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Science Business: The Promise, The Reality, and The Future of Biotech

In our feature segment, IdeaCast producer Steve Singer talks with Harvard Business School professor and author Gary Pisano about his new HBS Press book, Science Business: The Promise, The Reality, and The Future of Biotech.

Despite all its promise, Pisano contends that biotech suffers from some underlying problems, which are related to the business of science and the unique challenges these businesses face. Pisano offers insights into how to overcome these hurdles.

[mp3] Listen or Download / HBR IdeaCast

Vanda Pharmaceuticals' Insomnia Drug VEC-162 Registers Positive Results

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc (VNDA) announced early Wednesday that its insomnia drug, VEC-162, showed positive results in a phase III clinical trial. The drug met many endpoints, and had a statistically significant difference in inducing and maintaining sleep compared to placebo.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Vanda Pharmaceuticals - Drug VEC-162 - Insomnia Drug
» Wires

Study: Childhood soy intake was significantly associated with reduced breast cancer risk

They found that women who ate the most soy-based foods (such as tofu, miso, natto) during ages 5-11 reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by 58 percent, compared to women who ate the least amount. The corresponding reductions for adolescent and adult intake were about 25 percent.

The underlying mechanism is not known. However, Korde said that one hypothesis for the decreased risk associated with childhood intake is that soy isoflavones have estrogenic effects that cause changes in breast tissue, leading to decreased sensitivity to carcinogens. A similar protective effect has been found in studies of overweight girls, perhaps because fat tissue also secretes estrogens, she added.

» Search Childhood-Specific Tags: Breast Cancer Risk - soy isoflavones - soy intake
» American Association for Cancer Research

Intensive Lipitor Therapy Reduced Heart Attack and Stroke By One-Third In Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease

Results of a new analysis showed that patients who have heart disease and chronic kidney disease who took Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) Tablets (80 mg) reduced their risk of heart attack and stroke by 32 percent compared with patients taking the 10 mg dose of Lipitor. This analysis of a subset of patients from the five-year TNT (Treating to New Targets) study was designed and completed after the end of the trial. The data were presented here today at the Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Lipitor - Heart Disease - Chronic Kidney Disease
» Pfizer

GlaxoSmithKline wins priority review for Tykerb breast cancer drug

GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (GSK.L) new breast cancer pill Tykerb will receive a priority review from U.S. regulators in a move that should speed its path onto the world's biggest drugs market, it said on Thursday.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Tykerb - Breast Cancer Drug - GlaxoSmithKline
» Wires

Democrats will move to lift the prohibition against the government negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices.

Some Democrats want to use the savings to expand benefits, but just how much could be saved is in dispute. The Department of Veterans Affairs already negotiates directly with drug companies. A study by Families USA, a liberal advocacy group, contends that the VA's prices on major drugs are 48 percent lower than Medicare's.

The administration says the comparison is misleading. The VA program serves a smaller population (4.4 million vs. 23 million for Medicare), and drug companies wouldn't provide such steep discounts for a bigger program.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Medicare - Drug Prices - Medicare Drug Plans
» washingtonpost.com

Science Business: What Happened to Biotech?

Thirty years ago it appeared as if biotech would not only revolutionize healthcare, but also radically improve the very process of R&D itself. This hasn't happened. Though some firms such as Amgen have created dramatic breakthroughs, the overall industry track record is poor—in aggregate, the sector has lost money during this period, new research shows.

What went wrong? Professor Gary Pisano provides answers in the new book Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech, in which he argues that the very structure of the industry, what he terms its "anatomy," has created poor conditions for a science-based business to flower. "The sector has indiscriminately borrowed business models, organizational strategies, and approaches from other high-technology industries under the (false) premise that if it worked there it will work here," Pisano writes.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Biotech - Science Business - Amgen

» The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech
» HBS Working Knowledge

Independent researcher faces off with major drug companies over timeliness of failed experimental heart drug findings.

Unexpected controversy at the American Heart Association conference over test results of a failed experimental drug pits an independent researcher against a massive drug company and its biotech partner.

The experimental heart disease drug, a joint venture between Procter & Gamble and Alexion Pharmaceuticals failed to improve the survivability of heart attack patients, announced the lead researcher of the company funded study, Dr. Paul Armstrong, a cardiologist at University Hospital of Alberta in Edmonton Canada, on Tuesday.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Alexion Pharmaceuticals - Pexelizumab - Soliris
» CNNMoney

Merck Launches Ad Campaign for GARDASIL, Cervical Cancer Vaccine

First and only vaccine indicated for the prevention of HPV types 16- and 18-related cervical cancer, cervical pre-cancers (CIN 2/3 and AIS), vulvar pre-cancers (VIN 2/3) and vaginal pre-cancers (VaIN 2/3) and for the prevention of genital warts and low-grade cervical lesions (CIN 1) caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: Cervical Cancer - GARDASIL
» gardasil.com

Drug-Drug Interactions Clinically Manageable With PREZISTA

New studies on the use of PREZISTA(TM), an investigational anti-HIV medication, suggest that it can be co-administered with many common medications taken by people with HIV, including other antiretrovirals, proton pump inhibitors, H2 blockers and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. According to current HIV treatment guidelines, potential drug interactions between HIV antiretrovirals and other necessary drugs can be dangerous and require special monitoring.

» Search Healthcare-Specific Tags: PREZISTA - HIV - H2 Blockers
» PRNewswire