The Bio Report

Immunotherapies ETF Lets Biotech Investors Bet on Emerging Sector

A new class of immunotherapies is promising to radically alter the treatment of cancers and has generated excitement among investors for their groundbreaking potential. Now the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF provides a way for investors to bet on the sector through an exchange traded fund that consists of both Big Pharma and emerging growth biotechs leading the sector. We spoke to Brad Loncar, CEO of Loncar Investments and creator of the ETF, about the fund, why the focus on this narrow slice of the biotech world, and why he thinks immunotherapies will dramatically reshape cancer care in the years ahead.

Biotech Investors Turn Their Eyes to Policy Matters

Wall Street doesn’t like uncertainty and there are a number of policy issues now brewing that threaten to create some uncertainty for the biotechnology industry. As the BIO Investor Forum kicks off in San Francisco October 20 and 21, bringing together investors and CEOs for two days of panels and presentations, the conference will turn its attention to policy issues and the effects they have on valuations within this industry. We spoke to Sara Radcliffe, president and CEO of the California Life Sciences Association and a policy panelist and the BIO Investor Forum, about policy issues the industry faces, the growing controversy over pricing, and what policy matters investors should be watching.

Why the MedTech Industry Should Worry About Future Innovation

The medtech industry has enjoyed robust M&A activity, strong financings, and a rise in R&D investments, but other numbers point to troubling developments that threaten the future health and growth of the industry, according to a new report from EY. We spoke to Ellen Licking, EY Life Sciences lead analyst, about the report, concerns about the venture capital industry’s move away from the sector, and questions about who will fund early-stage innovation that will be necessary for the future growth of the industry.

Rare Disease Drug Developer Shows Speed of Business Model

Vtesse, a rare disease drug development company, this week announced that it was initiating a late-stage pivotal trial for its lead experimental therapeutic to treat Niemann-Pick Type C1 disease. The start of the trial for the nine month old company represents a major milestone and suggest its history with the National Institutes of Health and the rare disease drug accelerator Cydan Development may point to new ways of cutting the time and cost of advancing a drug to market. We spoke to Ben Machielse, CEO of Vtesse, about the rapid pace at which the company has been able to move, the role NIH has played, and whether this points to new ways to accelerate the drug development process.

Ensuring Value-Based Care Addresses What Matters to Patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been working to move Medicare from fee-for-service to value-based payments. It’s seeking to get 90 percent of payments to being value-based by 2018. The problem, according to a recent Viewpoint in JAMA, is that when addressing life-ending chronic conditions faced by older patients, traditional professional standards that drive today’s metrics don’t effectively address patient desires. We spoke to Joanne Lynn, director of the Altarum Institute’s Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness and lead author of the JAMA Viewpoint, about what value-based care means for patients near the end of their lives, the need to recognize the great variance in patient desires, and how healthcare systems will need to change to account for this.

California, Aid-in-Dying, and What We’ve Learned from Oregon

The California legislature earlier this month passed a bill that would allow physicians to aid terminally ill patients who wanted to end their lives. California would become the fifth state to enact such legislation. We spoke to David Grube, national medical director of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit working to expand end of life options, about the legislation, how attitudes among the public and physicians have changed, and what we’ve learned since Oregon passed the first such law 17 years ago.

FDA Guidance on Names for Biologics and Biosimilars and its Implications

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently released long-awaited draft guidance regarding the naming of biologics, biosimilars, and interchangeable biologics. At the same time the agency released a proposed rule to apply the naming scheme to six current biological products with, or expected to soon have, biosimilar competitors. We spoke to Gillian Woollett, senior vice president with the healthcare business strategy and public policy advisory firm Avalere Health, about the FDA’s actions, their implications, and some potential unintended consequences.

Understanding the Cost and Value of Cancer Therapies

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network in October will release a new tool designed to help doctors understand the value of different cancer therapies by taking into account the costs of treatments. The effort from the influential group follows similar initiatives by Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. We spoke to Bob Carlson, CEO of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, about the rising costs of cancer care, the new tool, and what impact it will likely have on drug pricing in the future.