The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Biotechnology, Health and Business in Canada, the United States and Worldwide

Category Archives: News

Some Top-Line Numbers From 2011 For Public Canadian Healthcare Companies

The numbers have been crunched in preparation for the 2011 Canadian Healthcare Annual Review, which I co-author with Ross Marshall, Senior Vice President at The Equicom Group. Prior to its publication later this month, we are going to give you a look at some of the top-line numbers. The biggest concern in the sector is [...]

Friday Science Review: September 16, 2011

Novel Genetically Encoded Calcium Indicators University of Alberta ♦ Hokkaido University ♦ Kyushu University Published in Science, September 8, 2011 Calcium transport is critical to normal physiology having an essential role in processes like neural communication and muscle contraction. As a result, the element has been at the centre of a large body of physiological [...]

Friday Science Review: July 1, 2011

Cell Signaling Through the Eyes of an Adapter Protein Mount Sinai Hospital ♦ University of Toronto ♦ Published in Nature Biotechnology, June 26, 2011 A novel approach to analyzing the protein machinery in cells utilizes affinity purification (AP) to identify protein-protein interactions, and a unique form of mass spectrometry, known as selected reaction monitoring (SLR), [...]

Canadian Drug Pricing and Reimbursement Conference Report

Earlier this week, the Canadian Institute held its 5th annual Drug Pricing and Reimbursement Conference in Toronto. The conference highlighted a number of key issues including market access for pharmaceutical companies, Federal and Provincial regulatory and reimbursement policies, and global trends that may affect Canada’s pharmaceutical landscape. Attendees included both innovative and generic drug manufacturers, public [...]

Preview — BIO and Scientific American’s Regional Bio-Innovation Scorecard

The BIO 2011 conference is just around the corner, and Washington DC prepares for some 15,000 delegates from 65 different countries to descend upon its limits, which means it’s almost time for this year’s Worldview Regional Bio-Innovation Scorecard. This morning, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) hosted a press conference in DC to provide some highlights [...]

Pharma / Biotech R&D Budgets – A Proposal For Measuring Performance

During the BioFinance 2011 conference held in Toronto last week, one presenter showed a slide that outlined the number of new chemical entities (NCEs) approved by the FDA over a number of years. Since this slide was used in the context of the increase in global industry R&D budgets, it was meant to show that [...]

BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing — Day 1 Review

We attended several sessions yesterday and learned about biofuels and bioproducts investment; bioingredients for food and nutrition; and strategies for profitable commercialization of renewable chemicals, among others. One of the highlights was the lunch plenary, where panelists Brian J.M. Ames (DOW Chemical),  Balu Sarma (Praj Matrix), Feike Sijbesma (DSM) and Peter Williams (INEOS Technologies) addressed a panel discussion entitled [...]

BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing

This year’s World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology starts today in Toronto. A report from The Milken Institute released into the lead-up before the conference includes some interesting data: Industrial biotechnology received $1.48 billion in venture investment from 2004 to 2009, compared to $1.99 billion for biofuels and $17.48 billion for therapeutic biotech plays. Up to 78% of [...]

Q1 2011 Canadian Healthcare Review: some financing carry-over from the strong Q4 2010

The ‘Q1 2011 Canadian Healthcare Review’, which I [Wayne Schnarr] co-author with Ross Marshall, Vice President Healthcare at The Equicom Group, has now been published. Click here to download the full report (pdf). The public Canadian healthcare sector started 2011 with a steady but relatively quiet flow of events until Valeant Pharmaceuticals announced that it had [...]

Myriad Genetics v ACLU in the Federal Circuit

The ACLU had its day in court at the Federal Circuit yesterday, with oral arguments occupying 70 minutes of the court’s time in front of an audience of “hundreds” according to coverage from The Salt Lake Tribune (Myriad’s hometown paper). This case, you will recall, is a challenge to the patentability of isolated DNA. When [...]

Stability at the Top: A Look at Top Biotech VC Deals from 2007-2010

FierceBiotech published the top 15 biotech VC deals of 2010 last week, measured by dollars invested. Since they noted an overall uptick in investments in 2010, it seemed like a worthwhile time to look back. Here’s what U.S. VC investment in biopharma and medical devices looked like from 2007 to 2010 (normalized to 2007 levels): Not [...]

2010 Canadian Healthcare Review: Success and Momentum Building

We had just finished the Q3 2010 report when I attended BioContact Québec in early October and the mood was discouraging. My co-author on these reports (James Smith, VP-Healthcare at Equicom) was in San Francisco in January for the annual JP Morgan conference and he described the overall mood as optimistic. What happened in those [...]

Biotech Trends in 2011: Biosimilars

In our original post on biosimilars, Lumira Capital’s Beni Rovinski set out the business opportunities, the technical challenges and the regulatory hurdles facing follow-on biologics in 2009. Since then, as Beni predicted, a series of pharma deals have followed Merck’s Insimed acquisition, and the regulatory framework in North America has been clarified substantially, with final Health Canada guidance having been [...]

Biotech Trends in 2011: Commercialization by Non-Profit Foundations

Financing for biotech companies is a major part of my work at my real job, and the horrible financing environment in the wake of 2008′s financial crisis was one of the motivators for starting this blog. So, when nonprofit foundations started financing commercialization and product development in addition to their traditional role in financing research, it [...]

Biotech Financings: Preview of 2010 Data Shows Momentum for 2011

The ‘2010 Canadian Healthcare Review’, which I co-author with James Smith, Vice President Healthcare at The Equicom Group, will be published in about two weeks. One of the components of this review is a summary of the financings by public Canadian healthcare companies. Equity and convertible debt financings by public Canadian healthcare companies totaled $866.9 [...]

Trends Update — Social Media Reshaping Healthcare: Twitter as a Public Health Surveillance Tool for the 21st Century

We have been following innovative uses for social media in the biotech and healthcare industry here on the blog. Recently, a comprehensive paper was published in PLoS ONE outlining the use of “infoveillance” tools on the web to track the public response to the H1N1 epidemic. Dr. Gunther Eysenbach and Cynthia Chew, both researchers at [...]

Biotech Trends Update — IP Constituencies: Indian Industry Lobbies to Keep IP Out of Free Trade Agreement with EU

An article in yesterday’s Hindu Business Line says the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association is lobbying heavily to keep data protection and other innovator-friendly IP provisions out of the free trade agreement being negotiated between India and the EU. But, with Glenmark and Jubilant on the rise, and with even Biocon carrying the R&D water in its [...]

Regenerative Medicine Takes Off: En Route to Reality?

A month or so after Geron Corp. initiated the world’s first embryonic stem cell-based clinical trial, UK-based ReNeuron has announced that it has treated its first stroke patient with expanded populations of neural stem cells at the Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, in Glasgow. The PISCES (Pilot Investigation of Stem Cells in Stroke) [...]

UK Invests £200M In Technology Innovation Centres, Goes with Fraunhofer Model

Prime Minister David Cameron recently made an announcement outlining the UK government’s plan to allocate £200M for the development of a series of technology innovation centres. They will be designed around the Fraunhofer model implemented in Germany with the vision of creating a multitude of specialized incubators each with a unique technological interest. The announcement [...]

Biotech in the Provinces: OBEST Launches Regional Meetings in Ontario; Western Canada Innovation Agreement to Provide Seed Funding

The Ontario Bioscience Economic Strategy Team (OBEST)* is holding regional cluster meetings starting today that will be chaired by bioscience CEOs from across the province. OBEST launched its evergreen strategy to sustain and grow the province’s health-science industry last week with a meeting of the OBEST advisory committee, which is chaired by Dr. Daniel Billen from [...]

New Firm, New Contributors Contribute to New Look

This morning Ogilvy Renault (my law firm) announced a planned merger with UK-based Norton Rose that will give us fantastic international capabilities, including a new global life sciences focus highlighting our Canadian strength. In addition to being a ground-breaking move for a Canadian firm, it is also exciting for the blog, where reporting has always [...]

Approval Pathway for Biosimilars and Interchangeable Biological Products: Issues from the FDA’s Public Hearing

On November 2nd and 3rd the FDA held a public hearing to address the challenges it will face in the implementation of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCI Act). This act established an abbreviated pathway for follow-on biologics (a.k.a. biosimilars) that are either “highly similar” or “interchangeable” with previously approved biologics. [...]

Stem Cell Breakthrough: Direct Conversion of Human Skin to Blood

A breakthrough in Canadian stem cell research this week, published in Nature, as researchers led by Dr. Mick Bhatia of the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University have devised methods to differentiate human skin cells into blood cells. In many differentiation protocols researchers are forced to first reprogram cells to a pluripotent [...]

U.S. Therapeutic Discovery Stimulus Reaches Biotechs in Canada, Israel, Germany

As part of the health reform bill, the U.S. launched a $1 billion Therapeutic Discovery Project tax credit/grant stimulus program. The program announced grant recipients this week, deploying $1 billion just over 7 months after the law was passed, and 5 months after the IRS guidelines were released implementing the project. A full list of [...]

Two MaRS Innovation Transactions Take Off

MaRS Innovation, the “integrated commercialization platform” responsible for commercializing inventions from 16 Toronto academic institutions, announced two deals last week. One spin-out and one out-license (pdf links). The spin-out: MI put $500,000 into Prof. Shana Kelley‘s new company, Xagenic, alongside a $300,000 loan from HTX; $200,000 from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; and $40,000 from [...]

Biotech Trends Update — Biosimilars Blur IP Constituencies: Novartis and Pfizer-Biocon are Featured in the Economist

Two 9-figure announcements this week mark a turning point for the biosimilars market, and one highlights the increasingly important role India plays in innovation. Pfizer linked up with India’s Biocon in a deal that will see Biocon take the lead in development of four biosimilar insulin products that gives Biocon $200 million up front. Coverage of [...]

Biotech Trends Update — Personalized Medicine: Duncan’s Personalized Health Manifesto is Primarily Preventative

Journalist David Ewing Duncan’s “Personalized Health Manifesto” was published this week by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The most interesting thing about the manifesto* is that it assumes that the technical hurdles to generating and understading a full set of personalized health data have been overcome, and focuses on how that information can be deployed [...]

Biotech Trends Update — Biosimilars: FDA Meeting Formally Announced, EMA Working on Rules for (a few) Antibody Biosimilars

Reuters reports that the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has already approved 13 biosimilars, is expecting to publish guidelines in November on biosimilar antibody therapeutics. EMA Executive Director Thomas Lonngren said that clinical trials will be required for antibody biosimilars (as they are for the products EMA has approved to date), but that requirements were [...]

Canadian Venture Capital Data from Q2 2010 Shows Big Jump From Q2 2009 but Only Moderate Increase for Biotech

The Q2 issue of Industry Canada’s Venture Capital Monitor is up, and it shows “the highest level of VC activity since Q3 2008,” though that is still “significantly lower than the quarterly average of $440M recorded over the previous five years before the downturn.” A couple of (particularly) parochial notes: First-time deals at the seed and [...]

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