By Ryan McBride While Big Pharma still has a strong foothold in the antibiotics market, smaller biotechs have tackled the job of replenishing our arsenal of new weapons against infections–especially so-called superbugs, like MRSA, that are resistant to older antibiotics. Despite those drug-resistant infections, there’s been a dearth of FDA approvals of new antibiotics …
By John Carroll Novartis ($NVS) CEO Joe Jimenez took a minute during a recent interview with Fortune to explain the company’s drug development strategy. Rather than go after a blockbuster indication, Novartis scientists are more focused on pathways. By pursuing a particular disease pathway with a drug designed to treat a rare disease, Novartis improves …
By Maureen Martino oche and partner Plexxikon have reported a rare success in the challenging field of melanoma. Closely-watched drug PLX4032 extended the lives of subjects with metastatic melanoma in a Phase III trial. Additionally, patients receiving PLX4032 lived longer without their disease getting progressing compared to those who received the current standard of care. The …
By John Carroll With the enthusiastic backing of NIH director Francis Collins (photo), the world’s single largest financial support of therapeutic research is throwing a chunk of its multibillion-dollar budget behind a new center designed to speed drugs from the lab to the marketplace. And Collins says that the new center for translational medicine could …
By Maureen Martino There’s no question that Eli Lilly has been beset by challenges as of late. In the next seven years Lilly will be faced with generic competition for drug that made up almost three-quarters of its 2009 revenue. Additionally, the company has been hit with R&D setbacks, including the discontinued development of a once-promising …
By John Carroll One of the richest tech startups in biotech history is adding even more millions to its cache of cash as it ramps up the commercialization of its DNA sequencing services. Pacific Biosciences says it has closed a $109 million Series F, bringing its total haul to $370 million. The new money includes …
By John Carroll France’s ExonHit Therapeutics has established a new beachhead in the U.S. molecular diagnostics market with its newly announced deal to buy Pittsburgh-based RedPath Integrated Pathology for $22.5 million in cash and stock plus $9.5 million in sales milestones. RedPath CEO Mark Myslinski says the buyout will pump fresh funds into the company, …
By John Carroll Madison, WI-based Cellular Dynamics International has raised a $40.6 million Series B to expand on the commercialization of its work harvesting human stem cell lines for preclinical drug testing. Founded by stem cell legend James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin, Cellular Dynamics–a 2008 Fierce 15 company–has been a pioneer in the …
By John Carroll Joseph Nevins, director of the of the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy’s Center for Applied Genomics & Technology, believes it’s time to radically change the way that cancer drugs are developed if we expect to see a new generation of personalized therapies. Because of the complexity of cancer–breast cancer, he …
By John Carroll Researchers reported a major breakthrough on their use of biomarkers in a study of several existing lung cancer therapies, and their fresh insights into adaptive clinical trials are likely to have a major impact on the way new cancer drugs are studied. The Battle cancer study was mounted by the renowned M.D. …
