R&D Trends

Analysis: Disparity between number of children with major diseases and pediatric studies

Monday, July 23, 2012 11:54 AM

New analysis shows there are major discrepancies between the amount of pediatric clinical research for several major global diseases and the number of children who suffer from those diseases. While children bear nearly 60% of the burden of 10 major global diseases, only about 12% of the clinical trials for those diseases include or focus on children, according to Boston Children's Hospital doctors Kenneth Mandl and Florence Bourgeois’s analysis of five years of clinical trial data.

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Venture capital investment in life sciences down 9%

Friday, July 20, 2012 02:45 PM

Despite venture capitalists investing $7 billion in 898 deals in the second quarter of 2012—a 17% climb in terms of dollars and an 11% rise in the number of deals compared to the first quarter of 2012, when $6 billion was invested in 809 deals—the life sciences sector (biotechnology and medical devices) saw a 9% drop in funding dollars and a 6% drop in deals from the prior quarter, to $1.4 billion going into 174 deals in Q2.

According to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters, the total number of early stage deals reached the highest quarterly total since Q1 2001, with $2.1 billion going into 410 deals. That’s an 18% increase in dollars and a 28% increase in deals from the prior quarter. Overall, the software industry took in the highest level of funding of all industries with $2.3 billion invested in Q2, the highest investment total for the sector since the Q2 2001.

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Berkery Noyes releases M&A report for healthcare/pharma IT industry

Friday, July 20, 2012 01:15 PM

Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, has released its first half 2012 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the healthcare/pharma information and technology Industry.

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Advocacy groups launch global action agenda for ending AIDS

Friday, July 20, 2012 01:08 PM

Two of the world's leading AIDS advocacy organizations have released a global action agenda to accelerate progress toward ending AIDS.  The agenda identifies five major short-term priorities for global AIDS programs together with realistic, annual targets that must be achieved through 2015.

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PAREXEL partners with Korea Drug Development Fund

Thursday, July 19, 2012 02:29 PM

Boston-based CRO PAREXEL International announced it is the first CRO chosen by the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) to help Korean companies develop and commercialize healthcare products for the global market.

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Sanofi in research collaboration with BWH for type 1 diabetes

Thursday, July 19, 2012 02:23 PM

Sanofi has announced a new research collaboration with Boston’s Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), a teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, focused on immunology of type 1 diabetes. The two organizations will share knowledge and apply their respective expertise in basic and applied research regarding diabetes and drug target and candidate development.

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Alzheimer's treatment study reports three years with no decline in memory and function

Wednesday, July 18, 2012 01:23 PM

The first report of long-term (three-year) stabilization of Alzheimer's disease symptoms with IVIG, including no decline on measures of cognition, memory, daily functioning and mood, was reported at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2012 (AAIC 2012) in Vancouver.

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Biogen Idec to collaborate to sequence genomes of ALS patients

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 02:54 PM

Biogen Idec has entered into a research collaboration with premier academic and research institutions to sequence the genomes of up to 1,000 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in an effort to gain a deeper understanding about the fundamental genetic causes of ALS.

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Oracle to support Cancer Research U.K.’s development of targeted cancer therapies

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 12:05 PM

To support its vision of beating cancer in the United Kingdom, Cancer Research U.K., , a not-for-profit cancer research organization, will work with Oracle Health Sciences Translational Research Center as the foundation for a new analytical environment to help the charity combine the genetic and clinical data from its Stratified Medicine Program.

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AstraZeneca acquires neuroscience assets from Link Medicine

Friday, July 13, 2012 03:20 PM

AstraZeneca has acquired a portfolio of neuroscience assets from Link Medicine, a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Massachusetts. Link Medicine has focused its R&D efforts in the field of autophagy, an intracellular process that clears and recycles misfolded proteins, and has been developing potential new treatments for a range of neurodegenerative diseases.

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