The life science ecosystem is a complex organism being influenced by patients, providers, payers, and regulators in the precision medicine, diagnostics, and biopharmaceutical markets.   Within the ecosystem, the Precision Medicine and Diagnostics segment faces hurdles with high development costs, low reimbursement, and an ever-changing regulatory landscape.  Given the growing emphasis on Precision Medicine, diagnostic companies … Continue reading A Look Inside the Diagnostics Market »

Written by Bill Finger, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Kineticos With the culmination of a product created through open innovation, optimized resources, and customer-centric production, the challenges of a traditional product launch are somewhat mitigated. By coordinating the entire new product development phase around customer needs, a finished product should be ready to fully address … Continue reading Product Launch Metrics »

  A critical growth driver for most any central laboratory
 is its ability to gain preferred provider agreements (PPAs): becoming a vendor that has achieved priority status in the award of contracts by a biopharmaceutical company. Whether leading an emerging, mid-sized, or one of the largest central laboratories, executives in these organizations recognize the … Continue reading Central Laboratories Holy Grail: Six Keys to Achieving Preferred Provider Status with BioPharmaceutical Companies »

  As the sophistication of operational practices across life sciences increases; unfortunately, so do the difficulty and complexity of operational challenges. Breakdowns in process can often by uncovered by process mapping; however, a commonly overlooked and significant contributing factor to both operational setbacks and advances is the effective use of metrics. This article from … Continue reading How Metrics Can Help Identify and Solve Operational Challenges »

  As the life sciences landscape continually changes, growth by acquisition has become increasingly common. Recent deals, such as Roche’s acquisition of Ariosa Diagnostics and LabCorp’s acquisition of Covance, bring to light an important question for decision makers in the life sciences industry: When it comes to growth by acquisition, what is your plan? … Continue reading Growth by Acquisition in Life Sciences: Do You Have a Plan? »

  Arup Laboratories announced it will begin offering next-generation sequencing (NGS) based high resolution Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) genotyping as part of a deal with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)1. The service offering will begin mid-November, allowing for more precise characterization of the gene sequence and potentially leading to expanded patient…

  Important oncology events, including ASCO and ESMO, have recently displayed the fruits of the huge investment drug companies have put into oncology, especially the immuno-oncology therapies centered on PD-1. In previous blogs, I noted that BMS appeared to be leaning toward not incorporating a companion diagnostic for nivolumab (another anti-PD-1 therapy) in melanoma … Continue reading Role of Companion Diagnostics in Immuno-oncology Race Unfolding »

  Germany’s Merck KGaA has announced the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a global life sciences tools (LST) firm, based in St. Louis. Merck KGaA is offering to pay $140/share for Sigma-Aldrich for an enterprise value of $17 billion. The deal has been approved by the Board of Directors for both companies and is expected…

  An article published in FiercePharma discussed the top 10 largest pharma layoffs in 2013. Whenever layoffs are announced in pharma, it certainly is big news. By looking at the reasoning behind the layoffs, you get an indicator of the health of the overall industry. Currently, patent cliffs, weak pipelines, regulatory, and generic pressures … Continue reading Outsourcing as Opportunity »