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Opportunity for Gibraltar in AIFMD, says GFIA chairman James Lasry
James Lasry, partner and head of the Funds Team at Hassans International, as well as chairman of the Gibraltar Funds and Investments Association, believes the AIFMD gives the domicile an advantage.
James Lasry, partner and head of the Funds Team at Hassans International, as well as chairman of the Gibraltar Funds and Investments Association, believes the AIFMD gives the domicile an advantage.
With the passing into law of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) in July last year, it is widely expected that competition in the European Union funds market is set to increase as fund managers and experienced investors look for compliant jurisdictions through which to market funds to the vast EU marketplace.
The directive, which will effectively mean that all European funds will fall under either the AIFMD or UCITS IV, has polarised funds and fund management jurisdictions into 'European' on the one hand and 'non-European' on the other. Offshore jurisdictions may feel particularly vulnerable in this process. Whereas they will continue to provide a service to certain categories of investor, the on-going regulatory changes within the funds industry will only further the current general drift to more regulated onshore markets, such as those within the EU.
In this new environment, with significant opportunities up for grabs to professional, focused jurisdictions, Gibraltar has positioned itself to maximise business opportunities under the AIFMD. As an onshore jurisdiction within the EU (but not in the Eurozone), Gibraltar has become one of only a handful of jurisdictions that offer effective and efficient fund solutions to fund managers and experienced investors that want full access to the EU market. Gibraltar Experienced Investor Funds (EIFs), for example, aimed at sophisticated managers and investors, are already the most user friendly fund vehicles within the EU, with the quickest time to market.
The jurisdiction has already seen a strong increase in funds business over the past six years and the expectation is that this will continue to increase in a post-AIFMD world. The number of funds administered increased 10 fold from 2006 to the end of 2012 (from 20 in 2006 to 215 in 2012) with total assets up by more than 1500 per cent from $341m to $5.8bn.
European options
For funds that are establishing themselves now, or funds that wish to continue to market in the EU (particularly those wishing to market in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, where the private placement regimes have been substantially restricted), they will have to consider a European onshore option and, depending on size, AIFM-compliant structures.
This means that they essentially have four choices: Luxembourg, Malta, Ireland and Gibraltar. Larger funds will look to absorb costs through economies of scale and appeal to investors looking for additional layers of transparency and regulatory requirements. This may see a shrinking of the market, with less choice and more costs for investors.
Smaller funds (those with less than €100m) – which either wish to opt-in to the AIFMD passport or those that expect to cross the €100m threshold in the short to mid-term – will also be able to capitalise by moving to jurisdictions such as Gibraltar that offer an EU base combined with lower costs and a quick route to market.
The Gibraltar advantage
In their implementation of the directive, EU member states were free to decide how they exercise the derogations provided for in AIFMD. They also needed to decide whether they wished to "gold plate" the directive by adding provisions to their national fund regimes that were not required by the directive.
The Gibraltar approach, following an in-depth consultation involving a collaboration of Government, the FSC, the Gibraltar Funds and Investments Association, retains as much flexibility as possible as is offered by the directive. Gibraltar has, for instance, kept its EIF regime for those funds and managers that are out of scope of the directive while allowing those that wish to, in order to avail themselves of the EU wide marketing passport, to opt in to the AIFM regime even if they are below the de minimis thresholds.
This focus on fund manager advocacy is evidenced by the fact that Gibraltar EIFs are probably the most user friendly fund vehicles within the European Union. They certainly have the quickest time to market as Gibraltar is the only jurisdiction within the EU for the pre-authorisation launch of funds. Like the wider funds market in the jurisdiction over the past six months, EIFs, aimed at sophisticated managers and investors, have also grown significantly: from 42 funds in 2006 to 164 in 2010 and 199 as at the end of 2012.
The next few years should, therefore, see a shifting of the tectonic plates. Smaller more nimble jurisdictions will continue to attract funds, while larger, more established fund centres outside of the EU will need to rethink their value proposition. Gibraltar remains uniquely placed as a European funds hub – particularly for Experienced Investor Funds looking for a dedicated, low tax base from which to market funds in the European Union.


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The Marriott Hotel offers excellent accommodation and facilities - at affordable rates.
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The Courtyard Marriott Hotel is now the Holiday Inn Slough.
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subset: commoncrawl


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In these times of turmoil and unrest, it appears that we have become quite good at shaking our fists and pointing our fingers, instead of holding our hands out to shake someone's hand to say hello, congratulations, or perhaps …… I'm sorry for your loss. The United States of America is not perfect, but I believe it continues to improve and it's where I have the privilege to live.
We often forget that we are not perfect. Whether we are Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American, immigrants, male, female, straight, gay, Christians, atheists, first responders, law enforcement and even military, every group contains good and bad. I say this as a proud U.S. Air Force veteran and a proud Christian American. We live in a country where the majority of American citizens, and those that hope to be so one day, are good people. We are truly a melting pot. I believe there was only one perfect person who walked on earth …… and his name was Jesus.
We must not quit, we must not give up on America. Much of what our country is built on is our ability to come together, in times of crisis, to make America a better place and to help our fellow Americans ……. regardless of what we, or they, look like. Let us not forget that we live in a country where we have the right to speak freely and attempt to try to make change for a better country. For example, a group of people can march in front of the Pentagon and voice their protests of our military and our government. Ironically, it's because of our military, and government, that they have the right to do so. In many other countries, those actions are followed by death.
As Americans, we must protect ourselves against those who wish harm to us and our country. We must stay focused on those who are the real enemy and continue to stand together …. as Americans.
I am an American …….. and I am Howard Bryan


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M. Miller Trucking Provides Comprehensive Cargo Transportation Solutions
& Top-Notch Truck Repair Services in the Twin Cities Area!
Our staff and drivers are dedicated to ensuring the safe and timely delivery of your product. We stake our reputation on your complete satisfaction in our performance.
Our scheduling & service professionals offer an unmatched commitment to our clients and drivers.
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Richland Center Sister City Projects
Santa Teresa
Our organization was established to promote people-to-people relationships between Richland Center, Wisconsin, and the municipality of Santa Teresa in Nicaragua. Most of our contributions go toward supplying agricultural, medical, legal and educational aid to the residents of the Chacocente region. Recent projects have included the construction of latrines, wells, and a school building, beekeeping and agricultural inputs, health training and medical supplies.
Yueqing China
On April 12, 2012 the City of Richland Center established a sister city with Yuequing China by Resolution 2012-7. Yueqing is situated in the coastal area of southeast Zhejian Province bordered by the rippling sea off the shore of the Yueqing Bay with a population of 1.139 million. Read more about Yuequing China at:


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On track for record year as Tourism Ireland promotional programme rolls out around the worldToday's figures from the CSO (Central Statistics Office) indicate that this was the best ever January to June period for overseas visitors to Ireland, with almost 3.9 million arrivals recorded. Overseas visitor numbers have increased by +11.7% over the first half in 2014 – an additional 407,100 visitors. This is good news indeed, with the increase in visitor numbers from overseas helping to boost employment and economic recovery around the country..
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: "Today's figures indicate that this was the best ever January to June period for overseas visitors to Ireland, with almost 3.9 million arrivals recorded, an increase of +11.7% – or an additional 407,100 overseas visitors – when compared with January to June 2014. Our aim is to ensure that 2015 is the best year ever for Irish tourism. I am delighted to see that growth has been recorded from all of our markets around the world, with record numbers from North America (up almost +15%), Mainland Europe (+13%) and long-haul markets (+12%)."
Overseas visitor numbers are up +11.7% between January and June 2015 – 407,100 additional visitors.
Great Britain: More than 1.6 million arrivals were recorded from GB, our largest market, representing growth of +9.4%, almost 140,000 extra British visitors compared with the first half in 2014.
North America: visitor numbers from the United States and Canada are up almost +15%, about 85,000 extra American and Canadian visitors. Ireland now welcomes 10% of all American visitors to Europe – particularly noteworthy given the intense competition from other destinations.
Mainland Europe: it's been a record first half performance from Mainland Europe (up +13% or almost 160,000 extra arrivals) – with markets like Italy (+32%), Spain (+15%), France (+13%), Germany (+12%), Benelux (+11%) and the Nordic countries (+5%) all recording fantastic growth.
Australia and Developing Markets (ADM): it's also been another record performance for arrivals from Australia and developing markets – up +12% or 24,700 additional visitors.
Niall Gibbons continued: "Promoting the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coastal Route continues to be a major focus for Tourism Ireland around the world in 2015; we are also showcasing the new Dublin Discovery Trails and paving the way for Ireland's Ancient East and the Gobbins Cliff Path. 2015 marks 150 years since the birth of Nobel laureate, WB Yeats, and Tourism Ireland is promoting Yeats2015 – particularly to our 'culturally curious' audience. This year has also been designated ID2015 (the year of Irish design), a showcase of the best of Irish design."


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Blogger Ameyaw Debrah of www.ameyawdebrah.com was adjudged as the 'Showbiz Blogger/Writer' for 2013 at the City People Entertainment Awards on Sunday, July 14 in Lagos.
He beat his compatriots Ebenezer Anangfio, Obed Boafo and Eugene Osafo-Nkansah to pick the award. Also in the category was Ghanaweb's Adeyemi Adebayo.
This is how Ameyaw Debrah reported his triumph on his website:
"Yes, it's my pleasure to inform you that I won the award for Showbiz Blogger of the Year at the City People Entertainment Awards held in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday. The award forms part of the heavy inclusion of Ghanaian Showbiz in the 4th edition of the awards organized by The City People Media Group. I would like to say a big 'thank you' to the selection committee for considering me and of course to readers in Ghana and Nigeria who voted for me. God Bless you."
We say congrats!
Other winners from Ghana included:
Best Supporting Actress of the Year (Ghana) –Lydia Zynell Zuh
Hottest Actress in Nollywood of the Year: Yvonne Nelson
Most Promising Actress of the Year (Ghana): Ellen Asante
Best Showbiz-Friendly Company of the Year: RLG
Best Showbiz Celebrity Foundation – Juliet Ibrahim (Kidney) Foundation.
Check out soon for the full list.
Source: GhanaGist.com


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On March 27th, we enjoyed a visit from Father Tom Rosica, CSB, English Assistant to the Vatican Communication Office and CEO of Salt and Light Television. While he was visiting the students at UPEI, Sister Susan Kidd made arrangements to include us in his schedule. Father Tom showed a genuine interest in our community and spoke to us about Pope Francis and the Year of Consecrated Life. His close encounters with the Pope helped to make his presentation personal and most interesting. We are grateful to Sue for making this visit possible.
Retreat with Margaret Silf at Pierrefonds in June 2015.
Theme: Living God's Dream
Date: May 31st to June 5th
Cost: $475.
For information, contact Villa Saint-Martin: Tel. 514-684-2311 ext. 0, or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
Spirituality for Today's World 47th Atlantic Seminar in Theological Education June 14-19, 2015 at the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus, Truro, NS. Guest Speakers are Diarmuid O'Murchu and Nancy Steeves.
For additional information on this Seminar and registration form, please go to the Atlantic Seminar Theological Education site at www.astes.ca.


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5 Reasons SEO is Important for Your Company
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of enhancing and promoting your company's website to increase the number of visitors that are received through search engines. SEO is a critical component to your marketing mix for many reasons. In this blog, we will discuss


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Legendary radio deejays Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia are teaming up once again on a new NPR podcast.
The greatest hip hop deejay duo in history is getting back together.
NPR has announced that they will launch a new podcast starring Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia this summer. The duo co-hosted the radio show and cultural lynchpin The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show from 1990 to 1998. Though they helped break hip hop legends-to-be like Biggie, Nas, Jay Z, Eminem, and Mobb Deep, they have been occupied with their own pursuits over the course of the last two decades—Bobbito Garcia emceed the video game NBA Street Vol. 2—and it seemed unlikely they they would ever team up ever again.
Their new podcast on NPR will cover hip hop, art, politics, sports, and "everything inbetween." Watch the trailer below and check out the 2015 NPR-produced documentary Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.


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At the beginning of a mine's life, MDA provides information critical to successful exploration and planning initial access.
Maximizing limited exploration budgets and obtaining the greatest value from knowing surface topography is key to advancing exploration drilling programs. MDA's mining exploration services include cost effective products that support the understanding of a region's geological characteristics for geologists and mine operators.
MDA's mining exploration support services include:
MDA is an all-source image provider, employing both remote sensing and expert geologic knowledge in its assessments. Processed multispectral high and mid-resolution imagery is used to identify rock types. Early identification of exploration targets through mineral mapping helps to focus field efforts, and increase cost efficiencies.
Fracture Density Analysis
MDA's Fracture Density analysis provide information on regional lineaments and localized fracture zones, typically indicators of areas where mineralization may occur. The analysis augments client data to identify potential target areas for exploration. MDA staff geologists use processed satellite imagery and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) to generate Rose Diagrams, and Density Maps. Rose Diagrams are charts used to visualize fracture orientation and frequency, and Density Maps show overall fracture orientations, as well as specific orientations that are selected based on Rose Diagrams or field data.
Relative Elevation Products
Exploration Geologists refer to Relative Elevation products to locate patterns that provide information on underlying geology. An example of this approach is the use of drainage patterns to map changes in rock type or geologic structures. Steep terrain can indicate outcrops for the collection of field samples, and locations resistant to erosion often suggest a cemented zone with the potential for associated mineralization.
The image above is an example of a relative elevation product.
The bright white regions indicate higher, or more resistant
terrain, and drainage patterns are easily identified by the darker
grey and black areas.
Land Cover Products
Land Cover products support field operation planning by identifying and classifying mobility routes for vehicles and equipment, as well as land use patterns that highlight potential conflicts for acquisition in agricultural or developed areas. MDA's global 30-metre resolution land cover products derived from satellite imagery can be customized to address specific project environmental and field mobility needs.
MDA's global land cover image maps are typically based on 13 standard land classes, but can be customized to
specific customer requirements.
Terrain Complexity Products
Terrain Complexity increases the time, effort, and resulting costs required to travel throughout an area, in addition to the potential investment in surveying and building facilities and roads. MDA's Terrain Complexity products enable intuitive visualization of the level of terrain and the anticipated level of difficulty traversing routes.
Terrain/Likely-wet image products support operational planning and geohazard assessment by showing slope relative to landform. In addition, the products highlight locations where the water table is likely to be close to the ground surface, indicating the potential for saturated ground and flood risk.
Soil Texture Products
?The Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) is the recognized international system of soil engineering properties. MDA generates USCS soil texture products modeled from 90-metre ground resolution or higher satellite imagery to support route and facility planning, geohazard assessment, and hydrologic studies. The USCS map layer provides detail on grain-size distribution, plasticity, organic content, and mineral composition such as marl and evaporates that can affect mobility for field crews and equipment.
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Disaster Kleenup Specialists is seeking an individual who has a great attitude and the ability to
work efficiently in high demand situations and is computer wise. If you describe yourself as
dependable, a people person, energetic, and also are a strong, hard worker with a get-up-and-go
attitude who finds an ever-changing environment not only enjoyable, but a challenge to be met, we
want to speak with you. If you have experience in the construction or the restoration
field, this position just might be for you!
Education and Certification:
Minimum Education Requirements: High School Graduate
Minimum Industry Certification: one-year experience in the restoration of affected structures in water, fire, wind, mold and odor
Industry Certification:
Preferred Industry Certification: IICRC Certified in Water, Fire and Mold Restoration, Council Certified Structural Drying Remediator/Supervisor (CSDR/ CSDS)
– Or –
Graduate of equivalent training courses provided by a recognized certifying body or association specializing in the Restoration Arts.
– Or –
Verifiable equivalent industry training and experience through career longevity.
Skilled Labor – Key Responsibilities:
- Janitorial experience preferred
- Contests moving and packing experience preferred
- The Fire Skilled Labor Tech provides general cleaning and restoration under the supervision of the assigned management team.
- The Fire Skilled Labor Tech completes the process of preserving all structural components during the remediation process and protects all contents according to the Supervisor's instructions.
- The Fire Skilled Labor Tech informs the management team of the equipment and materials needed to complete their assignment, properly and on schedule.
To apply for this position, go to: http://disaster-kleenup-specialists-inc.careerplug.com/jobs/675615/apps/new
Monterey County
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Santa Cruz County
Aptos, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Capitola, Davenport, Felton, Freedom, Los Gatos, Mount Hermon, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Soquel, & Watsonville, CA.
San Benito County
Hollister, Paicines, San Juan Bautista, & Tres Pinos, CA.


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Martin Hack
Business Value Consulting
The world is digitalizing, and each time a combination of digital customers, employees, services – or even things -get connected, a new business opportunity emerges. It is exciting to leverage these opportunities. Nagarro with its global scale paired with an obsession for customer delight and agility is at the epicenter of the vision. It is impressive that a huge number of customers serve as active reference and recommend us: the most important KPI for customer satisfaction in my view.
As member of the Nagarro management team, Martin Hack is driving the growth into the global consulting arena – from CIO Advisory and IT-Assessments to Digital Transformation Enablement and Customer Experience. He sees asset- and method-driven consulting services based on Nagarro's rock-solid heritage in technical excellence as a perfect combination.
Martin brings to the table nineteen years of experience in some of the top management consulting and global IT players. His special focus has been on the topics of sales, service and marketing, the management of global transformation programs and industrialized software development.
Martin recharges his batteries in the Alps with his family – and pretty soon his two seven and eight-year old boys will overtake him in golfing, skiing and mountain biking.
a) Does the 'Handshake Deal' still exist?
b) Future vision: Digitization in the automotive industry


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The European Patients Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) has developed a toolkit to provide information for anyone who is interested in learning
more about the medicines research and development (R&D) process.
More information can be found in the downloads page of the TSA website: https://www.tuberous-sclerosis.org/download-resources-library.html in the research section.
This includes:
The article about the toolkit from the Summer 2016 edition of SCAN on page 17 which can also be accessed HERE, or
as a PDF article HERE
The toolkit itself can be found here: www.eupati.eu
A video about it's development can be found at: vimeo.com/152251690


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I wanted to let people know that I'm working on a long, detailed reply to Donald Light's take on drug research, but that I'm also looking at a few other publication venues for it. More on this as it develops.
But in trying to understand his worldview (and Marcia Angell's, et al.), I think I've hit on at least one fundamental misconception that these people have. All of them seem to think that the key step in drug discovery is target ID – once you've got a molecular target, you're pretty much home free, and all that was done by NIH money, etc., etc. It seems that these people have a very odd idea about high-throughput screening: they seem to think that we screen our vast collections of molecules and out pops a drug.
Of course, out is what a drug does not pop, if you follow my meaning. What pops out are hits, some of which are not what they say on the label any more. And some of the remaining ones just don't reproduce when you run the same experiment again. And even some of the ones that do reproduce are showing up as hits not because they're affecting your target, but because they're hosing up your assay by some other means. Once you've cleared all that underbrush out, you can start to talk about leads.
Those lead molecules are not created equal, either. Some of them are more potent than others, but the more potent ones might be much higher molecular weights (and thus not as ligand efficient). Or they might be compounds from another project and already known to hit a target that you don't want to hit. Once you pick out the ones that you actually want to do some chemistry on, you may find, as you start to test new molecules in the series, that some of them have more tractable structure-activity relationships than others. There are singletons out there, or near-singletons: compounds that have some activity as they stand, but for which every change in structure represents a step down. The only way to find that out is to test analogs. You might have some more in your files, or you might be able to buy some from the catalogs. But in many cases, you'll have to make them yourself, and a significant number of those compounds you make will be dead ends. You need to know which ones, though, so that's valuable information.
Now you're all the way up to lead series territory, a set of compounds that look like they can be progressed to be more potent and more selective. As medicinal chemists know, though, there's more to life. You need to see how these compounds act on real cells, and in real animals. Do they attain reasonable blood levels? Why or why not? What kinds of metabolites do they produce – are those going to cause trouble? What sort of toxicity do you see at higher doses, or more long-running ones? Is that related to your mechanism of action (sorry to hear it!), or something off-target to do with that particular structure? Can you work your way out of that problem with more new compound variations without losing all of what you've been building in so far? Prepare to go merrily chasing down some blind alleys while you work all this stuff out; the lights are turned off inside the whole maze, and the only illumination is what you can bring yourself.
Now let's assume that you've made it far enough to narrow down to one single compound, the clinical candidate. The fun begins! How about formulations – can this compound be whipped up into a solid form that resembles a real drug that people can put in their mouths, leave on their medicine cabinet shelves, and stock in their warehouses and pharmacies? Can you make enough of the compound to get to that stage, reliably? Most of the time the chemistry has to change at that point, and you'd better hope that some tiny new impurities from the new route aren't going to pop up and be important. You'd really better hope that some new solid form (polymorph) of your substance doesn't get discovered during that new route, because some of those are bricks and their advent is nearly impossible to predict.
Hey, now it's time to go to the clinic. Break out the checkbook, because the money spent here is going to make the preclinical expenses look like roundoff errors. Real human beings are going to take your compound, and guess what? Of all the compounds (the few, the proud) that actually get this far, all the way up to some volunteer's tongue. . .well, a bit over ninety per cent of those are going to fail in trials. Good luck!
While you're nervously checking the clinical results (blood levels and tolerability in Phase I), you have more questions to ask. Do you have good commercial suppliers for all the starting materials, and the right manufacturing processes in place to make the drug, formulate it, and package it? High time you thought about that stuff; your compound is about to go into the first sick humans it's ever seen, in Phase II. You finally get to find out if that target, that mechanism, actually works in people. And if it does (congratulations!), then comes the prize. You get to spend the real money in Phase III: lots and lots of patients, all sorts of patients, in what's supposed to be a real-world shakedown. Prepare to shell out more than you've spent in the whole process to date, because Phase III trials will empty your pockets for sure.
Is your compound one of the five or ten out of a hundred that makes it through Phase III? Enjoy the sensation, because most medicinal chemists experience that only once in their careers, if that. Now you're only a year or two away from getting your drug through the FDA and seeing if it will succeed or fail on the market. And good luck there, too. Contrary to what you might read, not all drugs earn back their costs, so the ones that do had better earn out big-time.
There. That wasn't so easy, was it? And I know that I've left things out, too. The point of all this is that most people have no idea of all these steps – what they're like, how long they can take, that they even exist. It wouldn't surprise me if many people imagine drug discovery, when they imagine it at all, to be the reach-in-the-pile-and-find-a-drug process that I mentioned in the second paragraph. Everything else is figuring out what color to make the package and how much to overcharge for it.
That's why I started this blog back in 2002 – because I was spending all my time on a fascinating, tricky, important job that no one seemed to know anything about. All these details consume the lives and careers of vast numbers of researchers – it's what I've been doing since 1989 – and I wanted, still want, to let people know that we exist.
In the meantime, for the Donald Lights of the world, the Marcia Angells, and the people who repeat their numbers despite apparently knowing nothing about how drugs actually get developed – well, here are some more details for you. The readers of this site with experience in the field will be able to tell you if I haven't described it pretty much as it is. It's not like I and others haven't tried to tell you before.
Derek Lowe's commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. An editorially independent blog from the publishers of Science Translational Medicine. All content is Derek's own, and he does not in any way speak for his employer.
Drug Development
A Quick Tour Through Drug Development Reality
I wanted to let people know that I'm working on a long, detailed reply to Donald Light's take on drug research, but that I'm also looking at a few other publication venues for it. More on this as it develops.
60 comments on "A Quick Tour Through Drug Development Reality"
Acutally, it's not just target ID that often is prsented as the "most important key step". Many people along the continuum, from screening to med chem to biology to ADME to tox to formulation etc. think of themselves as the key to "making the drug". Of course, each is right in the sense that each can play a critical role. But those with experience, open eyes and who WANT to really be involved in the approval for new drugs recognize it is the effective integration of all these disciplines is necessary. The misperception is perpetuated by government groups (eg NIH) as pointed out, and also by hype presented around Biotechs who set objectives of "churning" to make money for investors, not to really take a process all the way for launching new medicines.
I've also often found that people are extremely surprised when they hear about how IP and chemical space issues can delay programs and drain resources. Those challenges that cannot be beaten by working smarter or working harder are ones that many people are unaware of and clearly add another layer of difficulty to this process.
Donald Light has become remarkably reticent of late. Perhaps he has been kidnapped by the evil minions of Big Pharma to silence him.
Bravo! This is the kind of post that I can show to my former colleagues in academia, just so that they understand the true complexity of drug development.
As a clinician and former biologist, I even take issue with those who believe that a target ID is a good start. How many great targets have been well inhibited, only to find out that the disease we are interested in treating has found a way around our artful trap?
Bravo! This is the kind of post that I can show to my former colleagues in academia, just so that they understand the true complexity of drug development.
As a clinician and former biologist, I even take issue with those who believe that a target ID is a good start. How many great targets have been well inhibited, only to find out that the disease we are interested in treating has found a way around our artful trap?
Derek can you do me a favor and put a Warning Line after the header when ever you are going to mention Angell. Her (along with her husband's) misconceptions have been propagated for many years and I now have a automatic response to her name that probably could use a blood-pressure control drug but at least the Warning would give me a chance to do relaxation exercise before reading.
You write a great summary here covering many main areas for R&D however unfortunately such rational arguments rarely seem to have impact on phrama critics who as you indicate appear to have little actual knowledge of what occurs in drug development.
Great post although I think you did leave out some aspects of the research cost but, as you say, those costs are a relatively small piece of the total drug development picture. Now, how do we get this into the mainstream media? Do we have any readers of this blog who have a connection that would give this the exposure that it deserves? Would BMJ be willing to publish it as a response to the Light article? Would anyone from senior pharma management be willing to make a public statement concerning this issue? I know that's a lot of questions without a lot of answers but this issue is not going to go away by itself.
R and then D. Its not like rhythm and blues which happen simultaneously in the genre known as R&B. There is R, and then after R is done, there is D. And that D part of R&D takes as long if not longer as the R part.
Nicely done as usual, Derek.
Of course, while those not involved in drug R&D will be blown away by the complexity described in your article, the rest of us know that this cornucopia of hurdles represents just a small tip of the iceberg.
If only it were really this simple!
And even this post makes it sound easy. What about those "truly innovative" drugs that Light et al are harping on? New mechanism of action? First-in-class compound? The amount of time and money you'll spend validating the biology of the mechanism/target or the specificity, metabolism and toxicity of the compound – before you even *think* about trials – will make the most seasoned professional wince. What if your novel target/mechanism requires a new assay system or new animal model to demonstrate efficacy?
I could go on….
what bluefoot said – your excellent summary hints at the complexity of the task, but to accurately describe all the hoops a molecule has to go through, you'd need several hundred pages. Just my own area of preclinical tox, which you've briefly alluded to, represents at least a dozen GLP-compliant studies, years of work (a carcinogenicity study takes 2-3 years to complete), and the skills of at least a hundred different people. And even with that, the total cost of preclinical tox is a drop in the bucket of the overall R&D cost of a drug.
Derek- Of course once the drug is out in the real world and being used by large numbers of people, a rare side effect is found and the drug is pulled because of public misunderstanding and political pressure and all the money spent is lost
Well said. Drug discovery has many of the less desirable aspects of betting on a lottery, except that you usually have to keep buying more tickets to stay in the game, the ticket prices keep going up, it takes >10 years to find out if you've won, and nine times out of ten it turns out there was no prize anyway!
I sometimes explain the relationship between academic basic research and industrial drug research with an analogy to the IT business, which is the background for many well-meaning critics of pharma: It could be rationally argued that John Von Neumann and Alan Turing created the modern computing industry. It can't be rationally argued that they created the iPad.
As you point out, Derek, it seems that one of the biggest costs which is being missed is that of supporting all the things which ultimately fail. If you just look at the costs involved with the development of one successful drug you'll probably be an order of magnitude low.
Left out some significant post-lead preclinical work. Activity in animal models of your disease, non-GLP tox studies, GLP tox studies. GLP/GMP process. All the mandatory regulatory paperwork.
Unfortunately, people that want to remain ignorant will do so. And often they have an audience that will also choose to do so. That's how people like Light and Angell can continue to propagate their ill-conceived opinions as fact.
You also have to have the back-up, the back-up in another class, the metabolites & the deuterium analogs
Has anyone pointed out the annual operating costs of a Schreiber or Bertozzi lab to professor Light? I think he might find it interesting to compare their annual costs with his figure for bringing a drug to market.
Derek: as always great post! While all the above are true that I have experienced myself in big pharmaceutical company. In addition, I believe in one of those program we also addressed the issues related to "Drug-Drug-Interaction" even as the drug was going through clinical trials. Donald Lights of the world may be informed of this issue that literally consumed us! When I think of drug program, am reminded of snake-chute game, really.
This topic got some play on a Motley Fool discussion board where I had linked some of your and other posts/articles. To cut to the chase, I made the following comment on Dr. Lights post.
"But … to invest here for the long term or to believe that the innovation crises is 'FAKE', you either have to believe one of two things. 1) That efficiency in the industry will reverse and climb from here or 2) that the industry will continue to be able to make up for this loss of productivity with price / revenue increases.
I don't and I don't!!!"
Zz (or TMFHelical, or whatever)
Excellent post, Derek. I started coming to your blog for just such insight
I direct all sorts of "R" folks in academics to your site because the overall R&D process and pitfalls are pretty similar across many types of technology, even if the precise details are different.
In case people didn't believe Derek about what Marcia Angell says about pharma, here's a little tidbit from her 2004 book "The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It" (the Google Books version is linked in my handle):
"The development part of R&D is itself divided into two stages – preclinical and clinical. The preclinical stage has to do with finding promising drug candidates and then studying their properties in animals and cell cultures. Companies keep vast libraries of drug candidates — molecules that can now be screened very rapidly by computerized methods to see if they will target the Achilles' heel found by the basic research. In addition, new molecules can be synthesized or extracted from animal, plant, or mineral sources. Only the small fraction of drug candidates that make it through preclinical development go on to be tested in humans — the all-important clinical stage (more on that later.)"
It's that easy, folks.
I tried to comment on Monday's Light post, but it seems to still be in moderation (too many links, perhaps). I wanted to call it to your attention because it debunked one of Light & Lexchin's specific claims – that pharma's own numbers supposedly prove they only spend ~1.3% of revenues discovering new molecules.
Turns out they base that claim on a 1999 NSF survey that asked pharmas how much $ they used for basic research, applied research, and development. Not surprisingly, the NSF survey defined basic research as projects "for the advancement of scientific knowledge and which do not have specific immediate commercial objectives."
Clearly, screening compounds to find hits against a known target for a specific disease doesn't fit that definition of basic research. Yet Light & Lexchin use those basic research numbers to come up with their claim that "government reports indicate that companies have been spending only 1.3% of revenues on basic research to discover new molecules, net of taxpayer subsidies." (Br. Med. J. 2012)
Full details are in my moderated comment, in case you want to address this point in your planned reply. If the comment is lost, feel free to email me for a resend.
It's not that big an issue, I know, but I fear it may be just one example where their analysis is faulty and leads to erroneous claims.
No one is as blind as the one who will not see.
Dr. Lowe, if you publish your response somewhere else, can you post a link or tell readers where so we can get to it? Thank you.
I think something that people tend to not believe is the exponentially increasing costs as you move down the pipeline. As someone on the early side, I can tell you exactly what those parts cost- $W per well to do HTS, $X per FTE chemist doing Y compounds a week, $Z for a CRO to run these ADME assays. Where do the hundreds of millions for phase 3 go, specifically? It's certainly not production of the drug or data handling. Is it salaries for clinical statisticians? Compensation to subjects? Fees to clinical sites? I honestly have no idea, it would be good for someone to lay out specifics within an order of magnitude about where exactly the money goes.
As a clinical trialist, let me pitch in and enumerate just some of the things that are necessary after you start clinical trials.
Case report forms
Clinical database programming
Clinical database validation
Adverse report forms
Adverse report database programming
Adverse report database validation
Informed consent forms
Translation of ICF
Backtranslation of ICF
Validation of backtranslated ICF
Validation of ICF for appropriate grade level
Sponsor review of each site's modification of ICF before submission to IRB (not necessary in some countries)
Contracts with investigational sites
Regulatory approvals from foreign countries
Scientific review board
Ethics committees
Statistical analysis plan
Data quality plan
Site monitoring plan
Site audit plan
CRO oversight plan
CRO contract
CRO audit plan
CRO audit
Audit follow up and closeout
Feasibility study
Site selection
Site qualification visit
Site initiation visit
Site audit
Manufacturing site audit
Manufacturing agreement
Data management vendor selection and audit
Data management vendor agreement
Pharmacovigilence vendor selection and audit
PV vendor agreement
Randomization system programming
Randomization system validation
Data safety monitoring board formation
Data safety monitoring board charter
DSMB liaison, statistician selection
OK, you get the idea. I don't think this even covers 5% of what's involved.
Well SP, the folk in clinical development at m last employer earned approximately double what a PhD scientist did. So I guess that contract research FTE rates in clinical must be horrendous.
In response to #25, the rule of thumb used to be a third to sites, a third to CRO, and a third for internal sponsor costs. The CRO and site costs have gone up a bit.
The costs also be split up by function. The rule of thumb used to be a third for data management, a third for site monitoring (CRAs flying out to sites to hand verify each data point in the medical charts against the data on the case report forms) and a third for everything else. Data management costs have decreased because we use web-based forms rather than paper so it's about 25% data management and 40% monitoring now.
In short, most of the clinical trial costs are FTEs. Boots on the ground.
Nice post! Very impressive how elegantly you summarized it Derek. One thing you (deliberately?) did not mention was having to defend the your drug project from being closed for 'strategic reasons'.
Comment #23 was me. Sorry.
(Rassifrassin' iPhone!)
Excellent! You forgot about the years wasted in research where fellow employees derail solid performing drugs because their Egos get in the way. That'll cost 43M$ alone, Dr. Lightner.
Now go away Lightner et al. and leave drug discovery and development to the professionals.
To #25 SP
You asked: Where do the hundreds of millions for phase 3 go, specifically? It's certainly not production of the drug or data handling. Is it salaries for clinical statisticians? Compensation to subjects? Fees to clinical sites? I honestly have no idea, it would be good for someone to lay out specifics within an order of magnitude about where exactly the money goes.
Response: I disagree. Drug production can be a chunk of money if you consider that you are making material in quantities far greater than before for Phase 1 and 2. Assume a 5 mg dose per day, in Phase 2 you may treat 100 patients for 3 months, and then Phase 3 you treat 1000 patients for 1 year— now requiring you to manufacture kg of drug. Ask anyone in CMC how easy it is to scale up GMP!
Data handling-Again, think of the volume of data from a 1000 person Phase III study over 1 year (or longer) compared to a 3 month 100 person Phase II study. The increase in the amount of data monitoring, audit trails, verifications even before you begin the analyzing data.
As for the study itself, each test performed at each visit has its associated cost. These can quickly add up to per patient costs of 10K and much, much, much (much, much) higher.
I think Derek's line of how clinical development costs make "preclinical expenses look like roundoff errors" is completely apt.
And believe me when a clinical study fails or is inconclusive, your heart absolutely breaks when you consider all the hard work, efforts and costs that were invested.
One stupid cost I could not believe was before going into phase I 20 yrs ago, we had to pay 50K for a company to propose 3 names for our NCE. There were all kinds of rules for the name, may not imply disease, or cure etc.
Another thing is you have all the remaining big Pharma's doing the same thing with that identified TARGET. There may be 6 companies chasing that one little pocket of the protein. These costs are the same for all of them, but Light would have you believe that 5 of them are just me toos and that is much cheaper, even though you are second or third to market for a smaller slice of the pie.
Last week I attended [and spoke at] an NIAID workshop on Bottlenecks in Development of Anti-infectives. I wasn't sure who would be attending. Academics? Biotechs? It turned out that 50% of the attendees were from NIH, NIAID, other government funding agencies – because they finally decided to reach out to Drug discoverers and Developers (mostly, but not all, from industry). They initially had included only one session on drug discovery (me) and they wanted me to talk about screening strategies. I told them that this was not the main bottleneck in antibacterial discovery. So, they invited some other discovery people while I did a session on bottlenecks in discovery. Which, in antibacterials includes chemical libraries with the wrong physicial properties, the difficulties of getting compounds into bacteria (especially gram negatives), and the difficulty in choosing the right targets, because inhibitors of single enzyme targets are highly prone to resistance [just like with HIV or HCV or TB]. There have been no novel classes of marketed antibacterials discovered since 1987, and almost all classes were discovered by serendipity and empirical screening (mostly but not all of natural products). Genomics and target picking for HTS screening for antibacterials has been amazingly low yielding. It is just so hard to discover, let alone develop, candidates for this area. Whereas creating modifications of the "old" useful classes, specifically to overcome existing resistance has been successful. People put this down as Pharma making me-toos. But it seems that the old multi-targeted drugs that are not subject to spontaneous single-step high-level resistance are better than what has been tried for the last twenty years. Like in HIV and HCV and TB, antibacterials with single enzyme targets will have to be used in combinations – but, currently, there is no clear path for developing such combinations. Reading about Light's and Angell's thoughts on discovery is very depressing. But I am a bit more hopeful that the NIH folks seemed to get a lot out of the workshop, hearing from all of us how hard the process is – and how all parts of it have to be integrated – and how difficult it is to outsource parts. First of all, biologist and med chemists have to talk to each other. All the time. Anyway, thanks for the post, Derek, and I look forward to reading your "final" response to these people.
I should add, for biologics trials, cost of goods can be material part of the cost. API for antibodies cost about $300/g or more, and typically, you would dose about 1 mg/kg once or week (roughly). That's 100 mg per week, or 5 g per year per patient. Once you add in the fill/finish, labeling and QA costs, it's about $500/g X 5 g = couple of thousand dollars per patient.
Also, with regard to data management and monitoring, they cost so much because
1) There are many steps involved. Data collection by study site. Entry into data system. Double entry into data system. Edit checks. Queries generation. Query transmission Query resolution form generation. Query resolution approval by site. Query resolution re-check. Reconciliation with safety database. Mapping of adverse events to standard nomenclature dictionary. Travel of monitor to the site. Finding the medical records (which is not trivial in some hospitals). Locating medical source data. Verification of source data with record in database. Tracking down site coordinator for missing or wrong data. Query resolution form generation. Etc. Etc. – OK, you get the idea.
2) Pharmas typically have very high quality standards. Many insist on double data entry (data entered twice by two different people). 100% source data verification (every data point verified by CRA). Double programming (every data table and listing programmed independently by two sets of programmers so insure accuracy), etc.
The 100% data verification/quality is a killer (though I think 100% SDV era is finally ending due to cost constraints and new guidances from the FDA). As in many things, the last 10% takes 90% of the work. In one 17,000 patient study I was involved with a while back, cleaning the data in the first 16,900 patients was a lot of work but the missing data in the last 100 patients took an enormous amount of effort as well, especially since one of the patients was a prisoner who has escape from prison in the middle of the study, and even the police couldn't track him down. We finally convinced the data managers to close the database without him, but he did so reluctantly.
API cost can be an issue. The last campaign I ran cost ~$2M. For two batches. That doesn't cover all of Phase II – only part. Plus all the upfront cost of working out the synthesis strategy, impurity profile, polymorph stuff, GMP stuff…etc. This is not as expensive as clinical, but its not insignificant.
Remember, we don't just hop from ID of a candidate molecule to formulation of the API. Someone has to make the first 1-10 kgs. And then the next batch of 100 kg, and then 350 kg, and then 2000 kg…have YOU ever tried to scale up?
I don't think Light has taken into account much of any of the full demands of Research…and he seems to know even less about the Development process.
I should add that the reason that pharma is so insistent on doing so much work on quality assurance and validation of clinical data is for the following reason: most clinical sites do clinical trials as a side project.
The doctors who enroll and treat the patients and record the data (or have the data recorded) usually do not do clinical trials as their day job. Running a practice (or for academics, teaching/research/treating patients) is typically their day job. Except in places like Eastern Europe (where clinical sites often do see clinical trials as their main job), physicians usually put patient care first and trials second.
The doctors and the site coordinators typically don't have professional training specific to running clinical trials either. They kind of learn on the job, and some are willing to spend more time than others to learn the ropes.
As a result, if you didn't do a lot of data cleaning and verification (though I would argue many companies overdo it), the data would be so dirty that you couldn't really use it. There are thousands of moving parts in a clinical trial and it's nontrivial to do everything properly.
It's like you're asking your local neighborhood engineers and mechanics who have some time on their hands to come and help put together a 747. They may be very talented, but if it's not their day job, you're going to have to do a lot of QA and QC.
#25, #32 & #36 while it is indeed true the supply cost of goods and process development can be a significant contributor to absolute expense of drug development project it usually on a relative basis very much smaller than the clinical demands and other aspects (QA, Reg) as the requirements aptly eluded in clinicaltiralists multiple elaborations. For small molecules if COGs projections exceed 5% the execution of the project will likely be a tough sell and even though biologics can be higher tolerance (maybe 15%) there is often much scrutiny during times when often don't really have a scalable process so can even define how much will cost to make the drug.
Maybe some enterprising reporter can ask pharmas, "may I spend a few weeks sitting in on meetings of midstage discovery groups to learn what it's really like if I sign an agreement promising not to reveal anything proprietary?"
That reporter will mostly see many powerpoint slides of structure-activity relationships, ADME, PK, preclinical Tox, etc. "These compounds bind the target best, these compounds have the best solubility, these compounds have the best PK, these have the least off-target effects…" Somebody proposes a structural model of what might explain some trend in the SAR, after which six people start waving their hands around discussing how the latest compounds might fit into the binding pocket. There is the usual argument between folks who want to try more compounds with fewer asays per compound versus those who want to run fewer compounds through the assays in order to do more thorough assays of each molecule. Etc., etc., etc. Makes Rubik's cube seem simple. Seems like all too often whatever improves one property takes you away from the desired profile in some other aspect.
What academics call "leads," we usually call "tool compounds."
@ #32 Respisci
I'd like to add that the amount of clinical drug substance/API is also sometimes quite small compared to the amounts needed for long term tox!
Don't forget dose finding in phase II – complex, fraught and expensive.
No one disputes that drug discovery is extremely complex, fraught with challenges, failures and other UNK UNK's and known unknowns etc.
But rather than pick a fight over 43 million or 300 million or just try to justify why it takes 800 million or more, it would be great if you comment about what solutions could be explored at every stage of the process. Both the science and economics and IP issues [change patent law?] could be addressed.
After all even if standards were a bit lax and low hanging fruit were more plentify, people did discover drug prior to the 1990's.
Should we consider polypharmacology for most diseases? Should we use phenotypic screening in most situations? Should we use phase 0 more often? Should patent law be fundamentally revisited? Should DD efforts start only when much more of the underlying biology and etiology is understood , rather than unproven hunches [e.g. alzheimer's]. How can clinical trials be simplified in cost and complexity while maintaining ethics and statistical certainty?
And many more…
I involved in one FIH Ph1 clinical study in cancer patients (~50) that costed 20 million USD. Imagine, how much would it be to complete Ph2 and Ph3 studies for getting approval.
@42, insilicoconsulting:
The reason for these posts is that you and Light and Angell DO dispute the complexity of the drug discovery process, and have publicly disputed it. The fight over 43 million is that it completely disparages more than 90 percent of the work that is being done, more than 90 percent of the workers who rack their brains to find solutions. With tens of thousands of people being laid off, and thus being already disparaged by their employer, being further minimized in the academic and medical literature and now in popular media, it becomes a bit much to take.
It would be great if you could read some of the previous posts on this blog. They have explored some thoughts on solutions, at least in the lead discovery part of the process where Dr. Lowe's experience qualifies him to make observations.
Of course there are many posts, so here's what you can do: at the bottom of each blog post are some links beside the word "Categories:". For this post, those 2 categories were Drug Prices, and Drug Development. Click on those and you will get a list of all the posts on these topics in reverse chronological order. You will find some suggestions of what seems promising, some of what to avoid, and some comments on news in these areas. In particular, I'd direct your attention to the post on Eroom's Law for a gloomy thought.
With regard to phenotypic screening, I believe Dr. Lowe has said he's a fan. With regard to clinical trials, you should probably ask "clinicaltrialist" whose username links to the website clinicaltrialist.com. I'll bet that's a good resource to check out for ideas on that question.
I am surely in the group of disbelievers when it comes to Light's $43 MM figure and Marcia Angell's low-balling but I do want to point out that, IMO, Angell did a lot of good stuff at NEJM such as requiring full disclosure of conflicts of interest, pushing for publication of negative results and, basically, supporting, then and now, evidence based medicine. Angell's public persona is, at least, that of a quackbuster who wants to elevate public awareness of many medical and health care issues. I haven't read as much Angell as Pipeline 🙂 (well, maybe I have) but I assume that these are fair labels.
Maybe Angell will reconsider her estimates of the costs of bringing new drugs to market in the face of better evidence.
DISCLAIMER: I do not know Angell or Relman. I have no financial interest in anything they do.
W need to do some edjamacatin' on a herd of academics, too. If anyone knows of good online videos or podcasts that briefly describe the drug development process at a level of detail that is suitable for post-graduate biomedical scientists, it would be great if you could post the link(s). Thanks.
@46 Pharmevangelist: IMO, there is a lot of stuff out there … including the non-video, non-podcast Pipeline, mostly prepared by and for the choir.
The problem is reaching the target audience. In order to be "good" (to them), you have to speak in their language, play to that audience and make it available in the places they frequent so THEY will share it and blog about it. For that, I have no answer.
(I apologize for many typos and mistakes in some of my posts. There isn't always time to check / edit things and there is no way to edit once posted.)
Okemist, there are ways to optimise the costs of names like INNs, and one obvious one that we use is to wait till later (phase III). The WHO is okay with this, they like the attrition rate to be low. The small R&D partner usually goes earlier, so they can 1) give their product a handle, and possibly 2) give the impression they have something close to market.
I heartily concur.
Light's analysis on the costs might be wrong, but the margin analysis is not. Margins, are total revenue minus total cost.
Major pharmaceuticals pull 16% margins, minor pharmaceuticals pull 14% margins. There are few sectors which pull that level of margin (publishing, hedge funds, and precious metal mining – though that's assuredly temporary). Generics, which do have to do some process R&D, but no lead and development R&D, pull a whopping… 6%. But they, of course, have to compete with each other and enjoy no patent protection.
insilicoconsulting (#42), your question is an important one, and as matt (#44) says, one that has been discussed a lot. But there are a lot of ways to ask the question.
The following questions are all different:
1) "how much does it cost to put a drug through development"
2) "why does it cost that much" which can be divided into
___a) "where (what activities) does the money go"
___b) "why does it go to those things"
___c) "why is the price so high"
3) "should it cost that much"
4) "what can be done to reduce it"
And all those questions are efficiency questions which are different from productivity questions. There's efficiency, which is cost per drug candidate. And there is productivity, which is cost per successful drug.
The problems in drug industry are twofold. The cost per shot on goal is going up, and the success rate is not budging (or perhaps declining).
I've discussed where the money goes and a bit about why with respect to clinical trials, but if you want to know how to reduce it, it's a very long and involved story, and I can't go into all the details. Suffice it to say that most experienced clinical trialists would agree that a substantial reduction in cost is possible, but the barriers are nontrivial. The barriers are cultural (risk tolerance), economic, etc. I'll just a handful of examples, but this is a small subset.
Cultural/Risk Tolerance: We think we're unique as an industry and we're slow to adopt innovations from other fields. And we don't really want to go around fixing things that work just to save money if it hasn't been thoroughly proven. For example, it took a long time for us to get rid of carbon paper (actually, I lie – some of us still use carbon paper) and move to web based data forms.
Economic/structural: The way that most CROs get paid is by the hour, not by milestones. This means that longer a trial runs, and more errors there are, more money the CROs make. Not that they are causing errors on purpose, but their top priority is not to make the trials as short and efficient as possible.
(And don't even talk to me about change orders. That's where a lot of CROs make their profit margin – it's very much like hiring a contractor to build a house.)
Economic/cultural: there are too many trials. There are too many companies going after oncology patients, for example. That is driving up demand and the supply is limited. Better weeding out of less promising drugs earlier in the development process would lower demand for sites, patients, CROs, etc. But in an industry populated by optimists (you'd have to be, to work in an industry with 5% or less success rate) this seems to be the situation.
just out of personal interest, Derek, could you go through the differences between an anticancer drug and a general pharma compound? Obviously phase I trials are totally different, success rates probably, too, right?
@47 newnickname:
I think this is always the problem – how can you reach the target audience, which in this case should be the general population who have no choice but to lap up whatever is fed to them by the popular media? Unfortunately, stories with titles like "Drug R&D is extremely difficult and only a tiny fraction of the costs can really be attributed to public funding" or "Drug R&D costs claimed by major pharmaceutical companies are not bogus" just do not make for stories that would appeal to the general population, and as such would not be published by major media outlets or bloggers for them.
Derek, you suggested that your readers would correct you if you were off base. I would like to challenge one of your statements. I do not believe that most medicinal chemists will get one drug through Phase III in their career. It is probably more like 10% of medicinal chemists will get a drug through Phase III. Perhaps less.
Also, don't forget John LaMattina's book "Drug Truths" which also attempts to counter the claims of Angell and others like her. He has gotten some exposure in the media because of it, but as you can read on his blog, with limited success in changing misconceptions.
Rock #54: The very first thing they told me when I started my career at Pfizer back in 1986 was to forget any fantasies about making a marketed drug. The probability was just too small. And never did make a marketed drug, though one of my compounds was at least nominated as a back-up.
Thank you very much for this exposition of the realities drug discovery.
It should be required reading of all non-scientists who have decision making authority in pharma, especially over money, people and strategy.
In my experience, people who did not understand these issues were making decisions they ought not to have been empowered to make.
In 20 years as a med chemist my best shot was one into phase II, which primarily went down on cost of goods and one candidate which failed tox
This is a very important topic and it's tremendous to see the debate unfold here. Arguably, this forum is where the aggregate truth can be found. Thank you all.
Derek, I applaud Vertex for considering working on totally novel targets with unprecedented therapeutic areas. This is indeed where investments need to be made…! No one can argue with that point, not even Dr. Light, because Vertex isn't pursuing "me too" incremental improvement drugs which seems to be the thinking about Pharma and of a lot of discussion at http://www.pharmamyths.net/
I worked for deCODE genetics for 6+ years all the way until 3 days before it's bankruptcy. deCODE burned through ~$1.2 Billion and no approved drugs resulted. But we probably only spent ~$100M on drug discovery. The other $1.1 Billion was spent on genetic based target discovery (is that drug discovery?). This is just one of many biotechnology companies that burned investor money with no approved drug products to show for it.
Regardless of how you digest all the economic numbers… or how you treat net R&D spending etc. The truth comes down to people's experience.
I've met 100s of people in pharma world who have worked all their careers trying to develop drugs. Unfortunately, I can't name more than a handful of people I know who actually were successful in being involved in developing an approved drug product.
So if you look at it from this perspective, I know for sure that the cost of drug development is many-fold more than Dr. Light's numbers.
Another way to look at it is if the cost of drug discovery and development were in aggregate $43M then it would be completely irresponsible for governments not to spend this kind of money to address the ~$1 Trillion annual dollar economic costs estimated for dealing with Alzhiemer's Disease by the year 2025. When it comes to AD, you already have easily more than $1 Trillion burned in Pharma trying to address AD, and so far nothing working.
If $43M were the true costs of drug development then it would be further irresponsible for any large Pharma CEO not to have a major internal effort in CNS to develop drugs to profitably treat the many unmet medical needs in CNS. Yet, many Pharmas have pulled back significantly in CNS.
Is it really ~$1.3 Billon to develop a new approved drug? I don't know the answer to this, but one thing is for sure the number is not $43M.
There is no Pharma conspiracy. It's just really very hard to develop a new drug, and frankly we just don't understand biological systems well enough to do it very cost effectively.
I sure wish then number were $43 M, but its not !
You forgot the last step. Your drug is being sold and Hear Come the Lawyers! These come in two forms:
1) Your competition doing everything it can to bust your patents.
2) Class action scumbags putting together pools of anyone who ever had so much as a headache while taking your product and trolling for a huge settlement. 1-800-BAD-DRUG indeed!
An API has to be treated throughout the entire development process as if it is certain to succeed. You can't hold back. Process chemistry must take the synthetic scheme used by med chemists and revise it so the company can make multi-kilogram batches for multiple purposes (tox batches, GMP, etc.) and can not wait for trial data that says, "Sorry, epic tox fail."
You need, just on the chemistry side of things, high yield, minimized cost, low impurities, the right polymorph, and sometimes even the right particle size distribution. All of it needs to be well-controlled, robust, validated, and ready to go at any scale anywhere in the World.
The sad truth is a drug can die anywhere in the process for a whole host of reasons and there is nothing we can do about it. We must spend and test and innovate as best we can, fingers crossed.
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Solid Fleece Fabric
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Meet Greyston Garcia. For those who are traumatized by the application of Florida's Stand Your Ground law in the George Zimmerman case, meet Greyston Garcia. And I hope lactating mothers and people with peacemakers consult their physicians before reading this.
No one argues the facts: Greyston Garcia killed Pedro Roteta in January by stabbing him in the chest following a foot chase through Little Havana after catching Roteta stealing his car radio. Garcia also hid the knife, lied to the cops about stabbing Roteta, and even pawned some other car radios the thief had on him when he died. But Garcia won't face any time over the killing, thanks to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law — the same rule at the heart of the Trayvon Martin case. A judge ruled today that Garcia was within his rights to chase the thief and could have feared for his life when Roteta swung a bag of stolen radios at his head. Miami New Times has the story.


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About Me
Thank you for stopping by and welcome!
I'm just an ordinary dude looking to live an extraordinary life.
That wasn't always the case, however. From an early age, I thought that if I worked harder than the next guy and checked all the boxes society told me I should check, that I'd be successful in life.
I've completed trade school, earned a Master's Degree in Engineering, spent 20+ years in the US Navy sailing around the globe and countless other experiences & accomplishments that I am most certainly grateful for. Through all of that there's been something missing, however. I always had this longing for a certain type of freedom that I couldn't quite put my finger on until recently.
What was missing was that I wasn't living my life fully on my own terms. I was struggling to find the space in my life to do the things I enjoy doing, spend time with people I care about most and to spend time on myself. So, that's why I started this blog. At that moment I just described, I told myself that I would 'Never Settle' for the status quo. I made a firm commitment to make the changes I needed to make in my life in order to have the time, energy and money to live my life exactly how I want to live it.
It's my mission to help alpha men build rock solid discipline so they can regain control over their time, build wealth, improve their health and forge positive, menaingful relationships. If you're 'just trying to pay the bills', 'getting one day closer to retirement', or feel stuck because life dealt you unfair hand then you are in right place! I'll be writing and talking about the various tools, strategies, tactics and other things I've personally utilized to get the most out of life and to help others around me achieve the goals they set for themselves.


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We believe that art and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is based upon the National Curriculum 2014. It aims to ensure that all pupils:
Our art curriculum is enriched by a variety of special activities. Year groups create art galleries of children's work in particular units of study and parents are invited to enjoy the work. Each term the children have the opportunity to display their artwork more widely in a Seer Green community event.
Our children follow a carefully planned curriculum which seeks to engage, challenge and inspire. Knowledge and understanding from a full range of curriculum subjects are taught and developed, alongside core learning skills which give children the vital skills they need to succeed as they progress through our school and beyond.
Each half-term has a key curriculum focus, into which many other subjects and lessons link, providing continuity and context for learning from the very earliest years in school. Our curriculum is enriched in all year groups by visits and visitors to school, and each half-termly unit culminates in a 'Rich Learning Outcome' – a highlight and celebration of learning, in which parents are often invited to share.


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14050 Olympic Dr.
Clearlake, California 95422
Visit Website
Local Phone: (707) 994-8251
The City of Clearlake Animal Control unit is supervised currently by the Detective Sergeant and consists of one full time Animal Control Officer. The Animal Control Officer is responsible for the enforcement of animal related laws and issues within the city limits.
The animal Control unit routinely works with outside agencies such as the SPCA, County Animal Control and the Lake County Animal Coalition who assist them in the control of the animal population within the city.
For citizens of the City of Clearlake, you should contact the City of Clearlake Animal Control Officer at 707-994-8251 ext 118 when reporting any and all animal complaints, welfare checks, reports of abuse, vicious or dangerous animals at large, animal bites, injured animals and all other animal nuisance reports, City of Clearlake dog licensing, lost, found or impounded animals, redeeming or surrendering an animal, public drop off of animals, adoptions, low cost spay/neuter clinic, vaccination clinics and microchipping.
Clearlake Animal Control operates out of the City of Clearlake Police Department located at 14050 Olympic Drive in Clearlake. After hour and weekend emergencies only will continue to be handled by Clearlake Police Department patrol officers.
Check out some top picks from our new Director of Barketing™, Maya — her favorite places, eats, treats, etc.
Here's the archive of posts by our former Director of Barketing™, Kayla. Visit Kayla's Korner
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WASHINGTON — Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is publicly calling for the Trump administration to turn around the Afghan war by using private contractors to massacre civilians at relatively low cost, sources confirmed today.
In an op-ed article published Wednesday in The New York Times, Prince explained that contractors would offer a boost to the fledgling Afghan National Army, which has struggled with killing the necessary amount of innocent civilians in order to win the war.
Prince's plan would embed contractors within Afghan Army units, where they can better advise-and-assist in war crimes. It also would provide contracted pilots that could deliver air supported-war crimes more efficiently than the US military could.
"My proposal is for a contractor force of less than 6,000," Prince wrote. "Besides its role in saving American military lives from committing war crimes, this team would provide a support structure for the Afghans to continue their corrupt business practices and shady political dealings, allowing the United States' conventional forces to remain for the foreseeable future."
Prince's plan has so far been rejected by Trump's top generals, though he noted that his proposal could save taxpayers negative $40 billion a year.
He added: "Just as no one criticizes Elon Musk because his company SpaceX helps supply American astronauts, no one should criticize a private company — mine or anyone else's — for profiting from an ugly multigenerational war through paid mercenaries."


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To commemorate the school's Centennial, Parent Council has embarked on a special fundraising project to improve the front yard of the school – The Centennial Playground Project.
The Centennial Playground construction began Summer 2016 and will be complete by Fall 2017.
The Centennial Playground Phase 2 construction will be completed over the summer and ready for the students to enjoy in September! The work will include lots of enhancements to the paved area, including painted games and a ball-wall, as well as an installation to recognize Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze donors.
Here are the updated plans:
There were a few modifications to the original concept design, based on feedback from teaching staff, parents and students. These changes include:
- The basketball area will remain in its current formation as 2 full courts.
- As a result, the play structure area has been relocated to the south side of the yard, near the raised beds.
- We have added additional pavement games to the design
The TDSB conducted a tender process and received 5 competitive bids for the play structures. The Kompan Robinia line was selected from these bids. This is the line that was illustrated in the original concept plans and the play structure equipment has been selected.
The Centennial Playground will feature the many different "play zones" that were part of the original leading-edge design:
- An "Active Zone" that is provided by the artificial turf field/track installed by the TDSB1. The area provides space for soccer, baseball, running, cartwheels and more
- A "Climbing Zone" with Parkour-style playground climbing structures
- A "Basketball Zone" with brightly painted full basketball courts
- A "Wall-ball Zone" with bright targets painted on a building wall where kids can practice their throwing and catching skills
- A "Games Zone" that includes two triple hoop games and a variety of brightly painted schoolyard games; four square, tic-tac-toe, hopscotch and a 100 chart
- A "Fun Trail" of painted circles that lead children throughout the entire new playground space
- "Quiet Zones" within the Centennial Grove of trees with a picnic table and seating boulders with engraved game boards, along with added benches for seating including a Buddy Bench.
The plan incorporates leading-edge playground design with many different types of active play zones that will benefit the varying ages of students and the different modes of play that our kids have.
Thank you again to the Runnymede community members who generously donated to this amazing project for our school! The investment you made in your children, your school, your community and play has made this possible!


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Since his previous release on Josh Wink's Ovum, Dice has been creating quite a buzz with his releases on Cocoon and Minus and his ongoing Tribehouse residency in Germany and Circo Loco Party at DC10 in Ibiza.
His new release Flight LB 7475/El Gallo Negro has already received a big response from some of the most important pioneers from the dance music scene, including Ame, Chris Fortier, Clive Henry, Alex Parsons, Funk D'Void, John Aquaviva among many others.
Loco Dice will be playing in Bucharest in the first week of October, as well as Ovum's head honcho Josh Wink will visit Studio Martin (Bucharest) and Budapest on October 22 and 23.
Related Links
Recent News
- Scottish Ensemble to perform Alex Smoke's Faust score
- Aphex Twin's Remote Orchestra in the UK this October
- Pandora's Box new live score
- Upload Festival in London, this month
- Die Frau im Mond film screening with live soundtrack by...
- Exquisite Corps - Sacramento based fresh new music
- Mutek 2013 - call for submissions
- Sonar Festival to commence eight city debut tour of North...
- Kontraste festival 2012 in Krems, Austria
- Benny Benassi releases the next Toolroom Knights compilation
- Steve Mac & Mark Brown release new EP
- Most known czech DJane Lucca will release her debut album
- Feature: RPR Sound, A successful story
- Event Report: Border Community at The End, London
- Phone talk with Simian Mobile Disco
September 23, 2006 at 5:03 PM CEST


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JOHANNESBURG — The Committee to Protect Journalists says it appears Ethiopia is extending and refining its censorship of Internet news with a sophistication that could encourage other authoritarian regimes in Africa.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government has been blocking major news sites and blog hosts since disputed general election results in 2005 led to violent protests. Voice Over Internet Protocol such as Skype also is blocked, forcing people to use the state telephone system.
A CPJ statement Monday says "the rollout of a far more pervasive and sophisticated blocking system" started in April to include smaller blogs by exiles and news services, and even individual Facebook pages.
"The gap through which undetected, uncensored news gets in and out of Ethiopia is definitely narrowing," encouraging similar action from authoritarian regimes such as Sudan.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Theory Seminar: Deterministic Meeting in Networks
- Speaker:
- Andrzej Pelc (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada)
- Date:
- Wednesday, 13.6.2018, 12:30
- Place:
- Taub 201
The task of rendezvous (also called gathering) calls for a meeting of two or more mobile entities, starting from different positions in some environment.
Those entities are called mobile agents or robots, and the environment can be a network modelled as a graph or a terrain in the plane, possibly with obstacles. The rendezvous problem has been studied in many different scenarios. Two among many adopted assumptions particularly influence the methodology to be used to accomplish rendezvous. One of the assumptions specifies whether the agents in their navigation can see something apart from parts of the environment itself, for example other agents or marks left by them. The other assumption concerns the way in which the entities move: it can be either deterministic or randomized. In this talk we survey results on deterministic rendezvous in networks of agents that cannot see the other agents prior to meeting them, and cannot leave any marks.


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When you have been jailed and need help affording bail, call Bail Shop, LLC for a professional bail bondsman in city, PA right away! No matter if you are jailed for for a lesser crime or you are facing major felony charges, we are here to help. Contact our bail agents 24/7 at 888-224-5711 for quick, courteous bail services in Pennsylvania.
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A good bail agent will make sure that you understand the process and have no questions before walking you through the bail process. It's easy to get overwhelmed after an arrest, which is why the bail bondsmen at Bail Shop, LLC are here you whenever you need us, 24 hours a day. For a pleasant experience and fast bail bonds in PA, choose the staff at Bail Shop, LLC. We will do our best to deliver the best option for you and your loved one, so give our bondsmen a call at 888-224-5711 for more information concerning:
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Contact Us for a Quality Bail Bondsman!
At Bail Shop, LLC, we have operated in the Pennsylvania bail and legal system for many years and have an extensive knowledge of the bail process. When you want an experienced, licensed bail bondsman in city, PA, come to the bail agency with years of experience. Whether you require a small or large bail bond, our agents at Bail Shop, LLC will take the time to ensure you completely understand the terms and feel comfortable. Call 888-224-5711 to talk to our bail agents if you need speedy bail services in city, PA.