QDIS Blog

he vaccine company Acambis may be a takeover target after losing one third of its value due to the fact that it is no longer in consideration for a US government contract for small pox vaccine.

Predators circle Acambis after drug maker’s shares slump

The real issue here is whether or not Acambis’s vaccine technology is worthwhile. Any company thinking of purchasing them needs to be very careful in their due diligence of the technology they have developed. Baxter is a partner and a likely candidate if they believe the technology is truly worthwhile.

I have always said that better vaccine technology needs to be developed and more efficient methods developed to produce vaccines. The current problems with bird flu makes this even more important since most vaccines are produced in chicken eggs. If the bird flu continues in the bird population and puts pressure on the ability to produce chicken eggs for vaccine production, it could be disastrous. I think the biggest impact of bird flu on humanity could be the lack of chicken eggs for producing vaccines of all kinds. I personally think this is much more likely than bird flu directly killing humans in large numbers. The lack of vaccines for a wide variety of diseased caused by the lack of chicken eggs to produce them could have a devastating impact on humanity.

Technorati Tags: Acambis, avian flu, bird flu, pharmaceutical deals, vaccine

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A recent report from UPI seems to suggest that contract research organizations (CROs) will prosper under the new democratically controlled congress.

United Press International - Health Business - Analysis: CROs may prosper under Democrats:

Their reasoning confuses me. James Kumpel, an analyst with Friedman, Billings and Ramsey states that these organizations will thrive since safety is likely to be a focus. They then mention three companies; PPDI, Covance and eResearchTechnology. What I fail to understand is how using a 3rd party contractor makes the drug development process inherently safer? I understand that if electronic filing of clinical data is required that some companies may benefit but I don’t see how safety is improved. The reasoning is vague at best in this article and it may be that these investment firms have a interest in seeing these companies do well.

I’ll have another post later on my general ideas of how the new congress may effect the pharmaceutical industry.

Technorati Tags: Congress, drug safety

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