The Life Sciences in New York State

BioMarkers becoming more and more accepted by FDA

Good news. We need more!

HealthDay

Surrogate markers are essentially tests or patient milestones that researchers can use as stand-ins to predict longer-term patient results, such as survival. They include patterns such as tumor shrinkage, time-to-disease-relapse, findings on a MRI or PET scan, or molecular or genetic changes in blood or tissue samples.

Widgets

TypePad has made available some widgets to add to blogs. I'll experiment with them for awhile. Please provide comments!

DexCom Gets FDA OK for Diabetes Monitor

Sounds great, in theory. But the implant has to be replaced every three days. Who is going to do that?

DexCom Gets FDA OK for Diabetes Monitor

The STS [Short Term Sensor] device monitors the blood sugar level of people with diabetes using a tiny sensor that is inserted underneath the skin and connected to a receiver the size of a cell phone. The device warns of high or low blood sugar levels, and patients can check their levels with the push of a button.

Review of Flat

I recently completed reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I don’t normally post extensive reviews on my blog. But, I think that this important book requires some commentary.

Flat is really two books in one. The first 200 or so pages discuss the forces which flattened the world. In general, Friedman does a nice job identifying and describing these forces. The average business person will likely be aware or familiar with most of them, but it was good to see them all in one place and discussed in a coherent, intelligent manner.

Therein lies the problem. Freidman’s preface discusses how he missed all these forces, as he was focused on other things. Many readers will not find anything new nor necessarily insightful in the first half of the book. I would view this as a good review, or a good historical account, of where we are today and how we got here. If you are looking for forward-looking thinking, you might want to look elsewhere.

The second half of the book is where Friedman really shines. He discusses the geopolitical threats to a flattened world. The section entitled “Too Frustrated” in Chapter 11 elegantly describes the Arab-Muslim sense of humiliation that apparently is widely felt. I don’t claim to fully appreciate it after reading Friedman, but it is the first time I’ve seen it described so elegantly.

Overall, the book is what the subtitle says it is. It is a history book. It is a review of the key events, beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which have shaped our flat world today. History buffs will definitely enjoy this. If you want some forward thinking on how these forces can shape your corporate strategy, then you may want to look elsewhere, but read Flat first!

Biofuels in Upstate NY

Interesting story...

Democrat & Chronicle: Business

Upstate New York was an excellent place to start a business because of the region's "untapped assets," Masters said. "It is just a good place to grow this business."

An ethanol factory proposed for Oswego County is likely to be the first upstate proposal to come to fruition. Northeast Biofuels wants to open a 100-million-gallon ethanol factory in the former Miller brewery in Fulton, northwest of Syracuse.

It would be one of the largest plants of its kind in the country, employing 100 people and perhaps also helping to create more than 1,000 spinoff jobs in fields such as agriculture.

The former brewery is a good site for the plant because ethanol is essentially a grain alcohol.

Binghamton to possibly get new building

More space = more companies = more jobs...great news if the state funding comes through.

Discover-e, Binghamton University Research Newsletter

The new facility will allow the University to hire new faculty and expand enrollment of both undergraduates and graduates. Space will be set aside for new business start-ups.

The facility will also support the University’s ongoing industry partnerships and promote new ones.

Not a good day for New York City-based Antigenics

Antigenics Reports Phase 3 Results for Oncophage in Kidney Cancer; Study Did Not Meet Endpoints

In view of these results, the company has decided to suspend Part 2 of the kidney cancer trial until the data from Part 1 are fully analyzed. Antigenics expects additional analysis of the data will becompleted within the next four to six weeks, with full analysis to bepresented at a scientific meeting. The company will continue to followthe large number of patients in the trial who have yet to undergo anevent (disease recurrence or death). Patients who are currentlyreceiving Oncophage in the trial will continue to receive vaccine, as will patients in other ongoing Oncophage studies.

Interesting supply/demand perspective on VC today

Although I'm not convinced this extends to other industries.

Why Aren't VCs Happy?

The number of buyers is shrinking in virtually every market except the Internet—that is digital conference, e-media kind of companies. So any market other than that, the number of public companies is shrinking. As a consequence, whereas you might have gotten five or six deals done in a market segment, two or three of which are huge wins, you can now look forward to one, maybe two huge wins in three or four deals. In other words, there are fewer high-multiple deals happening in aggregate because of the propensity of buyers. That is compounded by the fact that there is an over supply of companies. Because of the large number of venture capitalists, there are too many companies in virtually every space. So if you build a winner, you're going to be thrilled. But your probability of being saved from mediocrity, your probability of being saved from failure, is zero. Your probability of turning a mediocre company into a double or a triple is very low.

Top 10 Drugs...what?

Forbes has an article and slide show on the top 10 drugs. I have no idea what that last sentence means.

The World's Ten Best-Selling Drugs - Forbes.com

But right now, big drug companies are suffering from an innovation drought. Aitken says that there were only 30 new medicines launched in key markets in 2005, well off the peak of the 1990s. A more encouraging sign: There are 2,300 experimental drugs being tested in humans. In the late stages of human testing, IMS counts 96 cancer drugs, 51 heart treatments, 37 antivirals and 28 potential medicines for arthritis or pain. However, more and more drugs are being developed by biotech--though Aitken argues that this is less of a problem than people think.

Interesting autism research...

...being performed at Binghamton University. Having a child with ASD, this really hits close to home.


ScienceDaily: Innovative Approach Affords Researchers Clearer View Of Autism

Using a combination of a state-of-the-art eye tracking system, miniaturized psychophysiological monitoring and multiple computers for high-speed processing, Romancyzk and his team are able to ask questions that could help answer how individuals with autism process information and stimuli from the world around them.