Month: February 2018

26
Feb 2018

Bionest

Merger Mania

Back in January, one of our predictions for the year included a ramp up in M&A activities on all fronts, driven in part by corporate tax reductions that left many companies with plenty of cash for acquisitions. While news during Biotech Week SF — aka JPM18 — was sparser than we and others expected, that...
19
Feb 2018

Bionest

Reinventing Medical Affairs to the Benefit of All

The concept of patient-centric drug development has been a frequent topic of discussion in recent years. Increasingly, companies have moved to adopt practices that create more active, networked relationships and interactions between physicians, patients, advocates and drug developers. The aim of such practices is to better respond to patient and physician needs and concerns, while...
13
Feb 2018

Bionest

Enter the Giants: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan Take on Healthcare

Recent months have seen a series of corporate actions aimed at reconfiguring healthcare in the United States, beginning with drug store giant CVS’s bid in December 2017 to purchase Aetna, one of the country’s biggest insurers, for about $69 billion. This was followed on January 24 by Apple’s push into electronic healthcare records through an...
5
Feb 2018

Bionest

Lynparza — Extending Cancer Treatment Based on Underlying Genetic Cause

On January 12, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Lynparza (olaparib), the PARP inhibitor partnered by AstraZeneca and Merck, for the treatment of BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative advanced metastatic breast cancer.   The FDA’s action adds another cancer type for Lynparza; in late 2014 it was the first PARP inhibitor to be approved for use in...