Pharma Strategy Blog

Posted via email from sally church’s posterous

• Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet – Microsoft courier tablet – Gizmodo
  Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.
  (tags: Booklet Tablet Courier technology innovation tools multitouch)

• PTEN dosage is essential for neurofibroma development and malignant transformation — PNAS
  Patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) carry approximately
  a 10% lifetime risk of developing a malignant peripheral nerve
  sheath tumor (MPNST). Although the molecular mechanisms underlying
  NF1 to MPNST malignant transformation remain unclear,
  alterations of both the RAS/RAF/MAPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling
  pathways have been implicated.
  (tags: PTEN MPNST NF1 soft tissue sarcoma STS)

• Google Docs Batch Export
  Now you can export all your documents, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs from Google Docs in a ZIP archive.
  (tags: collaboration tools google backup)

• Pfizer Launches Phase 3 Clinical Trial With Novel Alk Inhibitor In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients With Specific Gene Mutation
  The overall response rate, to date, is 65 percent (20/31 patients [95 percent CI: 45 percent, 81 percent]) and disease control rate (DCR) at 8 weeks is 84 percent (26/31 patients [95 percent CI: 66 percent, 95 percent]). Median PFS has not yet been reached. The median duration of treatment is 24.5+ weeks.
  (tags: PF-02341066 c-MET ELM4-ALK NSCLC mutations Pfizer)
• The FINANCIAL – Pfizer Launches Phase 3 Clinical Trial With Novel Alk Inhibitor In NSCLC Patients With Specific Gene
  PF-02341066 is an investigational, selective, ATP-competitive small molecule dual inhibitor of mesenchymal epithelial transition growth factor (c-Met or hepatocyte growth factor) and ALK tyrosine kinases, which are implicated in the progression of several cancers, including NSCLC. A subset of NSCLC patients have been identified whose tumors carry a unique mutation in which the echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4) gene is fused to ALK, also known as an EML4-ALK translocation.
  (tags: PF-02341066 c-MET ELM4-ALK mutations NSCLC Pfizer)

Next week we’re launching a new series of vignettes that are part podcastlet and part interview on this blog.

The theme is centred around people in pharma, biotech, academic institutions and patient advocacy groups who make a difference to patients lives.

We will begin with the CEO of a biotech company who believes that the product they have will be a real game changer.

If you know any one who has a real passion and excitement, we’d love to hear about them. Feel free to make your suggestions in the comments below.

  
Download now or listen on posterous

Memo.m4a (2955 KB)

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from sally church’s posterous

• Dove Medical Press – Open Access Papers
  Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a soft tissue tumor with tendency to recur locally and only rarely metastasizes to vital organs. Surgery with wide margins remains the standard treatment. DFSP is characterized by specific chromosomal abnormalities involving the platelet derived growth factor B locus (PDGFB).
  (tags: DFSP sarcoma STS PDGF imatinib)
• Twitter Users Are Now Younger on Average Than Facebook's – The Steve Rubel Lifestream
  "Twitter is stronger on average with the younger audience – the same one that TV nets and advertisers covet. Overall it's younger than Facebook, which is graying. Still, pound for pound I am sure Facebook has more consumers in the same demo given its girth."
  (tags: twitter facebook Pew statistics demographics socialmedia)

via competitivefutures.com

From Eric Garland’s Competitive Futures blog – too funny for words 🙂

Posted via web from sally church’s posterous

• SIP1 protein protects cells from DNA damage-induced apoptosis and has independent prognostic value in bladder cancer — PNAS
  The prognostic value of SIP1 and its role in DNA damage response establish a link between genetic instability and metastasis and suggest a potential importance for this protein as a therapeutic target. In addition, we conclude that the nature of an EMT pathway rather than the deregulation of E-cadherin per se is critical for the progression of the disease and patients' survival.
  (tags: SIP1 PTEN apoptosis DNA damage bladder cancer)
• Identifying genotype-dependent efficacy of single and combined PI3K- and MAPK-pathway inhibition in cancer — PNAS
  In cancer, genetically activated proto-oncogenes often induce “upstream” dependency on the activity of the mutant oncoprotein. Therapeutic inhibition of these activated oncoproteins can induce massive apoptosis of tumor cells, leading to sometimes dramatic tumor regressions in patients. The PI3K and MAPK signaling pathways are central regulators of oncogenic transformation and tumor maintenance.
  (tags: PTEN PI3K MAPK apoptosis cancer Pao)