Dozens of health care-focused special purpose acquisition corporations have gone public during the past two years but many biopharma firms that have merged with SPACs have not performed well to date, raising the question of how long the SPAC boom will last.

Following a busy year for point of care diagnostics, the industry is facing a period of consolidation. The drive for new technologies is being countered by regulatory and financial issues.

Biopharma is entering a new period of intense competition from new sources, requiring a change in approach to portfolio strategy and lifecycle management.

Young businesses are getting set to disrupt every inch of the healthcare space with digital twin technology. Outlook spoke to two startups on the brink of a data dawn.

The In Vivo team recently put a spotlight on innovation that might disrupt the pharma and medtech markets. Thinking about novel developments today that will impact the life sciences sector in the near future, we explored interesting new science, the convergence of R&D and technology, as well as what the future of surgery might look like.

An increasing number of sophisticated tools are on offer to address new therapeutic challenges and remaining unmet needs.

Uwe Schoenbeck, CSO of external science and innovation at Pfizer, knows the company set itself a high bar during the COVID-19 pandemic after rapidly bringing a breakthrough vaccine to market. While the circumstances for the development of Comirnaty were truly unique, Pfizer does not expect to rest on its laurels when it comes to innovative R&D.

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor says the generics and biosimilars giant’s focus and strategy remain “unchanged” in the wake of a long-awaited announcement by parent company Novartis that it is exploring its options for the Sandoz business.

From pre-med to pharma lab rat to deputy director of operations at the FDA, Khushboo Sharma, a 2021 In Vivo Rising Leader and current VP of science and regulatory affairs at BIO, has spent her career pursuing a goal she says the FDA and biopharma industry have in common: ensuring that innovative drugs get to patients. 

From innovation to legislation, the US audiology market is being shaped by cutting-edge technology from device makers and legislation from the Biden administration to get more hearing aids to those that need them.

Alexander Natz, secretary general of EUCOPE, warns that changes to a pricing and reimbursement system that has so far worked well, particularly for orphans, could dissuade advanced therapy medicinal products manufacturers from launching in Germany.

Boston Consulting Group began writing the third iteration of its report on next-generation commercial models to meet evolving medtech customer needs before COVID struck. But it findings and recommendations were even more relevant once the report – dubbed Milkman 3.0  ̶  was finally released in spring 2021, when learnings from the pandemic were being factored in by the medtech industry.

After an extraordinary year that saw demand patterns and the supply chain upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a major merger that has transformed one of the global off-patent industry’s biggest players, Generics Bulletin’s Top 50 has once again seen significant changes.

Six $1bn+ alliances were penned in October. Topping the list was a potential $3.6bn deal between Poseida Therapeutics and Takeda to utilize Poseida's genetic engineering platforms for the research and development of up to eight gene therapies. The collaboration will focus on non-viral in vivo gene therapy programs, including Poseida's preclinical hemophilia A program P-FVIII-101. Poseida will lead research activities up to candidate selection, after which Takeda will assume responsibility for further exclusive global development and commercialization.

In Vivo's 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 October 2021. Data provided by Biomedtracker.