BioPortfolio Blog about Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare

MS Lottery

Multiple Sclerosis is a difficult disease for patients, with troublesome fluctuating symptoms and a general degeneration and decline in function. The challenge for MS patients partly due to the lack of a cure for the disease, but it is often made harder by the availability of drugs. A recent report by the MS Society in the UK suggested that 60% of patient who are eligible for MS medications and...

NHS to share the pain of savings - comment from The Economist Intelligence Unit

“There were both political and practical reasons why David Cameron originally decided to ring-fence the UK healthcare budget, protecting it from deep cuts being forced through in other departments. The political reason was largely to counteract any public perception that the new Conservative-led government would be anti-NHS; the practical one was that with healthcare spending already risin...

High price of cancer drugs pushback - The Economist Intelligence Unit

“There are signs that pharma companies, faced with price-cuts in those markets where prices are regulated, are pushing up cancer drug prices in those countries that still allow free pricing - including the UK and US. They are also trying to compensate for patent expiries, a lower rate of new drug approvals, and adverse legal decisions in markets such India, where Novartis recently lost its...

AstraZeneca results - The Economist Intelligence Unit

"Shareholders at AstraZeneca are getting restive. The company has long known that patent expiries, notably for anti-psychotic Seroquel, were going to eat into revenues, but it has so far failed to generate enough new products to replace them. In the event, the drop in profits last quarter was even worse than expected, and CEO Pascal Soriot had little good news to offer, other than promising...

Edison - Vertex Pharmaceuticals - Investment summary: VX-661 and then some

Vertex’s remarkable c $7.2bn (62%) increase in market capitalisation last week, on the back of VX-661 Phase IIa top-line data in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with two copies of F580del mutations, poses a difficult question for investors. While the valuation reflects the market’s confidence in the strength of its potential franchise in CF – possibly worth up to $10bn in peak sa...