Tobacco companies diversify into ‘pharmaceuticals’ and other interesting reads for the weekend.

🇨🇳 China's New Healthcare Fund

iKang Healthcare Group is partnering with China Industrial Asset Management to form healthcare investment funds intended to either set up or acquire new and existing medical centers. iKang has a nationwide network of 108 self-owned medical centers, covering 33 of China's most affluent cities and has also extended its coverage to over 200 cities by contracting with approximately 400 third-party facilities.

The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates

And the FDA has long known this fact.

Medication Adherence Landscape

Dan Gebremedhin and Kara Werner of Flare Capital Partners discuss the opportunities and challenges facing startups in the medication adherence space. Investors are looking for companies that not only drive significant utilization and engagement with great products but also develop long term customer relationships by providing a series of adjacent products and services. Given the fragmented market in adherence tech, there will be a move towards consolidation and verticalization.

Crowdsourcing for Drug Discovery

A nonprofit called the Structural Genomics Consortium is countering the systems of paywalls with a strategy of extreme openness. They’re partnering with nine pharmaceutical companies and labs at six universities, including Oxford, the University of Toronto, and UNC Chapel Hill. They’re pledging to share everything with each other—drug wish lists,results in open access journals, and experimental samples—hoping to speed up the long, expensive drug design process for tough diseases like Huntington’s.

🤐 This Secretive Clan Wants to Beat the World’s Biggest Drugmakers

The family’s attitude limits Boehringer Ingelheim’s ability to take risks as it tries to compete with pharma giants such as Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in the high-stakes and costly business of developing new drugs for illnesses such as cancer, obesity-linked liver disease or Alzheimer’s. The company has repeatedly ruled out selling shares in an initial public offering, closing off one avenue that would allow it to make bigger bets.

Tobacco Companies Diversify into ‘Pharmaceuticals’

Tobacco companies claim to be developing and selling merchandise to help cigarette smokers quit, but health researchers accuse the industry of trying to hook consumers on different – still dangerous – nicotine products.

Billionaire Dr.Soon-Shiong is Expanding His Medical Empire

Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong now controls hospitals and a cancer clinic, where he can test his vision for revamping health care. Is it good for patients?

Vaccine Progress Stalled

Conflict, migration, urbanization and vaccine skepticism means coverage of the basic diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine still stands at 80 per cent: nearly 20m infants did not receive the full dosage.

In South Asian Social Castes, a Living Lab for Genetic Disease

The sheer number of people and different groups in South Asia means there’s a huge, untapped opportunity to do biological and genetic research there. David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, suggested that knockouts of almost every single gene in the genome probably exist in India.

🐦 How Twitter Is a Vital Tool In Medicine

For many, meeting attendance is not always possible — some physicians have to stay back at their respective institutions and care for patients. Others who are based in another country may not be able to afford the time and cost associated with travel to the United States. Twitter allows immediate and widespread dissemination of information, spur discussion that may lead to new research questions and sharing data may lead to a faster advancement of therapies.

🙏 Thank You!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I’d love to hear which specific topics or sections you would like to know more about and in general, if you have any suggestions, please do write to me at: [email protected]