Looking forward means playing the long game in biopharma. In a decade's time, it will all be about knowing every protein the AI way, something which will have transformed the industry, believes Viren Mehta, founding partner of Mehta Partners LLC. Looking forward means playing the long game in biopharma. In a decade's time, it will all be about knowing every protein the AI way, something which will have transformed the industry, believes Viren Mehta, founding partner of Mehta Partners LLC.…

Trump says the biopharma industry can no longer depend on the higher US profit margins with his initiative to peg US drug prices to global norms. The US president needs second and third initiatives to be successful: Enable the regulators and biopharma industry to rationalize R&D, and to eliminate selling costs that collectively account for one-half of the industry, writes Viren Mehta, founding partner of Mehta Partners LLC. The US Administration’s proposal to peg Medicare Part B payments to foreign…

More than three decades ago, the Hatch-Waxman Act ushered in a new model of pharma industry renewal by opening the door to effective generic competition after drug patent expiry and encouraging originators to invest in innovation. Viren Mehta, founding partner of Mehta Partners LLC, would like to see similar gains from biosimilar adoption. The barriers to biosimilars adoption today bring back bitter-sweet memories of the regulatory revolution that eventually gave birth to the generics industry in the 1980s. Younger readers…

With money pouring into biopharma in China, and regulatory reforms favoring market growth and R&D speed, western firms should watch their backs, warns Viren Mehta, founding partner of Mehta Partners LLC. The dollars and renminbi are adding up, as are structural and regulatory changes in China. With the modified IPO listing rules in Hong Kong, China’s momentum as a biopharma leader is accelerating. Even the Trump trade tirade seems to bypass many bold biopharma initiatives in China that have brought…

Buying Shire gives Takeda the chance to exploit global tax benefits and gain other profit-promoting advantages through integrating with Shire's differently focused business. Outside of pharma, business model rationales are changing rapidly, and old certainties cannot be taken for granted. Pharma would ignore the wider revolution at its peril, and Takeda's move is a step in the right direction, argues Viren Mehta, founding partner of Mehta Partners LLC. Three examples capture the pace of change all around us: the largest…

President Trump's much anticipated pronouncements on drug pricing reform leave a lot to be clarified. Biopharma companies and their leaders should grasp the opportunity to lead from the front and propose tangible and transformative actions that deliver benefits for all stakeholders. This may be one of the few letdowns that the biopharma industry should embrace, if not relish. Shrill propaganda by so many in the government, starting with President Trump himself soon after entering the US presidential race, had escalated…