Anti-Obesity Pill Wins Approval
Source: Associated Press  (7/17/12)
"Vivus Inc.'s Qsymia is the second weight-loss drug approved by the FDA in less than a month, following Arena Pharmaceutical's pill Belviq in late June." More >

Rare Diseases Research Gets Legislative Pick-Me-Up
Source: Peter Winter, BioWorld Insight  (7/16/12)
"The pharmaceutical industry has started to shift the strategic focus of its research to embrace rare diseases, catalyzed in part by the slowing down in growth due to patent expirations, generic competition, thinning product pipelines and increasingly stringent regulatory guidelines." More >

Glaxo to Buy Human Genome Sciences for $3B
Source: The New York Times, Michael de la Merced  (7/15/12)
"GlaxoSmithKline is paying $14.25 a share in cash, nearly double where Human Genome Science's shares were trading before news of the Glaxo's initial offer was disclosed." More >

Sugar-Fueled Brain Chips Are Major Medical Breakthrough
Source: Michael Robinson, Money Morning  (7/14/12)
"These or similar devices could play a vital role in the biotech revolution. They could help brain-damaged patients and stroke victims walk again or operate computers with their minds." More >

Profit from Canadian-Based Biotechs and Specialty Pharmas: Philippa Flint
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (7/12/12)
Covering a wide variety of small biotech and pharma companies domiciled in Canada, Bloom Burton & Co. Research Analyst Philippa Flint discusses important biotech and specialty pharma names that she knows quite well and expects to be very profitable for investors. In this exclusive interview with The Life Sciences Report, Flint explains in depth why her favorite companies should be in your portfolio. More >

IMS Study Forecasts Rebound in Global Spending on Medicines
Source: PharmPro   (7/12/12)
"Following several years of slowing growth, the global market for medicines is poised to rebound from an expected low point of 3–4% growth in 2012 to 5–7% in 2016." More >

US Patients Get Cancer Drugs Faster and Pay More
Source: Ed Silverman, Pharmalot  (7/10/12)
"Between 2000 and 2011, new oncology drug approvals in the U.S. outpaced European approvals by 33%. At the same time, prices for cancer medications in Europe, on average, were 9% lower than in the U.S., according to a new report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development." More >

What Patent Cliff? Pharma ETFs Continue to Surge
Source: Eric Dutram, Zacks Investment Research  (7/10/12)
"Many analysts discounted pharma's ability to plan for the 'patent cliff.' The industry has been hard at work building up cash reserves in order to boost nearly empty pipelines." More >

A Possible Bidding War for Human Genome Sciences?
Source: Seeking Alpha  (7/9/12)
"Human Genome has set a July 16 deadline for takeover offers from suitors other than GlaxoSmithKline. Investors would likely react with horror and anger if Celgene were to make a run at Human Genome." More >

The Race between Science and Politics
Source: Ray Blanco, The Daily Reckoning  (7/6/12)
"On the one hand, we have scientific advance, unraveling the mysteries of life and developing revolutionary new therapies. On the other, we have politicians trying to lock everything down into a stasis, whether they know it or not." More >

Biopharmaceutical Intellectual Property Is Safe Behind the BRIC Wall
Source: Michael Harris, BioWorld  (7/6/12)
"A significant amount of growth is expected from an influx of biopharma companies looking to establish a presence in BRIC countries, where they not only will be seeking to capitalize on the R&D and manufacturing infrastructures but also filing patent applications to sell drugs to local populations." More >

Follow Venture Capital to Big Gains in Biotech: Peter Johann
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (7/5/12)
Peter Johann is a managing general partner at NGN Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in private and public biotech and medical device companies. In this exclusive interview with The Life Sciences Report, Johann discusses pharmaceutical and medical device companies in his portfolio, pointing out opportunities for venture capitalists that are also potential boons for private investors. More >

Supreme Court Sets Stage for Changes to Drug Development and Investment Priorities
Source: Alex Philippidis, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (7/5/12)
"Innovative drugs that offer clear superiority over existing products are likely among the beneficiaries of the healthcare overhaul." More >

Healthcare Ruling: Key Takeaways for Investors and Taxpayers
Source: Diane Alter, Money Morning  (7/4/12)
"In the wake of the Obamacare ruling, select healthcare stocks are poised to benefit while the outlook for others is somewhat sickly." More >

Other Clouds Forming Behind Supreme Court Ruling
Source: BioWorld, Mari Serebrov  (7/3/12)
"Under the health care law, makers of brand drugs could lose $155B over the next decade due to higher discounts, increased Medicaid rebates, taxes and competition from biosimilars." More >

After Roche Merger, Biotech Tail Wags Big Pharma Dog
Source: Reuters, Caroline Copley  (7/3/12)
"Genentech's jeans-wearing scientists in San Francisco have proven they are the ones driving the drug pipeline of the 116-year-old Basel-based pharma giant." More >

Biotech Threats Disappear as Supreme Court Upholds Health Law
Source: Fierce Biotech, John Carroll, Tracy Staton and Mark Hollmer  (7/2/12)
"The healthcare bill included important provisions that the biotech industry had fought long and hard for. In particular, the cloud that hung over a provision allowing 12 years of marketing exclusivity for biologics, as well as the regulatory pathway for biosimilars, has now disappeared." More >

Hidden Small-Cap Medical Device Companies with Big Growth Potential
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (7/2/12)
I've been involved in healthcare as a clinician, writer or analyst for four decades, and every now and then a public company will come to light that went previously unnoticed or unknown by me. That was the case when I interviewed analyst Caroline Corner for The Life Sciences Report. Corner provided some small-cap medtech names of great interest that could ultimately be uncovered by small cap mutual and hedge funds. When they buy, share prices are lifted up. More >

Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Overhaul
Source: Russ Britt and Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch  (6/28/12)
"The ruling sent hospital stocks soaring by near-double-digit figures, with industry leader HCA Holdings Inc. jumping by 10%, along with Health Management Associates Inc. Medicaid insurers also jumped on the news, with WellCare Health Plans Inc. up more than 9%." More >

Abbreviated Approval Process for Biosimilars Survives in Supreme Court
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (6/28/12)
"A divided U.S. Supreme Court let stand the streamlined process for finally bringing biosimilar drugs to market. The act mandated the creation of an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products shown to be biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed biological reference product." More >

GAIN Act Should Benefit Antibiotic Makers
Source: Seeking Alpha, Jason Napodano  (6/27/12)
"The bill was designed to accelerate reviews of novel drugs for infectious diseases, to mandate electronic NDA submissions and to improve communications between manufacturers and the FDA to prevent drug shortages." More >

Better Lucky than Good
Source: Severine Kirchner, Daily Reckoning  (6/26/12)
"Now think about it: If siRNA can essentially turn off genes by destroying them through a sort of sequence-detection, then what stops them from curing diseases? By knocking down the activity of one or several genes, RNAi could potentially block a plethora of diseases." More >

Drug Pipelines Improving
Source: Reuters, Ben Hirschler  (6/26/12)
"Drug industry productivity is finally improving after years of research disappointment, as drug makers shift their focus from mass markets to making medicines for rarer, undertreated diseases." More >

Speedier Drug Reviews Await Presidential OK
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (6/25/12)
"If the president signs the bill into law, FDA will be committed to reviewing and acting on 90% of standard applications within 10–12 months from the date of filing and on 90% of priority submissions within six to eight months from date of filing." More >

BIO 2012: Immunotherapies Make a Comeback at Big Pharma
Source: Fierce Biotech, John Carroll  (6/25/12)
"Immunotherapies—for autoimmune diseases as well as oncology—are now one of the two top fields of interest for Joe McCracken, the global head of business development at Roche, who also sees a bright future in matching immunotherapies to particular patient populations." More >