QDIS Blog

A recent article from New York Business.com talks about Pfizer cutting costs. This is because although they had increased revenue, profits were flat.

Pfizer announces $4 billion cost-cutting plan

This $4 billion cost saving through 2008 represents 12% of their cost base and if they can do it would be tremendous. However, I think it depends on how they achieve these “savings”. In Pfizer’s case, after many mergers in the last few years they probably have redundancies and duplicate facilities. Closing these seems to make sense. However, the one thing that is always overlooked in these cases is the value of the people who operate these facilities especially scientists and operators. Too many times I’ve seen highly motivated and productive people let go simply because that facilities has been chosen to close for a variety of reasons.

This isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, people become motivated and decided to start their own small company to compete and fill the void created by such actions. This is especially true in cases where people do not wish to relocate. Such small companies can afford to take risks that large companies are unwilling to take and are more nimble and able to make quick strategic changes that are impossible in larger companies.

On the down side though this means that sometimes, these small companies, once they have achieved some success, can be looked at as food for the these larger pharmaceutical engines. They then end up getting bought out and sometimes shut down. While this means the principals make money, it often means that many are out of work again.

Such is life in the pharmaceutical industry these days.

Other Resources

• Pfizer Unveils Broad Cost-Cutting Plan - Forbes.com

Technorati Tags: Pfizer, cost cutting

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The Washington Post has a story today on a bird flu vaccine being tested by Sanofi Pasteur.

Bird Flu Vaccine May Hit Many Strains - washingtonpost.com:

The key point appears to be that the specific strain this vaccine was based on from Vietnam, shows cross protection against other strain of the H5N1 from other countries. While this is interesting, it does not guarantee immunity against all H5N1 strains. Indeed it is good to see and emphasize that the researchers state it is very early and they still don’t know enough to make blanket statements about cross protection.

Another point made in the article is that stockpiling vaccine may be an effective approach. However, it is still risky since it is unknown if the next pandemic will even be H5 based. It might very well end up that we are concentrating on the wrong virus; it is impossible to predict which virus could lead to the next pandemic.

Other Resources

• InteliHealth: Bird Flu Vaccine May Hit Many Strains
• Bird flu vaccine may be more protective than thought; Swiss to stockpile | Markets | Headline News | Canadian Business Online
• Sanofi bird flu vaccine may offer wider protection

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I don’t normally make comments on announcements for clinical trials. I prefer to talk about results rather than plans. However, since this is about the only pharmaceutical company in my neck of the woods (Oregon) I though I’d at least mention it.

AVI BioPharma Initiates NEUGENE Antisense Clinical Program in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Yahoo! Finance

The trial looks at improving outcome for bypass grafts in heart patients. The grafts will be immersed in a saline solution of the antisense compound AVI-5126 to see if that improves the outcome. The study will be double blind, randomized and placebo controlled so it sounds like they are doing everything right.

Here’s the pertinent paragraphs telling how this compound works.

AVI-5126 silences a gene known as c-myc, a key regulatory gene involved in cardiovascular restenosis. C-myc is believed to regulate the many downstream genes that produce the pathology of restenosis, namely cell migration and adhesion, collagen formation, secretion of extra-cellular matrix, and cell proliferation, among others.

Preclinical studies have shown that silencing c-myc just at the time of injury may be enough to prevent late-term consequences of intimal hyperplasia, considered the primary cause of vessel obstruction after CABG and intra-coronary artery stent placement.

Since this type of surgery is common in the US with 350,000 such surgeries taking place each year, this could be a major adjunct to the surgery to improve the overall outcome. What I think needs to be kept in mind though is that this is a phase !b/II study; after a safety evaluation of the first 110 patients it will then become a phase III trial and the patients will be followed for one year. I personally think that one year is a little too short. It could will end up that at the end of that time there is no statistically significant difference between the two groups. While I know folks involved are probably better informed than myself about this sort of follow-up, I can’t help but point out that many times folks are overly optimistic in such situations. I’d rather see them err on the side of caution and make the follow up longer; at least three years. He only downside to this approach is that investors see this is involving more time and money

Technorati Tags: AVI Biopharma, AVI-5126, antisense

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