The Bio Report

Rethinking the Value and Price of Drugs

The controversy over the high price of new drugs and the question of the value they provide will come under increased scrutiny thanks to a grant to a Boston-based nonprofit that works to get at these questions. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation this week announced it is providing $5.2 million to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review aimed at transforming the way new drugs are evaluated and priced. We spoke to Sarah Emond, COO of the institute, about the work it does, what this new grant will do to expand that work, and how to get a the question of the value of new drugs.

Harnessing Stem Cells to Test Drug Safety

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the Gladstone Institutes have grown beating cardiac tissue from stem cells in work that may lead to new ways to quickly screen for drugs likely to cause birth defects in the heart and identify drugs that may be dangerous during pregnancy. We spoke to Bruce Conklin, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, about the work, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, the promise it has for providing more accurate insights than animal models, and whether the approach could be expanded to other cell types to screen for drug toxicity to other organs.

CrowdMed Enlists the Wisdom of Crowds to Solve Medical Mysteries

For many patients with rare and difficult to diagnose conditions, it can take many years and many doctors to find a correct answer. CrowdMed is trying to offering an alternative to patients by allowing them to tap the wisdom of crowds and letting medical detectives who sign on to the site try to find the right answer. We spoke to Jared Heyman, founder and CEO of CrowdMed, about the problem with the traditional way doctors diagnose patients, the wisdom of crowds, and the case for making medicine a team sport.

Biotech’s Record Performance and Looming Threats

Last year, the biotechnology industry set records across the board for financial metrics, a reflection of product success, new drug approvals, and free-flowing investment capital. Despite the record performance, concerns continue about growing pricing pressure and maturing pipelines that represent challenges with which the industry must contend. We spoke to Glen Giovannetti, EY’s Global Life Sciences Leader about his firms recently released Beyond Borders report, what the numbers tell us, and what the industry will need to do to keep the good times rolling.

What a Decade of Investment Tells Us about the Health of Biotech

A detailed view of funding of emerging therapeutic companies over the past ten years shows despite a rebound in venture financing, companies continue to struggle to find early-stage money. Nevertheless, the report shows the overall health of investment in the sector is thriving. We spoke to Dave Thomas, senior director of industry research and analysis for the Biotechnology Industry Organization and co-author of the report, about BIO’s findings, what therapeutic areas attracted the most financing, and what impact the capital markets have had on partnering and licensing activity.

What Activist Investors Can Teach Biotech Companies

To improve the long-term value of biopharmaceutical companies, management should learn to think more like activist investors, according to a new report from EY. The report argues that capital allocation and strategic decision-making could benefit from company leaders setting aside their assumptions and challenging themselves by thinking more like outsiders. We spoke to Jeff Greene, Global Life Sciences Transaction Advisory Services Leader for EY, about the report, what industry executives could learn from activists, and whether shareholder activists indeed have a track record worth emulating.

ALS Fight Carries Muller from Patient to Biotech CEO

Bernard Muller was a successful businessman in the maritime and oil industry, but when he was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease ALS in 2010, he turned his entrepreneurial skills toward developing new therapies to treat the disease. Muller co-founded the world’s largest genetic research project for ALS, project MinE, and launched Treeway, a biotech company developing new therapies for ALS. As the Biotechnology Industry Organization kicks off its BIO 2015 International Convention in Philadelphia June 15, Muller is a finalist as one of the organization’s Everyday Superheroes in the pharma/biotech category. We spoke to Muller about his decision to launch Treeway, the active role he sees for patients, and why he thinks traditional approaches to drug development and clinical trial design have not served ALS patients well.

Examining the State of Sleep

Sleep researchers and clinicians will be gathering in Seattle June 6 - 10 for SLEEP 2015, a joint meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. It is the largest gathering of sleep medicine physicians, sleep and circadian researchers, and health professionals in the sleep field. We spoke to Chris Winter, a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a board-certified sleep specialist with a background in neurology, about our understanding of sleep today, how genetics and digital health technologies may be altering our understanding of sleep, and what we should do to get a decent night’s rest.