What do macroeconomics, creativity and upfront payments have in common? They’re all featured in this week’s issue of BioWorld Insight! I’m going to put on my long-discarded marketing hat for a minute and say I think we put together a really interesting issue of Insight this week. Of course as the Insight editor, I always think we’ve put together a really interesting issue . . . but just check this out: Our cover story (Macro Woes Could Impact Biotech Financing, M&A) looks at how the S&P downgrade, increased unemployment, decreased consumer spending and other macroeconomic issues could trickle down to...
Working in the biotech industry can be a bit like staring into a microscope: you become totally absorbed in the things right in front of your face – your stock price, your clinical progress, your balance sheet – and events in the outside world fly by before you’ve had a chance to look up. I can tell you in my sleep which biotech companies have recently won FDA approvals, but ask me which U.S. politicians have declared themselves presidential candidates and you’ll get a deer-in-the-headlights blank stare. Which is why I enjoy getting the chance to write articles that broaden...
The picture isn't pretty: Stocks are down, unemployment is up and Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the U.S. to AA+ from AAA. Other downgrades followed, including Berkshire Hathaway and a slew of municipal bonds. Consumer spending dropped in June for the first time in about two years, prompting macroeconomists to lower their GDP estimates.
Proving it can indeed beat deadlines when it wants to, the FDA issued a surprise approval of Seattle Genetics Inc.'s Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) for two kinds of lymphoma late Friday afternoon – more than a week ahead of the Aug. 30 PDUFA date.
The economic situation over the last month or so "reminds a lot of people of 2008 and I can understand why," said Andy Busch, global currency and public policy strategist for BMO Capital Markets, during a recent conference call.
The last four years have brought significant CEO turnover in the drug industry. Almost every big pharma has felt the churn, including Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Merck & Co. Inc., Roche AG, Sanofi SA, Eli Lilly and Co., Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Astellas Pharma Inc., to name a few.
Roche AG's Genentech subsidiary agreed to pay Array BioPharma Inc. $28 million up front and as much as $685 million in milestones, plus double-digit royalties, for rights to the preclinical ChK-1 inhibitor ARRY-575.
Science has taught us that many diseases – including HIV, HCV and cancer – can only be controlled by cocktails containing several drugs. Business has taught us that the best drugs don't necessarily come from your own pipeline, and they aren't always for sale. Hence the rise of no-money, no-rights, no-strings-attached deals to combine multiple unapproved drugs from multiple sponsors in a single clinical trial.
