AstraZeneca deal lifts Rigel's arthritis drug out of development uncertainty

Having signed a license agreement with AstraZeneca, Rigel has boosted the prospects for R788, its RA drug. However, Phase III trials must address certain safety signals and reassure physicians of its efficacy in key patient populations. Prominent product differentiation will also be vital for the drug to compete with Pfizer's JAK inhibitor, which is set to reach the market two years ahead of it.

Lacerta BioCapital

Lacerta BioCapital, a member of Farmavita.Net, invests in sound, stable companies in promising Life Science segments with attractive futures (e.g., sustained positive cash flow; value increase potential of at least 20% p.a.; growth potential either organically or through acquisition; etc.). Our target companies have a sound customer base with a well balanced product portfolio. We aim to have a total investment budget of approximately €300 million (including credit capital), to be invested in around 10-15 Life Science companies.

Please contact us for introduction to Lacerta BioCapital. 

New hope for Javelin's pain candidate but safety concerns remain

An external review of Phase III data for Javelin Pharmaceuticals' Ereska has found previously negative top-line results for its primary endpoint to be statistically significant. While the findings offer renewed hope for the company, ketamine's association with drug abuse and its well-documented hallucinatory effects represent key weaknesses in the market place, despite Ereska's proven efficacy.

Transforming Drug Discovery

Press Release - 16 February 2010

Dr Chas Bountra, the Chairman of the marcus evans Discovery Summit 2010 shares his recommendations for drug discovery acceleration across Europe.

Drug discovery requires a lot of time, effort, brain power and money. At the moment a lot of that is being wasted as pharmaceutical companies often work secretly doing the same experiments with ridiculously low success rates. Dr Chas Bountra, Chief Scientist at the University of Oxford's Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is working towards transforming this status quo. The Chairman of the marcus evans Discovery Summit 2010, taking place in France, 22 - 24 March, has joined forces with scientists from across the world and is making all the SGC data publicly available, to reduce the duplication of experiments. Here he shares his vision of the drug discovery future and his ideas on accelerating the discovery process.

Pfizer's novel NGF pain drug is potential game changer

Phase II clinical trials of tanezumab in osteoarthritis, chronic low back pain and interstitial cystitis have demonstrated the drug's analgesic efficacy across these three chronic pain settings. Despite safety concerns and a high price point, Datamonitor expects tanezumab to enjoy a significant first-in-class advantage in a potentially lucrative novel area of pain therapy.

Daiichi Sankyo: new influenza drug may boost flagging Japanese market

Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo has filed a New Drug Application in Japan for its inhaled influenza antiviral, laninamivir. This neuraminidase inhibitor, administered in just a single inhaled dose, retains activity to strains resistant to the market leader, Roche's Tamiflu. As such, its approval may provide a much-needed boost to the declining Japanese antiviral market.

Using knowledge brokering to improve business processes

Over the past decade, open innovation has begun transforming the way global companies develop new products, as executives increasingly recognize the benefits of exposing internal R&D to outside ideas. Now, some organizations are going even further by applying open-source thinking to improve a range of core business processes. Aided by rapidly changing technology, these leaders are looking outside the gates to develop faster and better solutions to a variety of strategic, operational, and organizational problems.

Download free 9 pages report at our Download Section.

Roche: novel Herceptin formulation promises greater convenience

Having stepped up lifecycle management for its leading breast cancer monoclonal antibody, Herceptin, Roche hopes to encourage uptake of a more convenient formulation of the drug. This strategy could help to conserve its share of an increasingly competitive market, but may be challenging to implement due to concerns over compliance and financial incentives to prescribe intravenous cancer drugs.