7 Thoughts On Today's Pharma & Biotech News

Seven thoughts: Shire’s purchase of Baxalta is emblematic of the shift in the drug industry. The company that popularized Adderall and help market the diagnosis of ADHD is now focused almost entirely on pricey, rare diseases, with an option on cancer. Vertex and Illumina both released relatively weak financial forecasts ahead of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. This could add to feelings that maybe healthcare investing has peaked, or at least become a realm for stock pickers. Which is exactly what everyone said at this time of year last year. There’s a lot of controversy on Illumina’s creation of a startup, GRAIL, that will aim to develop a screening test for cancer. At this point, you’re either basically betting on the track record of Jay Flatley and venture capitalist Robert Nelsen, or you’re waiting for more info. GRAIL is not competing with the dozens of other “liquid biopsy” companies. None are doing screening, and, as Antonio Regalado at Technology Review pointed out on Twitter yesterday, they can do that because they can use their own DNA sequencing products for cheaper than everyone else. Juno Therapeutics’ acquisition of AbVitro, a company spun out of the lab of Harvard genomics guru George Church, seems smart. The technology sounds like a great way to find new ways to make white blood cells attack cancer, and it’s clever that payments from Juno partner Celgene will help pay for the $100 m...
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news