Industry news

• Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Initiates Phase 2 Clinical Trial to Evaluate Reducing Treatment Visits While Improving Outcomes in Macular Edema Associated with Retinal Vein Occlusion

  02 March 2015

  

  Clearside Biomedical, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye, today announced the enrollment of the first patient in a Phase 2 randomized, controlled, masked, multi-center clinical trial for the treatment of macular edema associated with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) using Clearside’s proprietary formulation of triamcinolone acetonide, CLS-TA, administered via suprachoroidal (SCS) injection using Clearside’s proprietary microinjector.

• Financial scorecard: biotech continues its great start

  02 March 2015 Peter Winter / BioWorld

  As February moves into its final trading week the biotech sector continues to roll along, setting the pace for another strong year.

• Is A Renaissance In Surging Biotechs Underway?

  02 March 2015 Gene Marcial / Forbce

  Not too long ago, investing in biotechnology was perceived as plain gambling. The rewards could be high, to be sure, but so were the risks in playing the arcane biotech stocks.

• Nobel winner Harald Zur Hausen on vaccines and the need for basic research

  02 March 2015 EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

  Harald zur Hausen in 1976 published the hypothesis that human papillomavirus plays an important role in the cause of cervical cancer. It took three decades before that groundbreaking work led to approval of a vaccine for cervical cancer.

• China says to implement drug distribution reforms

  02 March 2015 Adam Jourdan and Megha Rajagopalan / Reuters

  China said on Saturday it would implement drug distribution reforms including centralisation measures designed to cut prices and reduce corruption.

• Empowered patients want greater sway over industry and the FDA

  02 March 2015 Marie Powers / BioWorld

  Consumers are frustrated with the pace of drug and medical device development, and they want more engagement with industry and regulators at every step of the process, from trial design to FDA review. Savvy biopharmas and medical device manufacturers would be wise to heed that call by incorporating input from patients at every stage of development and sharing that feedback with the FDA as part of regulatory filings.

• WHO adopts new safety needle policy, calling smart syringes an 'urgent priority'

  27 February 2015 Michael Gibney / FierceDrugDelivery

  Citing rampant use of the same needle to inject more than one person, the World Health Organization has--some might say finally--launched a new policy to make unsafe injections less prevalent. Part of this policy involves adopting up-to-date measures in syringe engineering, promoting the use of "smart" needles with precautions against unsafe use.

• Can Neil Woodford reignite the U.K.'s taste for biotech investments?

  27 February 2015 John Carroll / FierceBiotech

  High-profile investment guru Neil Woodford has rolled out his $300 million investment vehicle in the U.K., looking to attract a host of small investors behind a publicly traded trust that has big plans for investing in a new wave of small biotechs.

• Creating a Culture of Trust & Breakthrough Innovation in Pharma

  27 February 2015 Bart Sayle Nick Hawker / eyeforpharma

  Today’s pharma industry is suffering a crisis of trust. To thrive in this new environment, top leaders will not only have to develop innovative patient-centered models, they will also need to achieve enterprise-wide culture change and facilitate breakthrough innovation.

• Top 10 drug brands by payments to doctors

  26 February 2015 Tracy Staton, FeircePharmaMarketing

  The criticism was inevitable when the U.S. government rolled out its first batch of Sunshine Act data in October. Drugmakers and doctors had already been grousing about omitted entries and misleading info. We at FiercePharma had our own selfish complaint: The Open Payments database is monstrous--way too large for us to download and analyze with our paltry computing power.