Providing an early sales glance, Amgen Inc. CEO-elect Bob Bradway reported Monday that the company's denosumab franchise, consisting of Xgeva and Prolia, generated more than $500 million in revenue in 2011, their first full year on the market.
As Vical Inc. ramps up for a potential biologics license application filing and the commercialization of its cancer immunotherapy Allovectin – and with promising data from a preclinical herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) program – the San Diego-based company priced a $50 million public offering on Friday.
PHILADELPHIA – With lengthy development cycles and the increasing costs of clinical work, well-established therapeutics sitting on pharmaceutical company shelves may be the lowest hanging fruit.The question is: Who is going to pay for them? Big pharmas are challenged to bring all of the promising products to market, despite budget constraints; biotechs are challenged to find funding for their own technologies; and venture capital firms are challenged to get returns on investments.
PHILADELPHIA – Finding new funding options in a tight financing environment has forced biotech companies to look beyond venture capital and piece together a patchwork quilt of angel investors, government grants, product partnerships and, in some cases, online investments, all in an effort to survive.
Amid the economic carnage of 2008, the biotech industry stands as a survivor, although with roughly 5,000 jobs lost, a number of shelved programs and no promises of an easier time for financings in the new year, the victory is melancholy at best.
The emergence of antibiotic resistance has put pressure on scientists working to replace the increasingly ineffective therapies, while a potential epidemic threat moves to the forefront of their minds.
As the presidential election approaches this November, biotech industry leaders pour through documents and meet with campaign officials, all looking for clarity in understanding the platforms of Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). (BioWorld Financial Watch)
In the early part of the 20th century, before the Depression and World War II, dozens of children lay comatose in hospital wards where hopeless families gathered awaiting their inevitable deaths. This was not cancer before chemotherapy, or tuberculosis before antibiotics. This was Type I diabetes before insulin. (BioWorld Financial Watch)
In the last decade, personalized medicine has evolved into a complex field of diagnostics that are transforming patient treatment standards and promising to reduce the costs of health care. Before that, the phrase drummed up thoughts of a country doctor making house calls. (BioWorld Financial Watch)
