Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of healthcare:
Indian biotech’s prominence grows: Five years ago, big biotechnology firm collaborations in India were restricted to fee-for-service deals, but that’s changing as more and more co-development deals are struck. Indian biotechs look poised to capitalize as Big Pharma companies not only move more of their research and development out of their own houses, but look to do more R&D collaboration away from costly regions like the U.S. and Europe. AstraZeneca, for example, plans to bump up its up externalized R&D to 40 percent from its current 25 percent.
Nursing strike “wounds”: With big nursing strikes in Minnesota and California looming, the impactEDnurse blog shares reflections on the blogger’s own participation in a strike. “The strike lasted over a week. Some nurses made the decision not to participate and others chose to return after a few days. It was a terrible time for us as a team and it took a long long time after the event to heal some of the wounds that resulted.”
BioLabs Pegasus Park Cultivates Life Science Ecosystem
Gabby Everett, the site director for BioLabs Pegasus Park, offered a tour of the space and shared some examples of why early-stage life science companies should choose North Texas.
Walgreen splitting with CVS: Walgreen will no longer participate in any new or renewed prescription-drug plans awarded to CVS Caremark’s pharmacy benefit-manager business. Walgreen said it does not get enough information from CVS about new prescription drug plans and contracts, making it hard for Walgreen to decide if it makes financial sense for it to participate in the plan. The news sent CVS’ shares tumbling 8 percent.
Health execs cutting IT: Half of the healthcare executives that responded to a recent Beacon Partners poll said their firms plan to cut back on technology investing due to the weak economy. Beacon’s CEO called the number “ironic,” given that one of the major thrusts of 2009’s federal stimulus was to spur health IT spending. “It’s ironic that these organizations first have to spend money they don’t have in order to receive future [stimulus] incentives, which, once received, won’t cover their full investment,” he said.
Preniva: SNL spoofs the drug industry with this ad for the fake drug Preniva. “There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with you to take Preniva. You just have to be scared, which you should be.”
Mixup at 23andMe: This could be another chink in the armor of personalized genomics. 23andMe revealed that a lab mix-up resulted in as many as 96 customers receiving the wrong data. The incorrect results understandably left some customers anxious, and it’s just another example of the challenge these companies face in trying to present complex data to the public.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Dealflow: Spain’s Grifols plans to buy North Carolina-based Talecris Biotherapeutics for $3.4 billion; Michigan-based Tolera Therapeutics grabs $4 million; AVI Biopharma gets an $18 million flu contract.
Photo from flickr user shashwat_nagpal
