Industry news

• Will Economic Returns from Drugs Continue to Disintegrate?

  12 February 2015 Randi Hernandez / BioPharm International

  The recent mergers, partnerships, and incentive-laden deals in pharma may keep the industry from continuing to experience diminishing returns, according to IMS’ Michael Kleinrock.

• Russian medical companies enter Syrian and Indian markets

  11 February 2015 MarchMont Innovation News

  Russia may soon start exporting medical products to Syria and India. Russian manufacturers signed a number of agreements at the most recent international Arab Health 2015 exhibition in the UAE, the largest show of medical production innovation in the Middle East and the second largest globally,  announced  the website of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Commerce. 

• Russians and Americans develop early-stage cancer diagnostics in Siberia

  11 February 2015 MarchMont Innovation News

  Researchers at the Russia-US Anti-Cancer Center in Barnaul, in Southwest Siberia, a joint project launched more than a year ago on the premises of Altay State University, say it will take them three years to complete the testing of a technology which is believed to enable physicians to rapidly diagnose cancers at very early stages, using literally just one drop of a patient’s blood. 

• Why crowdfunding will never be a big factor in biotech

  11 February 2015 John Carroll, FierceBiotech

  Against the backdrop of a surge in venture investing in biotech, there's been a significant amount of curiosity in the startup field about whether crowdfunding can ever play a significant role in seeding new operations. 

• FDA to pharma: Scrap that fine-print risk info in DTC ads

  11 February 2015 Tracy Staton, FeircePharma

  Look for some big changes next time you run across a magazine ad for Crestor or Viagra or any of the brands on heavy rotation. The FDA has decided that its long-standing disclose-all policy on side effects was wrong. Way wrong.

• How Device Makers Can Take Healthcare "Beyond the Pill"

  10 February 2015 Medical Devices and Diagnostic Industry

  In the aftermath of the frenzy of JPMorgan Healthcare Conference that concluded mid January in San Francisco, the life sciences industry is taking stock of the themes emerging for 2015 and beyond.

• FDA seeks budget boost for precision medicine IT infrastructure

  10 February 2015 Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce BiotechIT

  The FDA has requested $2 million in President Obama's 2016 budget to build precision medicine-related IT infrastructure. The regulator highlighted cloud computing and data security as areas in which it needs to improve.

• Apple's health tech takes early lead among top hospitals

  10 February 2015 Christina Farr / Reuter

  Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) healthcare technology is spreading quickly among major U.S. hospitals, showing early promise as a way for doctors to monitor patients remotely and lower costs.

• Low rates, M&A spur flood of pharma debt deals

  09 February 2015 Danielle Robinson / Reuter

  Merck & Co's US$8bn jumbo bond is just the tip of the iceberg of debt supply from the healthcare sector in the months ahead with brand names like Novartis and Pfizer set to compete for investor cash.

• Researchers develop low-cost smartphone device for quick HIV and syphilis screening

  09 February 2015 Emily Wasserman, FiercePharmaDevices

  As devicemakers home in on cheap, rapid diagnostics for patients in developing nations, researchers are creating a low-cost smartphone device to quickly test for infectious diseases in poor countries.