There has been a frenzy about new media and information sources, especially since the emergence of social media like Twitter. Keeping track of all the different media available today is very time-consuming.
Which media do you really use? Do you primarily rely on established trade and financial media? Or are you taking advantage of free online news sources? Do you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn on a regular basis?
We are curious to hear your thoughts!
Crowd-funding is a widely discussed and disputed financing approach these days. It has proven to work in many industries, including the entertainment sector. But what implications will it have for the healthcare industry? Will it have any impact on healthcare at all?
So far, there are only few examples of crowd-funded healthcare ventures. One of them is the Rare Genomics Institute, a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing better and faster diagnostics and therapies for rare diseases. They decided for a personalized approach by putting up individual cases of rare disease sufferers on their website and organizing funding for the diagnosis and treatment of the affected patients. Thereby, Rare Genomics Institute provides treatment opportunities for patients who otherwise would not be able to pay their medical bills, as these kind of therapies (and diagnostics) are usually not funded by healthcare providers.
Up to the end of 2010, pharma companies were able to set the price for innovative new medicine at will upon introduction to the German market. Under the new AMNOG law, however, the price is dependent on the degree of innovation, as assessed by G-BA (Federal Joint Committee). G-BA requires pharma and biotech companies to provide information on medical benefits and advantages as compared to existing medicines across all indications the drug is approved for, and statistics on the (sub)sets of patients who will benefit from the drug. In addition, they have to provide spending figures of the statutory healthcare system and need to explain how quality can be assured during treatment.
By Dr. Amal Mukhopadhyay
The Indian biotechnology industry is growing at record speed, both in terms of turnover and investments. While Indian biotech is recognized in the West for high quality services, bioinformatics and manufacturing, it also offers great opportunities for conducting clinical trials and manufacturing of biosimilars. Only recently, European companies have started to realize that India also is a huge and receptive market for innovative drugs and medtech products.
With a consistent double digit growth rate throughout the last decade the Indian biotechnology industry has been recognized as a sun-rise industry not only in India but also globally. According to a survey based on inputs from over 150 biotech companies, conducted by Biospectrum – Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises, Bangalore India (2010-2011), the Indian biotechnology industry posted revenues of $ 2.9 billion, in spite of the global recession during 2009 and slow recovery during 2010. The total turnover is expected to reach $ 8.6 billion in 2015 with an anticipated annual growth rate of 30%.
Germany´s Law on the Stabilization and Structural Reform of the Statutory Health Insurance (Versorgungsstrukturgesetz) came into effect January 1st, 2012. For medtech companies it is important that the law introduces a novel instrument of the statutory healthcare system’s Joint Federal Committee G-BA for the assessment of innovative medical technologies. This novelty – the so-called “trial provision” for innovative medtech methods – has the advantage of not summarily excluding methods whose benefit is not immediately clear.
Dr Rainer Hess, Chairman of G-BA, in January detailed the plans of G-BA for the assessment of innovative medical technologies: “We are not assessing medicinal products, such as pacemakers or endo-prostheses,” he said during the recent MedInform conference “Versorgungsstrukturgesetz 2012″ hosted by BVMed, the German Medical Technology Association. “We are evaluating medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in which medical devices may play a role.”
