Roche changing its stripes…at the cost of one of its strongest advocates June 30, 2009

Roche is doing its best to distance itself from the ranks of Big Pharma by dropping its membership in the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), the leading trade group for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Instead, Roche is shifting its alliance to the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
Not as dramatic but still noteworthy [...]

Boston Scientific gets a new CEO June 29, 2009

Jim Tobin has retired as the CEO of Boston Scientific. Mr. Tobin will be succeeded by Ray Elliott, a true medical device veteran. Although his career also spans the food & beverage and communications industries, Elliott’s medical device experience includes Zimmer, Cybex, Centerpulse and American Hospital Supply. He [...]

The ‘next big thing’ for Big Pharma? June 25, 2009

In response to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the mainstream media today was all abuzz with the progress of a new cancer drug called olaparib, which has shown extraordinary promise in a small, early-stage clinical cancer trial for patients who were genetically vulnerable to developing these malignancies.
Olaparib works differently [...]

Zicam CEO hits back at FDA…on Youtube June 22, 2009

Maker of Zicam, Matrixx Inititatives’  CEO Bill Hemelt has personally responded to the FDA’s Warning Letter in an internet-based video.  This video, hosted both on the Zicam website and in a Zicam channel on Youtube, has had less than 300 views since Friday when it was released. Meanwhile, late night talk show [...]

Inside the mind of the new FDA Commissioner June 22, 2009

Four weeks into her tenure as FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg is talking to the press about her progress thus far and her plans moving forward for the federal agency.
Hamburg offered several telling quotes, founded on the principle that she wants to promote both transparency & enforcement:

“When I was first talking to the administration [...]

Meet your newest Big Pharma sales rep. Lights…camera…action! June 19, 2009

Everything in this world seems to have now been covered in the movies or reality television….so why not the raucous world of Big Pharma? It seems Universal Studios and Reese Witherspoon are going into the pharmaceutical business.
The studio is developing “Pharm Girl”, a full length feature movie described as an aspirational comedy centering on [...]

FDA lowers the boom on maker of Zicam June 18, 2009

There are bad days & then there is what happened to Matrixx Initiatives this week. Matrixx is the Scottsdale-based manufacturers of Zicam, the homeopathic zinc-based cold remedy. Matrixx is managed by a team of industry veterans including a CEO formerly with Johnson & Johnson. The company’s business model focuses on continued [...]

Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins touts new diabetes devices June 12, 2009

One final update from last week’s American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans. Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins talking with CNBC about the next generation of diabetes monitoring & insulin delivery systems.
Companies have been chasing the golden goose of a closed-loop system to mimic the human pancreas for years. The technology was predicted [...]

Beaker wins big at The 13th Annual Webby Awards June 10, 2009

Well, sort of…
It’s Friday….we couldn’t resist a little fun before the weekend.

Do you know Al Mann? You should… June 8, 2009

With the American Diabetes Association conference earlier this week in New Orleans, who better to hear from than Al Mann.
Most newcomers to our industry don’t know Mann’s pedigree.  In 1956, Mann he founded Spectrolab, the first of his aerospace companies that would eventually become part of the modern day infrastructure of Boeing.   [...]