The Big Red Biotech Blog

Happy Halloween

For those of you who like to watch scary movies in the Dark.  A few of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

Directed by Brian DePalma and starring Sissy Spacek supported by her really scary Mother - Piper Laurie. With the Greatest Amercian Hero, William Katt, John Travolta and Nancy Allen (DePalma's eventual wife), and the sweet Amy Irving.  

 

 

 

 

It still gives me the willies - even just hearing tubular bells theme song. I've seen this the fewest times as a result.                 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite one from Alfred Hitchcock.  And still tough to top today for suspense and creepiness - just think Tony Perkins.  And who could ever believe Janet Leigh would go in the first reel?

Like Mother, like daughter.  Both iconic figures of horror genre - likely not something they aimed for at the time.  Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtiss.

 

Finally, another couple stars cross over into the horror game later in their careers - Gregory Peck and Lee Remick - and both meet their demise.  I still jump during grave yard scene with the dogs.

 
Posted by Bruce Lehr October 31st.

Feds Amicus Brief in Myriad

The Forbes Healthcare blog has a post commenting on the the Government's amicus brief filed in the Myriad case and supports the Government's reasoning in now supporting the notion that isolated DNA sequences should NOT be patent eligible. 

The Forbes guest writer, Steven Salzberg, applauds the Government for its unusually clear scientific/legal reasoning.  In their amicus brief, the Justice Department wrote:

“the unique chain of chemical base pairs that induces a human cell to express a BRCA protein is not a ‘human-made invention.’ Nor is the fact that particular natural mutations in that unique chain increase a woman’s chance of contracting breast or ovarian cancer. Indeed, the relationship between a naturally occurring nucleotide sequence and the molecule it expresses in a human cell – that is, the relationship between genotype and phenotype – is simply a law of nature. The chemical structure of native human genes is a product of nature, and it is no less a product of nature when that structure is ‘isolated’ from its natural environment than are cotton fibers that have been separated from cotton seeds.”

The author concludes, No one should have exclusive rights to a gene that occurs naturally in a human, another animal, a plant, or any other living species. It remains an open question as to how the Government's change in position will affect the next round of this case.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 31st.

Myriad Appeal Explained by Patent Doc blog

For those of you who are legal junkies, and you know who you are, the Patent Doc blog breaks down the major arguments presented by Myriad in its appeal of Judge Sweet's District Court decision to invalidate patents relating to BRCA 1&2 - ruling that isolated gene sequences was not patent eligible as it ran afoul of prohibitions on patenting "laws of nature".

Myriad makes a whole series of arguments attacking standing of plaintffs, jurisdictional decisions made by the District Court, as well as arguments on merit - including citations of the recent Bilski v. Kappos decision that came after the Myriad/University of Utah verdict.

What is not covered in this summary/analysis is the Government's [subsequent] decision to file an amicus brief that backs the notion that isolated DNA should not be patentable - in opposition to longstanding practice of the USPTO.  The article notes the USPTO has issued 2,645 patents with claims to "isolated DNA."  The Government's brief did back the Myriad position that manipulated DNA could be patentable.

There will be enough fun to go around for everyone on this one!

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 31st 2010.

CLE on Whole Genome Sequencing Coming Soon

From the Patent Doc blog, an announcement of an upcoming course examining whole genome sequencing and gene patents. The one-hour webinar is entitled "Whole-Genome Sequencing v. Gene Patents: The Coming Showdown" and will be held on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 beginning at 2:00 PM (ET). 

The  webinar will address the question:  when sequencing all or a portion of an individual's genome, are individual gene patents infringed upon by either the company providing the sequence, a company selling software to analyze the sequence, or the individual purchasing or requesting it? 

The registration fee for the webinar is $100 (government and academic rates are available upon request).  Those interested in registering for the webinar, can do so here. 

Given the Government's filing of an amicus brief in the Myriad gene case, and its announcement that it will reverse its long-standing position favoring gene patents, this CLE program would seem to be particularly pertinent.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

Does J&J Keep its "Magic Touch" going with Crucell Manufacturing?

 

 

 

J&J has been under fire for months due to a series of serious manufacturing problems and phantom recalls with some of its flagship consumer brands such as Tylenol and Motrin. Senior executives have resigned or been replaced in the wake of these problems and consumer confidence in the brand has been shaken.

Now, J&J reports that its big $2.41 B move into the vaccine market through its pending acquisition of Crucell has uncovered some addtional manufacturing problems. Crucell NV of The Netherlands said it is temporarily holding all shipments of two vaccines at its Shingal facility because of possible contamination.

Crucell is a major vaccine supplier to UNICEF and developing countries. It also develops medicines that use antibodies to zero in on organisms causing infectious diseases. It currently sells vaccines targeting respiratory infections, diseases that strike children and travelers, and diseases common in developing countries, such as malaria, cholera and typhoid.

J&J is now looking into possible contamination issues at Crucell's South Korean drug facility.  Maybe Crucell can return the favor by looking into happenings at J&J's Ft. Washington plant.

Can't anybody play this game?  

 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

Feds position: No More Gene Patents for You!

As reported in the NY Times late yesterday, the Federal Government has reversed its position with regard to th eallowability of gene patents in an amicus brief filing in support of the court's decision in the Myriad BRCA case earlier this year.

“We acknowledge that this conclusion is contrary to the longstanding practice of the Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the practice of the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies that have in the past sought and obtained patents for isolated genomic DNA,” the brief said.

This is no small thing for the government to reverse a decades old position.  It remains to be seen if the position in the government's brief will be immediately put into effect in the US Patent Office. The Patent and Trademark Office has issued thousands of patents on genes of various organisms, including on an estimated 20 percent of human genes. 

In its brief, the government said it now believed that the mere isolation of a gene, without further alteration or manipulation, does not change its nature.  The government does still support the notion that patents can be obtained for further manipulations of genes. The Times article suggests that lawyers at the USPTO did not agree with the goverment's position in its amicus brief but were overruled.  No USPTO lawyers appear on the government's filing.  Nothing like good solid consensus on a major policy issue.

 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 2010.

Genzyme Faces Strategic Pricing Decision on Campath?

 

 

 

 

This is a really interesting post (at least to me) from the WSJ Health Blog. It asks the provocative question "Is 'Free' the best price for Genzyme's Campath in cancer?"

Normally, pricing decisions are made with respect to considerations like revenue and profit generation, ROI, competition, etc.  In this case, we also have a big question as to how Campath pricing in the cancer segment affects its pricing and revenue potential in the MS market --- and most importantly how that affects its contributions to Genzyme's overall value.  Genzyme's perceived value is critical to the ultimate offer that Sanofi will put forward for the company and presumably will affect the Genzyme board's and shareholder's willingness to accept a given price (which may not be same price by the way!).

 The WSJ post discusses if it might make most sense for Genzyme to give away Campath for free to patients with a rare B-cell leukemia under "compassionate use", in order to maximze its price to MS patients.  The MS price is only projected to be about $7000 annually which compares very favorably with other MS treatments that cost $30,000.  The compassionate use mechanism could allow Genzyme to make sure it gets its price for MS to prevent physicians from prescribe it off label as if going to a "cancer" patient to reduce price to MS patients.

Since this decision is going to affect, revenues, profits and likely the acquisition price of the company - not to mention patients, it's not trivial.  I find that set of circumstances very interesting.

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

 

ACRO asks for more FDA funding to boost Overseas Inspections

The Association of Contract Research Organizations (ACRO) wants more funding for the FDA to allow it to be much more active in the oversight of foreign clinical trials.  ACRO would like to see the FDA budget to fund these inspections be increased to $35 M (seems small to me to regulate multi-billion industry).

ACRO's vice president of public affairs, John Lewis said, “We think this should come from increased appropriations for FDA, even in the current difficult budget environment.”  This would require a big increase on the $17m (seems very inadequate to me) currently allocated for the FDA’s the Office of International Programs (OIP) in fiscal 2011.

Lewis indicated that ACRO would also like to see the FDA and EMA become increasingly active in sharing their expertise with regulatory agencies aroudn the world. He noted that drug development is now a "global enterprise."

Previous posts detail how few foreign clinical trials and manufacturing inspections for APIs the FDA is able to perform given current resources. 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

CEOs Surveyed on Promise of Therapeutic Discovery Tax Credit

Previously, I've published an update from GEN on the progress being made with applications for the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project tax credit that was a $1 B fund set up as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (healthcare reform) passed in March.

As a further update, MNT published a BIO survey of 125 CEOs from small to medium biotechs (this tax credit is avaialble to companies with <250 employees) as to their perceptions of the Project's value. The consensus opinion is that the program is a big benefit to the US Biotech industry and should be continued. 

Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of BIO said  "America is the world leader in biotech, and we hope Congress will consider extending and expanding this program to support American innovation and speed the development of life-saving cures."

Here are some key reponses from the survey:

• 75% CEOs say tax credit will have positive effect on job sustainability in the US
• 72% say it will help US biotech's global competitiveness
• 76% say it will advance life saving cures and therapies
• 67% say it will help them create more jobs and hire more staff
• 30% say they can maintain current employment levels which would not happen otherwise

I've stated before that I think that it is good public policy for the US Government to provide tax incentives for investment and support in the  biotech industry to help it maintain a World leadership position.  Recipients for this last round of tax credits will be announced sometime next week and I'll follow up on that here.

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

 

 

GSK closes another "Rare Disease" deal with Amicus for Fabry's Disease

Previously, GSK announced its intention to focus on new treatments for up to 200 rare diseases. Last week, it announced agreements with Fondazione Telethon and Fondazione San Raffaele for a novel gene therapy treatment for ADA Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. 

Yesterday, GSK announced another deal with Amicus Therapeutics for its treatment, Amigal, for Fabry's Disease.  Fabry's is an inherited disease that affects between 5000 and 10,000 patients worldwide. Fabry's has been in the news a lot in the past year due to Genzyme's inability to fully supply its enzyme-replacement treatment for the disease because of manufacturing problems in its torubled Allston plant.

GSK will pay Amicus $60 M upfront and the deal included milestone payments up to another $170 M.  GSK also took the opportunity to bring its stock position with Amicus up to 19.9% ownership. Amigal is now in phase III trials and GSK gains global rights to develop, manufacture and distribute.  Amicus-GSK will explore combining Amigal with enzyme replacment therapy as part of their study.  Amigal represents a first in class attempt of an oral medication for Fabry's. See Fierce Biotech.

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

Recipe of the Month - October

I picked this one up out of the NY Times a few weeks ago and gave it a try.  It was easy to prepare and I thought turned out quite well - even my son liked it!

Spaghetti Squash Gratin with Basil

• 1 spaghetti squash, about 3 lbs
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup low-fat milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (1/4 cup of leaves)
• 2 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

Here we go - we're off. 

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.  Pierce squash in several places with sharp knife - be careful please.  Cover baking sheet with foil and place squash on top. Bake for 1 hour, turning squash every 20 minutes until it is soft and easy to cut. Remove from heat and allow it to cool.  Cut in half lengthwise and allow further cooling. Don't burn yourself!  Remove seeds (with spoon) and discard.  Scoop out flesh into large bowl.  I scrape with fork to separate into strands as I remove flesh. Chop strands of squash coarsely.  Measure out 4 cups for recipe.  You can retain and left over for another dish if desired (or freeze).
2. Oil/grease 2-quart gratin or baking dish.  Heat olive oil in large, heavy skillet at medium and add onion. Cook until tender for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and a generous pinch of salt.  Cook, stirring for about 30 seconds.  Add the squash. Cook about five minutes until squash is a bit more tender. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
3. Beat eggs in large bowl with milk, salt, pepper and basil. Stir in squash mixture and grated Gruyere cheese. Mix well. Scrape contents of bowl into the greased baking dish.  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top.
4. Bake 40-45 minutes until nicely browned.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.  Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.  I think it was best when served hot.

Yield: Serves 6 as main dish (pushing it in my view), eight as a side.

Nutritional info (six servings): 172 calories, 9 grams fat, 3 grams saturated fat, 119 milligrams cholesterol, 16 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams dietary fiber, 139 milligrams sodium; 9 grams protein.  

I served with mixed greens and glass of Ruffino Chianti Classico. It was just Gourd-geous!

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 30th 2010.

 

Sanofi's Latest Move - Let's Have a Campath Working Group

Sanofi used its earnings call as a forum to restate that it has no interest at this time in upping its $69 per share bid for Genzyme.  They say they need more information from a due diligence process to justify and bid change.  Genzyme still refuses to engage in such talks at a bid price of $69 per share - rumors indicate that it will take at least $75 per share to get them to engage in discussions.

Sanofi has now suggested that a small working group be formed to look at potential earnings of Genzyme's lead candidate MS drug, Campath.  This could be viewed as a modified due diligence request as projected Campath revenues are a large basis for the rosy modified projections that Genzyme showed at its conference call last week.  In it, Genzyme revised its 2011 EPS figure to $4.30 to $4.60 per share up by 20% over consensus analysts estimates.  See WSJ Health Blog.

For those further interested in reading about "inside the game" strategies that could be employed by both sides, I recommend checking out the WSJ Deals blog story.  It would appear that December 10th looms as a big date on the calendar.  Genzyme could try to bring in a white knight candidate at the 11th hour to confound the negotiations and make it even more expensive for Sanofi to remove such a bidder. Or alternatively, if such a bidder is not there, Sanofi can threaten to walk from negotiations at that point and we can all watch where the stock goes then.  Sanofi could also try a proxy fight early in the year at Genzyme's shareholder meeting. High stakes poker prevails.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 29th 2010.

 

Pharma Exec's Top Supply Chain Worries

The PharmaTech Talk blog summarizes a new report from PricewaterhouseCooper and Axendia entitled, Achieving Global Supply Chain Visibility, Control & Collaboration in Life Sciences: Business Imperative, Regulatory Necessity.

The groups surveyed 112 executives from pharma, medical device and biotechnology sectors.  Fifty-percent (50%) of respondents said the biggest area of risk was raw materials sourced outside the US, with sixty-one percent (61%) indicating contaminated or nonconforming raw materials was the top threat in the next 5 years.

Visibility into their suppliers supply chains is limited. Seventy-seven percent (77%) said period audits was their primary means of gaining this information. Only 25% said they shared best practices with suppliers, and a very tiny 3% have any real time data from the supply chain. This would seem to be an opportunity for suppliers to gain advantage by delivering against this need.

With regard to track and trace and serialization technologies, as a means to gain supply chain control, respondents said their current hurdles to implementing this technology are cost, difficulty of implementation; lack of standards, and lack of regulatory requirements and guidance.

As mentioned many times in this blog, SAFC instituted a raw material characterization program approximatley 2 years ago to enhance the analytical and biological characterization of raw materials used in industrial cell culture biomanufacturing and development. The program is clearly aimed at identifying problems with key raw materials that would affect product performance and to fix those issues to deliver increased product performance and consistency.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 28th 2010.

PhRMA says Puerto Rico's new Tax will Hurt Innovation

Puerto Rico passed a new tax bill over this past weekend that will tax off-shore multi-national companies that earn $75 M or more per year.  The law was passed in an effort to recoup lost revenues due to a recession in the Island's economy since 2006.

PhRMA President was quick to respond stating that the new law will "dramatically hinder PhRMA member companies positive efforts within Puerto Rico."  He stated that future investment was likely to slow as well as new job creation. He further criticized lack of transparency in passing the law without prior public comment.  Transparent tax policies were cited as being critical to PhRMA members to create innovation. This law's passage is seen as being counter to fostering innovation and could further hurt the island's economy.  See in-pharmatechnologist.com)

 

 

 

See PhRMA statement on Puerto Rico's new law.  

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 28th 2010.

Some Good News for Myriad - Abbott Testing Deal

Fierce Biotech reports that Myriad Genetics and Abbott have struck a testing deal where Myriad will perform genetic testing on breast cancer patients. The testing will help Abbott identify the patient populations who likely will respond to drugs under test in clinicals. Abbott declined to name the drugs.

Myriad of course has been in the news a lot this year due to Judge Sweet's ruling that several parts of the patents it had licensed as the basis for its breast cancer testing service were invalid.  Myriad filed an appeal to this decision late last week.

This new deal injected some life into Myriad's stock price which went up 3.2% on the news.  There were also takeover rumors in the market as Myriad was described as "more of a potential takeover candidate" due to the Abbott deal and other similar deals it has in place.

 

 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 28th 2010.

Immune Design Receives $212 M Boost from Adjuvant Deal

Yesterday Immune Design reported that it had concluded a licensing deal with MedImmune for $212 M giving the latter rights to use Immune Design's glucopyranosyl lipid A (or GLA-adjuvant) in vaccine preparations against RSV, Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus.  This is Immune Design's first licensing deal and it comes with a partner that has had real success in the past with its vaccine Synagis versus RSV. 

"The money is important, but what's more important is that someone very interested in developing new vacccines recognizes the necessity of putting our adjuvant in their vaccine," said Bruce Carter, executive chairman of Immune Design.

Novel adjuvants, like GLA, can be expected to be increasingly used with the newest rounds of vaccines being developed for the market to boost immune response.   GLA is supposed to bos the effectiveness of vaccines in a cheaper, more reproducible, and more scalable fashion than previous generations of adjuvants. See Fierce Biotech and Xconomy.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 28th 2010.

Roche Breaks from the Herd

We seem to be able to count on Roche to pursue plans to differentiate itself from the herd.  Unlike many of its competitors who have stated an intention to pursue generics as diversification strategy (see previous post), Roche will remain true to its roots providing innovative medicines.  It plans to expand its historic franchise in oncology drugs to include new medicines in inflammation, CNS disease, and metabolic disorders.

Roche firmly rejects the idea of "diversifying" into generic drugs, consumer health or animal health.  Says CEO Severin Schwann, "A lot of people call it diversification. I call it giving up. Call me biased, but I really believe we have one of the best industry pipelines."  That's the spirit of leadership!

Roche still spends 21% of its revenues on R&D, and 57%of their current revenues come from oncology drugs.  The new shift to the three therapeutic areas mentioned above will require Roche to form some partnerships when it comes time to go to market - basically sales force deals to access physicians beyond its base of oncology specialists.

Says Schwann, "We go where science takes us."  He also talks about Roche retaining its faith in innovation - which already separates it from many of its following rivals. (See FT.com).

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 28th 2010.

 

Big Pharma Herd: Diversify, It's the Wave of the Future

InPharm reported on a Roland Berger (RB) Strategy Consultants survey of leading pharmaceutical company executive's views of the current business environment, their firm's business model, and implications for their future strategic response.  RB characterized "diversification" as the most popular intended response by surveyed companies and listed three ways to accomplish this - innovation, integrate and de-risk - with the latter two being most popular.

This is what I'm alluding to as the herd mentality in my headline - basically the majority are opting for the less differentiated strategy and avoiding the tougher innovation strategy - which is likely to be more valuable.  Let's look at the survey.  RB went to 25 companies, with more than 40% of WW revenues, including 7 of the top 10 companies, and interviewed 50 executives iincluding CEOs and board members.

The survey says:

• 65% characterized the industry as being in "strategic crisis"
• 67% see diverisification as the answer (I just want to say one word to you. Plastics! )
• 78% perceived generics to be the most important area for diversification (somebody ought to alert PhRMA!)
• This one blew me away.  Almost 50% expect anegative ROI on their current R&D investment and are losing faith in traditional patent-based protection
• The industry expects margins for innovative products to come under attack by goverment managed healthcare
• R&D will not bring required level of returns with companies outsourcing to cut costs

The prediction then was that the industry would become more diverse - ranging from highly focused innovative players to fully integrated healthcare conglomerates.  It seems most are opting for the conglomerate model at this juncture - and are focusing towards generics - I don't see how 65% of the industry can go that route and all survive. Now it's a race to see who can move to conglomerate status first to stake out a position that may be defendable before the herd comes charging along.

I'm reminded of the Ernst & Young Pharma 3.0 report earlier this year that addressed perceived changes the industry would need to make going forward and defined the challenge thusly,

The core of this industry has been innovation and it will stay innovation, but the bulk of the money and the effort has been in the innovation of the product pipeline. What we are seeing going forward is the need for innovation of the commercial model in order to be able to respond to the mega changes of healthcare reform globally.

The consultants say innovation of the business model. The bulk of the industry players prefers cost cutting and product innovation toward generics.  Where is the disconnect here among the herd?

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 26th 2010.

 

 

 

 

Value-based Pricing to Kick NICE to the Curb

Well NICE, it's time to move over for value-based pricing in the UK.  The UK's Health Minister, Lord Howe, today confirmed that NICE will be gracefully shoved to the side as conservatives get their way.  NICE will now move into a non-binding "advisory" capacity in passing on its cost-effectiveness reports to the NHS as it considers drug reimbursement questions.

Lord Howe tactfully indicated that NICE's clinical cost-effectiveness advice was "very, very important" but then followed up that we will move onto our own value-based pricing system.  So, NICE is now an "advisor" that will be "replaced" with a new system.  Lord Howe also admitted that NICE was "redundant" as the new system emerges.

The current PPRS (can Brits have anymore acronyms) pricing system will be maintained until 2013.  At that time, look for NICE to be moved out of the pricing business and into more of a group that assesses "quality standards"  Kick!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 26th 2010.

 

 

India Stands Up for Generic Meds Versus EU Seizures

The MNT reports that India's Trade Minister, Anand Sharma, believes the India-EU dispute over generic drug seizures will be settled without litigation - despite the fact that Brazil and India filed a legal challenge over seizures in May with the World Trade Organization.

India remains firm in its commitment to manufacture and export generic drugs to poor and developing nations.  It will not consider terms in any EU trade pact that would limit access to these life-saving medications in these countries.  Clearly, India is positioning itself versus the Multi-national drug companies and sees itself as a champion for the little guy.

"It is very clear that the generics ensured availability at affordable prices of these medicines to poor patients in poor countries is breaking the suffocating stranglehold of the multinational companies," Sharma said.

A spokesman for the EU stated the EU is fully committed to ensuring access of affordable medicines to the developing world and that nothing in the proposed trade agreement would limit India's ability to produce and export medicines in acordance with the TRIPs agreement.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 26th 2010.

 

Myriad Appeals Gene Patent Ruling

Myriad Genetics filed its appeal last week of the Judge Sweet decision to invalidate parts of several patents with regard to BRCA1 and BRCA2.  Enforcement of the patents is critical to Myriad's testing business for ovarian and breast cancers.

In bringing suit, Myriad argues that Sweet's ruling "imperils the entire biotechnology industry -- molecular diagnostics, therapeutic drugs, agricultural applications, animal husbandry, etc."  In other words, it's bad. Myriad still maintains that the material and methods embodied in their patent are substantially different than those found in the body.  Sweet had ruled them invalid as the patents were attempting to cover a "product of nature" - which is a no-no under patent law.

We now enter the appeals process in earnest.  This is certainly an expected consequence of Sweet's ruling.  My reading of the opinions of legal commentators on the subject leads me to believe that the majority think the Sweet ruling won't hold up on appeal.  Either way, one could expect ultimately for an appeal to be filed with the Supreme court.

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 26th 2010.

 

 

More on Sam the Sham

I learned from Reuter's today that Sam Waksal was ranked by Time Magazine in the No. 7 slot in the Top 10 Crooked CEO's of All-Time.  The leader in the clubhouse is of course Bernie Madoff.  As the Pharmalot blog asks today, "Would you invest with this Man?"

Apparently investors in Japan and China would.  And, Sam claims that all his VC friends deal with him "as if I wasn't gone a day".  Now there's something to brag about.  It speaks highly of his VC friends as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe just a a little thinner after prison and of course is now bald and clean shaven. 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 26th 2010.

 

 

 

They're Hiring at Xconomy San Francisco

 

 

 

I enjoy reading Xconomy as one of the best on-line publications for information on the business side of Life Sciences and Technology. It seems they are hiring for their Bay Area beat.

We're Hiring at Xconomy San Francisco.

I thought I'd give them a shout out.

 

 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 25th 2010.

 

Sam the Sham sings "Little Red Riding Hood"

Here you go - one of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs best known hits

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 25th 2010.

Biogen Rumored to Restructure Soon

According to Reuters, new Biogen Idec CEO George Scangos is drafting plans to restructure the company to enable it to be more competitive in the future.  The paln is said to include staff reductions, facility consolidations and the termination of non-core R&D programs. In other words, they will implement the "Big Pharma cost savings strategy" .

Last week, Biogen announced a restructuring of its deal with Genentech on its MS drug ocrelizumab whereby Genetech will take over costs and responsibilities for clinical trials. Biogen will retain about a 30% interest in future revenues.  Biogen can expect more competition in the MS arena as both Genzyme and Sanofi reported positive results from the clinics last week. Biogen's Tysabri also has had some well chronicled problems with safety that have hampered its MS revenues.

Look for restructuring to commence soon. 

 

 

 

Posted by Bruce Lehr October 25th 2010.