By Jared Kaltwasser
February 21, 2012 01:33 PM
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday took action to address shortages of two cancer drugs.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 21, 2012 05:20 PM
Johnson & Johnson CEO William C. Weldon will step down in April, the company announced Tuesday afternoon.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 17, 2012 04:43 PM
Back before the big-buttoned Jitterbug became a hit, Serge Loncar had his own idea to make a senior-centric cell phone.
He’d worked in product development at Johnson & Johnson before leaving to work for tech startups, including a firm that made a disposable hearing aid.
“I had worked for this aging population for three-and-a-half years,” he said. “What was missing, in my mind, was a mobile phone designed for seniors.”
Potential investors, however, weren’t so enthused. After a year of failing to raise the capital needed to make the expensive product, Loncar realized, “I had to do something I could afford to do on my own,” he said. “That’s why I went to SMS — text messaging — because it was the simplest technology out there.”
By Katie Eder
February 14, 2012 02:06 PM
A bill to speed up low-cost generic drug delivery to patients will boost New Jersey's generic drug industry, create jobs and save consumers billions of dollars, according to U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-Long Branch), who introduced the proposed legislation.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 10, 2012 01:42 PM
A range of government officials — from the federal to the local level — came together in North Brunswick this week to make the case that collaboration with industry can translate into tangible job growth.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 3, 2012 03:53 PM
Two years ago, a Seattle biotech company made waves by pricing its new prostate cancer drug, Provenge, at $93,000 for a course of treatment — about 30 percent higher than what many analysts had expected.
Today, the company is hardly alone. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson, among others, have introduced cancer drugs with costs in a similar price range.
Scientific advancements and the rise of the biotechnology industry have enabled the development of highly complex, highly effective and highly targeted drugs — and along with those advances have come very high price tags.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 3, 2012 03:47 PM
When asking a six-figure price for a new drug, effectiveness alone won’t always lead to success in the marketplace, according to one consultant.
“There is some additional subtlety between drugs that are high priced in whether they’re convenient for the patient and whether they fit in with what the doctors are doing,” said Michael D. Becker, who runs a biopharmaceutical consultancy, M.D. Becker Partners.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 3, 2012 03:50 PM
New high-cost therapies no doubt spark sticker shock in many quarters, but experts say they also will spark more innovation.
Kurt Rotthoff, an economist at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business, said high costs historically create a competitive marketplace and spur the development of lower-cost solutions.
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 3, 2012 03:28 PM
After years of waiting, the Food and Drug Administration released its first word on social media in late December.
The draft guidance did little to clarify the FDA’s approach to social media, but it did serve to acknowledge that Twitter, Facebook and other services have become an important part of how drug companies communicate with the public.
Marc Monseau, a former Johnson & Johnson communications executive and founder of the consulting firm MDM Communications, in Princeton, said the social media sphere is still a work in progress for most drug companies “because, obviously, there’s uncertainty about what they can say about their products in that environment.”
By Jared Kaltwasser
February 3, 2012 11:48 AM
Gov. Chris Christie told a gathering of the state’s biotechnology community Thursday night that their industry’s success is a key priority of his administration.
