2012 was a Grand Cru year for the FDA with 39 NMEs approved
FDA approved 39 new molecular entities in 2012. This is the highest number in the last 10 years. However, approval rate is not a surrogate benchmark for the state of innovation given that it can take several years to bring a new drug or biologic to market.
January 2, 2013
Innovation in Action: helping people to see again
FDA approves first artificial retina prosthesis, the Argus II from Second Sight. This is not a bionic eye. To date, only crude images can be detected. There is no dramatic restoration of sight or vision, instead retinal prostheses currently only offer the ability to detect light and large shapes. Several companies and research groups including Bionic Vision Australia are working on innovative retinal prostheses that aim to restore some vision.
September 17, 2012
Creating an artificial jellyfish to model the human heart
Creation of an artificial jellyfish advances the potential to reverse engineer the human heart
August 20, 2012
The Potential of Gene Therapy to Restore Hearing Loss
Restoration of hearing in mice by gene transfer is a major breakthrough
August 14, 2012
Repetitive brain injury from high impact sports generates similar pathophysiology to traumatic brain injury in soldiers blown up by IEDs
Several retired American Football stars have ended up with chronic traumatic encephalophy (CTE). It’s similar to Alzheimer’s disease in that the brain ends up with neurofibrillary tangles. CTE has also been seen in soldiers who have experienced blast induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) from improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
May 21, 2012
TEDMED 2012: Francis Collins on how to brings drugs to market faster
It can take 14 years of research and the screening of 10,000 compounds to bring 1 new drug to market.
May 18, 2012
Innovation in Neurotechnology: how a paralyzed person uses thoughts to control a robotic arm
A tetraplegic (all four limbs paralyzed) is able to use her mind to control a robotic arm, 15 years after she became completely paralyzed & unable to speak.
May 16, 2012
A personal perspective on Alzheimer’s: my mother doesn’t dance anymore
I have a personal interest in Alzheimer’s disease. It’s an area where innovation needs to catch up with demand for treatment and therapies, not to treat it when it’s happened – it’s too late to untangle the damage, but to delay it’s occurrence in those at risk.
March 9, 2012
Implanted Wireless Microchip offers Osteoporosis Drug Delivery that improves patient Quality of Life
Robert Farra of MicroCHIPS, Inc. and research collaborators, describe a first-in-human testing of a wirelessly controlled drug delivery microchip.
February 20, 2012
Today is Innovation Day at Childrens Hospital Boston #iDay
Children’s Hospital Boston has an Innovation Acceleration Program focused on supporting “clinical care that impacts patients around the world.”
February 14, 2012
Blocking Sema4D may be a new osteoporosis target
Research published in the November 2011 issue of the journal Nature Medicine has highlighted a new potential target for osteoporosis drug development that acts on osteoblasts and promotes bone formation.
November 10, 2011
Discovering the cause of Lou Gehrig’s disease
Scientists from Northwestern University in Chicago report findings that could help develop drugs for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
August 31, 2011
Can we halt memory loss as we get older?
New research offers the hope that in the future we may be able to reverse or slow-down the age-related memory loss and cognitive defects we would otherwise experience.
August 26, 2011
Innovation – should companies take bigger risks and outsource pharma R&D?
"Rather than do research in house, companies should close their labs and outsource the work to tiny, nimble startups that can explore bigger, crazier ideas.”
August 3, 2011
How we may be able to rebuild The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man was fiction, but it is becoming closer to reality as a result of new research into how artificial limbs can integrate with human tissues
July 11, 2011
How does sunburn cause pain?
Research by John Dawes and colleagues at King’s College London & University College London has shed new light on how sunburn causes pain.
July 8, 2011
Regenerative Medicine: Tissue Engineered Airway Transplant
Researchers from University College London led by Prof. Alexander Seifalian designed and built a polymer based nanocomposite tracheal scaffold, which was then seeded with the patient’s own stem cells.
July 7, 2011
Science Translational Medicine on Innovation – part 1
With an image of Rodin’s bronze “The Thinker” on its cover suggesting deep thought and insight, the journal "Science Translational Medicine" analyzes the state of innovation.
July 7, 2011
Will the future offer artificial retina transplants?
A Nature article shows, for the first time, the ability to generate a three-dimensional culture of neural retinal tissue from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells.
April 29, 2011
The future of Parkinson’s disease, part 2 of an interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Chief Program Officer, Michael J Fox Foundation
"The understanding of the genetics of Parkinson’s will certainly form the building blocks of some future breakthroughs. Now that we have very tangible therapeutic targets that we know can cause Parkinson’s, it makes a much more rational directed drug development program."
April 8, 2011
Making a difference to Parkinson’s Disease Research, an interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Michael J Fox Foundation
"The goal of the foundation, the goal of all the research that we are supporting is to develop new therapies for Parkinson’s disease patients."
March 31, 2011
Of Mice and Men
The March 17, 2011 edition of Nature, highlights how innovative preclinical animal models are having an impact on drug development.
March 25, 2011
Technology Innovation – the challenges and opportunities with robotic surgery
At the European Association of Urology (EAU) annual congress in Vienna, Associate Professsor Axel Merseburger from Hannover in Germany discussed some of the challenges with robotic surgery for prostatectomy or partial nepthrectomy.
March 19, 2011
Argus III is the next generation of artificial retina from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have produced an excellent video about their manufacturing of the Argus™ III artificial retina.
March 14, 2011
Artificial Retina Project shows power of collaboration to bring new products to market
The Artificial Retina Project is a case study on the success of collaboration.
March 14, 2011
New artificial retina restores some visual perception and improves autonomy
Detecting a door or a window may not be a big deal for all of us with normal vision, but for those who lose their sight, e.g. through retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a new "artificial retina" now provides hope of a better quality of life.
March 8, 2011
Targeting Sclerostin in Osteoporosis
Sclerostin is a protein produced by osteocytes within bone that inhibits bone formation. It is thought to pass through the surface of bone where it acts on osteoblasts (cells responsible for bone formation). There it binds to low-density lipoprotein receptors and inhibits the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling involved in bone mass regulation.
March 10, 2011
Merck’s cathepsin-K inhibitor odanacatib in osteoporosis
Cathepsin-K inhibition is a novel approach to osteoporosis treatment and Merck's odanacatib is leading the way in this new class of drugs.
February 11, 2011
Emerging drugs in development for Osteoporosis
The market opportunity for osteoporosis remains significant, affecting 44 million people in the United States over the age of 50, resulting in healthcare costs in excess of $15 billion a year.
February 8, 2011
New research points to role of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Signaling in Emphysema
Developing drugs that target cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) protein and mediate ceramide may have an important role to play in the treatment of emphysema
January 10, 2011