Wednesday Brain Dump: February 25, 2009

The question this week: a shot in the arm or a kick in the teeth?

A shot in the arm for:

• Fewer shots in the arm! (har) 
  • British Columbia is the first jurisdiction in North America to offer a children’s vaccine called Infanrix-hexa™, which contains six immunizations in one, resulting in three fewer needles in the overall B.C. infant vaccine schedule, and
  • With the discovery of a constant region of flu virus protein hemagglutinin, a universal flu vaccine may be possible (no more yearly shots);
• The Naval Surface Warfare Center in White Oak, a suburb of Washington, where the FDA is spending $1.15 billion to consolidate its offices and labs and to anchor a new biotech hub;
• Pine Island, near Rochester, Minnesota, which could soon be the home to a new biotech research, development and manufacturing park with the help of up to $900 million in funding reportedly pledged by Steve Burrill.  Funding announcements also from Maryland and Pittsburgh;
• Sustainable agriculture, when the White House announced its nominee for second-in-command at USDA: Kathleen Merrigan of Tufts University, who had been a top choice of the Cornucopia Institute to run USDA’s National Organic Program;
• The National Science Foundation, from the stimulus (a $3 billion boost) and the budget (a 6.7% increase, to $6.49 billion);
• Multiple Sclerosis, with Merck, Novartis, Teva, Biogen Idec and Sanofi Aventis all planning to release new oral therapeutics between now and 2012;
• Conflict of interest disclosure, with a new editorial in PLoS Medicine;
• Deterrence, with the arrest of four animal-rights extremists;
• Organ failure biomarkers,
  • with the discovery of liver toxicity-associated MicroRNAs, and
  • with the injection by Pfizer Canada of $1 million to the PROOF Centre to fund research into vital organ failure biomarkers; and
• Aliens.

A kick in the teeth for:

• Pfizer’s fibromyalgia and generalized anxiety disorder drug ex-candidates;
• Merck’s Zolinza in the EU;
• Cardinal Health 303, Inc., which has been having a rough time of things with the FDA;
• the FDA, which had been having a rough time with the Parusgel panel; and
• the Mayo Clinic, which was one of many organizations indirectly affected by Madoff’s fraud.

Wendesday Brain Dump: January 28

Things that caught my eye this week:

The FDA made Geron very happy; Sarkozy made French scientists very unhappy.

Here at home, some regulatory milestones for Oncolytics, Welichem and Pfizer Canada.

Europe’s R&D intensity (spending as a percentage of GDP) was stagnant overall from 2000 to 2006, but at least a few detractors are out of commission.

And last, since we don’t want to dwell on the negative, some advice from PwC on transfer pricing and other more general approaches to weathering the downturn.