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Editor's note:
Don't forget The 2nd Annual Burrill Digital Health Meeting is this week. Come February 23-24 to the San Francisco Airport Marriott in Burlingame, California to hear speakers from Intel, Qualcomm, and NASA discuss how the convergence of technology is revolutionizing healthcare. Limited seating is still available. Click here for more information or to register.

Pharmaceutical companies need to prepare for a new world in which instead of getting paid for drugs, they will be paid for outcomes. So argues Ernst & Young in its latest annual report on the pharmaceutical industry. We spoke to Carolyn Buck Luce, Global pharmaceutical sector leader for Ernst & Young, about how changes to the healthcare landscape and a shift in power to payors is opening the door to non-traditional healthcare companies, forcing pharmaceutical companies to develop digital health strategies, and changing the very idea of what it means to be a drug company today. Read More Here

Astellas strikes $1.3B Cancer Deal with Aveo
Stronger ties support both partners' ambitions.
Japan's Astellas Pharma will pay $125 million upfront and as much as $1.3 billion later to develop and commercialize an experimental cancer drug created by Aveo Pharmaceuticals. Read More Here

Failure is the Norm
Study sheds new light on U.S. drug approval rates.
The overall rate of success for drugs reviewed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval is lower than previously thought, according to a comprehensive study conducted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the research firm BioMedTracker. Read More Here

Hard Hit to Soft Drinks
Caramel coloring in colas and other dark beverages may contain carcinogens.
As if soft drinks causing obesity and rotting teeth wasn't enough, now the dark coloring in colas and other dark drinks may also cause cancer. That is what the Center for Science in the Public Interest says in a regulatory petition filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that says the "caramel coloring" used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other foods is contaminated with two cancer-causing chemicals and should be banned. Read More Here

Paying Attention to Neglected Diseases
Greater investment being made, but funding shifts away from products to basic research as public sector plays a greater role.
Neglected diseases were a little less so in 2009 as global funding for research and development grew 8.2 percent to $3.2 billion despite the global recession, but investment shifted to basic research and away from funding the development of much needed new products, according to a survey from the independent research group Policy Cures. Read More Here

A Generic Argument
Obama budget seeks to speed the entry to market for generic drugs and biosimilars.
After a protracted battle over healthcare reform legislation that passed in 2010, most of the major players walked away a little bloodied and scarred, but the biotechnology industry emerged with some notable victories, not the least of which was 12 years of exclusivity for its products as the legislation opened the door to copycat versions of its expensive therapies. But it's a victory that may be short-lived. Read More Here

Budget Increases Proposed for Health Agencies
FDA, NIH, NSF budgets grow in Obama proposal.
At a time when President Obama has called for tighter spending controls to reign in the nation's towering deficit, his 2012 budget actually proposes stronger funding for federal agencies central to the development and approval of new medicines. Read More Here

Merck Serono Withdraws EMEA Application to Market Oral MS Drug
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets, and other business mishaps.
The European Medicines Agency said it has been notified by Merck Serono Europe that it is withdrawing its application for a centralized marketing authorization for its experimental oral multiple sclerosis drug Movectro. Movectro was intended to be used for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. In January, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued an opinion for a second time that Movectro not be approved. The company stated that its decision to withdraw the application was based on the committee's opinion that the data available to date did not allow it to adopt a positive opinion recommending the granting of a marketing authorization for Movectro. Read More Here

CORRECTION: A story in last week's issue on the Gevo IPO
incorrectly stated the status of one of the firm's investors. Virgin Green Fund retained its equity interest in Gevo after the offering.

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