As a biotech junkie, I’ll admit I was shocked to the core by Dendreon Corp.’s second-quarter admission that prostate cancer vaccine Provenge (Sipuleucel-T) is thus far not succeeding commercially. (See BioWorld’s news bulletin for details.) The most shocking part? Analyst and investor assumptions that Provenge’s poor performance is due not to reimbursement hurdles, as Dendreon claimed, but to an underlying lack of demand. Doctors and patients don’t want to use the product. Come again? Are you serious? Provenge is the first and only therapeutic cancer vaccine ever to gain FDA approval. I don’t have to tell anyone in the biotech...
Somaxon Pharmaceuticals Inc. continued to slog through the crowded insomnia market with Silenor (doxepin) during the second quarter, growing net sales to $6.2 million – a 170 percent increase over the $2.3 million sold last quarter, and ahead of the $4 million analysts had expected.
Shares of Insmed Inc. dropped 52.5 percent Tuesday after data from a two-year rat carcinogenicity study prompted the FDA to slap a clinical hold on a pair of nascent Phase III trials with lung infection drug Arikace (liposomal amikacin for inhalation).
The biotech industry's pipeline is burgeoning. The number of clinical projects under way at companies tracked by Deloitte Recap LLC has jumped 165 percent in the past decade, from 348 projects in 2000 to 922 projects in 2011 – and that doesn't even include pharma firms.
When I was blogging for BNET, one of my favorite posts chronicled the hilarious battle of the bands being waged between laboratory supply companies on YouTube. And it got me thinking: why do lab supply firms get to have all the fun? You’ve got Roche AG’s diagnostic division using a Motley-Poison-Whitesnake style rock anthem and power ballad to promote its xCELLigence cellular analysis system. And there’s Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., the forefathers of funniness, with their “We Are the World” tribute to PCR and my personal favorite, the Village People spoof “GTCA.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEaX3MiDow&feature=related[/youtube] But who’s representin’ for biotech? Please post in...
Investors in Novacea Inc. prior to its reverse merger with Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc. three years ago might be forgiven for saying, "I told you so."
