Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products

Posts tagged ‘Science Translational Medicine’

Implanted Wireless Microchip offers Osteoporosis Drug Delivery that improves patient Quality of Life

By on February 20, 2012

Contrary to popular opinion, innovation is not dead in the biomedical industry, as evidenced by news of a novel drug-delivery system published as a Rapid Publication in Science Translational Medicine (STM) on February 16, 2012.

The paper from Robert Farra of MicroCHIPS, Inc. and research collaborators, describes a first-in-human testing of a wirelessly controlled drug delivery microchip.

Farra et al., report the results of a clinical trial with 8 women in whom microchips were implanted for 103 days. The data showed that the pharmacokinetic profile of microgram-quantities of the anti-osteoporosis drug, teriparatide (FORSTEO), delivered by the microchip was similar to subcutaneous injections.  However, the device did fail in one of the 8 women, so data is only reported for 7 patients, a very small patient sample.

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Innovation – should companies take bigger risks and outsource pharma R&D?

By on August 3, 2011

According to a forthcoming article published in Forbes, excerpts of which appear on Matthew Herper’s blog “The Medicine Show,” big pharma should take bigger risks and outsource R&D to smaller, innovative companies.

At least that’s the philosophy of Bernard Munos, the former Lilly sales executive who has focused on the innovation problems faced by the pharmaceutical industry. According to Forbes, he believes that big pharma should “cut research and development” and “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.”

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Innovation is seeing round the corners

By on July 12, 2011

Innovation involves insight that allows you to see around the corners. That’s the perspective according to Andrew Marks, Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center, who recently wrote a Commentary on Innovation in Science Translational Medicine.

Entitled “Repaving the Road to Biomedical Innovation Through Academia”, Professor Marks’ commentary captures the reader’s attention in the first sentence:

“The path to biomedical innovation requires a synthesis of seemingly unrelated observations.”

He goes on to say, “innovation requires joining the pieces to solve the puzzle.”

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Science Translational Medicine on Innovation – part 1

By on July 7, 2011

F1.medium 235x300 Science Translational Medicine on Innovation part 1With an image of Rodin’s bronze “The Thinker” on its cover suggesting deep thought and insight, Science Translational Medicine (STM) analyzes the state of innovation in its June 29 issue.

STM states (without any authority) that “A powerful perception that innovation has stagnated persists in the biomedical research community.” STM asks, “Why have remarkable advances in basic biological science been so slow to be translated to improvements in clinical medicine?”

Unfortunately there is no identification of any “remarkable advances” that have been slow in being translated into clinical practice.

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“Diamonds are Forever” – using nanodiamonds for drug delivery may improve the efficacy of cancer chemotherapy

By on March 18, 2011

Nanotechnology is set to have a major impact on drug development and new products for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.  Research from UCSF and Northwestern University published earlier this year in “Science Translational Medicine” shows this potential.

Edward Chow and colleagues describe how binding the cancer chemotherapy doxorubicin (DOX) to carbon nanoparticles 2-8nm in diameter in the form of a diamond, “nanodiamond” (ND), improved drug efficacy and overcame drug resistance.  Although this pre-clinical animal research has not yet been confirmed in humans, it raises the possibility of more efficient chemotherapies and the hope of increased survival rates as a result.

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