Personalized Medicine's Transformation of Healthcare Accelerates
Flurry of Deals, Developments, and Discoveries in September Show Clinical Applications Ready to Expand Rapidly, Says Burrill & Company
(firmenpresse) - SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 10/01/12 -- The life sciences sector continued to outperform the broader markets in September, but developments during the month were notable for highlighting the acceleration of the transformation of healthcare through personalized medicine, Burrill & Company says.
"Our healthcare system is dysfunctional and has largely been unchanged through human history in its episodic approach that focuses on treating the symptoms of illness," says G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company, a diversified global financial services firm. "Although personalized medicine's transformation of healthcare is an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process, the events of the past month point to a rapid acceleration of efforts to make medicine personalized, predictive, and pre-emptive and promises to bend the cost-curve of healthcare in a meaningful way."
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's announced an ambitious $3 billion Cancer Moon Shots Program, which seeks to develop new diagnostics, devices, drugs, and policies to detect, prevent, and treat cancer by capitalizing on the convergence of low-cost sequencing, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies.
September also saw a number of developments on the sequencing front. Chinese sequencing giant BGI-Shenzhen announced a $117.6 million acquisition of the struggling next-generation sequencing company Complete Genomics. Mountain View, California-based Complete Genomics, which has been working to provide whole genome sequencing through a service-based business model, announced a restructuring in June that included a shift in focus to the development of clinical applications for its whole genome sequencing service. BGI-Shenzhen provides deep pockets that should accelerate the clinical applications of Complete Genomic's technology.
Complete Genomics' larger competitors also announced developments that should accelerate the clinical utility of genomic sequencing. Life Technologies began shipping its low-cost Ion Proton sequencing system. The company said the chip-based system cost about a third of genome scale sequencing systems that rely on light to read a genome. The device sits on a desktop and can sequence exomes and transcriptomes in two to four hours at a cost of $1,000 per run. Life Technologies next expects to release a second-generation chip for the system around the end of the first quarter of 2013 that will be able to sequence the human genome in a few hours for $1,000.
At the same time, the genetic sequencing tools company Illumina and the non-profit healthcare system Partners Healthcare announced an agreement to provide geneticists and pathologists networking tools and infrastructure to report and interpret data from genetic sequencing. By pairing Illumina's expertise in sequencing with Partners Healthcare's understanding of what's needed for clinical utility, the two hope to leverage each other's strengths to deliver a comprehensive sequencing and clinical reporting solution.
Others are also taking steps to apply new personalized medicine approaches to clinical care. The Big Data analytics company GNS Healthcare in September announced a new program with the healthcare insurance company Aetna to use GNS' supercomputing capabilities to help identify Aetna members at risk for heart and metabolic disorders that can result in stroke, heart attack or diabetes, earlier than it does today. GNS will develop data-driven models that will define a person's risk for developing metabolic syndrome using Aetna claims data as well as health records. A separate agreement between GNS and the contract research organization Covance seeks to improve drug development by using GNS' modeling to predict the safety and efficacy of a drug candidate against different patient characteristics.
On the research side, September also saw major advances in understanding the genetics underlying disease. The Encode Project, an ambitious international effort to characterize and publish all of the functional elements in the human genome, found that the 80 percent of DNA once thought of as "junk" actually plays a critical role in regulating genes and can also play a part in the onset of disease. Researchers identified more than 4,000 switches involved in gene regulation. The findings not only create a new understanding of the role of some 80 percent of DNA once thought to serve no functional role, but also provide a new source of potential targets for drugs, and new insight into how genes are regulated and how people become ill.
Separately, a collaborative effort funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, using data generated as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas, has provided a new understanding of the four major subtypes of breast cancer and finds shared genetic features between the form of breast cancer known as "Basal-like" or "Triple Negative" breast cancer and serious ovarian cancer. The findings will lead to researchers comparing treatments and outcomes for patients with the two forms of cancer and could lead to new therapeutic approaches.
"With new research findings we are reminded about how much we still don't know, but also of the rapid progress we are making," says Burrill. "We are seeing real examples of personalized medicine moving from idea to practice in meaningful ways."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 both hit five-year highs in September, and the Nasdaq Composite Index hit a 12-year high. The Burrill Biotech Select Index outpaced the major indices in September as it posted a 4.4 percent gain compared to a 2.6 percent rise in the Dow, a 2.4 percent increase for the S&P 500, and a 1.6 percent uptick for the Nasdaq Composite index. Year-to-date, the Burrill Biotech Select Index is up 40.3 percent, significantly outperforming the major market indices (see table below).
Global life sciences venture capital funding slowed slightly in September to a total of $953 million, down from the $1.1 billion in August but up from the $879 million for the same period a year ago. Nevertheless, the $9.2 billion raised year-to-date is 23.5 percent ahead of last year's activity. Therapeutic vaccine developer CureVac's $104.9 million series D round was the largest venture financing of the month.
No U.S. life sciences initial public offerings were completed in September. A total of 12 IPOs have been completed year-to-date raising $871 million compared to 13 IPOs raising $1.1 billion in the same period a year ago. Globally, 27 IPOs have been completed year-to-date, compared to 37 at this time in 2011. The total amount raised has fallen 46.5 percent to $1.8 billion.
Global life sciences M&A activity continues to lag the pace of 2011 with the $88.3 billion in deals done year-to-date 33.6 percent below the level of activity during the same period a year ago. Valeant Pharmaceuticals' $2.6 billion announced acquisition of Medicis Pharmaceutical, the largest U.S. dermatology company, will propel Valeant past Galderma as the leading prescription skincare company in terms of sales.
Partnering activity picked up in September with announced potential total deal value during the month reaching $3.4 billion. Next generation antibody developer MacroGenics' potential $1.1 billion agreement with Servier was by far the month's largest partnership. The option agreement covers the development and commercialization of Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting or DART products aimed at three undisclosed tumor targets. MacroGenics' DART platform allows a single recombinant antibody to target two different antigens. The DART proteins can be used to redirect certain immune cells in the body to attack tumor cells.
Life Sciences Scorecard in USD M
In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved three new drugs including Pfizer's chronic myelogenous leukemia drug Bosulif, Sanofi's multiple sclerosis drug Aubagio, and Onyx' and Bayer Healthcare's colorectal cancer drug Stivaga. The approvals brought the year-to-date total for new drug approvals to 26 compared to 25 approvals for the same period a year ago. Sanofi said it would pull its leukemia drug Campath from the market in anticipation of it winning approval for its experimental multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada. Campath and Lemtrada share the same active ingredient. People using Campath off-label would pay about one-tenth the price of unsubsidized Lemtrada.
Advisors to President Barack Obama have issued a new report calling for doubling the output of innovative, new medicines for patients with important unmet medical needs. The group also recommends actions to improve drug efficacy and safety through collaboration among industry, academia, and government. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology estimates that its ambitious goal is achievable within 10 to 15 years. To get there, it says, America will need to unleash "extraordinary innovation and investment in the service of public health."
"The PCAST report is an important acknowledgement of the need to address the pharmaceutical industry's challenges as it seeks to improve R&D productivity," says Burrill. "It also shows there are concrete policy measures that can be put into place to make positive progress."
About Burrill & Company
Founded in 1994, Burrill & Company is a diversified global financial services firm focused on the life sciences industry. With $1.5 billion in assets under management, the firm's businesses include venture capital/private equity, merchant banking, and media. By leveraging the scientific and business networks of its team, Burrill & Company has established unrivaled access and visibility in the life sciences industry. This unique combination of resources and capabilities enables the company to provide life sciences companies with capital, transactional support, management expertise, insight, market intelligence, and analysis through its investments, conferences, and publications. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company oversees a global network of offices throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. For more information visit: .
Contact:
Daniel Levine
Managing Director
Burrill & Company
415-591-5449
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Datum: 01.10.2012 - 12:45 Uhr
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