Roche has appointed Pamela Carroll as its new Global Head of Pathways Biology within in Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development unit.

She will also act as oncology discovery site head at the company’s research facility in Nutley, New Jersey.

Mike Burgess, Global Head Oncology, Discovery and Translational Area, and head, large molecule research at Roche, says Pam “has built a reputation for scientific excellence and leadership in the field”.

She first entered the pharmaceutical industry in 1999 with Bristol-Myers Squibb before joining Merck. Two years ago, she moved to the Belfer Institute of Applied Cancer Sciences at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

“Her broad knowledge and successful history in leading oncology drug discovery efforts make her is an ideal fit for this position,” Mr Burgess added.

The Government needs to do more to support life sciences in the UK and create an environment where the industry can flourish, a new survey has found.

RSA’s The UK Life Sciences Leaders’ Survey 2011 revealed worries over the NHS reforms, medicine pricing and reimbursement, employment issues and the cost of research amongst its leaders.

Nick Stephens, CEO of RSA, says the Government “urgently needs to do more to ensure that education, regulation, access to medicines and the NHS research base align to support the industry’s continued contribution to the UK economy”.

The report is the second annual survey of industry bosses. Last year the general feeling was of optimism with leaders believing the recently elected coalition Government would improve the business environment.

But twelve months later the mood has changed with results finding leaders claim the UK is not competing effectively globally, creating opportunities for early phase/smaller companies or making the most of its unique selling points: the NHS and skills in innovation and discovery.

Leaders also raised concerns about the increasing cost of working in the UK, the implication of R&D as a result of the NHS reforms, the regulatory burden on operations and the process from development to market. They also advised that fiscal and tax incentives should be given to SMEs to help their growth and the UK compete globally.

Worries were also raised about the introduction of value-based pricing. However, in contrast, health technology assessments were broadly welcomed as a means of enhancing value and meeting therapeutic requirements, the report found.

During the tough economic environment, the survey found that leaders would focus on innovation, creating flexible organisations and processes, and refocusing research and development to weather the current storm.

In a perfect world, leaders revealed they would investing in R&D and make the healthcare sector, regulatory and commercial environment work closer together to achieve better outcomes for patients and the pharmaceutical industry.

Stephen Whitehead, CEO, ABPI, says the survey shows more support is needed for biopharmaceutical companies in the ever-changing NHS. “There is much that the Government has done to support the industry, particularly through the Growth Review and the Office for Life Sciences,” he said. “But we need to build on this as part of a continuing relationship with NHS and Government to explore how unnecessary bureaucracy can be eliminated from the healthcare system so that new treatments can reach patients as quickly as possible.”

Seven medical devices, diagnostics and healthcare IT have been named in Cleveland Clinic’s Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012.

The list of medical devices and therapies was chosen by a panel of physicians and scientists at Cleveland Clinic, named one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by the US News & World Report survey.

The annual list recognises new techniques, therapies and approaches to treat medical conditions.

The selection criteria for qualifying in the Top 10 Medical Innovations required nominations to:

• Have significant potential for short-term clinical impact (either a major improvement in patient benefit or an improved function that enhances healthcare delivery)
• Have a high probability of success
• Be on the market or close to being introduced
• Have sufficient data available to support its nomination.

The Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012 are:

10. Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Reduce Disease Threat

9. Novel Diabetes Therapy: SGLT2 Inhibitors

8. Harnessing Big Data to Improve Health Care – Health care data requires advanced technologies to efficiently process it. Analytics can be applied to better hospital operations and tracking outcomes for clinical and surgical procedures.

7. Active Bionic Prosthesis: Wearable Robotic Devices

6. Implantable Device to Treat Complex Brain Aneurysms

5. Increasing Discovery with Next-Generation Gene Sequencing

4. Medical Apps for Mobile Devices

3. Concussion Management System for Athletes – Patient management tools can instantly detect brain injuries at the moment of contact.

2. CT Scans for Early Detection of Lung Cancer

1. Catheter-Based Renal Denervation to Control Resistant Hypertension

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical centre that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education.

Roche has appointed Dr Harsukh Parmar as Head of Translational and Experimental Medicine (TM) of its Inflammation Discovery and Translational Area (DTA).

Dr Parmar will be responsible for the strategy and implementation of early clinical progress in Inflammation as well as collaborating with Discovery and Clinical Development to ensure high quality of compounds used throughout drug production.

Dr Jacques Banchereau, Head of the Inflammation and Virology Discovery and Translational Areas, said that Harsukh is recognised as “an expert in respiratory, inflammation, immunology and oncology, and possesses the right combination of experience for this pivotal position”.

Dr Parmar joins Roche from AstraZeneca in the UK, where he worked as Early Development Director, Vice President and Global Head of Early Clinical Development in the Respiratory and Inflammation Therapeutic Area. He also previously served at Roche as Global Clinical Science Leader and Director in Oncology, Immunology, Virology and Transplantation.

“Having previously worked for Roche and recognising the rich heritage of innovation that has come from the pharma business in small molecules and biologics, I was excited to rejoin a company that has been a leader in many of its respective fields,” said Dr Parmar.

Eli Lilly has launched a new open innovation platform to develop its product pipeline as well as identify molecules to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

The new Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform builds on Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative (PD²) that was launched in 2009 to identify molecules for future drug development.

Dr Jan Lundberg, Executive Vice President of Science and Technology and President of Lilly Research Laboratories, said: “We recognise that there are many untapped sources of ideas and molecules outside of Lilly that would otherwise go unnoticed without initiatives like this one that advance science."

The new platform consists of three components:

• TD², or target drug discovery, screens submitted molecules for their potential to interact with known disease targets.
• PD², which continues to screen submitted molecules in complex cellular assays with the goal of identifying potential medicines.
• A new initiative that screens molecules for their potential to fight against MDR-TB, a form of TB that resists against at least two first-line TB medicines.

Lilly has acknowledged that many reasons stifle the discovery process of new molecules, such as lack of resources, so has designed the new platform to minimise obstacles and benefit continued research.

The Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform utilises a secure website that enables scientists to submit molecules to be tested. A series of biological assay panels evaluate the molecule for its uniqueness and potential to be further optimised into a medicine candidate.

Dr Alan D. Palkowitz, Vice President of Discovery Chemistry Research and Technologies at Lilly, said that the new platform will “connect scientists from all over the world with Lilly, for the common goal of finding new treatments for diseases where patients are in need and looking for answers, such as cancer, diabetes and MDR-TB.”