BOSTON ? Amid all of the excitement that comes with the biopharma industry’s largest annual gathering in Boston this week, I’m worried about the future. The U.S. has lost too much ground ? due to the obvious partisan gridlock in Washington, regulatory disincentives and the scarcity of funding ? so much that its powerful lead in developing biotech drugs will never recover. What worries me most is the passive acceptance of it all. A few examples to illustrate from BIO 2012: During Tuesday’s keynote luncheon, when two former U.S. treasury secretaries droned on about the dangers of our teetering world...

BOSTON - The 2012 BIO International Convention may have fallen a tad short of its nadir in 2007, when BIO attendance topped more than 20,000 people from 49 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and more than 60 countries. But that’s not to say BIO 2012 isn’t a numbers game of the highest order. If you’re one of the more than 17,000 estimated attendees at this year’s conference, you’ll need to have your ducks in a row to navigate in orderly fashion. The volume of participants associated with BIO is on display around the convention center and practically shouted from...

BOSTON ‑ After crisscrossing the exhibition hall and three Boston zip codes yesterday for my citywide BIO 2012 reception scavenger hunt and finding a belly full of German sausages, Chinese dim sum, French pastries, Japanese sake and Irish whiskey to compliment a head full of the day’s diverse lecture topics and a mini-marathon of orthopedic proportions, I retired to my hotel room and fell into a outlandishly fitful sleep that I’ll just call “A Nightmare on BIO 2012 Exhibition Street.” It started off innocently enough, as I passed by the New York pavilion – “Whadda you lookin’ at? Take a...

Heading to Boston next week for the 2012 Biotechnology Industry Organization International convention? So are we. In fact, BioWorld has attended and exhibited at the annual BIO meeting for 18 years, so we know a thing or two about navigating this mega gathering. Check out these tips  ‑ gathered by the entire BioWorld staff ‑ on what to bring, how to cope, what to say and how you can enjoy biotech’s annual lollapalooza: Wear comfortable shoes. Leave the fancy Italian loafers and stilettos at home. You’re going to be doing A LOT of walking. Trust us on this. To avoid...

June is not only for Father's Day greetings; it is also Men's Health Month. And if any gender needs an aide memoire to engender the self-awareness to regard and conduct its health, it would be men! I acknowledge there are exceptions, but as a demographic, men tend to neglect health warning signs, shun preventive checkups, ignore professional medical advice and are generally reluctant to seek healthcare. Everyone knows at least a couple of males fitting (often proudly so) that description. Do any of these tenor- or baritone-inflected men-isms sound familiar? "I must've eaten something that disagreed with my stomach." "It...

“Hey kids, let’s put on a show!” That was a famous line from the 1937 Broadway musical, Babes in Arms, shouted to exhort the old gang to take action to save the orphanage. As the theater market just put on its Tony Awards to assess the state of its industry, June is also the most active event season for biopharma, as the industry puts on its own long-running show, with the ASCO and BIO events taking center stage this month. Only this time, it’s not the orphanage that’s in need, but the orphan drugs – as well as the biosimilars,...

As many of you know, after six wonderful years with BioWorld, I’m moving on to take a position as associate director of corporate communications with Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. When BioWorld asked me to write a farewell blog post, I jumped at the opportunity. But I struggled with how to “frame up” the story (to use reporter lingo one last time). Maybe I should recount favorite memories (our BIO 2009 party would have to be near the top). Or lessons learned (ask the “obvious” question – you might get an unexpected answer). Or maybe top quotes I’ve heard in interviews. I will...

As I may have mentioned before, I love the IgNobel Prizes. So imagine my delight when I found myself in a session at ASCO’s 2012 annual meeting earlier this week listening to the speaker, Anthony Tolcher, talking about The Invisible Gorilla. (If you haven’t heard about the experiment that demonstrated the existence of invisible gorillas, you can try it for yourself with this video. But do it before you read the rest of this blog post, because it will not work if you know what it’s about.) In short, the invisible gorilla is a jarring example of what Christopher Chabris...

At a family wedding earlier this month, an uncle was salivating over the prospect that the Vivus Inc. drug Qnexa could soon become the first in a new generation of obesity drugs to gain FDA approval. He needed to lose 50 pounds, he confided, and the drug seemed the answer to his prayers. Since we’ve written extensively about obesity and these drugs in BioWorld Today, he wanted my opinion. I politely inquired whether he had considered dieting and exercise, which could produce similar results without the potential side effects of a prescribed drug – especially one in a category that’s...

Pop quiz . . . which market is valued higher, illegal drugs or prescription drugs? Although drug lords and cartels are not apt to file annual reports, the United Nations estimates that 5 percent of the global population now takes illegal drugs that account for an approximate $430 billion black market industry that, fortunately, still trails the $800-plus billion prescription drug market. Of course, government keeps both markets in check for the sake of public safety. It seizes illegal drugs and takes the criminal kingpins to trial in the illegal market, thereby devaluing the illicit drug revenue stream. In the...