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…
Best-selling pharmaceuticals of 2023 reveal a shift in pharma landscape
[Updated May 21, 2024.] 2023 may not go down as the brightest year for the pharma sector, but the entry of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic (semaglutide) into the ranks of top-selling drugs like Keytruda, Dupixent, and Eliquis signals a new era in the treatment of metabolic disease. Novo Nordisk’s sales jumped by more than one-third in…
Are Big Pharma giants getting the right ROI on their R&D investments? A visual exploration
While annual reports show broadly similar R&D strategies among Merck & Co., Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie, their 2020–2023 financial metrics reveal a concerning trend. Merck & Co. may be the new top dog of Big Pharma, but the firm’s 1.4% revenue growth in 2023 represents a significant slowdown. Pfizer’s 41.7% revenue decline from…
The global biotech funding landscape in 2023: U.S. leads while Europe and China make strides
In 2023, the U.S. continued to demonstrate its position as the biotech funding leader, commanding over one-third, 35%, of the global investment in the sector. Overall, U.S. biotech firms attracted $56.79 billion in funding, according to a survey of Crunchbase data. Next in line was China, which contributed about 12.7% to the global funding pool,…
Five insights on COVID-19 vaccine side effects
To date, there have been more than 770 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 7 million deaths from the virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccines remain one of the most potent tools in blunting the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and vaccine developers have distributed more than 13.5 billion vaccine doses to date.…
Assessing the techbio landscape: hype or substance?
The venture capital firm Artis Ventures, founded in 2001, coined the term “techbio” sector to describe biotech platforms where technology and engineering take the lead in advancing drug discovery and biomanufacturing. In circa 2019, the firm contributed to shaping the techbio landscape by setting up venture capital fund named Artis techbio that bridges the gap…
Harnessing the untapped potential of legacy data in pharma R&D
Clinical trials for a new therapy cost a median of $41,117 per patient. Costs like this are no surprise to pharma leaders. But during an age of increasing budgetary pressures, drug developers are under pressure to do more with less money and staff. While there are no “simple” answers to this challenge, there is one strategy that offers…
Inflation may slow, but R&D still hot, in this week’s R&D Power Index
The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending June 17, 2022, closed at 4,413.63 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -.3.44% (or -157.22 basis points) from the week ending June 10, 2022. Two of the 25 RDWI members gained value from 0.86% (Oracle) to 6.67% (Cisco). Twenty-three of the…
Drug discovery CRO Domainex opens facility in UK
Domainex Ltd. has opened a new facility over 7,000 ft2 in size at Unity Campus in Sawston, UK, approximately seven miles from Cambridge. Unity Campus is a science and technology park with business, R&D and lab space. Domainex’s new facilities there house a dedicated suite of labs. Domainex is aiming to hire new staff from…
Pharma R&D ROI hits highest level since 2014
The pharmaceutical industry appears to have addressed a decade-long decline in R&D productivity, according to a recent analysis from Deloitte. In 2021, the projected R&D return on investment (ROI) rose 7%. For comparison, the ROI level in 2010 was 2.7%. Forecast peak sales per asset hit $521 million, up more than 23% over the $422 million…
J&J’s CSO to retire by the end of 2021
Dr. Paul Stoffels, who serves as Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer, will end his tenure on December 31. Stoffels, who is also vice-chairman of J&J’s executive committee, was responsible for reinvigorating J&J’s Janssen pharmaceutical pipeline and was instrumental in developing a COVID-19 vaccine. The company’s CEO and executive chairman, Alex Gorsky, is also retiring…
VectorBuilder and Landau join forces to create primate gene therapy research center
Recombinant vector specialist VectorBuilder and Landau Biotechnology, which develops nonhuman primate models for clinical research, have entered into a strategic partnership. The two companies will collaborate on establishing a primate gene therapy R&D center. VectorBuilder is based in Chicago and has facilities in Germany, Japan and China. Landau Biotechnology is headquartered in China. The center…
Q&A: Keys to unlock data science potential for drug discovery
For all of its promise in healthcare and elsewhere, deploying artificial intelligence is frequently a challenging endeavor. “Close collaboration between data science teams, other project team members and stakeholders is essential,” said Jennifer Bradford, director of data science at Phastar, the London-headquartered contract research organization. While input from computational, statistical or medical experts could be…
Organ-chips could streamline drug development, but hurdles remain
While organ-on-a-chip technology has evolved tremendously over the past 15 years, adoption of the technology remains at an early stage. But as organ-chip technology advances and the R&D costs for pharma companies continue to hover near unsustainable levels, organ-on-a-chip technology has the promise to address what cell biologist and bioengineer Donald Ingber called the “broken”…
Why focusing on the quantity of pharma innovation is misleading
Since the early 2000s, pundits have lamented that there is an innovation crisis in the pharmaceutical industry. One of the most common reasons given is the challenge of bringing new drugs to market. The U.S. Government Accounting Office concluded in 2006 that the “productivity of [the pharma industry’s] research and development expenditures has been declining.”…
Thermo Fisher Scientific acquires Propel Labs and its cell sorting tech
Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) announced today that it acquired cell sorting technology assets from SIDIS Corp. subsidiary Propel Labs. Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher’s agreement with Propel Labs stipulates that the recently introduced Bigfoot spectral cell sorter and approximately 40 employees will become part of Thermo Fisher’s biosciences business unit, while Propel Labs will continue to operate…
Here’s what molecular shape can tell you about pharma innovation
Is it possible that pharmaceutical innovation has accelerated over the past two decades — with the novelty of small molecule and peptide drugs steadily increasing? That’s the conclusion suggested by a recent study published in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, which found roughly 65% of FDA-approved drugs in 2020 were structurally novel. Last year’s drug approvals…
3 notable types of innovative drugs from 2020
Last year, FDA approved 53 drugs, leading the industry to describe 2020 as “a strong year for new drug therapy.” There are several drugs that stand out, according to Todd Wills, the co-author of a study that analyzes how innovative drugs are based on their structure. The drugs that follow are examples of notable innovative therapies.…
How COVID-19 has affected Big Pharma and biotech
Biotechnology traces its roots to the Neolithic era when early civilizations discovered how to ferment grains to prepare alcoholic brews and bread. It wasn’t until genetic engineering became mainstream in the mid-1970s, however, that biotechnology, as we know it today, was launched. The field continues to evolve today. The advent of new technology has revolutionized the market…