A Nevada woman’s death in 2016 from an untreatable bacterial infection called attention to the possibility of an “antibiotic apocalypse,” when even the most deadly bacterial strains will prove resistant to all available antibiotics. “Antibiotic development is not keeping pace with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains,” said Kevin Outterson, executive director of the new global public-private partnership, Combatting Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X).
For Aratana Therapeutics, 2016 was a banner year. The biotech company, founded in 2010, achieved FDA approvals for three of its 10 pipeline drugs. Last year the Kansas City-based company also forged a global partnership with the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, a track record that any young biotech company would like to achieve.
Sandesh Seth was not considering leaving his position as head of healthcare investment banking at Laidlaw & Co. U.K. Ltd, when the board of small-cap biotech Actinium Pharmaceuticals asked him last year to serve as the company’s executive chairman.
Executives from Merial (the animal health division of Sanofi) and Zoetis discuss why the financial community is considering the animal health industry a promising short- and long-term investment opportunity.
Millennials, the single largest demographic in the workplace today, are often derided as lazy, disrespectful, and needy. They’re also criticized as being so addicted to technology that they email and text message information that should be communicated face-to-face to supervisors and coworkers.
“GSK is willing to make a small return now because we have a long-term view of the market potential of Africa,” says Allan Pamba, M.D., GSK’s VP of pharmaceuticals for East Africa and VP for government affairs for Africa.
Kurt Graves, the 47-year-old chairman, president, and CEO of Boston-based Intarcia Therapeutics, got his first major break in the life sciences industry 25 years ago as a sales representative for Merck in his home state of Michigan.
Jonathan Lim, M.D., was only 31 years old when he was appointed Halozyme Therapeutics’ first president and CEO in 2003. During the previous two years, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising C-suite executives of both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare industry. But, prior to Halozyme, which is headquartered in San Diego, Lim had not worked at a biotech or pharmaceutical company.
Fifteen years ago at a White House ceremony announcing the completion of the Human Genome Project’s draft of the human DNA sequence, President Bill Clinton told the audience of industry and academic leaders, government officials, and journalists that “today’s historic achievement is only a starting point. There is much hard work yet to be done.”
An unusual federal government agency, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), is providing funding and technical expertise to more than 85 pharmaceutical and biotech companies and 25 academic organizations.
