Using case studies from major players in the pharmaceutical industry, Peter Thornton at Business Insights reviews strategies to revitalise R&D and boost flagging pipelines.

Implementing a ‘roadbook-controlled project’ that takes into account the development process and financial and risk parameters can limit the waste of invested money through strategically placed ‘go/no go’ decision points, explains Roel Bellens at Strategus.

John Nash, Alan Beresford and Dawn Yates at BioFocus argue that outsourcing ADME to CROs can eliminate potential development liabilities, cut costs by reducing time spent on unsuitable candidates, and provide access to a wide range of testing resources.

There is currently global political and economic pressure to reduce the costs of healthcare. Michael F Swanick at PricewaterhouseCoopers examines the impact that rising tax rates will have on the biopharmaceutical industry over the next year.

The European Commission released its final report on the Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry in July this year, and it clearly aims to promote practices that increase the level of generic entries. Michael McFalls and Frances Murphy at Jones Day compare the report to US legislation and fear that it may lead to limitations that are a step too far.

As companies expand globally, it is crucial that they maintain their efficiency and reputation through effective communication structures. Simone Lamont and Alison Lamb of CLS Communication AG point out the benefits of using the services of life science language specialists that fully understanding your business, ensuring seamless integration.

Matthew Sleeman and Fabio Magrini at MedImmune review developments in using antibodies to treat autoimmune diseases and in other areas of unmet medical need, and hope that this will continue to stimulate research into the pathogenic mechanisms of autoimmunity.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women, and around 80 per cent of deaths resulting from it occur in developing countries. Julie Zhu at QIAGEN discusses how tools and technologies can be adapted for low-resource settings to ensure that women at risk can be identified worldwide.

Technological advances have led to quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) becoming a quality validation method for a range of scientific and medical approaches. Tobias Hampshire at Thermo Fisher Scientific provides an overview of recent developments in probe-based technology.

miRNAs are ideally suited for use as biomarkers due to their role in controlling cellular activity. By indicating the biological state of cells and tissues, Peer Staehler at febit argues that they are important to diagnostics and may have the potential to become therapeutic targets and tools.

Andy Bailey at ViruSure GmbH reviews the latest regulations leading towards a new approach to virus safety for investigational biotechnology products.

Quality assurance should be integral to clinical development and trials to ensure the accuracy of test results. Martin Crockard at Randox describes different types of analyses and explains that the choice of scheme should be dependent on the size, duration and complexity of the trial.

William Downey at HighTech Business Decisions provides an overview of the results of an investigation into the criteria that directors of biomanufacturing companies believed to be most important when choosing a contract manufacturing organisation.

The move towards personalised medicine has meant that a great number of samples are collected during clinical trials. In order to manage this data, a flexible information system that works in real-time should be employed, explains Jennifer Benner at BioStorage Technologies.

Bob Smailes at LeidenUniversity outlines the research taking place at LeidenBioSciencePark, the leading life science park in the Netherlands.

A new cGMP production centre is being built in Wallonia, allowing three companies who work in the field of regenerative medicines to come together to create one platform, where each will have their own production space and the support they need.