Life Science Execs Enjoy Rising Pay Despite Economic Downturn
Podcast: December 11, 2009

Top executives at technology companies saw their 2009 total cash compensation drop slightly, but comparable executives at life sciences firms experienced an average increase of 3.5 percent, according to a study of private businesses from the executive search firm J. Robert Scott and Ernst & Young. It was the first time in the ten year history of the study that tech executives saw a drop in cash compensation. CEOs at the more than 200 emerging, private life sciences firms surveyed received an average base salary of $273,000, up 3.2 percent from 2008. CEOs at these life sciences firms, however, received average bonuses of $48,000 in 2008 or 44 percent of their target bonus, down from 73 percent in 2007. We spoke to Erik Lundh, managing director of J. Robert Scott, about the findings in the report, why life science executives were better insulated from the economic downturn than their high-tech counterparts and what pressures companies may feel to retain talent as the economy turns. Read More Here

Embracing Biotech
Lilly says it plans an innovation strategy to insulate it from lost revenue when key patents expire.
In an effort to prepare for the increased competition from generics as key patents expire, Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter told an annual meeting of investors that the company will focus on developing and acquiring new medicines, including biotechnology-based molecules, which now represent over one-third of its clinical-stage pipeline. Read More Here

Opportunities and Challenges
The U.S. market for personalized medicine will reach $452 Billion by 2015.
The market for personalized medicine in the United States will grow to $452 billion by 2015 from $232 billion, according to a new report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The consulting firm says personalized medicine, which targets individualized treatment and care based on personal and genetic variation, will grow at an annual rate of 11 percent and create both opportunities and challenges for traditional healthcare and emerging market players. Read More Here

Cytokinetics and GSK End Collaboration
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps. 
Cytokinetics and GlaxoSmithKline agreed to terminate their eight-year collaboration and license agreement on cancer drugs. The termination is effective February 28, 2010. As a result, all rights for GSK-923295, an inhibitor of centromere-associated protein E (CENP-E), will revert to Cytokinetics. GSK remains responsible for all activities and costs associated with completing and reporting on the ongoing early-stage clinical trial of GSK-923295 in advanced, refractory solid tumor patients. Cytokinetics said the decision to terminate the collaboration agreement with GSK reinforces its commitment to focus its internal research and development to muscle function and related therapeutic applications. Previously, Cytokinetics had negotiated for the return of all rights to two other experimental cancer drugs that had also been initially developed in collaboration with GSK. Each of these compounds has demonstrated favorable tolerability and clinical activity in one or more clinical trials. Cytokinetics is now seeking to license its portfolio of these three novel mechanism anti-mitotic drug candidates so that they can be advanced in further clinical trials. “In our industry, and especially in these challenging times, it is increasingly important to remain focused and execute on a core business strategy,” said Cytokinetics CEO Robert Blum. “At Cytokinetics, we believe our best opportunities are rooted in our multiple programs directed to the biology of muscle function.” Read More Here

Fueling Innovation
Feds invest $564 million to advance biorefineries.
Federal funding intended to advance 19 biorefinery projects is flowing again from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture. Together, the two agencies will spend $564 million to accelerate the construction and operation of pilot, demonstration, and commercial scale facilities the government says. Private companies in 15 states will get the funds, which are meant to help validate refining technologies and help lay the foundation for full commercial-scale development of a biomass industry in the United States. Read More Here

Making Progress
Cancer death and diagnosis rates decline.
The rates of death from all cancers is falling in the United States thanks to aggressive risk reduction and screening effort, according to a new report from the National Cancer Institute. New diagnoses for all types of cancer combined in the United States have also decreased, on average, almost 1 percent per year from 1999 to 2006. Cancer deaths decreased 1.6 percent per year from 2001 to 2006. Read More Here

Seems Like Old Times
Respiratory damage from H1N1 flu familiar say researchers.
Fatal cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza can damage cells throughout the respiratory airway, much like damage caused by the viruses behind the 1918 and 1957 flu pandemics, according to a new study in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Researchers examining 34 New York autopsies found damage primarily in the upper airways—including the trachea and bronchial tubes—but also in the lower airway, even deep in the lungs. Secondary bacterial infection was present in more than half the victims. Read More Here

Extra Large Genes
Type 2 diabetes gene predisposes children to obesity.
A gene already implicated in the development of type 2 diabetes in adults also raises the risk of being overweight during childhood, according to researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The finding, published in the online version of the journal Diabetes, sheds light on the genetic origins of diabetes and may present an avenue for developing drugs to counteract the disease, which has been on the upswing in childhood and adolescence. Read More Here

Is Cleanliness Overrated?
To protect against heart attacks as adults, it may be good to expose babies to germs.
Babies can benefit from a daily dose of everyday germs says a new study from Northwestern University. Such exposure might even protect them from cardiovascular disease as adults. The study sought to understand how microbial exposures early on in life may affect inflammatory processes related to age-related disease in adulthood. It found that inflammatory systems may need a higher level of exposure to common everyday bacteria and microbes to guide their development. Read More Here