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Here’s hoping this doesn’t rise to the category of grandiloquent theories, but the convergence of two global trends in drug discovery should be considered by business strategists at outsourcing providers as well as pharma sponsors. First, all roads lead to hubs. From Boston to Beijing and Munich to Melbourne, proximity is promise. Second, pharma is reaching into academia and out to startups with a renewed dynamism in their efforts to refill pipelines.

Combine the two – locate pharma assets within life sciences clusters to be closer to academia investigators and start-ups – like Bayer has done in Mission Bay, San Francisco, and drug discovery outsourcing providers might get squeezed out of new market opportunities. What is at stake? Potentially a lot…

via Will Providers Compete With Hubs And Pharma For Drug Discovery Customers?

India has become the latest country where the Sovaldi hepatitis C treatment will be offered for $900 per patient. The move, which was reported by The Times of India, comes a few weeks after the manufacturer, Gilead Sciences , is making the medication available for the same price in Egypt.

The pricing reflects an effort by Gilead to…

via How Much? Gilead Will Charge $900 for Sovaldi in India – Pharmalot – WSJ.

After 31 years of research, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has filed for regulatory approval for the first-ever malaria vaccine–which also happens to be the first vaccine developed against a parasite. The clinical trial results of the vaccine, called RTS,S, have been encouraging.

Malaria is an insidious and preventable disease, killing almost one child per minute. In high-risk areas, there’s more than one case per 1,000 people. Depending on who you talk to, insecticide-treated bednets prevent anywhere between 5% to 50% of cases, and efficacy is largely dependent on how consistently people use them. A vaccine–which requires no effort in patients beyond getting the initial shot–used in combination with bednets could prevent even more cases of the disease…

via The First Malaria Vaccine Could Be Available In A Year | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.

Thousands of years ago, China was a center of invention and innovation – paper, gunpowder, the compass. The last 200 years? Not so much. Since opening up in the 1980s, China has built a reputation as a fast-follower and violator of Western intellectual property. In his upcoming book, “The End of Copycat China”, author Shaun Rein examines this negative perception and argues that things are starting to change…

via Is China No Longer a Copycat? – Forbes

A Cambridge-based biotech company that has developed an experimental treatment for the Ebola virus is urging federal officials to consider allowing the unproven medication to be used on patients who have been infected in Africa’s deadly outbreak and brought to the United States for treatment.

Sarepta Therapeutics says it has enough doses of its injectible drug — AVI-7537 — to treat about two dozen patients within a week and could ramp up a supply for another 100 patients within a few months…

via Cambridge biotech Sarepta asks US to allow use of experimental Ebola drug – Health & wellness – The Boston Globe.

The outcry about the new hepatitis C drug Sovaldi has focused a lot on its price tag — $1,000 a pill and $84,000 total for a typical patient. But just how high is that price compared with other drugs on the market?

Via  Why the Price of Sovaldi Is a Shock to the System – NYTimes.com.

Allowing pharma companies to earn excessive profit is against the principles of morality and ethics, the National Consumer Commission has said…

Source:  Pharma firms earn excessively; govt asked to reduce MRP of | Business Standard News.