Part II: Life Sciences Companies Brace For Big Changes
Podcast: December 28, 2009

As the new year begins, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are preparing for big changes. Healthcare reform, constrained capital markets, and a shifting regulatory environment all spell new challenges for the industry. We continue with the second part of our year-end conversation with G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company and the publisher of The Burrill Report, with a look ahead to 2010 and beyond, what companies are doing to adapt to the changing environment, and whether or not the worst is over. Read More Here

Sanofi Looks Over the Counter
French Pharma spends $1.9 billion to deepen its reach in consumer healthcare.
Sanofi-Aventis said it will buy Chattem, maker of Icy Hot pain reliever, Selsun Blue dandruff shampoo and other consumer products, for about $1.9 billion in a bid to help it diversify beyond prescription drug revenue by further embracing the consumer healthcare market. The Paris-based pharmaceutical plans to launch an over-the-counter version of its Allegra allergy medication as part of its efforts to springboard off Chattem's U.S. consumer market expertise. Read More Here

Sanofi Pulls the Plug on Two Drugs in Development
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps.
Sanofi-Aventis said it has stopped the development of two drugs in its pipeline. The Paris-based pharmaceutical said it is withdrawing its application to market the insomnia drug eplivanserin in the Untied States and Europe because of “the need for significant further clinical developments and market access constraints. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September issued a complete response letter to the company saying it would not approve the drug without additional data. Sanofi also said it is discontinuing development of idrabiotaparinux to prevent the formation of blood clots in patients with atrial fibrillation.The company said considering recent therapeutic advances in this field, this compound does not appear able to bring significant improvement in the care of these patients. Read More Here

Lilly Goes Christmas Shopping
Drugmaker to pay up to $775 million for Incyte arthritis drug rights. 
Eli Lilly has acquired global rights to Incyte's lead mid-stage therapy for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases for $755 million. The move charts a course for Lilly's expansion into the multi-billion-dollar oral rheumatoid arthritis market, potentially helping quell investor concern about how the company will sustain its revenues once its $5 billion blockbuster Zyprexa loses patent protection in 2011. Read More Here

Resistant Bacteria? Blame Lawyers
Fear of lawsuits may prompt some doctors to overprescribe antibiotics.
A fear among doctors about being sued is playing a role in the increase of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections in hospitals by encouraging physicians to prescribe these drugs more often and more widely than needed, according to researchers at New York Medical College. Read More Here

Fast and Cheap
Researchers say they have developed a quicker and less expensive DNA sequencing method.
Boston University biomedical engineers say they have devised a method for making genome sequencing faster and cheaper by significantly reducing the amount of DNA required. Doing so, they say, eliminates the expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone step of DNA amplification. Read More Here

Graduating from Coverage
Survey of young adults, often without coverage, finds wide majority support health reform.
An overwhelming majority of young adults across the political spectrum —88 percent—think it is important for Congress and the President to pass healthcare reform legislation that would assure affordable health insurance for all and improve healthcare, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. The survey, conducted by the private foundation supporting independent research on healthcare policy reform, found that nearly half—45 percent—or approximately 20 million young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 were uninsured at some time during the past year. Read More Here

Commentary: A Healthcare Carol
Getting the dickens scared out of you by reform efforts.
Late one recent wintry night in the midst of the Senate’s deliberations over healthcare reform, having worked hard on trying to reconcile the many swirling eddies of the current debate, I retired to bed for a few hours of fitful respite. That is until I was awoken from my solemn slumbers by a billowy translucent apparition who identified himself as the Ghost of Healthcares Yet-to-Come. Read More Here