{"id":2961,"date":"2014-06-23T18:40:02","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T18:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/distribution\/blog\/2014-06-23\/qa-bloomberg-reporter-makiko-kitamura\/"},"modified":"2015-06-16T18:41:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T18:41:28","slug":"qa-bloomberg-reporter-makiko-kitamura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/distribution\/blog\/2014-06-23\/qa-bloomberg-reporter-makiko-kitamura\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A With Bloomberg Reporter Makiko Kitamura"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text]Makiko Kitamura is a Bloomberg healthcare reporter based in London. She covers a variety of topics in the European health market, including a recent story about the link between autism and prenatal steroid hormones.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Depth recently spoke with Makiko to discuss everything about her job, from the way she finds sources to her overall vision of the global health care industry.<\/p>\n

You recently authored a story of note about the link between autism and prenatal steroid hormones. How do you find stories like this? How do you go about working with sources to flesh them out?<\/strong>
\nThe major scientific journals send out embargoed media alerts to journalists several days before highlighted studies are published. As we can’t cover them all, we have to vet them for newsiness, reader interest and any market impact. In the case of the autism study, we knew that it would generate significant interest as there has been a long-running controversy (perpetuated by celebrities) around the now-debunked link between autism and vaccines. The study also furthered our understanding of how autism might develop during pregnancy, so we concluded it was worth covering.<\/p>\n

What major trends are you seeing in the health care and pharmaceutical industries?<\/strong>
\nPfizer recently tried to buy AstraZeneca, the U.K.’s second-largest drug maker, for about $100 billion. Ultimately, the deal failed, but it’s possible that Pfizer will try again. The pharma business is very trendy, and this deal sparked a lot of other M&A deals across the industry, and several have taken into account the tax benefits of buying U.K. companies, where the tax rate is 21 percent, compared with 35 percent in the U.S.<\/p>\n

In terms of science, immunotherapy, where the immune system is stimulated to attack cancer cells, is a hot area. The genomic revolution has also allowed scientists to identify more targeted patient groups who are more likely to respond to treatments. The drugs are definitely getting smarter.<\/p>\n

Overall, how does European pharma fit into the global healthcare industry?<\/strong>
\nEurope is definitely a source of world-class innovation. The amount of cross-Atlantic M&A activity isn’t just about taxes. AstraZeneca is moving its headquarters to Cambridge (an hour from London), which has given birth to 47 Nobel Prizes in medicine and chemistry. The world’s largest drug maker, Novartis, is based in Switzerland, as is Roche, the fifth biggest. At the same time, there is an increasing feeling that the gravitational pull of the biotech industry is coming from the U.S. If you follow the money, there is a greater pool of venture capital investors and public investors in health care in the U.S. than in Europe. Especially in the U.K., investors are still skittish after a few high-profile blow-ups of biotechs in the ’90s.<\/p>\n

What are some of the challenges associated with reporting on health care in Europe? What about some of the benefits and highlights?<\/strong>
\nHealth care is a global business, so we really can’t just focus on Europe. There are five of us on the European health team, and we’re constantly in touch with our colleagues in the U.S. and Asia about how companies are affected by local issues. The health beat is also great because of the range of topics to cover and the myriad of geniuses you get to speak to, PhDs and Nobel laureates among them. It’s inspiring to speak with scientists and entrepreneurs who are developing truly innovative technology and solving thorny problems. I’m currently working on a story about a British biotech that’s figured out a way to genetically modify mosquitos to help eradicate Dengue fever in Brazil in time for the Olympics. In the past year I’ve also written about everything from the new Ebola outbreak and counterfeit Viagra to Harvard scientists studying the benefits of meditation and yoga and the war around drug patents.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lauren Meller<\/a><\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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