A group of activists and academics have written Thailand’s new health minister, Chaiya Sasomsab, to resist pressure from drugmakers and biotechs to roll back Bangkok’s policy of issuing compulsory licenses. A recent example came when BIO, the biotech trade group, wrote the US Trade Representative, urging that Thailand be placed on the Foreign Priority Country [...]

In a teleconference chat yesterday afternoon with a few bloggers, Jim Greenwood spent some time sharing the BIO point of view on the pressing matters of the day - follow-on biologics legislation, patent reform legislation and the FDA reform bill, which is otherwise known as PDUFA. Here are some excerpts….
Follow-on Biologics: This is “a critical, [...]

That’s the new benchmark for what big pharma may have to pay a biotech these days. The figure was first mentioned last fall by In Vivo magazine and seems to have become a given.
Roger Longman, who wrote the article, argues the rise in cash and milestone payments means some successful biotechs can focus solely on [...]

Pharmalot went sniffing around the AstraZeneca booth on the convention floor at BIO, but found nothing incriminating. No wads of unmarked greenbacks, not even an empty bucket. “No, no, we have nothing like that here,” says a cheerful employee when asked where the buckets are kept. “I heard about that. We put out a press [...]

The actor, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and heads a research foundation devoted to the disease, was a featured keynote speaker at BIO today and he didn’t waste the opportunity to give the industry a shove.
As he gripped the podium or kept a hand in his pocket to mask the symptoms, he bemoaned the impression [...]

Talk about sad ironies. An industry trade group that works so feverishly to generate as much publicity as possible is caving in to a request that Tuesday’s keynote speech by Queen Noor of Jordan must be closed to the media.
Her speech is supposed to be about the role of biotech in global health, but apparently [...]

At a BIO session this morning on strategic alliances between biotechs and big pharma, Infinity Pharmaceutical ceo Steve Holtzman listed characteristics of a “perfect match” that sounded as if he was up late last night reading one of those “How to Save Your Marriage” books.
His list included such well-known corporate behaviors as “empathy,” “sensitivity,” and [...]

Let’s go to the videotape. Actually, it’s the TV screen.
Ted Kennedy was supposed to be one of two live keynote luncheon speakers at BIO today, but the senator is, instead, remaining in Washington DC, where debate continues on renewing the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. A vote is due this week, and Ted canceled at [...]

Only 150 or so animal-rights protesters appeared in front of the Boston Convention Center, but they remained a hot topic this morning at BIO. About 40 people - not counting numerous security personnel - attended a primer on efforts to counteract ‘extremists’ that featured Bill Trundley, Glaxo’s vp for corporate security and investigations, who flew [...]

For anyone who forgot, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is chaired by Ted Kennedy, is holding a hearing today on generic biologics. There are competing proposals in play, and gobs of money at stake.
Here are a few statements issued this morning from folks who have skin in the game:
Johnson & Johnson’s [...]