The most frequently emailed article for the New York Times this past week - an internet version of a Times “best seller” - has been Gina Kolata’s “Looking Past Blood Sugar to Survive With Diabetes.” Given the high prevalence of diabetes that’s no surprise. But the article’s thesis that dogmatic fixation on blood sugar levels may compromise other aspects of diabetes care has no doubt piqued much interest. Here are some additional angles to consider … Also published on the Zangani Investor Community.
The Avandia controversy has been a whirlwind – even a circus at times - but the outcome continues inexorably in favor of drug safety as consistently suggested by this blog. Last week, the FDA issued a “black box” warning for Avandia as well as other thiazolidinedionetype drugs (such as the Takedadrug Actos). Also posted on the Zangani Investor Community.
As some of you may be aware, Amgenannounced last week an unprecedented set of layoffs numbering almost 2,600 employees. What's going on? Amgen may have been a victim of its own success as it has been the darling of biotechnology ever since it introduced recombinant erythropoietin back in 1988.
Originally published in Midwestbusiness.com as “The Deconstruction of Amgen: Company is Victim of Own Success” and also published in the Wisconsin Technology Network as “Lessons from the deconstruction of Amgen.” Also syndicated on the Zangani Investor Community.
Is healthcare too personalized for personalized medicine? Originally published in Midwestbusiness.com and also published in the Wisconsin Technology Network as “Thoughts on health IT, personal medicine & tech convergence” and the Zangani Investor Community. Referenced in ScienceRoll.
The July 28th InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the opportunities and challenges in accelerating technologies from “bench-to-bedside.” Play this podcast (4:41 minutes) which summarizes and discusses further the Life Sciences Accelerator concept.
The July 28th InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the opportunities and challenges in accelerating technologies from “bench-to-bedside.” Play this podcast (16:21 minutes) which focuses drug (and device) safety and proposals for FDA Reform.
Accelerating Bench to Bedside - The Life Sciences Accelerator: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 28th InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the opportunities and challenges in accelerating technologies from “bench-to-bedside.” Play this podcast (8:43 minutes) which focuses additional barriers (other than the innovation gap) to bringing emerging medical technologies to market. Discusses market barriers including the lack of pricing, product and vendor transparency in the healthcare market as well as some opportunities around accelerating FDA approvals.
Accelerating Bench to Bedside - Bridging the Innovation Gap: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 28th InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the opportunities and challenges in accelerating technologies from “bench-to-bedside.” Play this podcast (14 minutes) which focuses on the incubators and the life sciences accelerator concept to accelerate medical technology development. Also discusses the reasons why accelerating medical technology development is so important from both a patient-oriented and business/investor perspective.
Medical Nanotechnology and more on Convergent Medical Technologies: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 28th InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the opportunities and challenges in accelerating technologies from “bench-to-bedside.” Play this podcast (6 minutes) which focuses on the “innovation gap” and management support for life sciences companies.
Accelerating Medical Technology Innovation and the Life Sciences Accelerator: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including medical nanotechnology and its relationship to convergent medical technologies. Play this brief podcast (3 minutes) for more on these important topics.
The July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the challenges around innovation and bringing medical technologies more quickly to market (and to patients) as well as the ideas around a Life Sciences Accelerator and how this project may help to solve this problem. Play this brief podcast (4:20 minutes) for more on these important topics.Gurel Aesis Research Group Life Sciences Accelerator Innovation Accelerating Medical Technology
Partnerships and the Chief Partnership Officer idea: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including personalized medicine. Play this podcast (3:49 minutes) for a brief discussion of personalized medicine (and its relationship to convergent medical technologies).
Drug safety and FDA Reform: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the very current issue of drug (and device) safety and its implications for FDA reform. growing importance of partnerships and ideas around the role of a Chief Partnership Officer. Play this brief podcast (6 minutes) for a discussion of these concepts.
Convergent Medical Technologies: An Audio (.mp3) PodcastThe July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the very current issue of drug (and device) safety and its implications for FDA reform. Play this brief podcast (7:08 minutes) for a discussion of these concepts.
The July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including the growing area of convergent medical technologies (CMT). Play this brief podcast (6:21 minutes) to find out more about CMT – what it is and why it is important.
The July 21st InTimeTV.com web video covered a number of topics including biotechnology. Play this brief podcast (1:42 minutes) for a definition of biotechnology.
You can find the second InTimeTV.com video interview “Conversations in Emerging Medical Technologies” on the web. This program (which is an archived version of last Saturday’s live broadcast) focused this time on the challenges around medical technology innovation and accelerating such technologies faster to market. In light of this, the 2nd half of the interview focused on various drug (and device) safety issues and their implications for FDA reform. Click here for the video or visit the InTimeTV archives.
An FDA panel voted 22 to 1 on Monday (7/30) to keep Avandia on the market; the vote on the heart attack risk was 20 to 3. The position of this blog has not so much been to take sides but rather to highlight the debate as a springboard for discussing the wider issues of drug safety, FDA reform and the “deconstruction” of the pharmaceutical business model. Read on also for some discussion on how DrugWonks.com could improve the value of its contributions to the debate and a little about Falstaff and Prince Hal. Also referenced in TortsProf Blog. In that brief posting, Bill Childs summarizes the point very concisely. Derek Lowe in his blog In The Pipeline also provides a nice reference and summary.
Just over a month ago, I published in Midwestbusiness.com as well as on this blog “The Future is Bright For Life Sciences in State of Illinois.” Thanks to the leadership of so many people, this projection is coming to fruition in many concrete ways. The iBIO organization led by David Miller has been instrumental in this developing renaissance and I came across an open letter of his that highlights the energy and reality of this movement.
According to the New York Times, the FDA issued a formal report today on the Avandia controversy that appears to substantiate the safety concerns raised earlier and reportedly sharply criticizes the manufacturer on a number of points. See the New York Times article “F.D.A. Review Criticizes Diabetes Drug and Maker” and some brief commentary on that article in this posting.
Just posted on the internet is an InTimeTV.com video interview “Conversations in Biotechnology” touching upon a wide range of topics including biotechnology, convergent medical technologies, medical devices, telemedicine, smart devices, drug/device safety, the chief partnership officer idea, FDA reform, personalized medicine, the life sciences accelerator, medical nanotechnology and other topics. Click here for the video or visit the InTimeTV archives. Also found on the Zangani Investor Community.
Yesterday afternoon’s blog post “Private equity boom (and bust?): Implications for the Life Sciences” was also published on Midwestbusiness.com at “Life Sciences Funding: Has the Private Equity Boom Peaked?” As part of the Midwestbusiness.com article, an associated reader poll was posted which is still open for your vote.
A recent Midwestbusiness.com article “FDA: Tortoise, Hare or Something Else Entirely?” included a reader poll asking whether you thought the FDA should be:
a tortoise (slower and more deliberate in its approval),
a hare (faster with its approvals), or
something else entirely, or
fine as it is
Read on to see the results and to post your own comments here …
Published also in Midwestbusiness.com “Life Sciences Funding: Has the Private Equity Boom Peaked?” where you’ll find a reader survey on the issue and the Wisconsin Technology Network “Private equity's ups and downs: What it means for the life sciences.”
Also referenced on the internet blog Names@Work and the Innovators Network. The latter has a nice summary of the points in this posting:
Ogan Gurel has something to say about the IP stew: "This debate distills into making a choice between maintaining a monophonic, medieval system sustaining the single-patent/single-product paradigm as compared to a reformed system that accommodates the unlimited diversity inherent in a polyphonic, Renaissance system." Gurel points out [an] example of such diversity [in] J.B. Bach's two-part inventions [associating] “convergent technology innovation with the novel polyphonic, contrapuntal techniques that drove innovation in music" [that] live on as favorite classical music pieces to this day, centuries later. And no copyright in sight.Patent Reform Act of 2007: Innovation, Implications and the American Inventor handily explicates some of the finer points of the patent debate.
Also found on the Zangani Investor Community.
Also found on the JamesSpotblog and the Zangani Investor Community.
Also published on the Zangani Investor Community, the Wisconsin Technology Network – “Crazy like a Google? With GE-Abbott deal scrapped, could Google be next buyer” and Midwestbusiness.com.
Also published on the iBIO news room.
Also found at: Nanotech feeder, the Redington Life Sciences newsletter and referenced in the MDD&I blogBiomaterialsTalk.
The posting can also be found at Midwestbusiness.com, the Zangani Investor Community and on the GersonLehrman Group (GLG News) site. See also follow up commentary by Erik Swain – Editor-in-Chief of Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry on the Medical Device Link blog.
Also found on the Redington Life Sciences newsletter.
Also posted on iBIO.
You can also find the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com where you’ll also find a reader survey on the issue and can also download the PDF here. Also posted on the Wisconsin Technology Network (in two parts: Part I and Part II), Medical Daily (6/20/07), Medical Daily (6/13/07), mkeconnect.com and Stockhouse - Canada.
This posting - originally published in Midwestbusiness.com outlines a new business model and, in particular, a life sciences accelerator concept that may help to bridge that gap and bring medical technologies more quickly from bench to bedside. The PDF of this posting can also be obtained here. Also posted on: HealthLeaders, HealthLeaders IT and the Biotechnology Wire.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.Also posted on Wisconsin Technology Network – “Who’s Minding the Innovation Gap?,” European Innovation Service (www.innovationservice.eu), the Biotechnology Wire and Consultaglobal by J. de Francisco.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.Also posted on: the Zangani Investor Community, WallSt Radio, and the Wisconsin Technology Network – “Barriers will not stop convergence of medical technologies”.
You can also read the original posting at Midwestbusiness.comhere or download the PDF here. Also posted on DoctorSan.com (
You can also find the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com and can also download the PDF here. Also posted on the Wisconsin Technology Network - “Personalized medicine and technology convergence”, the Zangani Investor Community and Digg.com.
You can also find the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com and can also download the PDF here.Also posted on the Wisconsin Technology Network – “Of private equity, research, and drug development.”
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.Also published on the Wisconsin Technology Network and the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO) – “Patients Put High Value on Choice.” The latter posting also had a very nice summary of the issue:
Does a treatment work safely or doesn't it? While clinical trials usually focus on answering that very question, patients are often most interested in learning about the full range of options available to them, as well as the outcome of any trials they participate in. Reviewing both the medical literature and media response to the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), which was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November 2006, Dr. Ogan Gurel contends that double-blind clinical trials can minimize the idea that medical decisions are often more gray than black-and-white, and that patients put a high value on their ability to make choices about the direction of their treatment. Between 45 and 60 percent of the participants in the trial, which sought to measure the effectiveness of surgery versus non-surgical treatments in relieving back pain due to lumbar disk herniation, decided to change their course of treatment from surgery to waiting, or vice versa. "The starkly dichotomous nature of the treatments (e.g. surgery versus waiting) and the high number of crossovers clearly send a message that patient choice is absolutely critical and integral to the therapeutic process," Gurel says.
You can also find the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com where you’ll also find a reader survey on the issue; a PDF of the article can be downloaded here.Also posted on the Wisconsin Technology Network – “Healthcare of business: Universal coverage plan includes new business taxes” and the Healthcare IT Transition Group.
You can also read the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com here or download the PDF here. Also posted on or referenced on DeviceLink, the Wisconsin Technology Network – “And the winners in medical design are …”, ThomasNet Industrial News Room, the Medical Daily and quoted in the Coloradoan.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.Also posted on the Wisconsin Technology Network – “A prognosis for GE and Abbott Diagnostics,” LabSoftNews, and medicexchange.com,
You can also find the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com and may also download the PDF here.Also posted on the Wisconsin Technology Network and Mesothelioma Aid.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF may also be obtained here.Also appeared on RenalWeb.
This article - originally published in Midwestbusiness.com - explores that connection. The PDF can also be obtained here.Also found on the Biotechnology Wire.
This article was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF may also be obtained here.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.
This posting was originally published in Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.
You can also read the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com here or download the PDF here. Also found on the Therapeutic NeuromodulationWeblog, Wetware hacking, and the Bioelectromagnetics Newsletter (a publication of the Bioelectromagnetics Society).
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.
This posting (originally published at Midwestbusiness.com) explores these trends and the reasons behind such turmoil with further market shifts also being anticipated. A PDF can also be obtained here.
You can also read the original posting at Midwestbusiness.com here or download the PDF here.
You can also read the original posting (along with an accompanying reader survey) at Midwestbusiness.com here or download the PDF here.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.
The article was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com here or you can download the PDF here.
This posting (originally published at Midwestbusiness.com) explores that trend and the reasons behind it. A PDF can also be obtained here.
The article was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com here or you can download the PDF here.
This posting was originally published as a letter to the editor at the Wall Street Journal.
This posting was originally published at Midwestbusiness.com and a PDF can also be obtained here.