Perspectives

Mehta Analysis: The Promise Of 2021

Executive Summary Next year promises a wide range of opportunities for biopharma, triggered by an all-in commitment by every company with something to combat – COVID-19. Between January and early April 2020, over 80 COVID-19-focused programs entered the clinic, seven of which are vaccines. Such advances would normally take 5-10 times longer. Here we focus on two exciting and complementary opportunities. The first is the chance to help society gain a realistic understanding of how an R&D-anchored drug reaches their…

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How AI is fighting COVID-19: the companies using intelligent tech to find new drugs

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug development has been hyped up for some time now – and the COVID-19 pandemic is finally a chance for these technologies to prove their worth. We highlight the companies that are using AI to develop treatments that could end the outbreak. Pharma is facing a race against time to tackle the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases, and as a result there has been an unprecedented level of data sharing and cooperation in…

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Mehta Analysis: The New Decade Is Sure to Transform Biopharma Globally

But Are Industry Leaders Keeping Pace? Executive Summary: Industry has the tools to bring more and far better treatments to more people faster than ever, with much lower R&D cost and very little selling needed for these targeted therapies – a perfect prescription for slashing prices for global access while preserving profits, argues Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC. Biopharma business is fundamentally changing, but is the leadership keeping pace? The US Business Roundtable last August redefined the purpose of…

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Mehta Analysis: Who Will Speak Out As Regulators Are Politicized? FDA leadership Moves, China-US Trade Spat And Brexit Threaten Sector

In his latest opinion piece, Viren Mehta fears the impact that ideologically motivated and protectionist actions around the world will have on the biopharma sector and ultimately on patients. In this new era when politicians seem able to fool some significant number of people all the time, the safety valve of the civil service apparatus is more readily throttled. This came into full view as the autumn colors were fading in late October in Washington. In this new era when…

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Mehta Analysis: What Can Tesla Teach Pharma?

Health Breakthroughs Demand Regulatory Revolution Executive Summary:  The transformation of the automotive world has many lessons for biopharma, especially on the regulatory front, believes Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners. Driving an electric car since June of this year is not only a true joy, it has also prompted me to consider the lessons for the pharma industry. The consumer is free to adopt an electric car, and Tesla and other electric car makers have navigated a web of regulations to…

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Mehta Analysis: What Do Facebook Libra And Democrats At Presidential Debates Have In Common?

12 July, 2019 Executive Summary Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC mulls the potential of blockchain, the rapidly evolving IT resource that secures every step in a business action. Just as the summer equinox ushered in dreamy thoughts of our next holiday, two of the major industries that account for about a third of the global output faced more intense summer heat, which may not dissipate even as the seasons change. Facebook, with over two dozen of the planned 100…

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Mehta Analysis: Welcome to BioPharma 2.0

Executive Summary Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC ponders what the approval of Novartis gene therapy Zolgensma foreshadows, in terms of future therapies and pricing. The flowers of this lazy, cool spring in the Northeast US are soothingly beautiful. So ironically are the headlines about the first $2m single-dose gene therapy breakthrough from Novartis AG. Zolgensma will cure and transform the lives of a couple of thousand young children suffering from a missing SMN1 gene that causes spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)…

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Mehta Analysis: Two Pillars of Industry Success Being Shaken

Regulators and policy makers are threatening the long-standing regulatory and patent protection structures that have helped prop the industry for many years. But pharma sustainability should in any case be based on innovation, writes Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC. Regulatory barriers and patent protection are two of the three fundamental pillars on which the biopharma industry success has been built, the third one being innovation. When the famed Framingham Study began in 1948, we could measure only a few…

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Mehta Analysis: BMS/Celgene Merger Shows Big Pharma Is Stuck In Wrong Groove

Bristol-Myers Squibb executives are justifying the acquisition of Celgene in terms that have been well-rehearsed through the history of big pharma mergers. But they are failing to consider radical changes to the environment in which pharma operates, argues Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC. Bristol-Myers Squibb executives are justifying the acquisition of Celgene in terms that have been well-rehearsed through the history of big pharma mergers. But they are failing to consider radical changes to the environment in which pharma…

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Mehta Analysis: Time Has Come To Present Drugs As Consumer Products

Trump’s proposal to remove safe harbor protection for PBMs and biopharma will accelerate challenges to the traditional biopharma models, argues Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC. Nimble new companies represent an innovation engine that can succeed without hiding behind the regulatory veil, and will foment rapid change, including in how drugs are valued and paid for. Executive Summary Trump’s proposal to remove safe harbor protection for PBMs and biopharma will accelerate challenges to the traditional biopharma models, argues Viren Mehta…

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