Stress Can Help Kill Cancer Cells

Interesting article out of The Brookings Register in South Dakota.
Researchers at South Dakota State University "...are investigating whether "stressing" cancer cells can make cancer radiation treatment and chemotherapy more effective. "

According to the article...

"Professor Xiangming Guan of SDSU's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences explained that when cancer cells are tired out, they are easier to kill using free radicals, the basic mechanism behind radiation and some chemotherapy drugs."

Guan goes on to explain....

"We have also demonstrated that the stressed cancer was more sensitive to radiation treatment in several different human cancer cells such as ovarian cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and skin cancer ."

Interesting idea....and it makes intuitive sense. We all know that a stressed organism is more susceptible to illness. It only makes sense that this principle would apply at the cellular level. Except in this case scientists would be applying this principle to make 'stressed' cancer cells 'sick'.

Additional Information on Peyronie's Disease

Just a follow-up to my last post......
I have had the good fortune to have been communicating with Stan Hardin who is the head of The
Association of Peyronie's Disease Advocates. Stan reached out to me after I had written a post that was questioning Pfizer's decision to partner with Auxilium to develop a drug for Peyronie's Disease.

Stan took the time to provide additional information about not only the physical aspects of the disease, but he addressed the serious emotional issues that men afflicted with this disease have to deal with. Additionally Stan pointed out that up to 9% of men are afflicted with the disease.
You can read more about both Peyronie's Disease and Stan's organization at their website here.
The site is extremely well done and informative.

And best of luck to both Pfizer and Auxilium in their quest for a cure.

Update re: Pfizer and Peyronie's Disease

Well...I stand corrected.
In my last post I discussed Pfizer and Auxilium's drug development agreement for a drug to target Peyronie's Disease.
And in my post, I was somewhat critical of Pfizer's decision.
However, a reader was able to provide me with additional information re: Peyronie's Disease. It turns out that that the number of men suffering from Peyronie's Disease is not 1-4%, The percentage of men afflicted by the diesease is 9%.
You can see a brief article about the disease here.
But, equally as important, the reader's discussed some of the emotional issues that men suffering from this disease face. He made me realize how devasting this disease can be to men who are afflicted by it.

Bottom line.....
Pfizer and Auxilium are working to find a cure for a disease that, if they are successful, will not be a blockbuster. To use a baseball analogy, it will probably be a 'single', not a 'home run'. Nevertheless this drug will improve the lives and health of a significant percentage of people. And, when it comes down to it, improving the lives and health of people is the real purpose of the Pharmaceutical Industry.

How Will Pfizer Spend Their Cash?

Mike Huckman of CNBC reported earlier this week here that Pfizer's streak raising dividends ended after 40 years. What does this signify for Pfizer?

Huckman reports that Miller Tabak, healthcare analyst Les Funtleyder, feels that -
"The dividend is still above seven percent which makes the company seem almost distressed." Yet, the cash hoard could turn out to be a major advantage. Funtleyder continues by writing..."longer the cost of capital stays high, the more cash on a balance sheet becomes a competitive advantage. Should we be in for a prolonged lull in the capital raising cycle, PFE may be able to buy its way out of some of its pipeline deficiency."

So say Pfizer is looking to 'buy its way out of some of its pipeline deficiency'. That could be a viable strategy. So what type of deals would they look to strike? What type of cutting edge drugs would they deem worthy to invest in? How would Pfizer strategically spend their cash?

Late this week we got an answer. Pfizer signed a drug development partnership with Auxilium Pharmaceuticals and is paying $75 million up and and up to $410 million over time if additional milestones are met. But as Huckman writes....this is not your "typical" drug partnership -

"So what makes this so unusual? Well, it's the drug AUXL is developing. It's a two-in-one for a rare disease that causes fingers to curl toward the palm and--and, no, I'm not making this up and it's not a joke--for penises that curve. The "problem" is called Peyronie's disease and it reportedly affects one to four percent of men. I'd never heard of Peyronie's until I read the press release."

I don't know about you...but if I still owned Pfizer stock...I think I would rather that they just gave me the dividend.

Big Pharma not a Threat to Biotech yet

Interesting article here at The Street.com.
As Adam Feuerstein writes:

A whole host of things have to go right before drugmakers like Merck(MRK Quote - Cramer on MRK - Stock Picks) or Novartis(NVS Quote - Cramer on NVS - Stock Picks) can compete in the biotech arena.

So the Biotech industry has no reason to fear Big Pharma....at least not just yet.

Merck and Generic Biotech Drugs

Merck has announced that it is creating a new division to sell Generic Biotech drugs.
Generic Biotech Drugs are appealing to Big Pharma because the cost to develop and manufacture these types of products are projected to be significantly less than developing a new Drug Compound. However, the revenue from Biotech Generics will be significantly higher than from traditional small molecule Generics. The math is simple...Lower Cost + Higher Revenue = More Profits.
And Merck may have a leg up on their competition in the Biotech Generics arena.
According to the article in Forbes:

"Merck has a killer app when it comes to making copycat proteins (see "Needle Work"). In 2006 it dropped $400 million on privately held GlycoFi to get its hands on a technology that can produce biotech drugs cheaply in yeast, instead of in complex and finicky mammalian cells. Merck wanted the tools for its own drug development. But one of GlycoFi's proofs of concept was a scientific paper showing its method could be used to create a copy of Amgen's Epogen. The paper was published in Science in September 2006. Merck will file a copycat Epogen with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012."

Seth Godin on Recruiting

I was poking around the 'Net this morning and came across a fantastic post by Seth Godin.
Seth is a best selling author/entrepreneur who focuses primarily on the subject of Marketing.
In this post, Seth discusses the importance of Talent to an organization, and then wonders why most companies do such a poor job recruiting the type of superior talent they need.
Seth writes:

"Most hiring managers don't understand organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to find and retain amazing people."

Unfortunately, Seth continues:

"Most hiring, especially in a down market, is handled as a mostly bureaucratic task. Find people who fit in, do a rudimentary background check to eliminate problems, try not to break any hiring laws..."

And Seth closes his post by asking:

"If talent is so important that you are betting the company on it, why aren't you actually investing in finding and retaining that talent?"

So we all need to ask ourselves....What are we doing, both as companies and as Recruiters, to ensure that we are hiring and retaining the best talent on the market?

Another article about the trouble at the FDA

Today's Washington Post has an article that discusses the issues facing the FDA....and the article does not paint a pretty picture. William Hubbard, a long time former employee at the agency is quoted as saying:

"FDA is close to being at a tipping point -- the agency is hanging on by its fingertips in protecting us,"....If something is not done, they could become a failed institution, and no one wants that. The FDA is not only important to protecting the public health but also to the industries it regulates."

David Ross, another former FDA employee says:

"I'm afraid we're going to see more horrible things happen if we don't get our act together on this."

The problems are not just related to Pharma though according to Christopher Waldrop of the Consumer Federation of America.

"Food safety tends to get short shrift...The drug side tends to get much more attention than the food side. Food is equally important and needs to get the attention it deserves."

Some of the problems the article cites are woefully inadequate and antiquated computer systems
and a lack of resources and people with which to execute much needed inspections....especially overseas.

Today's article in the Washington Post couple with the recent New York Times Magazine article [discussed in an earlier post] present us with a frightening commentary with regards to the state of the FDA. Unfortunately the problems won't be solved overnight. But there is no question that the problems at the Agency need to be addressed quickly and aggressively....for all of our health and safety.

Obama and Big Pharma

Well....it looks like Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States.
Now the question is how will his victory affect the Pharma industry?
Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal from two weeks ago that laid out how an Obama or a McCain victory would impact the industry. According to the article, Big Pharma could be the biggest loser no matter who won the race.

The Safety Gap

Today's N.Y. Times Magazine contains a frightening article about the about the challenges facing the FDA. The short version is the FDA is under-equipped, under-staffed, and under-capitalized to deal with the challenges of a Global economy. For example, the FDA's limited resources prevent it from adequately policing the very manufacturing sites where there are most likely to be problems. And even if inspectors do successfully audit a site, they rarely if ever are able to go back to follow-up. The article states:

"And when inspectors find dangerous conditions at domestic plants, they generally return promptly to ensure that those conditions get fixed. Not so in foreign plants. In a report released Oct. 22, government auditors reported that between 2002 and 2007, F.D.A. inspectors found dangerous conditions in 15 foreign plants. Only one of those plants was reinspected within two years, the auditors found. In every other case, the agency took foreign managers at their word that promised changes were made."

The article goes on to cite numerous examples that illustrate the issues and problems that the agency faces.

Bottom line...the Food and Drug Safety system in this country is broken and it desperately needs to be fixed.

Cash Poor Biotech Firms

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about the impact that the global crisis in liquidity will have on small biotech firms. According to the article:

"In the U.S., 38% of 370 small biotech companies are operating with less than a year's worth of cash, and nearly 100 publicly traded biotech companies have less than six months' cash..."

Unless these companies find capital....the majority of them will cease to exist.

Bottom line: For the sake not only of the Pharma/Biotech industries, but for the sake of the economy in general, we have to find a way to increase the flow of capital. Without access to capital,
good ideas are never developed and good companies cease to exist.

Here come the M&A's

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article about what they anticipate will be a deluge of deals in the Pharma sector. According to the article the question is not if, but when will we see these deals happen.

China Rising - the outsourcing trend

According to Ed Silverman here, China is becoming the leading outsourcing location for Pharma companies.
[It is ranked as the #1 location in Asia according to a report by PriceWaterhouseCooper.]
The most frightening trend for U.S. based R&D operations is that China is becoming "...a rival as a leading source of drug discovery and innovation."
According to one pharmaceutical industry executive interviewed for the report, “Within five to ten years, we will be moving from ‘made in China’ to ‘discovered in China’”

Victor Frankl and how to not be depressed about the state of the Pharma industry

Especially within the last week, it is hard to surf the 'Net or turn on the T.V. and not be inundated with bad news about the economy or the state of the Pharma industry. With all of the negative news out there, it is easy to become overwhelmed. All of us collectively feel that we are the victims of circumstances and events beyond our control.

And the truth of the matter is that we have no control over these events. We have no control over the economy. We have no control over whether or not Congress will approve the bailout. We have no control over whether or not our companies will lay us off. The list of things that we have no control over is infinite.

So what are our options? Do we simply curl up in a fetal position and give up?

Actually there is another option....and this advice comes from Victor Frankl.
Victor Frankl was an Austrian Psychiatrist and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He wrote a book about both his experiences in the camps and the philosophy and the mind-set that he developed while imprisoned in them. In that book, "Man's Search for Meaning" Frankl summarized his philosophy when he wrote,

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

So when times get tough....and they probably will -
When the economy falters....and it will probably continue to do so -
We have to realize that while we can't control what is going on externally in the world, we can control our attitude toward these events.
So instead of worrying and being depressed about a pending lay-off....which we can't control anyway....we can instead update our resumes and work to improve our interviewing skills.
And instead of curling up on the couch depressed about our company's 3rd quarter earnings, we can instead get up and attend an industry related networking event and try to develop contacts that will enable us to move to a better company.
Bottom line...
Our attitudes and our actions are the only things that we actually can control.

GSK to cut 850 R&D jobs

According to Reuters GSK is set to slash 850 jobs in R&D in both the UK and the US.
You can view the article here.

As John Murphy, analyst at Goldman Sachs notes, "R&D is no longer the sacred cow it was in the past."

Credit Crunch to affect Pharma M&A activity

The Financial Times asks an interesting question in this article today....Will the credit crunch affect M&A activity? The article discusses the possible implications of the credit crunch on Roche's bid for Genentech. While they were not mentioned specifically in the article, two other pending deals that obviously are subject to the same financial issues as the Roche/Genentech deal, are King Pharmaceuticals' bid to acquire Alpharma and the "Mystery Suitor" trying to acquire Imclone.
Time will tell if the lack of liquidity in the markets is the death knell for these deals.

Does a Pfizer Breakup Make Sense?

Peter Benesh of Investor's Business Daily asks here if Pfizer would not be better off if it broke up the company. Peter writes,
"One idea, whispered more than hollered, is to break up Pfizer and sell it in pieces to unlock shareholder value."
Les Funtleyder, an analyst at Miller Tabak agrees with the premise that a breakup may also be better for shareholders:
"Investors wonder if the share price reflects the value of the assets and the business and, if not, will a breakup unlock that value?"

Others quoted in the article ask if Pfizer's size and its culture stifle innovation and if a "smaller and nimbler" Pfizer wouldn't be more successful.

I am not sure exactly what is the best route for Pfizer to take in order to address its problems.
But there is one thing I am sure of....The problems that Pfizer faces are not unique to Pfizer.
Every other big Pharma company is wrestling with the same issues and problems.
Bottom line: The Big Pharma business model is outdated and ineffective in today's environment.

Major Pfizer layoffs on the way

According to contacts of mine....there are some major layoffs in the works at Pfizer.
As one on my contacts said in an email, the problems at Pfizer are worse than they expected.
It really looks like it will be bad.
And Big Pharma's woes continue.....

Troubles for Merck

FiercePharma reports that an influential analyst for the pharma sector has just downgraded Merck shares. See the post here. Tim Anderson of Sanford Bernstein recently cited a number of reasons for his negative stance with regards to Merck ranging from the problems with Singulair and Gardasil to problems with Merck's pipeline.

It sure is tough being a Big Pharma firm these days.....

Outsourcing the Drug Industry

Interesting article in the most recent BusinessWeek magazine entitled Outsourcing the Drug Industry. The article details the efforts of Big Pharma companies to develop drug discovery partnerships with companies in China and India. According to the article,

"What the multinationals now seek from India is the same combination of brainpower and cost savings that made the subcontinent a leader in software and computer services....[And] the impact of research outsourcing will be amplified greatly as China, with an even bigger pool of biochemists, expands its role."

But the article does note that,

"The rush east, where five PhD chemists can be had for the cost of one in the West, entails risks."