Deals show large investors’ appetite for early-stage biotech, but can VC and PE rub along?

Following a year marked by aggressive pricing pressures weighing down on revenues and margins – pressures that “intensified beyond historical norms and our recent expectations,” as one company put it – the first quarter of 2022 provided some green shoots of optimism, albeit for companies that have been able to shift resources to more complex assets.

Publisher's Spotlight: Leading global growth investor Warburg Pincus has acquired Informa’s Pharma Intelligence unit, the publisher of In Vivo.

Companies such as Novartis, Roche or Takeda are heavily invested in the advanced therapeutics field, usually spreading their bets across multiple modalities. The remaining challenges offer opportunities for the next wave of innovation to transform the field once again and make a dent in the larger market of common diseases and solid tumors.

Sanofi's Nestle talked to In Vivo about the company's early pipeline, the emerging technologies he thinks are most promising, and tapping external innovation.

Flagship products like Dexcom’s G7 and Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre 3 offer currently unrivalled accuracy of blood glucose measurement. However, as truly noninvasive technologies improve, the future basis for these companies’ growth is on shaky ground.

The role and purpose of medical device regulation is now better understood than at any time in its history, and regulators are no longer seen as gatekeepers preventing business from happening. In Vivo Rising Leader 2022 Graeme Tunbridge, formerly at the MHRA and now a senior VP at BSI, is a champion of the climate of inclusivity.

Sanofi's Nestle talked to In Vivo about the company's early pipeline, the emerging technologies he thinks are most promising, and tapping external innovation.

Royal Philips’ seventh annual Future Health Index report paints a picture of health care systems in mid-transformation but cautions that digital tools must fully serve health care practitioners and not add to their daily burden.

Russia and Ukraine had been key players in the pharma markets of Central Asian and surrounding countries before the launch of the Russian invasion into its neighbor on 24 February. Because of this, both countries are poised to give ground in this growing regional market.

Pharmaceutical leaders are responding to the many and varied challenges arising from the war in Ukraine.

With pricing pressures already creeping up in recent years, 2022 is set to see the generics industry caught in the middle as prices are further squeezed while costs continue to rise. As major players prepare to announce their first-quarter financial results, In Vivo looks at views from industry leaders on how these pressures are affecting their businesses, and how they can be expected to play out.

In the top May alliance by deal value, Amphista Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb aim to discover and develop targeted small-molecule protein degraders by leveraging Amphista's proprietary Eclipsys platform. BMS gets exclusive global rights to resulting products. Amphista will receive a $30M upfront payment, up to $1.25B in performance-based milestone payments, payment for a limited expansion of the collaboration, as well as royalties on global net sales.

Ukraine’s medical supply needs have evolved since Russia launched its military invasion of the country on 24 February. EU healthcare decision makers and the medical technology industry have stood firm in their support of the besieged country, said MedTech Europe’s Jesús Rueda.

Increasing scrutiny is being placed on trial sponsors and regulators to improve trial data reporting. Researchers complain that, without access to specific data, results cannot be easily duplicated, which inhibits greater understanding of how medicines might work, adversely affecting treatment decisions and health care costs. Are penalties and public reprimands enough to change behavior?