This week’s headlines include, study examines shorter drug approval times, Pharma acquisition bargains, Bristol-Myers rheumatoid arthritis drug, annual top employers survey, Gates foundation R&D initiative, Flu shot may help heart, and new Parkinson’s treatment insights.

Cell Culture Events:

Don’t Miss Vaccines: Formulation Development, Manufacturing and Novel Production Technologies December 4-5th 2013, Sheraton Brussels Hotel, Belgium

Informa’s annual Vaccines: Formulation Development, Manufacturing and Novel Production Technologies introduces an industry-led and scientific-driven agenda providing the latest in vaccine R&D innovation, optimising pre-clinical models, adjuvant and formulation development, novel production platforms, streamlining process development and manufacturing approaches. The 2013 conference provides the ideal mix of big pharma and small biotech to provide a varied and well represented networking opportunity.<

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Introduction to Cell Culture –December 10-13, 2013

This 4-day cell culture workshop is designed for those with no or extensive cell culture experience. Topics include an introduction to cell and tissue culture, serum containing and serum-free media, adaptation to serum-free media, cell counting and viability staining, growth curve development, growth of suspension and adherent cells, transfection technologies, cryopreservation methods, cell cloning and primary culture.

Scheduled workshops take place in Baltimore, Maryland. All of our workshops can be conducted at your location if needed. If you have questions or want more specific course content please contact our website, www.biosciconcepts.com or call us at 410-752-4224.

Headlines:

“Annual Top Employers Survey: Top Firms Directed by Data, Led by Scientists,” Science Careers

“Developing pharmaceuticals requires huge investments of time, human resources, and capital. The companies identified in the 2013 Science Careers Top Employers Survey ensure a higher return on those investments by catering to the whims of the scientist brain, which they view as their greatest economic driver. These employers give scientists the intellectual time and space to dream up novel ways of blocking, shutting down, or modifying disease targets. They marry the academic freedom found in the university hallway to powerhouse financial resources and technological platforms to get research done at a quicker pace. That combination results in researchers who are not only satisfied in their jobs, but also successful at creating new drugs.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Bioprocess International Conference – Thursday’s Talks”

“New Insights into Treating Parkinson’s from Yeast, Stem Cell Experiments,” The Boston Globe

“A team of scientists at the Cambridge-based Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have identified a compound that can reverse some of the toxicity that occurs in brain cells created from Parkinson’s disease patients’ stem cells. The work, described in a pair of studies published Thursday in the journal Science, is still very early — the researchers aren’t even using the word “drug” when describing the small molecule that jumped out when they screened a chemical library of about 200,000 compounds. But the methods they used demonstrate the power of an approach that knits together multiple basic biology technologies, including the use of stem cells made from a patient’s skin cells.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Moving Your Cell Therapy from Concept to Product – A discussion about navigating funding and grant writing, partnering with organizations and the regulatory process”

“Study Questions FDA’s Shorter Drug Approval Times,” Reuters

“New drugs that receive expedited review by the Food and Drug Administration are being tested on fewer patients, leaving many safety questions unanswered even after they are approved, a study released on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found. Study authors Thomas Moore of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and Dr Curt Furberg, a professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine, examined the development times, clinical testing and risks associated with 20 new drugs approved in 2008. Eight were given expedited review and 12 standard review.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “3-D Bioprinting – When cells become ink”

“The Biggest Bargains Pharma Scooped Up in the Down Years,” Xconomy

“Most little biotech companies, until the year’s IPO boom, couldn’t seriously think about raising money from public investors. Most couldn’t raise big venture dollars from an ever-shrinking pool of VCs. The pool of potential partners and buyers in Big Pharma was shrinking, too, because mega-mergers reduced the number of potential bidders. With cash running low during the recession years, many of these little biotechs were backed into a corner. When they sat down to talk about out-licensing their technology, or selling themselves, to a Big Pharma company, they often had little choice but to accept the big guy’s terms. Bidding wars among the big guys for the hot new asset were rare.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Developability: Smart Ways of Avoiding the “Death of the Brave” During Biotherapeutic Development”

“Bristol-Meyers Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Works in Mid-Stage Trial,” Bloomberg Businessweek

“Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY:US)’s experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug reduced symptoms of the disease and was about as effective as a current standard treatment sold by AbbVie Inc. (ABBV:US), a study found. In a trial of 418 patients, 78 percent of those who took Bristol-Myers’s clazakizumab with methotrexate reduced their symptoms by at least 20 percent, the New York-based company said today in a statement. That was twice the rate of patients who took only methotrexate, a generic treatment for the disease. Of patients taking methotrexate and Humira, AbbVie’s injectable drug that sold (ABBV:US) $9.27 billion last year, 76 percent had symptoms fall by at least 20 percent.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Single-Use Stirred Bioreactors – Enabling Flexible Biomanufacturing”

“GSK, Sanofi Join Gates Foundation Vaccine R&D Initiative,” Fierce Vaccines

“Vaccine manufacturers are often criticized for investing in shots aimed at high-margin Western markets, while neglecting diseases affecting the developing world. This week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation set up a project to spur development in neglected areas by cutting the financial risk of early research.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Innovative Products Featured at the Bioprocess International Conference – Part I”

“Your Flu Shot May also Help Your Heart,” Health Day

“If avoiding an achy, feverish week or so laid up with the flu doesn’t motivate you to get a flu shot, a new study linking flu shots to a lower incidence of heart disease might persuade you to roll up your sleeve. People in the study who got flu shots were one-third less likely to have heart issues, such as heart failure or a heart attack, compared to those who opted against vaccination. The flu shot was associated with an even greater reduction of heart problems if someone had heart disease to start with, according to the study.”

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Advances in Adherent Cell Culture Approaches Abound – Promoting Progress in Production Performance for Attachment Dependant Processes”