49 posts · 39,389 views
Commentary and insights on science, innovation and new product development
Pieter Droppert
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- December 15, 2011
- 09:24 AM
- 2,750 views
AML update from 2011 ASH Annual Meeting
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
A good definition of AML comes from a recent paper in the journal, “Blood” where Yang Shen and colleagues from the Shanghai Institute of Hematology and other Chinese institutions describe it as:
“A group of heterogeneous diseases with considerable diversity in terms of clinical behavior and prognosis.”
A lot of work has been done in identifying the cytogenetic abnormalities associated with AML. Considerable effort has been spent in attempting to correlate the molecu........ Read more »
Shen, Y., Zhu, Y., Fan, X., Shi, J., Wang, Q., Yan, X., Gu, Z., Wang, Y., Chen, B., Jiang, C.... (2011) Gene mutation patterns and their prognostic impact in a cohort of 1185 patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Blood, 118(20), 5593-5603. DOI: 10.1182/blood-2011-03-343988
- August 3, 2011
- 09:58 AM
- 1,413 views
Innovation – should companies take bigger risks and outsource pharma R&D?
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
According to a forthcoming article published in Forbes, excerpts of which appear on Matthew Herper’s blog “The Medicine Show,” big pharma should take bigger risks and outsource R&D to smaller, innovative companies. At least that’s the philosophy of Bernard Munos, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Munos, B., & Chin, W. (2011) How to Revive Breakthrough Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Science Translational Medicine, 3(89), 89-89. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002273
- April 13, 2011
- 09:58 AM
- 1,365 views
Biodegradable nanoparticles may be a new treatment to combat MRSA infections
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Nanotechnology is leading to innovation in drug delivery, and new ways to treat diseases. In an April 3, 2011 online article in Nature Chemistry, researchers from the IBM Almaden Research Center, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore and Zhejiang University … Continue reading →... Read more »
Nederberg, F., Zhang, Y., Tan, J., Xu, K., Wang, H., Yang, C., Gao, S., Guo, X., Fukushima, K., Li, L.... (2011) Biodegradable nanostructures with selective lysis of microbial membranes. Nature Chemistry. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1012
- March 10, 2011
- 12:24 PM
- 1,358 views
Targeting Sclerostin in Osteoporosis
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Continuing on my previous post about emerging drugs for osteoporosis, one of the new classes in development are those that target sclerostin. Sclerostin is a protein produced by osteocytes within bone that inhibits bone formation. It is thought to pass … Continue reading →... Read more »
Padhi, D., Jang, G., Stouch, B., Fang, L., & Posvar, E. (2011) Single-dose, placebo-controlled, randomized study of AMG 785, a sclerostin monoclonal antibody. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 26(1), 19-26. DOI: 10.1002/jbmr.173
- April 29, 2011
- 10:52 AM
- 1,284 views
Will the future offer artificial retina transplants?
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
There is a lot of buzz this week about Lucentis versus Avastin for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, something that will be talked about in more detail at ARVO (association for research in vision and ophthalmology) annual meeting this weekend in Fort Lauderdale.
Also on the radar at ARVO is more news from Second Sight and their Argus II Retinal Prosthesis... Read more »
Eiraku, M., Takata, N., Ishibashi, H., Kawada, M., Sakakura, E., Okuda, S., Sekiguchi, K., Adachi, T., & Sasai, Y. (2011) Self-organizing optic-cup morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture. Nature, 472(7341), 51-56. DOI: 10.1038/nature09941
- March 25, 2011
- 09:19 AM
- 1,278 views
Of Mice and Men
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
One of the themes of this blog is innovation in biopharmaceutical new product development. Innovation can take many forms ranging from nanotechnology based drug delivery to a novel scientific mechanism of action. The March 17, 2011 edition of Nature, highlights … Continue reading →... Read more »
Tuveson, D., & Hanahan, D. (2011) Translational medicine: Cancer lessons from mice to humans. Nature, 471(7338), 316-317. DOI: 10.1038/471316a
- March 9, 2011
- 07:15 AM
- 1,271 views
Regenerative medicine – will we be able to rebuild our bodies as we get older?
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
The Lancet yesterday published news of the world’s first tissue engineered implant of a urethra (the tube that carries urine out of the body from the bladder). This research by Atlantida Raya-Rivera and colleagues at the Wake Forest Institute for … Continue reading →... Read more »
Raya-Rivera, A., Esquiliano, D., Yoo, J., Lopez-Bayghen, E., Soker, S., & Atala, A. (2011) Tissue-engineered autologous urethras for patients who need reconstruction: an observational study. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62354-9
- April 26, 2011
- 11:00 AM
- 1,250 views
How nanotechnology may revolutionize the detection of traumatic brain injury using a sensor that changes color
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
The highlight of the recent Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) annual meeting in Philadelphia (Health Journalism 2011) for me was the presentation by Kacy Cullen from the Center for Brain Injury and Repair in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr Cullen presented his research on blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) and the development of a nanomaterial containing photonic crystals that change color upon exposure to blast pressure.
... Read more »
Cullen, D., Xu, Y., Reneer, D., Browne, K., Geddes, J., Yang, S., & Smith, D. (2011) Color changing photonic crystals detect blast exposure. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.10.076
- March 18, 2011
- 03:05 AM
- 1,219 views
“Diamonds are Forever” – using nanodiamonds for drug delivery may improve the efficacy of cancer chemotherapy
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Nanotechnology is set to have a major impact on drug development and new products for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Research from UCSF and Northwestern University published earlier this year in “Science Translational Medicine” shows this potential. Edward Chow … Continue reading →... Read more »
Chow, E., Zhang, X., Chen, M., Lam, R., Robinson, E., Huang, H., Schaffer, D., Osawa, E., Goga, A., & Ho, D. (2011) Nanodiamond Therapeutic Delivery Agents Mediate Enhanced Chemoresistant Tumor Treatment. Science Translational Medicine, 3(73), 73-73. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3001713
- April 28, 2011
- 12:08 PM
- 1,200 views
Results from NEJM Lucentis v Avastin AMD CATT clinical trial
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Breaking news: The New England Journal of Medicine have just published online the results of the Comparison of Age-related macular degeneration treatment trial (CATT) comparing the efficacy of FDA approved ranibizumab (Lucentis) to off-label bevacizumab (Avastin); a trial that has important commercial importance given the comparative costs of an intravitreal injection of around $1950 (Lucentis) vs. $50 (Avastin).
Key Study Results: Based on 1208 patients randomly assigned in the single-blind ........ Read more »
The CATT Research Group. (2011) Ranibizumab and Bevacizumab for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration. New England Journal of Medicine, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1102673
- June 22, 2011
- 05:19 AM
- 1,162 views
BIO 2011: Challenge of innovation in the biotechnology industry
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
One of the sessions at BIO 2011 I hope to make if my travel plans permit, is the Monday afternoon session on “What is the Future for Innovative Medicines in Our Industry’s Pipeline?”
The June issue of Nature Reviews “Drug Discovery” attempts to answer this question by looking back at what happened to the R&D projects involving 28,000 compounds investigated since 1990.
... Read more »
Pammolli, F., Magazzini, L., & Riccaboni, M. (2011) The productivity crisis in pharmaceutical R. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 10(6), 428-438. DOI: 10.1038/nrd3405
- July 8, 2011
- 09:30 AM
- 1,132 views
How does sunburn cause pain?
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Everybody who has sat too long in the sun knows how painful sunburn can be, and how ineffective current treatments such as topical creams can be. Research by John Dawes and colleagues at King’s College London & University College London has … Continue reading →... Read more »
Dawes, J., Calvo, M., Perkins, J., Paterson, K., Kiesewetter, H., Hobbs, C., Kaan, T., Orengo, C., Bennett, D., & McMahon, S. (2011) CXCL5 Mediates UVB Irradiation-Induced Pain. Science Translational Medicine, 3(90), 90-90. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002193
- April 1, 2011
- 02:43 PM
- 1,102 views
Should we screen all men for Prostate Cancer?
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
One of the ongoing debates in prostate cancer and urology is the value of routine screening of all men in a certain age group. There was a difference of opinion amongst the experts at the recent European Association of Urology … Continue reading →... Read more »
Sandblom, G., Varenhorst, E., Rosell, J., Lofman, O., & Carlsson, P. (2011) Randomised prostate cancer screening trial: 20 year follow-up. BMJ, 342(mar31 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d1539
- March 15, 2011
- 11:26 AM
- 1,101 views
Patients with Spinal Cord Injury may benefit from treatment with Taxanes
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Taxanes are a class of drug that are used in breast, lung and ovarian cancer chemotherapy to disrupt the function of microtubules that are essential to cell division. They include paclitaxel (Taxol®) and docetaxel (Taxotere®). Paclitaxel is also used to … Continue reading →... Read more »
Hellal, F., Hurtado, A., Ruschel, J., Flynn, K., Laskowski, C., Umlauf, M., Kapitein, L., Strikis, D., Lemmon, V., Bixby, J.... (2011) Microtubule Stabilization Reduces Scarring and Causes Axon Regeneration After Spinal Cord Injury. Science, 331(6019), 928-931. DOI: 10.1126/science.1201148
- May 12, 2011
- 02:50 PM
- 1,101 views
American Urological Association Annual Meeting 2011 Satellite Symposia
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
I am off to Washington DC tomorrow for the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA).
If you are not able to attend, then you can follow the Twitter coverage on Pharma Strategy Blog where Sally Church (@MaverickNY) will be aggregating the tweets. The conference hashtag is #AUA2011. I also expect to be live-tweeting from the conference.
Like many medical conferences in the United States, the meeting kicks off with independent continuous medical education (CME) satellite........ Read more »
Sartor, O. (2011) Denosumab in bone-metastatic prostate cancer: known effects on skeletal-related events but unknown effects on quality of life. Asian Journal of Andrology. DOI: 10.1038/aja.2011.33
- May 12, 2011
- 04:24 PM
- 1,067 views
How people are using social media to find health information
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
The findings of a telephone survey of 3001 adults show that social media and the internet are increasingly important for finding health information. This has important implications for the marketing professionals in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries who struggle to come to grips with social media in the absence of any FDA guidance.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project published today their survey on “The Social Life of Health Information, 2011.” It makes for in........ Read more »
Wicks, P., Vaughan, T., Massagli, M., & Heywood, J. (2011) Accelerated clinical discovery using self-reported patient data collected online and a patient-matching algorithm. Nature Biotechnology, 29(5), 411-414. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1837
- April 15, 2011
- 11:43 AM
- 1,021 views
Development of first selective inhibitor of LRRK2 mutation found in Parkinson’s disease is progress on road towards new therapy
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
This month is Parkinson’s awareness month. Following on from my recent interview (that you can read here & here) with Dr Todd Sherer of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, I was interested to read about progress being … Continue reading →... Read more »
Deng, X., Dzamko, N., Prescott, A., Davies, P., Liu, Q., Yang, Q., Lee, J., Patricelli, M., Nomanbhoy, T., Alessi, D.... (2011) Characterization of a selective inhibitor of the Parkinson's disease kinase LRRK2. Nature Chemical Biology, 7(4), 203-205. DOI: 10.1038/nCHeMBIO.538
- July 7, 2011
- 03:32 PM
- 991 views
Science Translational Medicine on Innovation – part 1
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
With an image of Rodin’s bronze “The Thinker” on its cover suggesting deep thought and insight, Science Translational Medicine (STM) analyzes the state of innovation in its June 29 issue. STM states (without any authority) that “A powerful perception that … Continue reading →... Read more »
Edelman, E., & Leon, M. (2011) The Fiber of Modern Society. Science Translational Medicine, 3(89), 89-89. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002190
- April 19, 2011
- 09:45 AM
- 982 views
MRI may detect Alzheimer’s disease 10 years before symptoms show
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
Changes in brain structure, function and molecular processes occur several years before clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) become apparent. The big question then, is can you detect patients who are cognitively normal, but will go on to develop AD … Continue reading →... Read more »
Dickerson, B., Stoub, T., Shah, R., Sperling, R., Killiany, R., Albert, M., Hyman, B., Blacker, D., & deToledo-Morrell, L. (2011) Alzheimer-signature MRI biomarker predicts AD dementia in cognitively normal adults. Neurology, 76(16), 1395-1402. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182166e96
- August 26, 2011
- 11:14 AM
- 955 views
Can we halt memory loss as we get older?
by Pieter Droppert in Biotech Strategy Blog
It’s a fact of human life that we lose physical and mental function as we get older. In the information age that we currently live in, this translates into a decline in our ability to function and perform the activities … Continue reading →
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Wang, M., Gamo, N., Yang, Y., Jin, L., Wang, X., Laubach, M., Mazer, J., Lee, D., & Arnsten, A. (2011) Neuronal basis of age-related working memory decline. Nature, 476(7359), 210-213. DOI: 10.1038/nature10243
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