R&D spending

Chinese VC alliance to back early-stage bio-ventures

John Carroll — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:28:57 -0400

A variety of public and private venture groups in China have created a loosely structured association that will back early-stage biotech ventures. Companies such as Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutical Group, DSM China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences plan to raise $145 million in the near term. And much of that money will be earmarked for biopharmaceuticals, biomaterials and industrial enzymes.

- read the report from China Bio Today

Expert forecasts revolution in drug dev. work

John Carroll — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:14:19 -0400

In the not too distant future drug development work will be revolutionized by new computer technology that will "test" experimental therapies on virtual humans, says a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The new computer-based human model will be instantly adapted to represent every disease, says Steve Arlington. And the cost of drug discovery can be cut by as much as two thirds.

That sort of brave new world would engineer a profound change for drug developers, who take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to advance a drug--often finding out in late-stage trials that they don't work as expected. It's also the kind of model that better suits an approaching age of personalized medicine, when a new generation of therapies will be developed that are more narrowly designed to address disease.

"We are not suggesting that drugs be trialed before they are ready but by 2020 we should be living in an environment where technology will allow doctors and patients to do this," says Arlington. Another sensible way to change the approval process, he says, would be to allow regulators to approve a drug for use in small populations and then expand its use as more data becomes available.

- read the article from The Times

India eyes R&D opportunities

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

India-based drugs have made a name for themselves as makers of copycat drugs. When a developer's lucrative drug goes off-patent, Indian companies are guaranteed to swoop in and make a less-expensive knock-off of the therapy. It's a strategy that's definitly paid off for the developers.

But now some of these companies are shifting gears and developing their own drugs from scratch. Why now? Mainly because the talent pool in India has improved to the point where drugmakers have the resources to do their own R&D. "In the past, anyone interested in fundamental research had to go to the West, but the talent is here and now the barrier is broken," says Ian Cliffe, a senior executive at Ranbaxy. Another factor is India's new patent protection laws, which were a condition of its acceptance into the World Trade Organization.

Ranbaxy recently announced plans to spin off its R&D unit. Sun Pharma, Orchid Research, Wockhardt, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Nicholas Piramal all have plans to do the same. India is betting its lower costs and talent pool will give it a leg up in the global pharmaceutical market in the coming years.

- read the Financial Times article for more

Related Articles:
Ranbaxy spins off R&D unit. Ranbaxy report
Ranbaxy touts R&D abilities in new discovery pact. Ranbaxy report
Glenmark to spin off generics business. Glenmark report

U.S. R&D headcount tumbles in key categories

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Pharmalot has been crunching the numbers for R&D jobs and concludes that the U.S. is seeing a considerable amount of shrinkage in the field. Looking at new numbers from PhRMA for 2006, R&D employment among its members dropped 3.9 percent. And there were a number of sizable reductions last year, with the axe expected to drop again over the course of 2008.

RPM concludes that the biggest cutbacks in R&D are occurring in the approval and post-marketing phases. The money spent on R&D in the U.S. continues to rise, but after an 11.3 percent hike in 2006 budgets rose only 2.7 percent to a still considerable $35.4 billion.

- read the report from Pharmalot
- see the PhRMA report (.pdf)

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