MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'biotech industry'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:49:45 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2812528&cid=t_124375_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FxNomfpW_kkQ%2F Anyone who reads bbgm knows that I am not a fan of bureaucratic big companies and the current pharma model. So this bit from a talk by Stefan Loren and reported by In the Pipeline piqued my interest Break up large pharma into therapeutic areas and build shared networks between distinct entities. Small organizations can operate far more efficiently in decision making about research directions – use the network to maintain manufacturing efficiencies. Small focused companies will revitalize the industry and offer opportunities for scientists coming out of academia. This is not dissimilar to the model I have thought about, although I do like the idea of an entity that orchestrates the network, since you do need direction. While there is some innovation going on in the biotech industry to... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2812528 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:07:45 +0100 2812528 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2323811&cid=t_124375_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FIMzw47VC5MM%2F I’ve been busy, so missed out on Keith’s blog posts on the subject of Codon shutting down it’s doors. It’s a sign of the times. Very difficult to be a company looking for financing these days, but I wonder if it has anything to say about the maturity of synthetic biology as a commercial enterprise. Codon’s core technology was a platform for designing and optimizing proteins and pathways for a variety of applications. I am not quite sure what their core target market was. I suspect energy was a big one. That they look like they’ve gone under would suggest there are not enough people out there looking for the kinds of products Codon offered. I don’t know if they were planning to take any forward themselves, or license them out. They have a good IP p... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2323811 Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:56:25 +0100 2323811 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2296208&cid=t_124375_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FcgDVgS7gHP0%2F Image by Getty Images via Daylife In Science Business, a book that I am going to revisit to do a better job of talking about innovation in the biotech industry, Gary Pisano talks about the lack of profitability in the biotech industry (assuming the formation of Genentech as the day the industry was formed). He also talks about how much worse this would be if Amgen was taken out of the calculations. Well, according to a report by Burrill and co, in 2008 the biotech industry made it’s first aggregate profit. You can look at this in many ways. It’s the first profit that the industry has made in 40+ years, so it’s worth celebrating. That it did this in 2008, not exactly the best of economic years, is something worth applauding. However, there is the dark side as well. Only 67... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2296208 Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:49:10 +0100 2296208 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1788754&cid=t_124375_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FIDofgGzGIuY%2F We wonder whether the traditionally do-it-all, own-it-all from every part of the value chain is sustainable. It’s certainly a risky and costly model That quote comes from Elliot Sigal, the CSO at Bristol Myers-Squibb. Bio-IT World has an article where it talks about Sigal’s proposal to make BMS a next generation biopharma company. Hmmm, wonder what that means. As far as I can tell it means taking some of the blue sky research ethos of biotech and marrying it to the scale and commercial expertise of pharma and the ability to work in multiple therapeutic areas. Somehow I find that underwhelming, even distressing. Both are cliches to the core, and just words to a degree. What the industry needs is for people to think differently, not just talk about stuff that people talk about all th... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1788754 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:00:47 +0100 1788754 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1399355&cid=t_124375_147_f&fid=35751&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffardj.prblogs.org%2F2008%2F04%2F25%2Ffacebook-based-contest-engages-youth-showcases-power-of-social-networks-to-%25e2%2580%259cseed-grow%25e2%2580%259d-online-communities%2F Since early this year, Abbott Laboratories and the PR firm Fleishman Hilliard have been producing a contest designed to encourage young people to enter the clinical laboratory profession.  According to Abbott, the program, Labs Are Vital, was a smashing success.  It reached more than 1.8 million students interested in the sciences. Students participating in the contests were asked to develop videos, T-shirts and advertisements encouraging people to start a career in laboratory medicine.  A key part of the programs’ success was the fact that Fleishman Hilliard was heavily engaged with the Facebook community surrounding the contest.  With a few exceptions, the contest sponsors were very responsive to community members’ needs and quickly answered questions. Intimate interaction with c... Envisioning 2.0 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1399355 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:02:48 +0100 1399355 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=950848&cid=t_124375_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2Fhealing-unbound-the-promise-of-advancing-computational-power.html Laptop-attached ultrasound units that produce startlingly clear internal images for five dollars in the field. Organs that re-generate inside scaffolds.  Drugs tailored to an individual’s biology. Micro-images of cancerous cells lit up by bio-chemical markers. Decision support tools that scan the physiological values in electronic health records for patterns too complex to be detected by an unaided clinician.The advances available from dramatic improvements in computational capabilities were a recurring theme at the Aspen Health Forum, with experts from each discipline describing where the technology was leading us. I attended two sessions featuring Star Trek clips that predicted realities now within at least theoretical reach. (Prescient and corny, audiences nodded nostalgicall... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=950848 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:24:57 +0100 950848 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=923688&cid=t_124375_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F10%2F3%2Fis-the-new-age-of-enlightenment-finally-dawning.html By Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.DHere are three headlines from today’s paper:Front page: “GOP Losing Grip On Core Business Vote”. For obvious reasons.Opinion page: “Immigration Losers” by Richard Nadler, President of Americas Majority Foundation, a Midwest public policy think tank (and I might add, a Republican organization in the mold of the Taft dynasty): “ …Republicans need to repudiate… the immoral, uneconomical goal of mass deportation”.Opinion page: “The Future of Bioenergy”, by Juan Enriquez, managing director of Excel Medical Ventures, cofounder of Synthetic Genomics, and founding director of Harvard Business School Life science Project.The first article Chronicles the takeover of the Republican party by the social conserva... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=923688 Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:30:11 +0100 923688 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=674825&cid=t_124375_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F6%2F10%2Favandia-glaxosmithkline-and-bullying-or-how-did-we-get-into-.html I have to admit that when the Avandia story unfolded I considered writing a strong defense of the researchers who toil anonymously in the bowels of drug companies for years on end, dedicating their life careers to bringing out a drug that may save millions of lives and improve the health and quality of life of literally billions. I have been there, albeit not with a mammoth drug company, but rather with a smallish biotech company endeavoring to develop immune-based treatment for cancer. The pressures are enormous; a company invests hundreds of millions of dollars in development of a drug, and one wrong decision can sink the whole project. Preliminary data come in from the lab or the clinic that don’t look good; what do you do? Call for a screeching halt? Rationalize and ignore? None ... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=674825 Sun, 10 Jun 2007 04:57:31 +0100 674825