind to pharmaceutical companies; loss of patent protection and a weaker dollar resulted in declining drug sales for seven out of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies.
The frothy initial public offering (IPO) market is helping companies raise capital in the public market. According to data from BioWorld Snapshots, 18 IPOs of drug companies this year raised an aggregate of more than $1.3 billion. (See BioWorld Today, July 2, 2013.)
What a difference a quarter makes. Three months ago, I was lamenting about how venture capital investing was off to a slow start in 2013. After tallying the totals for the second quarter, it looks like the first quarter was more of a pause than a trend.
Diabetic pumps work well for delivering insulin to reduce blood sugar levels, but insulin is only one half of the blood sugar regulation that the pancreas is responsible for. In healthy individuals, the organ also releases glucagon, a hormone responsible for signaling to the liver to act in the opposite direction, raising blood sugar levels.
SAN DIEGO – The initial public offering (IPO) window has been thrown wide open with many biotechs doing their best impression of a NASCAR driver quickly jumping through the window after a fiery crash.
SAN DIEGO – At a session at the recent Calbio meeting, biotech executives from multiple companies explained how they got their start-ups off the ground. Be it capital-efficient virtual biotechs, strategic partnerships, venture capital funding or initial public offerings (IPOs), the message was clear: There's more than one way to build a biotech.
Johnson & Johnson has jumped into the early stage development pool with both feet. With the opening of its California Innovation Center based in Menlo Park earlier this month, the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company has established regional innovation centers, incubators, and entrepreneurs in residence to get J&J closer to early stage products that might be licensed or acquired by the health-care giant.
SAN DIEGO – At a Calbio session, Cambell Alliance, the business consulting segment of Inventiv Health Inc., presented its survey of business development professionals.
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Belviq (lorcaserin) launched last week, nearly a year after the obesity drug was approved by the FDA. (See BioWorld Today, June 28, 2012.)
According to a report from Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD), clinical trials using adaptive designs, which currently account for about 20 percent of trials, are on the rise.
