Covance exec takes head reins at smaller CRO

July 18, 2011 – 3:44 pm by Michael Christel

Today, I was alerted to an interesting hire in the CRO arena, where executives jumping from one company to another is fairly common. This one, however – the appointment this morning of Wendel Barr as the new CEO of San Diego-based Synteract Inc. – is worth noting because [...]

Tags: Covance, CRO, hirings, Synteract

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Adding to the tally …

July 14, 2011 – 7:46 pm by Michael Christel

In case you missed it, two more acquisitions in the CRO space were completed this week. Today, InVentiv Health finalized its deal to buy PharmaNet Development Group (InVentiv added i3 in June). On Tuesday, INC Research sealed its $232 million acquisition of Kendle International Inc. These deals are just the latest in a flurry of consolidation [...]

Tags: acquisitions, CROs

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Molecular targeted therapy progress with lung cancer

July 5, 2011 – 1:06 pm by Chris

(This is a guest post from Sally Church, Ph.D, who writes the Pharma Strategy Blog. If you are on Twitter, follow her here.)

In this second part of the ASCO report, we look at another area where significant strides are being made with molecular targeted therapy, lung cancer. For years, this disease has seen small incremental [...]

Tags: adenocarcinoma, ASCO. lung cancer, erlotinib, molecular therapy

Posted in cancer, clinical trials, drug discovery | 1 Comment »

2011 Dealmakers’ Intentions Study sees trend toward early-stage licensing activity

June 30, 2011 – 8:30 am by Colette Pilkus

In a super session at the 2011 BIO International Convention yesterday in Washington D.C., Ben Bonifant of Campbell Alliance presented the results of the company’s third annual Dealmakers’ Intentions Survey. Business development professionals from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies of all sizes were surveyed on their general expectations for deal activity in the coming year and [...]

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ASCO followup: Patients, pathways, progress in practice

June 27, 2011 – 10:59 am by Chris

(This is a guest post from Sally Church, Ph.D, who writes the Pharma Strategy Blog. If you are on Twitter, follow her here.)

Traditionally, we have seen virtually all of the early drug development work in oncology driven by a myriad of company trials in various tumor types and, increasingly, molecular targeted therapies. Many of you [...]

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Pfizer pacts are further proof of CRO shift

June 8, 2011 – 1:02 pm by Michael Christel

It’s no secret Pfizer, perhaps more than any other big pharma, is looking to “gain efficienciesâ€� in R&D at every turn. Gaining efficiencies, of course, is just a fancy way of describing the need to cut costs. One way Pfizer is doing just that is by narrowing the number of its preferred CRO vendors, consolidating the list down to two after recent partnership agreements with Icon and Parexel. Click above to read our conversation with Alan Morgan, Icon’s president of clinical research services, who discusses the deal and the implications for the CRO industry. [...]

Tags: CROs, Icon, Parexel, partnerships, Pfizer

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INC exec: Global scale-up key driver of Kendle deal

May 13, 2011 – 9:54 am by Michael Christel

We caught up with INC Research’s chief operating officer John Potthoff, Ph.D., by email for more on INC’s big deal to acquire CRO rival Kendle, a move that could elevate the privately held company into a top five industry player. [...]

Tags: CROs, INC Research, Kendle

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Patent reform inches closer to reality

May 2, 2011 – 9:25 am by Michael Christel

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, and try again. Such has been the case in Congress’ quest to reform U.S. patent law, where after stalled attempts in 2005, 2007, and 2009, seems to finally be gaining the momentum it really needs in 2011. In the link above, a patent attorney discusses the potential implications for the life sciences industry. [...]

Tags: patent reform

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Omnicare CR acquired by Nautic Partners

April 28, 2011 – 3:32 pm by Colette Pilkus

Mid-sized contract research organization Omnicare Clinical Research has been acquired by Nautic Partners LLC, a private equity firm based in Providence, R.I. The deal marks the separation of Omnicare from former parent company, Omnicare Inc., a distributor of pharmaceutical care to the elderly, with $600 billion in annual revenue.
The transaction also achieves a major step [...]

Tags: CROs, Nautic Partners, Omnicare

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Quintiles backs innovative breast cancer trial

April 14, 2011 – 9:08 am by Chris

Today, Quintiles got into the “spy” game - the I-SPY 2 clinical trial, to be exact.
The contract research organization has committed a total of $2.6 million over four years to support the trial, formally known as the “Investigation of Serial Studies to Predict Your Therapeutic Response with Imaging and Molecular Analysis” (far less catchy than [...]

Tags: biomarkers, breast cancer, clinical trials, Quintiles, translational medicine

Posted in CRO, FDA, clinical trials, drug discovery | No Comments »