Pharma Marketletter articles from December 2006

Pharma Marketletter archives from December 2006

Peptech to join AIM, as 2006 income falls 80.2%.(will begin trading on Alternative Investments Market )(Financial report)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Australian biopharmaceutical company Peptech, a developer of antibody and peptide therapeutics for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer, has issued an investment circular which confirms its proposed admission to the Alternative...

York Pharma's 2006 loss deepens 63%.(financial report)(Financial report)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... UK-based York Pharma, a developer of dermatological products, says that it saw a loss of L5.9 million ($11.4 million) for year ended September 2006, up 62.9% on the deficit it recorded in 2005. Max Bartlett, chairman of the company's board,...

Angiomax cuts risk of ACS major bleeding 47%.(acute coronary syndromes )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The November 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine published encourating results from the ACUITY study, a landmark clinical trial exploring the potential of the injectable anti-clotting medicine Angiomax (bivalirudin) in the treatment...

Evotec AG initiates second Ph II EVT 201 trial.(Evotec OAI AG)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... German drugmaker Evotec AG has initiated a second Phase II trial with EVT 201, its candidate insomnia drug. This randomized, multicenter, parallel-design, double-blind study will assess two doses of EVT 201 and placebo in 135 elderly patients...

US FDA clears Teva's generic of GSK's Zofran.(Food and Drug Administration)(GlaxoSmithKline)
December 4, 2006... The the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared a generic version of UK drug major GlaxoSmithKline's Zofran (ondansetron HCl) made by Israel's Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries. The drug, which will be available in both injectable and...

Pharmaxis' bronchitol fast-tracked by US FDA.(Pharmaxis)(Food and Drug Administration)(product development )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Australian drugmaker Pharmaxis says that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted Bronchitol (a propriety formulation of mannitol) fast-track status for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, which will accelerate the New Drug Application...

South Africa's drug trade association relaunches.(Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa replaces Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... South Africa's drug industry trade association has relaunched itself with a new name and assembling about 55% of the country's drugmakers by value. The Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa replaces the older Pharmaceutical...

Flu vaccine delays hit UK target.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Pulse, a UK newspaper for general practitioners, has reported that the government's influenza vaccination program is "in chaos," with delays worse than in the 2004 campaign, which had been characterized by Pulse as "crisis-hit." A...

Belgium's drug industry body celebrates 40 years.(pharma.be)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The pharma.be (previously the AGIM), Belgium's innovative pharmaceutical industry association has celebrated its 40th anniversary by reflecting on its past achievements and outlining its vision of the future. As part of the events held to...

US FDA-pharma agreement on advert user fees.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The US Food and Drug Administration has reported an agreement on user fees for the agency's evaluation of television advertisements with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Biotechnology Industry...

25M-euro grant for Transgene from French agency.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Strasbourg, France-based Transgene says that it has been granted 25.0 million euros ($32.0 million) by the French agency for industrial innovation (Agence Francaise de l'Innovation Industrielle) for funding the company's participation in the...

NY Times affirms Nature report on ACT's approach on stem cells.(new york)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Advanced Cell Technology has issued a statement saying that the New York Times has reviewed a report in the journal Nature surrounding the firm's approach to generating human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo, stating: "the...

Positive court ruling for Inex' spin-out of Tekmira.(Tekmira Pharmaceuticals)(Inex Pharmaceuticals )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Canada's Inex Pharmaceuticals says that the British Columbia Supreme Court issued a favorable written ruling from the November 7 and 8 hearing with respect to the spin-out of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals. In its decision, the Court approved the...

Japan/Scotland cooperation on system biology.(Edinburgh Centre for Bio Informatics)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Riken, an independent administrative institution under the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, says that it has entered into partnership with the Scotland-based Edinburgh Centre for Bio Informatics in the...

EHT 0202 upregulates production of beneficial peptide in AD.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... French drug and diagnostics discovery firm ExonHit Therapeutics says that its developmental drug candidate, EHT 0202, leads to the production of a blood protein that is directly linked to the drug's positive impact on the symptoms and...

Glenmark completes crofelemer production for Napo.(product development crofelemer)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... California, USA-based drugmaker Napo Pharmaceuticals says that India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has completed production of the agent crofelemer, for use in a Phase III trial as a treatment for diarrhea in patients with HIV/AIDS. ...

Atopiclair effective in childhood eczema.(Atopiclair)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... UK-based drugmaker Sinclair Pharma says that it has seen positive results in a European trial of its atopic dermatitis product, Atopiclair, in the treatment of children with the condition. The firm added that approximately one third of all...

Roche and BioTie agree VAP-1 Ab option deal.(BioTie Therapies)(contracts)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Swiss drug major Roche and Finnish biotechnology company BioTie Therapies say they have signed an option agreement that will focus on developing the latter's fully-human antibody that targets Vascular Adhesion Protein-1 (VAP-1). The companies...

US election results mark the end of pharma-friendly politics.
December 4, 2006... The pharmaceutical industry was severely rattled by the US mid-term Congressional elections. With both the House of Representatives and the Senate falling into the hands of the Democrats, pharmaceutical shares tumbled on the US stock market...

New hope for sufferers of manic-depression from unlikely sources.(bipolar disorder)
December 4, 2006... Bipolar disorder is a psychological condition in which sufferers experience swings from severe phases of mania, to severe phases of depression, which have traditionally been treated as essentially two distinct conditions. But recently, a...

Bayer's 3rd-qtr income down 35% on Schering AG buy, while sales climb 26%.(financial report)(Financial report)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... German drugmaker Bayer says that, for the third quarter of 2006, its net income was 320.0 million euros ($419.0 million), down 35% from the 493.0 million it recorded in the year-earlier period. The company attributed the decline to charges...

Amarillo licences low-dose interferon to CytoPharm.(licensing agreements)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Texas, USA-based biotechnology company Amarillo Biosciences says it has entered into a licensing accord with Taiwanese biopharmaceutical developer CytoPharm, relating to its low-dose oral interferon for use in influenza and hepatitis B...

Protherics to take over Roche's digitalis antidote business.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... UK-based biopharmaceutical firm Protherics says that it has received marketing rights to Digitalis Antidote, a treatment for digitalis poisoning, from Swiss drug major Roche. The company added that the deal is part of an overall agreement...

Plethora signs PSD401 clinical trial supply deal.(Plethora)(contracts)(Plethora's Sexual Assessment Monitor)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Plethora, a UK developer of products for the treatment and management of urological disorders, has entered into an agreement with an undisclosed major pharmaceutical company to supply Plethora's Sexual Assessment Monitor (PSD401), a device for...

Arrow's HCV drug enters Ph I UK trial.(Hepatitis C Virus )(United Kingdom)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Arrow Therapeutics, a London, UK-based antiviral drug discovery and development company, has initiated a Phase I study of A-831, its small-molecule inhibitor of hepatitis C infection. The UK study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and...

TopoTarget increases share capital.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Danish drugmaker TopoTarget AS has decided to increase its issued share capital by up to a nominal amount of 4,153,170 Danish kroner represented by up to 4,153,170 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 1 kroner each, by means of a directed...

Amphion invests $1.9M in Myconostica.(Amphion Innovations)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... London, UK-based Amphion Innovations, a developer of life science and medical technology businesses, has invested L1.0 million ($1.9 million) in its latest partner company, Myconostica, a molecular diagnostics firm spun out from the University...

Virax secures seven new investors in HIV vacc consortium.(human immunodeficiency virus )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Melbourne, Australia-based Virax says that seven new global mining companies have now joined its consortium to fund the first emerging-country trials of Virax's VIR201 HIV/AIDS vaccine, to take place in South Africa. The consortium now...

Australian govt makes changes to PBS, resembling industry body's proposals.(Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme )
December 4, 2006... The Australian federal government has announced changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that would allow it to pay for new life-saving drugs including Herceptin (trastuzumab) for breast cancer sufferers. Critics say the changes could lead...

BMJ defends UK's NICE legal challenge.(British Medical Journal)(National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... In an editorial, the British Medical Journal has expressed its support for the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in the latter's legal challenge (Marketletter November 27) by Japan's Eisai (wrongly referred to...

France's LEEM supports WHO's IMPACT taskforce.(International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... France's drug industry trade association (LEEM), has expressed its "determined support to the struggle against drug counterfeiting," welcoming the formation of the new World Health Organization's International Medical Products...

PhRMA launches new campaign to improve diabetes awareness.(Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... With nearly 21 million people in the USA suffering from diabetes and as many as 6.2 million unaware that they have the disease, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has launched a new national health education...

LEEM obtains French govt OK for Code of Practice.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The president of France's drug industry trade association (LEEM), Christian Lajoux, has signed with France's Health Minister, Xavier Bertrand, a Code of Practice for the drug industry for use in the continuous medical training sector. In a...

GA2LEN report praises probios in early nutrition.(Global Allergy and Asthma European Network )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... A recent report from the European Union-funded Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA2LEN) suggests that the significant changes in European diets over the past 20-40 years may have contributed to the increased incidence of allergic...

Natura Thera launches nutrient for stem cells.(Natura Therapeutics)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Natura Therapeutics, a US nutritional products company, has launched NutraStem, a nutritional supplement that supports the body's self-repair mechanisms through the care of existing, as well as the proliferation of new, adult stem cells. The...

Memory Pharma completes enrollment in trial of MEM 1003.(MEM 1003 product development)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... New Jersey, USA-based Memory Pharmaceuticals, which is focused on the development of drugs for the treatment of debilitating central nervous system disorders, says it has completed enrollment in a Phase IIa trial of MEM 1003, which is under...

Anesiva files Zingo NDA with FDA.(Food and Drug Administration)(New Drug Application)(Anesiva)(lidocain powder delivery system Zingo)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... California, USA-based biopharmaceutical company Anesiva says that it has filed a New Drug Application with the Food and Drug Administration requesting marketing clearance for its needle-free lidocain powder delivery system Zingo. Specifically,...

FDA clears MannKind MKC1106-PP immunotherapy IND.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... US drug discovery firm MannKind Corp says that an Investigational New Drug application for its range of MKC1106-PP-based immunotherapy in solid tumors has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration. The company said that the FDA's...

Chuikyo adds 17 new drugs to Japan's NHI list, including seven NCEs.(National Health Insurance)(New Chemical Entities)
December 4, 2006... Japan's Chuikyo (the Central Social Insurance Medical Council) has approved the addition of 12 new active ingredients/17 products (seven New Chemical Entities, one new combination drug and two agents with new formulations, two products with new...

Novartis' annual R&D day highlights two ahead-of-schedule submissions to US FDA.(research and development)(Food and Drug Administration)
December 4, 2006... At its annual R&D day, held in London, UK, Swiss drug major Novartis reported that a number of compounds were moving into pivotal trials. The drug candidates which are advancing into late-stage tests are: FTY720 (fingolimod) for multiple...

Schering AG buy boosts Bayer but charges take toll on profit; 3rd-qtr beats forecasts.
December 4, 2006... Bayer's acquisition of fellow German drugmaker Schering AG (Marketletter passim) has had a significant impact on the group's performance, and could well bring it back into the big league in pharmaceuticals. However, as a result of charges...

AstraZeneca gets warning on Seroquel promotional material from US regulator.
December 4, 2006... AstraZeneca has been warned by US regulators that sales material for its antipsychotic Seroquel (quetiapine) is misleading. The Food and Drug Adminsitration has requested the Anglo-Swedish drug major to stop distributing it. The FDA's...

Roche denies increase in Tamiflu resistance.(product development of Tamiflu)
December 4, 2006... Switzerland-based drug major Roche says that, since March 2005, there have been no new cases of patients infected with H5N1 influenza virus strains that are resistant to its world-leading antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir). The company added that...

Pfizer and Organon end asenapine accord.(Akzo Nobel)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... USA-based drug major Pfizer and Organon, the human health care business of Netherlands-based drugmaker Akzo Nobel, say they have agreed to discontinue further collaboration on the development of asenapine, a candidate product for the treatment...

MorphoSys/Burnham Inst sign Ab R&D deal.(alliances and partnerships)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... German synthetic antibody specialist MorphoSys AG says it has formed a broad alliance with the USA's Burnham Institute for Medical Research, which will focus on the use and commercialization of fully-human recombinant antibodies. Under the...

UPDATE: Protherics buys Roche's Digitalis Antidote.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... UK-based biopharmaceutical firm Protherics says that it has received marketing rights to Digitalis Antidote, a treatment for digitalis poisoning, from Swiss drug major Roche for a small undisclosed cash consideration. The company added that the...

ViRexx to focus outlay on current pipeline.(ViRexx Medical Corp)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Canadian drug developer ViRexx Medical Corp says that it plans to make a 65% reduction in its R&D expenditure by focusing on completing the development of its existing pipeline products. The company said that the refocusing of research...

US ITC to review BN vs Acambis vacc dispute.(Bavarian Nordic AS)(United States International Trade Commission )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Denmark's Bavarian Nordic AS says that the US International Trade Commission is to review the administrative law judge's initial determination in a dispute between the firm and UK-based vaccine maker Acambis. The company added that it is...

SAFC to offer solid-form R&D at its API plant.(research and development)(active pharmaceutical ingredients)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... SAFC, the custom manufacturing business of USA-based life science firm Sigma-Aldrich, says that it is adding the solid-form research capabilities of UK R&D specialist Pharmorphix, which it acquired earlier this year (Marketletter August 14), to...

ABPI praises pharma CSR at UK award.(Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry)(corporate social responsibility)(United Kingdom)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has praised Switzerland-based drug major, Novartis, for winning the Corporate Social Responsibility award at the Scrip Pharmaceutical Awards ceremony held in London. The award was sponsored...

France's LEEM finances graduate researchers.
December 4, 2006... France's drug industry trade association (LEEM) has announced the launch of its 2007 summer post-graduate university, which will provide six research grants in the area of identifying or validating diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. In...

South African healers back antidrug Minister.(health campaign)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... "Several hundred" traditional healers have demonstrated in Johannesburg, the country's financial center, in support of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's controversial Health Minister (Marketletters passim). They were criticizing the...

Herceptin availability in UK is paid for by "dropped" patients.(drug approval)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The British Medical Journal has published a report, claiming that "the real cost" of US specialist drugmaker Genentech's Herceptin (trastuzumab) to the UK's National Health Service is "borne by other patients whose treatment has to be dropped...

Pfizer awards A$2 million to Australian researchers.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The Australian subsidiary of global drug behemoth Pfizer has awarded A$1.0 million ($778,600) each to two young researchers for biomedical research. The awards will be paid over five years. Stephen Turner, a lecturer and research fellow at...

Abcellute signs Japanese deal for hepatocyte products.(GeneFrontier Corp )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Wales, UK-based Abcellute has signed an exclusive agreement with GeneFrontier Corp for the manufacture, marketing and distribution of its preserved hepatocyte products into Japan. Under the terms of the deal, GeneFrontier is also permitted to...

Novo Nordisk milestone for Neose.(Neose Technologies )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... USA-based Neose Technologies says that it received a milestone payment from Denmark's Novo Nordisk under a license agreement entered into November 2003 for the use of Neose's GlycoPEGylation technology to develop a next-generation version of...

Barr's Pliva unit approval for generic pravastatin.(mergers and acquisitions)(Barr Pharmaceuticals)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Barr Pharmaceuticals says that its recently-acquired Croatian subsidiary Pliva (Marketletters passim) has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its Abbreviated New Drug Application to manufacture and market...

S-P debuts new Temodal capsule colors in EU.(Schering-Plough)(European Union)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... US drug major Schering-Plough has launched new capsule colors for Temodal (temozolomide) for primary brain tumors (gliomas) in the European Union, noting that these will simplify strength differentiation and aid in patient compliance. The...

Strong data for Medtronic's RT glucose monitor.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Data from the GuardControl Trial demonstrated that patients on USA-based Medtronic's REAL-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring technology had better control of their blood glucose than patients using fingersticks only. Findings from the...

Natco expands Akorn supply deal.(Natco Pharma)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Akorn, a USA-based manufacturer and marketer of sterile speciality drugs, has expanded its purchase and supply agreement with India's Natco Pharma to commercialize a third oral anticancer therapeutic. The drug product is indicated for the...

Biotie licenses nalmefene to H Lundbeck.(licensing agreements)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Danish drugmaker H Lundbeck AS has licensed the worldwide rights for nalmefene HCl from Finnish drug development company Biotie Therapies for the treatment of substance abuse and impulse control disorders. As part of the deal, Lundbeck gains...

Spacelabs expands patient monitoring portfolio.(Spacelabs Healthcare)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Spacelabs Healthcare, a USA-based medical equipment company listed on the London, UK Alternative Investment Market, has expanded its patient monitoring product portfolio with the launch of the MCare 300 low-acuity patient monitor. The...

Pharma-Economic Act now passed by the Hungarian Parliament.
December 4, 2006... The Hungarian Parliament approved the new, Pharma- Economic Act on the November 21. Under the new legislation, pharmaceutical manufacturers in Hungary will have to pay 12% rebate to the National Health Insurance Fund from January 15, 2007...

GIRP commits to fight drug counterfeiting.(European Association of Pharmaceutical Full-line Wholesaler )(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Members of the European Association of Pharmaceutical Full-line Wholesaler (the GIRP) have agreed to join forces to take concrete actions against the risks of counterfeit medicines entering the market. The decision was announced at a recent...

Novartis resists more NGO pressure on Glivec.(non-governmental organizations)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Swiss drug major Novartis, which recently won the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry-sponsored award for corporate social responsibility at the 2006 Scrip Pharmaceutical Awards, in the UK, is resisting pressure from...

Canada's drug supply threat "not real".(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Canada's federal government has dismissed, for the time being, the notion that the country's supplies of prescription drugs is under threat from the possibility of massive exportation to the USA. The claim has been circulating as the result of...

After the rhetoric, US Democrats face questions over drug reforms.
December 4, 2006... After the promises of reforming Medicare "in the first 100 hours" of taking control in the US Congress, Democrats are facing the realities of policy opportunity. Perhaps ominously for those with plans of wholesale reform, two of the three most...

Speedel reports on drug pipeline progress.
December 4, 2006... At its annual R&D meeting in Basel, Swiss biopharmaceutical firm Speedel reported on the progress of several of its pipeline drug candidates, and reiterated its commitment to develop products that address currently unmet medical needs which...

Sosei/Vectura welcome QVA149 progress.(Sosei Company Ltd.)
December 4, 2006... Japanese biopharmaceutical company Sosei and its UK-based partner Vectura say they welcome the announcement by Swiss drug major Novartis of the successful completion of initial formulation work on the developmental chronic obstructive pulmonary...

ProStrakan buys Tostran and Rectogesic.(Cellergy Pharmaceuticals)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Galashiels, Scotland-based specialty pharmaceutical developer ProStrakan says it has completed the purchase of expanded rights to Rectogesic (glyceryl trinitrate ointment, sold as Cellgesic in the USA) and Tostran (testosterone gel) from US...

NsGene's NsG33 protein licensed by Genzyme.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... NsGene AS, a spin-off firm from Danish drugmaker NeuroSearch, says that US biotechnology company Genzyme has exercised an exclusive option to assess the novel neurotrophic protein NsG33 as a treatment for motor neuron diseases, such as...

UPDATE: Amphion takes 35% stake in Myconostica.(Amphion Innovations)
December 4, 2006... London, UK-based Amphion Innovations, a developer of life science and medical technology businesses, says that it has invested L1.0 million ($1.9 million) in its latest partner company, Myconostica, an award-winning University of Manchester...

CBI to buy Australia Mimotopes for stock.(Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc.)(Mimotopes Proprietary Ltd.)
December 4, 2006... Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc, a Virginia, USA-based life sciences contract research organization and biotechnology company, says that its board of directors has unanimously approved and has subsequently executed a stock purchase agreement...

GSK takes back seat in Cytokinetics deal.(GlaxoSmithKline PLC)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... US biotechnology firm Cytokinetics will assume all the costs and activities of continued development of the kinesin spindle protein (KSP) inhibitors ispinesib (SB-715992) and SB-743921, which it was previously developing as part of a...

Sinclair licenses anti-caries peptide, p1025.(Sinclair Pharmaceuticals Ltd.)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Godalming, UK-based Sinclair Pharma has signed an agreement with King's College London to acquire the exclusive license rights to develop and commercialize the peptide p1025 for use in the dental setting. According to Sinclair, the agent...

Strong efficacy data for Pfizer's Lyrica.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Findings from a new study published in the Novermber 28 issue of the journal Neurology demonstrate that Pfizer's neuropathic painkiller Lyrica (pregabalin) is significantly effective in relieving central nerve pain and improves pain-related...

Daiichi Sankyo files NDA for combo CV drug.(new drug application)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo has filed a New Drug Application with the US Food and Drug Administration for a fixed-dose combination of two antihypertensives, its angiotensin-receptor blocker Benicar (olmesartan medoxomil), together with...

Biota signs $102M HCV accord with Boeh Ing.(Biota Holdings Ltd.)(Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH)(hepatitis C virus)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Melbourne, Australia-headquartered Biota Holdings has entered into a worldwide research collaboration and licensing agreement with German drug major Boehringer Ingelheim, centered on the development and commercialization of the former's novel...

US FDA clears Otsuka's H pylori Rapirun test.(Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.)(Helicobacter pylori)(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Japan, Tokyo-based Otsuka Pharmaceutical has received US Food and Drug Administration clearance to market the Rapirun Helicobacter pylori antibody detection kit, the first test available in America for identifying, in patient urine rather than...

BioAlliance's 3rd-qtr revenue up 240%.(BioAlliance Pharma SA)
December 4, 2006... Paris, France-based BioAlliance Pharma SA says that its consolidated revenues for the third quarter of 2006 were 102,000 euros ($134.4 million), a 240% increase on its turnover in the comparable period last year. The company said that the bulk...

BMJ defends UK's NICE legal challenge.(British Medical Journal)(National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence )
December 4, 2006... In an editorial, the British Medical Journal has expressed its support for the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in the latter's legal challenge (Marketletter November 27) by Japan's Eisai (wrongly referred to...

Pfizer to lose 20% of US sales force as it cuts costs.(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Pfizer plans to cut 20% of its 11,000-strong US sales force. The move is part of its plan to save $4.0 billion in operating costs by 2008, as the world drug giant braces itself for a wave of costly patent expirations (Marketletter April 11,...

US rivals team up to penetrate Europe.(drug marketing)
December 4, 2006... USA-based pharmaceutical companies are relying more on their competitors to help them launch new drugs in European markets, according to research from Cutting Edge Information, a pharmaceutical business intelligence firm based in North...

Dey settles state of Ohio pricing law suit.
December 4, 2006... US specialty drugmaker Dey LP has reached a settlement with the Attorney General of the State of Ohio regarding pricing litigation that had been filed against it. John Kling, the firm's senior vice president of legal affairs, stated: "we are...