Industry news

• Google signs on Harvard doc to lead bioinformatics study

  14 May 2015 Emily Wasserman / FierceMedicalDevices

  Google's Baseline study is getting a boost, with a Harvard cardiologist moving over to lead the initiative almost a year after the company revealed its plans to aggregate molecular and genetic data to jump-start medical research.

• Big Pharma's cardiovascular sales ain't what they used to be

  13 May 2015 Emily Wasserman / FiercePharma

  Slumping sales for cardiovascular drugs isn't exactly a new phenomenon for Big Pharma, with some of the industry's top drugmakers suffering from recent patent expirations. But a new report shows which CV franchises have been hurt the most.

• Rusnano launches Nuclear Medicine Centers Network

  13 May 2015 MarchMont Innovation News

  Central Russia’s first Nuclear Medicine Centers Network has opened in the Lipetsk region. A sizable private-public partnership, the Network has the capacity to deliver y-tracers to neighboring regions, the Rusnano website announced. This $24+m effort is being pushed by PET-Technology, a portfolio company of Rusnano.  

• RPT-Under pressure, FDA to hold public meeting on off-label use

  13 May 2015 Toni Clarke / Reuters

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold a public meeting this summer to address drug company concern that restrictions on what they can say about off-label use of drugs violate their First Amendment right to free speech.

• Varian launches 'cloud community' to encourage information exchange among oncologists

  13 May 2015 Varun Saxena / FierceMedicalDevices

  As the conversation shifts from collecting Big Data to what to do with it, Varian Medical Systems ($VAR) is focusing on efficient data sharing. The company hopes users of its just-launched OncoPeer platform will benefit from oncologists' collective intelligence by leveraging other practitioners' knowledge to the benefit of their own patients.

• Building value via regional licensing; global dealmakers get guidance on Japan

  12 May 2015 Michael Fitzhugh / BioWorld

  With international dealmaking often a key element of the biopharma asset development adventure, the path to success in Japan took center stage during the first day of Allicense, an annual pilgrimage for the industry's top business development pros.

• Tiny drugmakers top list of most profitable, but Shire and Gilead are there, too

  12 May 2015 Tracy Staton / Fierce Pharma

  Who are the most profitable companies in healthcare? Drug companies, with 7 out of 10 slots on a ranking by profit margin. Who are the most profitable drug companies? You might scratch your heads at all but a couple of names.

• Head of FDA's device arm says agency aims to be first in the world to improve devices

  12 May 2015 Varun Saxena / FierceMedicalDevices

  The head of the FDA's device arm (CDRH) acknowledged that the division is failing to live up to its vision that "patients in the U.S. have access to high-quality, safe, and effective medical devices of public health importance first in the world" because advanced devices like trans aortic valve replacements are regularly approved in Europe 5 years earlier than the U.S.

• Marinus Pharmaceuticals Provides Business Update and Reports First Quarter 2015 Financial Results

  11 May 2015

  

  Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:MRNS), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative epilepsy and other neuropsychiatric therapeutics, today provided a business update and announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015.

• Australia budget is a showdown on cancer drug funding, safety net reach

  08 May 2015 EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

  An Australia government proposal to trim the national drug-coverage budget for innovative drugs by 5%, or U.S.$2.36 billion, has invited a juggernaut of industry opposition already descending on the parliament. The reductions are aimed at the nation's leading drugs, including those for cancer.