Aduro Biotech announced a “strategic reset” in January 2019 that will see the Californian company center around two core pipeline programs, cut its headcount and focus on pharma partnerships. Stephen Isaacs, chair, president and CEO of the company, speaks to In Vivo about his vision for Aduro as the 2020s approach, and the challenges a smaller biotech faces when balancing multiple big pharma agreements.

It is time for In Vivo's 11th annual Deals of the Year contest. We've selected 18 nominees in three categories – Top Alliance, Top Financing and Top M&A – and you get to pick the winners. (It's free.)

It is time for In Vivo's 11th annual Deals of the Year contest. We've selected 18 nominees in three categories – Top Alliance, Top Financing and Top M&A – and you get to pick the winners. (It's free.)

Merck & Co.’s Keytruda is already elbowing its way into the top ten best-selling drugs. But it, and its expanding cohort of competitors, could be much bigger. Companies and investors are scrambling to identify the technology or technologies that can unlock checkpoint inhibitors’ potential in the 70% or more of tumors where they do not currently work. That activity is reflected across 2018’s licensing deals, M&A and financings.

Now that Project Data Sphere has established itself as a world-class data sharing platform, the group’s leadership is planning for its next phase of the struggle against cancer. Project Data Sphere's president Bill Louv talks to In Vivo about how the group has "raised the bar on what is possible to achieve in cancer research."

One day in the future, clinical studies may routinely be carried out in the virtual world, with patients mostly staying put at home instead of traveling to trial sites. For now, sponsors are experimenting with new models for drug development and taking it one step at a time.

An interactive look at recent executive-level company changes and promotions in the biopharma, medical device and diagnostics industries.

Ground-breaking M&A deals were largely absent from medtech industry schedules in 2018 – Boston’s BTG deal aside – but that does not mean consolidation of the medtech industry is slowing down. M&A deal numbers have been steady of late, even if aggregate deal value has declined in recent years. Digital transformation is a catalyst for a growing number of sector-transforming transactions.

With both a big pharma and biotech leadership perspective, David Meeker talks to In Vivo about how smaller firms can more easily fly solo in drug development, challenges effecting the innovative drug development sector in 2019 and the partnering environment for cell and gene therapy companies. 

The extra resources, time and expense that the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) will mean for companies in Europe has been a dominant theme since spring 2017, but the repercussions on non-European markets that rely on EU medtech legislation – in Asia, for example – are now coming to the fore, says regional medtech regulatory specialist Jack Wong. 

Payers cannot control the pricing of new products by biopharmaceutical companies, but their goal is to deliver quality health care in a cost-effective manner. Several payer medical directors representing over 100 million commercially insured members have shared their insights for managing the challenging US market – revealing their thoughts on drug pricing currently, and steps they plan to take in the next 3 to 5 years to better control rising costs.

In view of the political and regulatory threats and opportunities likely to emerge in 2019, for those in the medtech industry, it pays to be vigilant, advises ZS' Brian Chapman. And while some new tech entrants appear to represent a threat to established medtech players, their emergence in general promises significant opportunities for savings and innovation in health care. At the same time, there will likely be a short-term return to both old medtech industry values, and to major M&A.  

At $10.9bn, biopharma financing was at its lowest quarter of the year. GSK’s $5.1bn acquisition of oncology player Tesaro led M&As. And 13 partnerships exceeded the $1bn mark, led by two agreements focused on RNAi.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the deal-making column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced in January 2019.

Biotech companies raised more than $22bn via venture capital financing in 2018. With more cash to propel innovation and bolster R&D, traditional pharma and biotech partnering agreements are likely to evolve in the year ahead.