The SmartCells Story
Bruce Booth from Atlas Ventures has a fascinating story on his blog. We won't steal Bruce's thunder. Instead, we encourage you to read it there first. The gist of the story is…
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Drug Resistance = Opportunity
Bloomberg has a good round up of several emerging pharmaceutical companies developing antibiotics. As the article notes, Big Pharma has largely moved away from antibiotic development for a number of…
Innovation for Chronic Conditions
There is an excellent editorial in the May issue of Nature Biotechnology entitled Inadequately met needs. In it, the author points out that the US is moving away from innovative,…
Update: Pain continues to be painful
This week we learn that two novel pain medications will never see the light of day: Novartis had reached the market with the COX-II inhibitor Prexige (rebranded as the unusually…
VCs Abandoning Biotech for the Web?
Fred Frank, a highly respected investment banker, greeted us on Tuesday morning with this missive: Venture capitalists, who make high-risk investments in start-ups, are tired of waiting years for biotech companies…
EU Not Jazzed about Fibromyalgia Either
It was recently announced that the EMA has rejected Xyrem for the treatment of fibromyalgia. Interestingly, Xyrem is already approved in Europe for the treatment of narcolepsy with cataplexy. We…
Cost of drug development may not be $1 billion after all
Drug development costs of $1 billion are often quoted. A new study estimates costs to be much lower, based on a different statistical approach.
The Sandwich Shoppe is Closed
There has been a lot of commentary this week on Pfizer's announcement that their highly respected research center in Sandwich, UK, will be closed. The original press release suggested that…
Impressions from JP Morgan – Day One
In our meetings and informal discussions, there were three items we heard again and again: 1. Last year was a terrible fund raising year from a VC-backed company perspective. 2.…
Drug Development and Delivery: What’s in a name?
Our good friends at Drug Delivery Technology have, as of January, changed the name of their publication to Drug Development and Delivery. Why is this significant? We think that drug…