Maxine Vaccine celebrates a biotech breakthrough that shows imaginative branding as well as medical commitment.

One of this week’s most exciting pharmaceutical industry news stories is the first regulatory approval for a manufactured drug based on stem cells.

Canadian regulators have approved Prochymal from Osiris Therapeutics to treat children suffering from rejection of bone marrow transplants.

The drug is prepared from stem cells obtained from the bone marrow of healthy young adult donors and replicated in culture.

This is exciting news for biotechnology fans – and as I’ve said before, biotechnology is the future of the drug industry.

But what made me do a double take when I first read the news story was the company’s name: Osiris Therapeutics. As a name for a specialist regenerative medicine company, that is quite inspired.

Apologies if I’m telling you stuff you already know, but here’s the story…

In ancient Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god of the dead. This was a consequence of his having been murdered by the evil god Set. His body was cut up and buried in various locations across Egypt.

Isis, his bride, spent years searching for the pieces of Osiris. Because he was a god, he could return if his body was put back together. She found all of the pieces except one. Isn’t that always the way?

So Osiris became the damaged god of the underworld, while Isis resigned herself to an eternity of knitting.

It’s a classic myth about the power and the limitations of healing. (I don’t use ‘myth’ in the modern sense to mean a lie, but in the traditional sense to mean a tale of seriously weird stuff.)

So this small biotech company has positioned itself, by virtue of its trade name, as the heir to a magical tradition of regeneration – one with power over human life and death, but with overtones of loss and quiet endurance.

And just as Isis spent lonely years collecting the parts of her lover, Osiris Therapeutics has worked two decades to get to this point.

Whether the company demands reimbursement in the form of ritual sacrifices I doubt, though it would be worth it just to see the look on Andrew Dillon’s face.

A breast cancer scheme at St George’s Hospital, London, has won an NHS Improvement award for reducing the amount of time patients spend in hospital following surgery.

The 23-hour discharge model was launched in January last year and has seen patients’ stay in hospital reduced from an average of five days to two days or less.

Introduced by the breast cancer service team in January 2011, the hospital has seen a “remarkable improvement” in length of stay figures with up to 83% of patients discharged in less than 48 hours.

Mr Dibyesh Banerjee, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon, said the award is “well deserved and a testament to the hard work of the team”.

He commented: “Most of our patients now stay in hospital for just a single night, with some being safely discharged on the same day as their surgery. When we introduced the model we had initially aimed for a target of 70 per cent of discharges within two days.

“However, we have achieved a far better result by streamlining care pathways and introducing a nurse-led discharge service. This means that patients can now be discharged efficiently and safely seven days a week, improving their experience and aiding their recovery.”

Auranofin, a cheap off-patent medicine for arthritis, has been shown to kill the parasite that causes amoebic dysentery.

Tests in animals suggest that auranofin could be 10 times as effective as the current standard therapy and have a much lower side-effect profile.

The new potential indication was found through a US government-funded programme to find affordable treatments for rare or neglected diseases among existing drugs.

Amoebic dysentery, caused by the parasite Entamoeba histolytica, is widespread in the developing world, causing 70,000 deaths per year.

Auranofin was among a number of drugs tested on parasites in vitro and then in infected mice and hamsters.

The results suggest that it is 10 times as effective as metronidazole, the current standard treatment, so could be used in smaller doses or as a one-off tablet.

In addition, the drug has few side effects at the likely required dose, whereas metronidazole can cause severe nausea, dizziness and headache.

Anjan Debnath of the University of California at San Francisco said: “This is a drug that you can find in every country. Based on the dosage we’re seeing in the lab, this treatment could be sold at about $2.50 per dose, or lower.

“That cost saving could make a big difference to the people who need it the most.”

Doctors should be more involved in the development of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), BMA chairman Dr Laurence Buckman has said.

Speaking at the Local Medical Committees Conference, Dr Buckman warns that the development of CCGs is continuing without the involvement of many ordinary GPs.

Dr Buckman insists that doctors should stand up to “regulation, bullying micromanagement and dissipated effort” as CCGs head towards authorisation.

CCGs are due to take over the responsibility for commissioning care from PCT clusters by April 2013.

They will need by authorised by the NHS Commissioning Board Authority before they become statutory bodies.

However, many GPs feel the Government has not kept its promises and are no longer in control of how CCGs are being developed.

“CCGs are ‘membership organisations’ as we keep on being told, they are our creatures not just another version of the PCTs they replace,” Dr Buckman said.

“GPs should be telling them what to do, not the other way round.  We were told it was going to be different… the Government needs to make it so.”

The BMA raised serious concerns during the passage of the Health and Social Care Act. The Association insists it continues to have “grave concerns” about the reforms, but will “ensure that implementation is evidence-based and sensible”.

An integrated care pilot scheme for diabetes patients in London has cut emergency admissions by 7%.

The success of the North West London Integrated Care Pilot means that similar schemes have been projected to deliver half the NHS cost saving target.

The pilot uses integrated care plans, shared electronically with all healthcare providers across a range of settings, to improve the effectiveness of care.

Multidisciplinary groups within the area hold monthly case conferences to discuss the more challenging patients.

The pilot aims to bring down the cost of care for diabetic and elderly patients by 24% over five years by reducing the need for emergency admissions and the length of hospital stays.

Early results indicate that patient experience is improving and that emergency admissions at participating practices have fallen by 6.6%.

Hannah Farrah, Director of Strategy and Commissioning Development at NHS London, said this was “quite a massive achievement” when emergency admissions at non-participating practices in the city had risen by 0.3% in the same time.

This change in strategy offers a potential solution to the funding crisis of hospital trusts, she argued, breaking the vicious circle of declining income and declining service provision.

“We have to convince our public and politicians that they want this change to happen, because at the moment what they hang on to is quite an outmoded form of delivery,” she concluded.

AstraZeneca looks set for several agreements to boost its pipeline after suffering a host of late-stage setbacks, according to Dr Martin Mackay (pictured), Head of Research and Development.

The R&D chief indicated the pharmaceutical company is hoping to sign deals with other major pharma companies as well as targeting biotech acquisitions and licensing partnerships.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Dr Mackay said he would be “personally disappointed” if agreements to secure AZ’s future were not completed by the end of the year.

The company has been linked as one of the suitors interested in acquiring Amylin Pharmaceuticals, who reportedly rejected a hostile bid from BMS.

Shareholders at the Anglo-Swedish pharma firm have criticised the leadership of retiring CEO David Brennan for failing to securing merger and acquisition deals to compensate for its failing pipeline.

Mr Brennan announced his departure on the day AZ published their Q1 financial results which revealed an 11% drop in revenue after key brands lost patent protection.

The outgoing CEO said the pharmaceutical industry is “experiencing pressures none of which I’ve witnessed in my 36 years in the industry” but remains “very confident” AZ has the “capabilities, courage and determination to be successful into the future”.

Dr Mackay insists his research teams have remained “undistracted by recent events” at the company and said the department continue to do “the right things”.

Since he joined AZ from Pfizer in 2010, the R&D head has restructured the department, outsourcing several in-house activities whilst axing 40% of its investigational portfolio.

Changes to employment law recommended in a new Government policy review would make it much easier for pharma companies in the UK to get rid of staff.

Cuts in the consultation period for redundancy, compensation for unfair dismissal and employee rights following takeovers are among the reforms urged by the Beecroft report.

The proposals, commissioned by PM David Cameron, were attacked by Business Secretary Vince Cable as “nonsense”.

Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft (pictured), a leader in the private healthcare field, has urged a “bonfire of regulations” including:

• Reduction of the mandatory 90-day consultation period for a redundancy programme to 30 days – or to five days if the company is in “severe distress”.

• A cap on loss of earnings compensation for employees who make successful unfair dismissal claims.

• Major reform of employees’ right to retain existing terms and conditions (‘transfer of undertakings’) when a company is subject to a takeover.

The report claims these measures will support “job creation”.

Vince Cable called for Lib Dem opposition to the reforms, saying: “Some people think that if labour rights were stripped down to the most basic minimum, employers would start hiring and the economy would soar again. This is complete nonsense.”

Adrian Beecroft is head of private equity firm Apax Partners, which owns two of the UK’s largest private healthcare companies: Capio and General Healthcare.