Biotech Breakthrough: Going “Back to Nature” for Drug Delivery

A team of researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara has announced a major breakthrough in healthcare — the development of artificial red blood cells (RBCs) that look and act like natural ones — that offers new product development opportunities for the pharma industry and the healthcare consumer, according to Scientific American (via Neatorama).

Also known as erythrocytes, red blood cells — the tiny, concave disks that deliver oxygen to the body’s tissues — account for approximately a quarter of the cells in the human body. To make RBCs in the lab, Dr. Samir Mitragotri and his colleagues started with spheres of biodegradable polymer, collapsed them into disk shapes, layered them with proteins and then dissolved away the polymer, to leave soft, strong, flexible shells — the same diameter as authentic red blood cells — which can squeeze through capillaries smaller than their own diameter, just like the real thing.

What’s more, they can carry substances (e.g., an anticoagulant or some other pharmaceutical) just like real RBCs do, making this advance in biotechnology a promising new frontier in drug delivery systems, as well.

The Placebo Effect Plagues the Pharma Industry

Wired magazine (via Neatorama) recently ran an interesting article with a surprising title: “Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.”

“Despite historic levels of industry investment in R&D, the US Food and Drug Administration approved only 19 first-of-their-kind remedies in 2007 — the fewest since 1983 — and just 24 in 2008,” writes Steve Silberman. “Half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out of the pipeline due to their inability to beat sugar pills.”

If a drug cannot beat a sugar pill when it comes to providing relief, it won’t go on the market.

From 2001 to 2006, the percentage of new products cut from development after Phase II clinical trials, when the pharmaceuticals are first tested against placebo, rose by 20 percent. The failure rate in more extensive Phase III trials increased by 11 percent, mainly due to surprisingly poor showings against placebo.

Teasing out the true effects of a pharmaceutical from the brain’s own healing mechanisms, triggered by a belief in the efficacy of an ersatz medication, is a real challenge. In the meantime there are fewer new pharmaceuticals available to ailing patients and more financial woes for the beleaguered pharma industry.

Did Bacteria Invent Communications?

Communications may be a fundamental principle of life. At least, that’s one of the big ideas I took away from Bonnie Bassler’s TED talk a few months ago.

A brilliant molecular biologist at Princeton University,
Dr. Bassler studies how bacteria use chemical signals to communicate with each another, enabling them to act in concert to mount attacks and coordinate defense.

This behavior — called “quorum sensing,” or bacterial communication — used to be considered a rare phenomenon. Dr. Bassler contends that nearly all bacteria do it and most do it all the time. These tiny single-celled organisms can distinguish between their own and other species, “speaking” one language within their own species and communicating with other bacteria in an interspecies language, like a form of “bacterial Esperanto.”

The pharmaceutical industry is paying careful attention to her work, since Dr. Bassler’s discoveries suggest the possibility of a new generation of antibiotics that work by interfering with the communication among pathogenic (bad) bacteria … especially resistant strains.

I have to confess, however, that as a public relations consultant, what moved me most was the notion that communicating is as natural — and fundamental — as eating, breathing or reproducing. In fact, the impulse to communicate may be hardwired in virtually every living thing.

Multiplying the Power of Pharma Research

There’s been an interesting new development in the space where pharmaceutical research and technology intersect. It’s called Sage, and it’s designed to “revolutionize how researchers approach the complexity of human biological information and the treatment of disease” by giving them access to a rich research database and the high-tech tools to collaborate on “evolving, integrated networks of biological data.”

John Wilbanks, a founding director of Sage, writes in his Common Knowledge blog that Merck, the global research-driven pharmaceutical company, has pledge to donate a vast amount of data about the biology of disease to the nonprofit.

Wilbanks writes, “Sage means that we are now on the path to a world in which scientists working on HIV in Brazilian non-profit research institutes (like my mother-in-law) will be able to use the same powerful computational disease biology tools as those inside Merck. I'm very much looking forward to living in that world,” he adds.

So am I. While it will take an estimated three to five years to see the first fruits of this project, it’s exciting to think of the intellectual power that will unleashed by using technology to tap the great global brain.

Tough Times Ahead for the Healthcare Sector?

According to a report published recently in Health Affairs, national health care spending grew at 6.1% in 2007 — its lowest rate of growth since 1998 — mainly as a consequence of slower spending on prescription drugs.

What’s more, IMS Health, a leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, reports that it has cut its estimate for growth of U.S. pharma sales to two percent or less this year … a significant decline from earlier forecasts of four to five percent.

The main causes of this deceleration in growth: fewer blockbusters, more competition from generics and consumers on a tighter budget.

But there’s no reason to throw a pity party for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies just yet. According to an article by Robert Pear in The New York Times, “In recessions, when the economy contracts, health spending usually continues to increase. “ Therefore, it’s likely that healthcare expenditures will increase their share of the nation’s GED during the tough economic times that lie ahead.

Environmental Claims Meet with Consumer Doubts

It seems that everybody these days is leaping on the “green” (or clean technology) bandwagon. I’ve seen press releases and ads taking the moral — i.e., green — high ground from companies in virtually every industry, from financial services and professional services to pharmaceutical and technology.

It’s no surprise to find that the blogosphere is exploding with talk about environmental issues. According to Nielsen Online, sustainability buzz more than doubled between September 2006, when blogger messages on the topic totaled 83,000, and December 2007, when they had skyrocketed to 172,000.

Unfortunately, one of the most popular blog topics is corporate hypocrisy — also known as “greenwashing” — where companies misrepresent their commitment to sustainability with aggressive PR campaigns. Greenwashing was the topic in 25% of all sustainability discussions on the web in 2007, according to Nielsen.

Confirming consumer skepticism, a recent web survey by Burst Media, an online media and technology company, found that while 70% of respondents recalled seeing green ads at least occasionally, more than 20% said they never believe the claims. Two-thirds say they only believe the claims sometimes.

Before you risk overstating your company’s use of clean technology, check out the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. Issued by the FTC in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they can help ensure that your company’s green claims don't run afoul of the law.