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JPMorgan Raises the Curtain on 2011 | Podcast: January 10, 2011

Biotech investors and executives will be gathering in San Francisco January 10 through 13 for the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, which traditionally kicks off the new year for the industry. There are some reasons to expect a more upbeat meeting this year as uncertainty recedes and prospects for the sector continue to improve. We spoke to Adam Feuerstein, senior columnist for TheStreet.com, about the upcoming conference, the companies to which he'll be paying most attention, and what he'll be looking for to tell him about what to expect in the year ahead. Read More Here

Hard Slog for Drugmakers
The number of 2010 approvals nearly flat compared to 2009.
Drug industry optimists found little cheer in 2010, a year in which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ratcheted up its expectations for new drugs, making approvals harder to achieve. Read More Here

Xoma Lands Deep-Pocketed French Partner
Servier to pay up to $505 million for experimental antibody to treat diabetes and other conditions.
Xoma is gaining substantial new funds to advance its top diabetes drug candidate, XOMA 052, as part of a new pact with France's largest private pharmaceutical company, Les Laboratoires Servier. Read More Here

FDA Deputy Commissioner Sharfstein Resigns
Takes job as Maryland's top public health official.
FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein is leaving his job as second-in-command at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after a brief but active tenure shaking up the FDA's approach to regulating food, drugs, and medical devices. Sharfstein says he's taking an opportunity that's too good to pass up, serving as Maryland's top public health official. Read More Here

When NICE News Isn't So Nice for Roche
UK advisory body will consider whether to allow the use of Avastin to treat wet age-related macular degeneration.
Lately when regulatory bodies have turned their eyes to Roche's cancer drug Avastin, it's not been good news for the company. So when the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the United Kingdom's healthcare advisory body that rules on what drugs can be made available through the National Health Service, wants to look at whether to expand the approved use of Avastin to an area that its maker Roche hasn't asked them to consider, that should be good news, right? Not so. Read More Here

Life Sciences Venture Capital Flows in 2010
Regional breakdown shows most money goes to San Francisco Bay Area, but Boston area sees greatest gains.
U.S. life sciences companies raised nearly $7 billion in venture capital in 2010, a 3 percent increase over the $6.8 billion raised in 2009. It also beat the amount raised in 2008 numbers, when companies raised a total of $6.9 billion in 373 deals. Read More Here

A Stalled Revolution
An outdated reimbursement system hampers the promise of personalized medicine.
A new generation of advanced molecular diagnostics promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine and usher in a long-awaited era of personalized medicine. But a new report warns that an outmoded reimbursement system is raising R&D; costs, impeding investment and delaying patient access to the benefits of these new tools. Read More Here

A Shock to the Heart
Study says many defibrillator implants are unnecessary.
Doctors have put thousands of heart defibrillators in patients who may not need the devices and could even been harmed by them according to a new study of how and when the high-tech implants are used. Read More Here

Indian Patent Office Allows Generic Versions of Abbott's Kaletra to Be Sold
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets, and other business mishaps.
India's patent office has denied protection to Abbott Laboratories' AIDS drug Kaletra, allowing generic drugmakers to continue selling their own versions of the drug, Bloomberg reported. Kaletra is a combination of two antivirals. The product generated about $1.4 billion in sales in 2009, making it Abbott's second-best seller after the arthritis drug Humira. Read More Here

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