Pharma companies – the big R&D spenders

Drug Discovery is expensive and many pharmaceutical companies make sure that the process is followed through all the steps including the ability to get their investment back from drug discovery. Janssen just got the FDA approval for tuberculosis. However, their motive was very different. There are only few hundred patients with drug resistant TB (tuberculosis)…

An interesting concept is that typically enzymes have been thought of as proteins that have catalytic properties. However, it would be very useful to have catalyst that is not damaged by heat, pH or other proteins that  affect a typical protein. A science that is evolving is to create these novel materials that are different…

FDA just accepted an IND from Voyageur therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease. This trial essentially adds a gene for an enzyme that Aromatic L Amino acid Decarboxylase (AADC) that catalyzes the conversion of levodopa to dopamine. This is added to the putamen (brain) and adds the adeno associated virus that would carry the gene. It is…

Nearly 100 cancer physicians had published a report in Blood that the prices of drugs for cancer that typically cost about $100,000 per year are unsustainable and something needs to be done to manage that for the patients. The article is worth a read and compares a UK study which typically puts as a life…