From the WSJ.com’s Health Blog: ‘Gold Rush Is Over’ for Simple Gene Discoveries

A federal judge’s ruling earlier this week that some patents on human genes are invalid because they were related to isolated DNA “found in nature” is being watched closely by other holders of such patents of human genes. (Read more from the WSJ about the case.)

The genes in dispute involve BRCA1 and BRCA2, two genes that many geneticists say are particularly important because they are such powerful markers for diagnosing risk of a hereditary form of breast cancer.

But how many discoveries of other single gene mutations that powerful are likely to come in the future?

Probably pretty rare, according to Misha Angrist, a professor at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. “The gold rush is over largely,” he told the Health Blog.

Instead, science is pointing increasingly to the importance of combinations of multiple genes in predicting and potentially combating disease, say geneticists.

I personally think IP is hugely important but there needs to be added value – if you can discern a pattern, then yes that should be patentable in my opinion, but simply saying “found it!” doesn’t cut it.

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The Global War for Talent (in the Biotech Industry) – Quick Gains, Quick Losses

This months’ issue of Nature Biotech offers a fascinating perspective of the facts and myths of skilled-labor immigration and retention, particularly with respect to a topic that is near and dear to my hear: biotech entrepreneurship. Without stealing the thunder of the article (whose reading requires a subscription) suffice it to say that the initial premise “foreign-born entrepreneurs contribute disproportionally to the economy and economic growth”, is false in the eyes of the authors. However, the cause for the high contribution of foreign-born entrepreneurs lies in the higher rate of Ph.D.’s awarded to that group. A modest 29% of Ph.D.s awarded in the life sciences, but reaching as high as a staggering 60% for Engineering, leads to a contribution of 31% of biotech startup founders coming from those 29% of life science Ph.D.s – a proportional amount, resulting form the underlying disproportionate number of Ph.D.s awarded to foreign-born people.

Apparently the real problem is not attracting talent – America does well – but in keeping with the analogy for the war on talent, the quick gains America makes by attracting talent are not solidified, but rather lost again after the Ph.D. is awarded.

Link to the article can be found here: “America’s got talent—can it keep it?”; Nature Biotechnology 28, 181 (2010) doi:10.1038/nbt0310-181

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Pfizer and Ratiopharm?

Interesting – Ratiopharm invested in by Pfizer. Didn’t see that coming. Seems like Pfizer threw out a LOT of it’s R&D and wants to grab more generic market share… signs of the coming crunch in reimbursement for brand name drugs in my opinion.

Read more on www.fiercebiotech.com

Begin forwarded message from Fiercebiotech

Today’s Top Stories

1. Pfizer pledges big investment in Ratiopharm

By Tracy Staton

Comment | Forward

Pfizer is pushing hard for a Ratiopharm buy, with top execs traveling to Germany over the weekend to press their case. Some news reports say the drugmaker even boosted its offer for the German generics maker. Either way, CEO Jeff Kindler led his executive group in presenting an acquisition proposal at Ratiopharm’s Ulm HQ.

Pfizer is said to be bidding as much as $4.08 billion for the generics maker, which has been on the block now for several months. Pfizer is competing with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Iceland’s Actavis Group for the buy. Like its Big Pharma rivals, Pfizer is trying to build a bigger generics business to capture its share of that fast-growing market. But why would Ratiopharm choose Pfizer? That’s the question Kindler & Co. were trying to answer in Ulm.

In short, Ratiopharm would get to expand exponentially because it would have access to Pfizer’s enormous sales network and, of course, the multinational company’s financial resources. The acquisition plan would put Ratiopharm in charge of Pfizer’s new Established Products (a.k.a. “generics) unit, Bloomberg reports. Plus, Pfizer management pledged to invest heavily in Ratiopharm’s growth, with plans to extend the company’s European generics business and boost production capacity.

– see the Bloomberg story
– read the news from Reuters
– get the Wall Street Journal piece

Related Articles:
Pfizer rejoins Ratiopharm race with $4B bid
Actavis lining up Ratiopharm financing
Teva, Actavis remain in contest for Ratiopharm

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