The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets, and other business mishaps.

Barriers to progress temper companies’ enthusiasm for biosimilars opportunity.

Teva Pharmaceutical and Lonza Group says they're reevaluating their joint venture to develop, manufacture, and market a portfolio of biosimilars. 

Three-year low for IPO exits, 18 year-low for M&A exits.

Industry groups say it will hinder innovation and investment in the country.

New funding for brain research imaging and computational tools are on the horizon.

President Obama announced that the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies will dedicate critical funding to a controversial project aimed at understanding the human brain. 

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in a case that could put an end to so-called pay-for-delay settlements between branded pharmaceutical makers and their generic competitors. Critics of these agreements argue that they are anticompetitive, costing consumers billions of dollars by delaying competition from entering the market. Others, though, say that these agreements benefit consumers because they actually bring generic drug competition to the market faster. We spoke to Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, about the case, why he thinks the Federal Trade Commission has taken the wrong position on it, and why listening to Justice Stephen Breyer may provide the best insight into the court’s thinking.

Study finds that limiting hours for medical residents offers uncertain value.

Nationwide survey indicates little progress in promoting value-based care.

Top private health plans in the United States took a big step toward value-based care in the last two years, but still have a long way to go, according to a survey of health insurers that collectively cover 67 percent of privately insured Americans. It found that about 11 percent of payments to doctors and hospitals are value-oriented, up from an estimated 1 to 3 percent in 2010. 

“We make the vast majority of payments for healthcare on a fee-for-service basis without any rewards for quality and efficiency,” says Suzanne Delbanco, the group’s executive director. “We know traditional fee-for-service payment creates incentives for waste and inappropriate care.” 

Agreement focuses on inherited mitochondrial diseases and their application for adult CNS disorders.

Edison Pharmaceuticals has entered into a research, development, and commercialization agreement with Japanese pharmaceutical Dainippon Sumitomo for the development of two of its small molecule investigational compounds, the oral small molecules EPI-743 and EPI-589, in Japan. Edison retains 100 percent ownership of the compounds and will direct their development outside Japan. 

No consensus exists on which federal agency, if any, should regulate research labs possessing dangerous pathogens.