Debiopharm, an independent Swiss biopharmaceutical company based in Lausanne, seeks to carve a niche in the competitive oncology and infectious disease markets. Its business model focuses on in-licensing promising drug candidates from universities and smaller biotechs, aiming to add value through development. (The company is also partnering with AI-focused firms like VeriSIM Life.) Sandra von…
Biotech layoffs in 2024: Identifying common threads among affected companies
Companies across the industry have contributed to biotech layoffs in early 2024, driven by factors ranging from operational restructuring to strategic pivots and clinical trial failures, with major hubs like California and Massachusetts bearing the brunt of the impact. A recent analysis assembled with the help a machine learning technique known as clustering reveals a pattern of job…
Anosmia to amyloidosis: nference’s AI is decoding healthcare data at scale
The complexity of patient records, with their mix of unstructured notes and diverse data types, defies traditional analysis. While a thorough review of even a single patient’s file can be tedious for a human, AI tools offer the power to analyze tens or even hundreds of millions of records, unlocking data patterns that would otherwise…
Exploring the forces behind 2024 biotech layoffs: A visual journey
Biotech layoffs continue to pummel the industry in early 2024 — albeit at a slightly lower clip than in 2023. Smaller firms continue to bear the brunt of funding woes and disappointing clinical data. From January to February, operational reorganizations fueled 45 layoff announcements, followed closely by strategic pivots in 37 events. Other common drivers…
Where are the top Big Pharma hubs in 2023?
By analyzing the financials of dozens of Big Pharma firms, we can pinpoint the global hubs that drive much of the industry’s innovation. This analysis reveals regions like New York, New Jersey, Tokyo, Basel, and Frankfurt metro area as core centers for pharma revenue and R&D spending. Unsurprisingly, the area with the densest concentration of…
Moving the needle on diversity in clinical trials: Where do we go from here?
Enhancing patient diversity in clinical trials has become a key priority in drug development. The main concern is that critical data that includes underrepresented patient populations is being left out as many clinical trials do not reflect all populations that may eventually take a therapy. These underrepresented groups consist of women, including those who are…
GLP-1s, ADCs, AI and the future of pharma
Pharma’s potential breakthroughs in AI, ADCs, and GLP-1 receptor agonists raise a critical question: can innovation outpace the relentless rise of chronic disease? The IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science sheds light on this theme, among many others, in its 80-page Global Trends in R&D 2024 report. Pillar 1: GLP-1 receptor agonists targeting metabolic disease…
From gatekeeper to strategist: The evolution of the CISO role in drug development
There’s an old joke about chief information security officers (CISOs) being gatekeepers of new technologies and initiatives – the infamous “Department of No.” Imagine a bouncer who, strangely, doesn’t let anyone in, saying the club is already too full, even when it’s clearly empty. But that image is outdated — especially in risk-focused industries like…
Microsoft and 1910 Genetics: AI-powered partnership targets billion-dollar savings and growth in drug discovery
The pharmaceutical industry is at a critical juncture: AI and other technological advances offer unprecedented potential, yet the cost of developing new drugs has ballooned for decades, surpassing $2 billion in recent years with the projected return on investment (ROI) falling to a mere 1.2% in 2022, according to Deloitte. Another dimension of the problem…
Rare diseases, immense needs: J&J’s mission to change the landscape
Rare diseases may seem niche, but their impact is far from small. An estimated 7,000 rare diseases exist, collectively affecting a 300 million people worldwide. This immense burden of disease, coupled with a profound lack of treatment options, underscores the urgent need for innovation. “Actually, the total burden of disease and unmet medical need [for…
Big Pharma shakeup: This chart reveals the new top dog of 2023
In the Aesopian fable, the tortoise’s steady focus and persistence overcomes the hare’s bursts of speed. 2023 saw a similar shift in the pharma sector. While Pfizer, thanks to blockbuster COVID vaccine sales, rocketed to unprecedented heights in 2022 surpassing $100 billion in revenue, its fortunes reversed in 2023. As COVID product demand plummeted, Pfizer’s…
Beyond the neon: Las Vegas emerging as a surprise biotech hub
While San Francisco, Boston, and San Diego may reign as biotech royalty, a new contender is carving its niche in the desert. Las Vegas, a city synonymous with entertainment and extravagance, is proving it has the brains and the business acumen to compete on the global biopharmaceutical stage. This transformation is backed by hard numbers:…
Amidst empty labs, signs of biotech’s resurgence emerge
In 2023, a year of accelerated regulatory success, a significant number of biotech labs sat empty in major hubs like San Francisco and Boston. The FDA approved 55 novel therapies in 2023, including Leqembi for early Alzheimer’s and Zurzuvae for postpartum depression. The approval number marked the second highest count in three decades (see graph…
Pushing the frontier of drug discovery with the world’s most powerful supercomputer
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier, the world’s first exascale supercomputer with its dizzying 1.1 exaflop speed, is a game-changer for scientific domains ranging from drug discovery to material science and oceanography. The computer holds the top spot on the TOP500 list, an independent ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. “It’s like having a million…
2024: AI and scientists take turns at the wheel of drug discovery
In drug discovery, interest in harnessing the power of AI ramped up significantly with breakthroughs like AlphaFold, where AI predicted protein structures with astounding accuracy. AI’s initial focus was analyzing existing data, with machine learning systems excelling at tasks like predicting new drug interactions, molecular behaviors, and even biological pathways, based on troves of experimental…
Survey: Wielding AI magic in clinical trials requires a master’s touch
eClinical’s Industry Outlook 2024 report highlights a significant acceleration in AI/ML adoption for clinical trials. Over half of professionals (53%) in functions like clinical operations, data management, and biometrics now see these technologies as central to streamlining trials by 2024, surpassing the emphasis on automation that dominated last year. Despite this hype cycle, a core…
Big Pharma clicks soared, but new cell therapies made you buzz: What drove biopharma interest in 2023?
Despite biopharma’s 2023 layoffs and challenges, innovation won your clicks last year with over 130,000 of them on our Pharma 50 report alone. But while giants dominated, your clicks showed disruptive tech wasn’t far behind. The next-most popular article was a roundup of 100 trailblazing cell and gene therapy companies with more than 80,000 views.…
Skynet with benefits: Can AI and humans become a drug discovery superorganism?
Will the credit for future mega-blockbuster drugs, in some cases, go to a carefully-programmed AI discovery system connected to a “self-driving lab” that verified its potential? Certainly, AI is hyped, but so are potential profits of potentially AI-optimized drugs. The exploding volumes of scientific data highlight a shift often overlooked: what does “inventor” even mean when…
Gain Therapeutics’ supercomputer-driven therapy offers potential Parkinson’s breakthrough
The Bethesda biotech Gain Therapeutics, armed with supercomputer firepower, aims to disrupt Parkinson’s disease treatment. Their GCase regulator, named GT-02287, completely restored motor function in a recent animal study. GCase, short for glucocerebrosidase, targets both lysosomal and mitochondrial dysfunction. In Parkinson’s, the failure of cellular powerhouses (mitochondria) and recycling centers (lysosomes) disrupts essential functions. This…
When will drug development have its ChatGPT moment? Inside ambitious AI initiatives at Sanofi and Medable
In episode 4 of Ai Meets Life Sci, Kayleen Brown, managing editor at DeviceTalks and Brian Buntz, pharma and biotech editor, chat with Helen Merianos, Ph.D., head of R+D portfolio strategy at Sanofi and Michelle Longmire, MD, CEO of Medable. The focus? The two-fold application of AI in their respective companies’ technologies, both for scientific advancement…
Beyond diabetes and obesity: Can GLP-1 therapies also transform chronic disease treatment?
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide have cemented their status as two of the most successful drugs in recent memory. Recent projections have estimated that the drug class could fetch $44 billion by 2030 and $71 billion by 2032. But GLP-1 sales could potentially reach greater heights as these therapies move beyond…
Unifying disparate data in clinical trial management with advanced data technology
The increasing complexities in clinical trials, including expanded patient populations, decentralized trials and new technologies, are directly impacting the amount of data and information available to clinical trial sponsors. Though this provides significant value to the industry, it presents a new challenge of consolidating disparate and siloed systems, improving standardization and unifying the explosion of…
Off with the training wheels: AI-based patient characterization can improve clinical trial performance without large data sets
Only 12% of new drug candidates that enter phase 1 clinical development ultimately receive FDA approval. This dismal success rate leaves millions of patients with unmet medical needs and drives up the costs for the small number of drugs that make it to market. More frustratingly, it leaves untold numbers of potentially transformative therapies back-burnered…
BIOiSIM assigns ‘credit scores’ to drug candidates
VeriSIM Life, a San Francisco-based startup, has created BIOiSIM, an AI-powered platform that simulates drug compound behavior in the human body by acting like a virtual laboratory. It assigns each a predictive “credit score” predicting its viability for drug development. “It’s like a FICO score for drug development,” founder and CEO Dr. Jo Varshney said.…
Bridging the gap: How resource sheets translate complex clinical trial data into patient empowerment
As patients take a more active role in managing their health, they can find navigating the complexities of clinical trial results daunting. Having access to clear, accurate information is crucial for informed decision-making. This is where patient-reported data from clinical trials has real value, offering key insights into the real world experiences of participants, both…