Biotech Highlights to Look Forward to in 2011

This week, we’ve been outlining the biotech industry trends we’ve been following on the Cross-Border Biotech Blog and noting some recent developments and directions for 2011:

Social media in biotech and healthcare continues to grow in importance to the industry. At this week’s JP Morgan conference, there are live blogs and Twitterati galore. And when even the government gets in on the game… well, the FDA hasn’t issued social media guidelines for regulated companies, but it’s using the web and Twitter frequently and well, so companies had better be listening.

Every drug company is talking about getting “the right medicine to the right patient at the right time.” As personalized medicine (the “right patient” part) is entering the mainstream, it is making room for the central idea of comarative effectiveness: that some medicines may work better than others (the “right medicine” part). Comparative effectiveness and personalized medicine, together at last.

The Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation ended 2010 with one of the year’s more interesting collaborations between nonprofit organizations and commercial drug developers. CCFF is helping to fund a new approach at the Centre for Drug Research and Development — a Centre of Excellence at UBC — that will try to “create new medicines” for CF.

Even the capital markets are excited about the new year — the lead-up to 2011 was 2010’s best quarter by a wide margin. Stay tuned to the The Cross-Border Biotech Blog and @crossborderbio on Twitter to see how it all shakes out.