I wish them just good luck... Another magic cure :)))

So what???

Communist propaganda everywhere...

Partnerships Cracking the Code for Innovation

Wanted: Innovators ready to disrupt biotechnology and healthcare with revolutionary ideas. Find out how to partner with the Life Sciences licensing team at GE Healthcare: http://bit.ly/LifeSciencesLicensing 

Blue ocean strategy, red ocean strategy... WTF???

Targeted failure - somebody takes it for targeted drugs

The Fabulous Life Of Filthy Rich Billionaires - Naturally

Nanobots - The imagination

 

 

Who cares?

Pfizer is the largest drug maker in the United States, but after striking a deal on Monday to buy Allergan, the company is on the verge of becoming Irish.
For shareholders, this may be their lucky charm. After the merger, Pfizer will be able to shift its legal headquarters from New York to Dublin and pay lower taxes, which should bolster its bottom line. But in the process, scientists are likely to lose their jobs, innovation may suffer, and consumers could pay more for Pfizer medicines.
This is often true of many large takeovers in the pharmaceutical industry as companies look to slash expenses and quickly appease investors. In this case, about $2 billion in cuts are planned. But the type of deal Pfizer is pursuing, which is known as a tax inversion, appears destined to accentuate the downsides
http://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2015/11/23/pharmalot-pfizer-allergan-innovation/
 

The top 10 biopharma pipeline disasters of 2015...

Targeted failures - most Epic ones...
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/special-reports/top-10-biopharma-pipeline-disasters-2015

The story...

When FDA inspectors showed up at a Chinese company that supplies key ingredients to two of the U.S.’s biggest drug companies, a curious thing happened.
After lunch, they walked into a quality control lab on the second floor, where they saw a worker pull what looked like a memory stick from a computer and put it in the pocket of his lab coat. The inspectors asked to see what he’d taken.
And then the man turned and ran.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-28/fda-shows-up-a-man-runs-and-questions-emerge-on-china-s-drugs

We win, you loose - sign here

Targeted failure of the week. Kadcyla. When rocket science medicine fails...

Oct 22 (Reuters) - ImmunoGen Inc said the gastric cancer drug it is developing with Roche Holding AG did not meet the main goal in a large study. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/immunogen-roche-gastric-cancer-drug-121659032.html

Trastuzumab emtansine ( ado-trastuzumab emtansine, trade name Kadcyla) is an antibody-drug conjugate consisting of the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) linked to the cytotoxic agent DM1.

 

This drug is a real rocket science approach. And it failed...

When rocket science is no enough

Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) today notified the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) of its intent to end its contract with the university for the management of the Anti-amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's disease (A4) study. The A4 study is a novel clinical trial testing solanezumab in the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease in older individuals who have evidence of amyloid in their brains on a PET scan, but do not show symptoms of memory impairment.
http://yhoo.it/1DtKu6s
 

Market based medicine development

• Sembragiline, a joint development project for Alzheimer's disease from Roche and Evotec, did not demonstrate cognitive benefit in treated patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) after 52 weeks. 
• This is the second AD drug failure for Roche in the last two years, including gantenerumab, which failed late last year.
• Evotec is still dedicated to CNS R&D, and has more than 70 CNS-related products at various stages of development in their portfolio, according to Evotec CEO Werner Lanthaler. 

http://www.biopharmadive.com/news/another-roche-alzheimers-drug-disappoints/401788/

Gene therapy - game over!?!

Celladon ($CLDN) is circling the drain, suspending all research tied to its failed gene therapy and again halving its payroll as management searches for a sale and flirts with liquidation.

The San Diego company, which watched its share value evaporate after an April clinical trial failure, is laying off about 50% of its 17-person workforce. Celladon is also halting development of Mydicar, a gene therapy for heart failure that missed its goals in Phase IIb, as well as all of its preclinical programs.

The plan now is to find a merger or sale that can salvage some value, and Celladon has retained Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare to help it find a way forward. If it can't find any takers, the company is prepared to liquidate what assets it has, figuring it can return about $25 million to $30 million in cash to its shareholders.

Celladon was once among the highest profile companies in the gene therapy space, developing a treatment for the common ailment of heart failure in contrast to the rare disease R&D that has largely dominated the field. Mydicar won the FDA's breakthrough-therapy designation last year as the company worked through its Phase IIb study, with management hoping the results might be positive enough to submit to global regulators straightaway.

In the end, Mydicar failed to reduce hospitalizations, improve cardio survival rates or free patients from the need for ventricular-assist devices and heart transplants, an across-the-board failure that decimated the company's market value. Celladon's shares have fallen nearly 90% since the biotech disclosed Mydicar's data, trading at around $1.50.

Earlier this month, CEO Krisztina Zsebo resigned after a decade at Celladon, ceding the reins to former CFO Paul Cleveland as the company began its search for a buyer.

"Our board of directors has unanimously determined that seeking a merger or sale, in lieu of further development of our remaining programs and assets, gives us the best opportunity to maximize shareholder value," Cleveland said in a statement Friday. "We are aggressively pursuing that course."
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/celladon-pulls-plug-rd-after-crushing-gene-therapy-failure/2015-06-26?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=feedly&utm_campaign=rss

Allergan to buy Kythera Biopharmaceuticals in $2.1 billion deal

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/allergan-to-buy-kythera-biopharmaceuticals-in-21-billion-deal-2015-06-17?siteid=yhoof2

Science is sexy!

GlaxoSmithKline is planning to create an independent, nonprofit research institute that will attempt to pioneer new technologies and approaches for decoding how genes are controlled and how they function.
“Dramatic breakthroughs in understanding how the human genome functions are still in their infancy in terms of how they can be applied to drug discovery, but we can see their potential to transform the process,” said Lon Cardon, senior vice president of alternative discovery and development at GlaxoSmithKline.