Henri Termeer, a life member of the MIT Corporation who was known as one of the founding fathers of the biotech industry, died at age 71, write Robert Weisman and Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Termeer was, “a key leader in the biotech revolution that placed Massachusetts at the nexus of cutting-edge research and development.”
In an article for The New York Times, Shefali Luthra writes about innovative solutions to combat rising prescription drug prices. Luthra speaks with Jose Gomez-Marquez, an instructor at MIT, about his lab, which promotes do-it-yourself medical technology. “If you have extreme health care circumstances, you will find extreme health care ingenuity,” Gomez-Marquez explains.
NPR's Martha Bebinger speaks with Prof. Allan Myerson about the system he and his colleagues developed to manufacture drugs on demand. “These are portable units so you can put them on the back of a truck and take them anywhere,” he explains. “If there was an emergency, you could have these little plants located all over.”
In a roundup of top science images of the week, Popular Science reporter Claire Maldarelli highlights a new machine developed by MIT researchers “that can synthesize multiple kinds of drugs, including antidepressants, antihistamines, and a local anesthetic.”
Scientific American reporter Bob Roehr writes that MIT researchers have developed a manufacturing system that can produce a variety of drugs. The researchers created a “drug-producing process that is not only faster but also more precise, more efficient and cheaper than production methods now in use," explains Roher.
Science reporter Robert Service writes that MIT researchers have developed a drug synthesis machine that can produce a variety of medications. Service writes that such a machine “could someday help pharmaceutical companies meet unexpected surges in demand and help health officials respond to disasters and medical emergencies worldwide by producing medicines when and where they are needed.”
Prof. Heidi Williams speaks with Callie Crossley as part of WGBH’s “Genius Next Door” series, which features local winners of the MacArthur “genius grant.” Williams explains that her work focuses on “whether we're getting the right kinds of medical technologies developed.”
In a new paper, Prof. Andrew Lo argues that the FDA should apply less stringent criteria when approving experimental drugs for terminal diseases that have few treatment options, writes Ed Silverman for The Boston Globe. “For terminal patients with no existing treatments, it seems to make sense to be more lenient,” says Lo.
Prof. Heidi Williams, a 2015 MacArthur Fellow, speaks with Bloomberg’s John Tozzi about why drug companies are underinvesting in long-term research. Williams explains that there are “scientifically feasible projects that aren’t getting done because there aren’t sufficient incentives."
In an article for The New York Times about the impact of patent laws on drug development, Austin Frakt highlights Prof. Benjamin Roin’s research that indicates pharmaceutical companies reject unpatentable drugs. To counter this problem, Frakt explains that Roin suggests “a period of market exclusivity…to any organization addressing an unmet medical need with a drug that isn’t patentable.”
New research by Prof. Andrew Lo shows that the criteria currently used to evaluate whether drugs are safe and effective is too strict, reports Carolyn Johnson for The Washington Post. The study suggests that, “for many devastating diseases, the current standards are too risk-averse, erring on the side of keeping drugs off the market.”
Ed Silverman writes for The Wall Street Journal about a new MIT study showing that drug development costs are outweighing profitability. “There has been a lot of focus on the risk of R&D and bringing a drug to market, but not really on what happens to drugs once they are on the market,” explains Prof. Ernst Berndt.
“I think this kind of technology could have a major effect and revolutionize various aspects of medicine, including birth control,” Professor Bob Langer says in an interview with Mallika Marshall of WBZ about technology from the biotech firm MicroCHIPS that could allow for implantable, remote-controlled, birth control.
Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner explores the history of MicrChips, an MIT startup that has made headlines recently with the news that the company is developing a remote-controlled, implantable contraceptive chip.
Guardian reporter Oliver Wainwright reports on the new remote-controlled contraceptive chip developed by MIT researchers. “Someone across the room cannot reprogramme your implant,” says Dr. Robert Farra. “Communication with the implant has to occur at skin contact-level distance. Then we have secure encryption. That prevents someone from trying to interpret or intervene between the communications.”