Industry Update: the Latest Developments in Therapeutic Delivery

Abstract

The present industry update covers the period 15 September–15 October 2012, with information sourced from company press releases, regulatory and patent agencies as well as the scientific literature. In the world´s largest healthcare market, the USA, this time-period was dominated by the presidential election held in early November, with the future of the healthcare system being a significant part of the political discussion. Regardless of who emerged victorious in the US presidential election, the country’s healthcare system is set for further changes. Bloated spending on medical services is widely acknowledged and will receive further attention during the ‘fiscal cliff’, when taxes will rise and government spending will decrease, to reduce the trillion-dollar deficit. Any significant amendment to healthcare in the world’s largest economy will have undoubted far-reaching effects on pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, hospital chains and managed care firms/health insurers. Due to this public discussion and the device sales tax introduced in the course of the Affordable Care Act, a number of manufacturers are already taking corrective measure, such as NuPathe (PA, USA) while others focus entirely on new drug launches such as Orexo (Uppsala, Sweden) and Dyamid Medical (Stockholm, Sweden). While Abbott announced its launch of the first ever bioresorbable stent, the USA was shaken by New England Compounding Center, which had to recall all compounded products due to a meningitis outbreak – this received significant media attention. Several successful clinical trials using drug device combination and nano-delivery solutions by Radius Health (MA, USA), OptiNose Inc. (PA, USA) and Fuizs Pharma (FL, USA) demonstrate the ever increasing convergence between classical pharmaceutical and device companies, which meet in the sweet spot of drug delivery.