Drug Discovery and Development

Let’s say there’s a Black female patient with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She meets with her oncologist to discuss a promising targeted therapy that recently won FDA approval. The drug showed strong efficacy in clinical trials, with a 65% response rate. Yet when she asks about efficacy data specific to Black women, she…

Press release: Southampton, PA – NewAge Industries, Inc., parent company of AdvantaPure™ and NewAge Performance Products, a global leader in fluid transfer systems solutions for the biopharma and industrial markets, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mary Marcus to the position of CEO. “Since her arrival in 2008, Mary has been a vital part…

In 2025, genetic validation is poised to emerge as a high-stakes litmus test in cardiovascular R&D, investors will continue to get better at funneling cash into proven science, and patients will continue their evolution to become more-active partners shaping their healthcare. To hear more about each of these trends, we considered feedback from three industry…

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard design for studies supporting drug approvals, but they are not always feasible, due to factors such as ethical concerns or very small patient populations.  When an RCT is not possible, researchers may opt for a single-arm trial (SAT), which does not include an internal control group, but…

The understanding that there is a connection between breath and diseases can date back to over two thousand years ago, when Hippocrates described fetor oris and fetor hepaticus in his report on breath aroma (1). Since then, research into volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exhaled in breath and their involvement in disease physiology has led to…

Xaira Therapeutics, an AI-driven biotechnology startup that emerged earlier this year with a $1 billion funding round, continues to demonstrate its ambitions and staying power. Despite recent biotech industry turbulence, with some AI-focused biotech firms announcing layoffs and restructuring, Xaira has doubled down on growth. The firm is bolstering its leadership roster while announcing a…

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences has announced a new automated clone screening platform for biologic drug development. The Cydem VT system integrates several established technologies — microbioreactor arrays, liquid handling, and analytical measurements — into a single platform capable of monitoring up to 96 parallel bioreactors. The system provides continuous monitoring of pH, dissolved oxygen, and…

In 2024, we saw the expanded use of synthetic data and natural language processing transform drug discovery and development. In a batch of predictions published in December of 2023, one expert predicted that synthetic data was set to “take off” in drug research. In 2025, the pendulum could begin swinging back the other way, according…

Almirall’s MES/MOM director Francesc Luque is spearheading a digital transformation of the company’s pharmaceutical manufacturing, shifting from paper-based and disconnected systems to a fully integrated, “smart plant” model. In a role he assumed in early 2023, the main shift has been consolidating the company’s “Integrated Factory” program and finalizing the definition of its Manufacturing Execution…

Swiss pharma giants Novartis and Roche consistently rank among the top pharma companies in terms of revenue. In 2024, the two companies are also leading in total international patent volume. Meanwhile, smaller firms like Incyte and Vertex Pharma are punching above their weight in market impact. For instance, Incyte, with a market cap of just…

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has captivated the world, and for good reason. Platforms like ChatGPT have demonstrated capabilities that gave the general public a deeper understanding of AI’s capabilities. AI, too, is showing potential in drug discovery. From designing novel drug molecules to predicting protein structures, AI is offering a new path forward, potentially accelerating…

When it comes to medical AI, the biggest names aren’t necessarily delivering the best results. While tech giants race to build ever-larger language models, a new preprint reveals that when it comes to clinical accuracy and physician trust, a smaller player is outperforming the industry heavyweights. Putting large language model-based systems to the test Researchers…

In some ways, machine learning is nothing new. The term itself dates back to 1958 when the computer scientist Arthur Lee Samuel coined it. “The pharmaceutical industry has been using data science, machine learning, and AI in some form for at least 25 years, if not longer,” said Kailash Swarna, a managing director and Accenture…

While clinical trials and regulatory filings offer a semi-structured view of drug safety, a large amount of insights lie in sources ranging from patient support programs (PSPs) to social media posts. As Natural Language Processing (NLP) evolves, a growing number of tools are becoming available to unlock this potential. Deepanshu Saini, Director of Program Management…

One of the top promises of artificial intelligence/machine learning in drug discovery is reversing decades of dwindling productivity. But imagine if the technology makes good on its promise. And perhaps six or seven years from now, in which productivity is doubled, leaving pharma firms to have, theoretically, early stage pipelines that are twice as large.…

In the emerging field of digital pathology, Aleksandra Zuraw, DVM, Ph.D., DACVP, is one of the most prominent voices. Her journey to this position, however, was far from straightforward. When Zuraw was 12, she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, picturing herself following in the footsteps of the British veterinary surgeon James Herriot, tending to “All Creatures…

The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate medical discovery is immense, particularly within the dynamic and mutable area of biology. Unlike the more predictable fields of chemistry and physics, biology presents unique challenges due to its complexity and constant adaptation, areas where AI can play a transformative role but has been limited to date…

 In the first five months of 2024, there was a surge in high-value deals, though none have yet matched the scale of Pfizer’s $43 billion acquisition of Seagen, which closed in December 2023. With Novo Holdings’ $16.5 billion purchase of Catalent leading the pack, 2024 reflects a mixed but strong trend toward sizable M&A…

After ChatGPT debuted in late 2022 and GPT-4 hit the scene in March of the following year, many executives at pharma companies sat up and took note, interested in new tech that could accelerate the stubbornly slow drug development process. Translating that vision into reality, however, is not straightforward and a significant number of pharma…

In February, Novo Holdings announced one of the largest M&A deals in recent memory with its plans to acquire Catalent, a leading contract drug manufacturer, for a cool $16.5 billion. The deal could accelerate production of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss medications, Ozempic and Wegovy, given skyrocketing demand. But while the Novo-Catalent deal marks…

 Many of the job cuts in 2024 are in Massachusetts, but the state still has one of the densest concentrations of job listings based on a dataset of more than 3,300 online job postings from May. Yet the Northeast Megalopolis excluding the Bay State was home to more jobs overall, with states such as…

It’s something of a truism that about nine out of ten drug candidates in clinical trials fail to reach the market. While some amount of guess-work is unavoidable in drug development, Dr. Ali Pashazadeh, co-founder and CEO of Treehill Partners sees faulty decision-making and poor communication as chief factors contributing to high failure rate. While…

The pharmaceutical industry is grappling with the consequences of a significant data breach at Cencora, the prominent drug distributor formerly known as AmerisourceBergen. Recent cybersecurity rules from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC), which came into effect in December 2023, have also played a role in a wave of data breach reports, highlighting the…

 An analysis of 19 prominent pharma companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Lilly, Roche, Merck & Co. among others, revealed that the average stock return was 3.7% points in 2023. (Lilly was the best performing with a return of 59% while Moderna was the worst in the list with a return of –44%.) By…

The Greater Boston Area, New York City Metro and San Francisco Bay Area are the top three hubs for biopharma job listings based on an analysis of more than 1,700 recent job postings. Within these hubs, prominent job listing title examples include Vice President of Intellectual Property, Scientist (Bioassay) and Data Scientist I and Research…