Last week, the FDA launched OpenFDA, an initiative to make public FDA data available through an application program interface (API), which allows mobile phone app and web developers to access the data directly and present them on websites and mobile apps.

It's hard to build up scientific knowledge and search for targeted drugs if the foundation isn't solid. But that's exactly what companies have found over the years.

The average cost per month for a branded oncology drug treatment in the U.S. is about $10,000, around double where it was a decade ago, according to a new report by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

One sure sign that specialty pharma sector M&A is on fire: companies in the process of closing acquisition deals are acquiring companies while they wait for antitrust regulators to sign off on their deal.

The complement system is designed to kill pathogens through a signal cascade that results in cell lysis, removal of the pathogens through phagocytosis, and alerting other immune system cells to help with infections. Signals come from three different pathways – classical, lectin and alternative – culminating at the C3 protein of the cascade.

The complement system is designed to kill pathogens through a signal cascade that results in cell lysis, removal of the pathogens through phagocytosis, and alerting other immune system cells to help with infections. Signals come from three different pathways – classical, lectin and alternative – culminating at the C3 protein of the cascade.

SAN DIEGO – When designing phase II proof of concept trials, companies want to maximize the chance of seeing a signal. Avoiding so-called type III errors – trials that would have been successful but were never performed – leads to a "no drug left behind" mentality, Cong Chen, director of biostatistics and research decision science at Merck & Co. Inc. told the audience during a panel at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting last week.

Baseball parks are opening for business this week, but the biotech industry has already hit a grand slam with 26 biotechs raising $1.77 billion through initial public offerings (IPOs) on U.S. exchanges in the first quarter.

With hepatitis C treatments largely figured out, biotechs and investors have turned to the newest liver disease without a treatment: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).