POST SUMMARY: Innovation is one of the key elements to help biopharma companies overcome the challenges that face them, but are mergers going to lead to more innovation or burdensome processes designed to slow innovation to a crawl. Continue reading
On a week where a lot of people are taking their final summer vacations the news is that Amgen is buying Onyx and AstraZeneca Plc took a further step to bolster its pipeline of new cancer drugs on Monday by agreeing to acquire privately held U.S. biotech company Amplimmune for up to $500 million. On paper it’s a good business move but as big pharma companies gobble up small biotech companies they bring with then antiquated processes and business people who are thinking about the bottom line rather than patients. The results ? Innovation that led these smaller biotech companies to develop new drugs will be stymied by a bureaucratic business model. Continue reading