BioPharma

Brochure for the World Drug Repositioning Congress available

Marcia Ardila — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:52:43 +0000

Are you concerned with reducing the cost, time and risk of drug development whilst refilling your R&D pipeline?

Drug repositioning: As the cost and time of drug development persistently increases, drug repositioning is becoming an increasingly important strategy for large pharma and small biotech alike to successfully innovate in a more cost-effective environment.

The 2012 World Drug Repositioning Congress is Europe’s only commercially orientated conference that provides key technical and strategic solutions to challenges faced when adopting drug repositioning into your R&D efforts.

The brochure has just been released and you can download it here or visit our website for full list of speakers and programme: www.terrapinn.com/drugrepositioning

How to define acceptable changes for QA’s of #antibodies

charlottel — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:49:45 +0000

Do you need to ensure that your antibodies are manufactured to a consistent product quality, and therefore guarantee a reproducible clinical performance and acceptable safety profile?

Dr Martin Schiestl, Scientific and Regulatory Advisor at Sandoz contributed to the debate about acceptable changes in quality attributes and how to identify them, when he spoke at the European Antibody Congress 2011. Dr Schiestl delivered three case studies where he evaluated the structure variation of 3 of Sandoz’s major marketed biologics: Aranesp (R), Rituxan (R)/ Mabthera(R) and Enbrel(R).

Follow the link below for the presentation slides delivered at the 2011 European Antibody Congress, and find out the details!

http://www.terrapinn.com/template/live/documents.aspx?e=5273&d=6886

Do you want to find out more?

How to take an antibody from academic discovery to the patient

How a cancer therapy #antibody target was developed and taken to the clinic

Strategies to enhance #antibody efficacy

Download: Deborah Monk, #Pharma Trials presentation available

louise.lim@aus — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:55:48 +0000

Terrapinn is pleased to make available for download a presentation titled "The state of industry sponsored clinical research in Australia" by Deborah Monk, Director of Innovation and Industry Policy, Medicines Australia, that she delivered at World Pharma Trials Australia 2011.

Some of the key topics covered in the presentation include:

Clinical Trials Action Group report
Clinical Trials Action Group recommendations
Ongoing challenges

Download the presentation here >
Download the conference agenda >

BioPharma Australasia 2012 will bring together the pharma and biotech industries to discuss current issues, learn from peers, create partnerships and gain expertise.

Enquire about sponsorship >
Download prospectus >
Visit the BioPharma website >

To join World Courier and Sydpath as event sponsors call +61 2 9021 8857 or email natalie.smith@terrapinn.com. There are limited speaking and exhibition opportunities available for top solution providers.

Support for #Biotech in Africa comes in the form of Bill Gates

natalies — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:40:00 +0000

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is well known for their generous support in many development programs and today they gave a US$3 million grant to the Open Forum for Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB). The grant will help the biotech industry in Africa to expand and help support the growth of agricultural biotechnology so farmers can have better food security. Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology at the forum’s 5th Anniversary commemoration workshop in Accra, called on the government and stakeholders to create an environment where information is shared, “At the country level, there is the need for national scientists and experts to provide policy makers and the general public with evidence-base information needed to harness such technologies.” Professor Walter Sandow Alhassan, Coordinator for Africa Biosafety and Biotechnology Policy Platform, pointed out that Africa has been slow in adapting the new agricultural biotechnology and blamed this in part to this lack of information sharing environment. He called on for African governments to develop new legislation and fast track a review board for biosafety applications.

To read more click here

The hear more about biotech and current issues facing the industry go to BioPharma Australasia.

#CSL is a good bet according to the stock market

natalies — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:12:00 +0000

CSL has entered into the list of top 10 Australian businesses. CSL an Australian founded #biotech, floated in 1994 at $2.30 a share (equivalent to 77cents these days), and has risen up to 5000 per cent to around $37 per share. Shareholders have received dividends of $5 per share and that is not something that happened by accident. CSL enjoys two hurdles for competitors to enter the market. Firstly strict licensing regulations make it costly for competitors to enter the market and secondly a company that does manage to enter the market will have to persists with loses until they can produce enough volume, as this is an industry where profit follows large numbers. Therefore the market is held strong by 3 players, CSL, Baxter and Grifols-Talecris. CSL’s high quality management has been described as “icing on the cake” for investors. Many companies who have experienced success sees their management become complacent and lazy in their decisions. CSL’s management hasn’t let success slow them down and have demonstrated this through smart acquisitions. Of course there are risks, government regulations and batch contaminations are top on the list, but the strength of CSL means they could deal with these with ease. Analysts predict CSL will continue to see at least 5 per cent growth in profits per year. Therefore these stocks will not be sold lightly and if you get the chance to buy in at a good price, I would take it.

To read more click here

To hear more from successful biotech companies such as CSL, go to BioPharma Australasia held on the 23-24 August at the Swissotel Sydney

How to take an antibody from academic discovery to the patient

charlottel — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:12:41 +0000

Do you want to find out how to take an antibody developed in academia through clinical trials, to be administered in humans?

Dr Dimiter Dimitrov, Head of the Protein Interaction Group at the National Cancer Institute and his group have developed a therapeutic antibody against Hendra and Nipah viruses. The m102.4 was identified and characterised in an academic setting and taken through GMP production with the help of government funding – the first therapeutic of rare viral disease to take this route to patients!

Follow the link below for the presentation slides delivered at the 2011 European Antibody Congress, and find out the details!

http://www.terrapinn.com/template/live/documents.aspx?e=5273&d=6887

Do you want to find out more?

Top new results of #antibody therapeutic developments from Dr Janice Reichert

How to categorise #Antibodies

How Novartis are predicting #Antibody stability

Strategic patenting, market exclusivity and lifecycle management through #drugrepositioning.

Matt Turner — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:52:22 +0000

Drug repurposing can be a beneficial strategy, however there are challenges of both a scientific and legal nature. Hermann Mucke, Founder of H.M Pharma Consultancy heads a specialised effort to provide a data-driven knowledge foundry in the service of pharmaceutical and medical business development. Strategic patenting is a key strength of his and pivotal in the world of drug repositioning where added commercial value is being extracted from existing compounds.

Dr. Mucke will be presenting on how organisations can re-fill their pipeline gaps with out of house repositioned candidates. specifically looking at how to extract value from unexploited IP through a third party. Dr. Mucke will also be chairing day 3 of the World Drug Repositioning Congress, taking place in London on the 11th-13th September 2012.

Having delved deeper into world of drug re-profiling, Dr. Mucke was keen to share some of his thoughts on this blog:

“Drug repurposing has to assume a much more central role. It is not a matter of "idea recycling" but of properly exploiting knowledge of which we have only scratched the surface. Discovery of new drug-able targets is falling far short of the hopes that were raised when the Human Genome Project was new, and in many large fields with a high degree of unmet need truly new drugs are nowhere to be seen — for example, in neuropsychiatry: we haven’t had any innovation in depression, psychosis, epilepsy, dementia or stroke for at least a decade. In such a situation we must take a hard look at what we already have in our files elsewhere, and see how we can redevelop it.
At present, drug repurposing is much too focused on molecular modelling and on neglected (tropical) diseases. Taking a more holistic approach that includes digital availability of written information from peer review and patent documents on the full-text level could change that, but there seems to be limited interest in taking a hard backward look at what has already been done — playing with supercomputers and producing nice visual simulations is much more likely to attract grant money. My hope is that I can kindle some alternative thinking at the conference: lots of advanced computing here as well, but text-based data and linked to crowdsourcing so that human ingenuity can be fully brought to bear.”

Dr. Mucke contributes to a useful blog focusing on the drug repositioning patent landscape.

Why not check out the World Drug Repositioning Congress LinkedIn group for all our latest announcements

You can also read the thoughts of other drug repositioning specialists who are speaking at the World Drug Repositioning Congress – David Cavalla and Aris Persidis

If you would like to learn more about how you can adopt and integrate drug repositioning strategies to identify new commercial opportunities for your candidate, register here to attend the World Drug Repositioning Congress 2012.

Technorati Tags: Hermann Mucke,drug repositioning,drug repurposing,patent,market exclusivity

Watson to become world’s 3rd largest #Generics Drug Maker with the #acquisition of Actavis

natalies — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:52:00 +0000

Watson Pharmaceuticals in a bid to increase their reach in the European and Asian markets, have spent $5.6 billion to buy Swiss drug maker Actavis. Watson is now placed just behind Novartis and Teva as the third biggest generic player in the industry. Watson has high hopes for the acquisition and expects a $8 billion revenue in 2012.

“The transaction itself is commercially compelling, it’s financially compelling, and it expands our team,” Watson Chief Executive Officer Paul Bisaro said today in a conference call. “The combination of all of those things, I think, is going to make an extremely powerful global company.”

After the announcement of the deal, Watson share prices were up 3.8 per cent to $US73.50 ($A71.49) in after-hours trading.

To read more click here

To hear more about what’s happening in the Generics drug market go to BioPharma Australasia

#Digital Marketing agencies need to step things up if they want to keep the #Pharmaceuticals happy

natalies — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:53:00 +0000

According to a study by Cutting Edge #pharmaceutical companies are not too impressed with their outsourced #digital marketing agencies. Digital Marketing has increasingly become important for pharma companies to have in their marketing strategy. Pharma executives admit it is a difficult area for agencies to navigate due to all the regulations the industry faces when it comes to marketing. This is probably why there is a rise in digital agencies who specifically focus on pharmaceutical campaigns. Casey Ferrell, senior research analyst at Cutting Edge Information says "These agencies only work with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. They understand how to make digital media effective within the industry’s confines." This does seem like the best way to go, niche companies that can understand and focus on this particular industry, as a digital campaign can only be as successful as the relationship between the digital agency and the pharma company.

To read more click here

To hear more about digital marketing in the pharmaceutical industries to go BioPharma Australasia which will be held at the Swissotel in Sydney, 23-24 August 2012.

Funding for innovation will go a long way for #Biotechs

natalies — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:46:00 +0000

Former Victorian Premier John Brumby believes that the approach by the Australian government in regards to funding #innovation in business needs to shift. Traditionally the government has only stepped in when an innovative business is facing “market failure”, but funding in order to drive the industry is a step that hasn’t been explored enough. Queensland and Victoria have really been the pioneers in this way of economic thinking. Both states have spent millions and even a billion dollars in supporting #biotechs in order to achieve long term commercial success. In Victoria one billion dollars has been allotted to developing the Comprehensive Cancer Centre. The money will go into building a centre that will house eight cancer institutions and laboratories for more than 700 researchers. Such a development would never have been possible if Brumby had not followed his vision to enrich the industry rather than only responding to market failings. Commercial success doesn’t always follow innovation. Without intentional intervention and policy attention, many innovative companies will fail to stay afloat long enough to flourish into successful globally competitive businesses.

To read more click here

To hear more about current issues in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries go to BioPharma Australasia