Pharma Marketletter articles from February 2007

Pharma Marketletter archives from February 2007

EGE presents opinion on ethical aspects of nanomedicine to EU Commission.
February 5, 2007... Following the request made by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on November 10, 2005, the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), chaired by Swedish philosopher Goran Hermeren, has now handed the...

US FTC wants deals over generic entry involving payments to be curbed.(united states. Federal Trade Commission)
February 5, 2007... At a hearing of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, the Federal Trade Commission called for moves to prevent agreements between brand-name pharmaceutical companies and generic drugmakers to delay entry to the market of copy products, which has...

UCB's Xyrem gets CHMP recommendation.(Committee for Medicinal Products for Human )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB says that the European Medicines Agency's (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has issued a positive opinion recommending the approval of the narcolepsy drug Xyrem (sodium oxybate)....

Bayer stops non-CABG Trasylol studies.(coronary artery bypass graft)(Bayer AG. Pharmaceutical Div.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... German drugmaker Bayer says that it has stopped trials of its product Trasylol (aprotinin injection) in non-coronary artery bypass graft indications, citing the impact of recent US Food and Drug Administration mandated label changes as the...

Januvia gets thumbs up from CHMP.(Committee for Medicinal Products for Human )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Merck, Sharp & Dohme, the UK subsidiary of Merck & Co, says that Januvia (sitagliptin), its treatment for type 2 diabetes, is the subject of a positive approval recommendation from the European Medicines Agency's (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal...

Santaris receives $5M milestone from Enzon.(Santaris Pharma licensing agreements)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Danish biopharmaceutical firm Santaris Pharma says that it has received a $5.0 million payment from USA-based Enzon Pharmaceuticals, under a licensing agreement that the two firms established last summer (Marketletter July 31, 2006). The...

Biogen's galiximab enters Ph III cancer trial.
February 5, 2007... US drugmaker Biogen Idec says it has begun a Phase III trial of an investigational anti-CD80 monoclonal antibody, named galiximab, for the treatment of lymphoma. The company explained that the study will compare the agent in combination with...

Cephalon welcomes NCI Trisenox trial data.
February 5, 2007... USA-based biopharmaceutical company Cephalon says that the results of a study of its leukemia treatment Trisenox (arsenic trioxide), conducted by the US National Cancer Institute, are an important development for sufferers of acute...

Pfizer appeals Canadian Court's Lipitor ruling.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... USA-based drug giant Pfizer said that it will appeal a decision by the Canadian Federal Court in Toronto, which rejected its application to block the sale, by Indian generics firm Ranbaxy, of a version of its megablockbusting...

Pentacel gets FDA OK for pediatric use.(Food and Drug Administration )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business of French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, says that the members of an advisory committee of the US Food and Drug Administration have voted that the company's pentavalent combination vaccine, Pentacel...

BioVeris completes additional vaccine license.(BioVeris Corp )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Maryland, USA-based BioVeris Corp has entered into a new technology license agreement with Baxter Healthcare under which it receives an exclusive, worldwide license to certain patent rights and know-how to use Neisseria meningitidis group Y and...

ExonHit raises 3.2 million euros.(ExonHit Therapeutics S.A.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Paris, France-based ExonHit Therapeutics, a drug and diagnostic discovery company, says that final results of the exercise of the warrants which had been freely allocated to the firm's shareholders on June 26, 2006 is completed, recalling that...

Allergy Thera opens new buildings in UK.(Allergy Therapeutics )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Allergy Therapeutics has formally opened its new production facility at its Worthing, UK, site. The new building has been named The Noon Building while Allergy Therapeutics' existing building has been renamed The Freeman Building, The buildings...

ICOS shareholders vote "yes" to Lilly merger.
February 5, 2007... ICOS Corp says that, at a special meeting of shareholders held January 25, they approved the revised agreement and plan of merger whereby Eli Lilly and will buy all of the outstanding stock of the firm for a purchase price of $34 per share in...

Oscient completes Ph IV enrollment in Factive trial early.
February 5, 2007... Oscient Pharmaceuticals has completed enrollment in its Phase IV post-marketing trial for its fluoroquinolone antibiotic, Factive (gemifloxacin mesylate) tablets. Known as the FORCE trial (FACTIVE Outpatient Respiratory Infection Community...

Ph I/II dosing with GenVec's TNFerade.
February 5, 2007... US biopharmaceutical firm GenVec says that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase I/II trial with its adenovector TNFerade for head and neck cancer at the University of Chicago Medical Center. The firm is sponsoring two separate Phase I/II...

Crucell's PER.C6-based West Nile Vaccine good in trials.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Dutch biotechnology company Crucell NV has completed a Phase I safety study with the alum adjuvanted formulation of its whole inactivated West Nile vaccine manufactured using PER.C6 technology. A total of 47 subjects were enrolled into the...

IsoTis starts trading on Nasdaq.(IsoTis Orthobiologics)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... IsoTis Inc, the orthobiologics company which is listed on the Swiss SWX Exchange, Euronext Amsterdam and the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada, says that its stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on January 26 (Marketletters passim)....

DSBM OKs EntreMed's MKC-1 breast cancer trial.
February 5, 2007... USA-based pharmaceutical company EntreMed says that an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board's review of a Phase II trial of its anticancer agent MKC-1 has concluded that the risks associated with the drug are "appropriate for the population...

Neurocrine Bio to re-Sumbit indiplon to FDA by end 2nd-qtr.(Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.)(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... San Diego, USA-based biopharmaceutical firm Neurocrine Biosciences say that it plans to resubmit a New Drug Application for its insomnia treatment indiplon to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the second quarter of the year. ...

BioMS gets FDA OK for MS drug trial.(BioMS)(Food and Drug Administration )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Canadian biotechnology firm BioMS, a specialist developer of products for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, says that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the initiation of a pivotal Phase III trial of MBP8298, its developmental...

elbion NV acquires candidates from DrugAbuse Sci.(DrugAbuse Sciences acquisitions)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Belgian drug discovery firm elbion NV says that it has purchased a number of product candidates from French biotechnology group DrugAbuse Sciences. The most advanced agent, Naltrexone Depot, a sustained release version of naltrexone, will...

Pharma protests over changes to drug reference pricing rules in Hungary.
February 5, 2007... The three pharmaceutical associations in Hungary, the Association of Innovative Manufacturers, Association of Hungarian Manufacturers and Association of Generic Manufacturers and Wholesalers have issued a joint statement to protest against the...

GSK pre-empts TV allegations of misleading over Seroxat.(GlaxoSmithKline PLC)
February 5, 2007... In advance of the British Broadcasting Corp's Panorama television program, Secrets of the Drugs Trials, due to be aired on the evening of January 29 and anticipated accusations against the company over its marketing of the antidepressant...

Rumors say Sanofi to merge with B-MS.
February 5, 2007... With the vital patent appeal trial in the USA over drug major Sanofi-Aventis of France and the USA's Bristol-Myers Squibb's blockbuster blood-thinning drug Plavix (clopidogrel), ongoing, speculation was rife about a merger between the two...

Abbott suffers 4th-qtr $0.37 LPS on Kos buy.(financial news)(Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois))(Financial report)
February 5, 2007... US health care major Abbott Laboratories swung to a fourth-quarter 2006 net loss of $475.2 million, or $0.37 per share, from a profit of $976.4 million in the like, year-ago period, due to its $3.7 billion acquisition of the USA's Kos...

B-MS swings to loss in 4th qtr due to Plavix.(Financial report)
February 5, 2007... US drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb swung to a loss of $134.0 million, or $0.07 per share, in fourth-quarter 2006, from a profit of $499.0 million, or $0.26 per share, in the like, year-ago period. The firm's reported deficit, which was less...

Baxter's 4th-qtr net earnings up 47%.(Baxter International Inc. (Deerfield, Illinois))(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... USA-based drugmaker Baxter International says that, for the fourth quarter 2006, its income from continuing operations was $433.0 million, up 47% on the comparable period in 2005. The firm said that the growth, which was ahead of analysts...

Amgen's 4th-qtr income up 1.1% to $833M, short of analysts predictions.(financial news)(Financial report)
February 5, 2007... USA-based biotechnology giant Amgen's net income for the fourth quarter crept up 1.1% to $833.0 million, or $0.71 per share, from the $824.0 million it recorded in the last three months of 2005. Excluding the cost of stock options and certain...

ImClone's profits reach $46M on Erbitux sales.(Financial report)
February 5, 2007... US drugmaker ImClone Systems says that its income for the three months ended December 2006 was $46.6 million, or $0.53 per share, up from the $694,000 it earned in the comparable quarter last year. The company attributed the expansion to strong...

Roche says Tarceva is cost-effective in study.(Roche Holding Ltd.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Swiss drug major Roche says that a the results of a study indicate that its oral anticancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib), is cost effective as a second-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. The data, which were presented at the annual...

Copegus/Pegasys gets MHLW OK for Hep C.
February 5, 2007... Switzerland's Roche and its Japanese subsidiary Chugai say that the Japanese Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare has approved Copegus (ribavirin) plus Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) as a treatment for patients infected with hepatitis C. The...

Bayer's oral Fludara gets MHLW approval.(Bayer Schering Pharma)(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Bayer Schering Pharma, the health care division of Germany's Bayer AG, says that the oral formulation of its anticancer agent Fludara (fludarabine phosphate), has received Japanese marketing approval for use in the treatment of non-Hodgkin's...

Yaz cleared for acne by the FDA.
February 5, 2007... Berlin, Germany-based Bayer Schering Pharma, the recently-established health care division of Bayer AG, says that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted its oral contraceptive Yaz (3mg drospirenone/20mcg ethinyl estradiol) approval as...

Dr Reddy's sees $350M sales in 4th-qtr 2006.(Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. financial news)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Indian generics giant Dr Reddy's Laboratories says that, in the three months ended December 31, 2006, sales totalled 15.4 billion rupees ($350.0 million), a big improvement on the 5.9 billion rupees earned in the like, year-ago period. The...

Kobayashi's 4th-qtr 2006 net income up 12.5%.(Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Tokyo, Japan-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical says that, for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, its net sales and operating, ordinary and net income all demonstrated strong improvement on the previous year. Net sales amounted to 202.44 billion...

Study findings may lead to treatments that stimulate insulin production.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... A new Joslin Diabetes Center-led study has shown conclusively that a neuropeptide, melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH), found in the brain and known for its role in increasing appetite in people, plays a role in the growth of insulin-producing...

Stem cell deal for ES and ITI Life Sciences.(ES Cell International Private Ltd.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Singapore-based ES Cell International Pte, a regenerative medicine company and provider of products and technologies derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells, and Scotland's ITI Life Sciences, which funds and manages early-stage research...

Par Pharma's generic Inderal OKed in USA.(Par Pharmaceutical Inc.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Par Pharmaceutical says it has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its Abbreviated New Drug Application for propranolol HCl extended-release capsules in 60mg, 80mg, 120mg and 160mg dosage strengths. ...

Alliance Boots in deal with Beijing Med-Pharm for GP Corp.(Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals Corp)(Alliance Boots)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Beijing Med-Pharm says that an entity formed by it and Alliance Boots, Europe's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group, has agreed to acquire a 50% interest in Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals Corp, the third largest pharmaceutical wholesaler in...

Strong preclinical data for AEterna's cancer drug.(AEterna Zentaris )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... US drugmaker AEterna Zentaris presented strong in vivo data on ZEN-012, its novel, oral anticancer compound, at the 7th Joint Conference of the American Association for Cancer Research, held in Waikoloa, Hawaii. AEterna's poster at the...

Sinclair enters Chinese market with Auroren accord.(Sinclair Pharmaceuticals Ltd.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Godalming, UK-based Sinclair Pharma has signed its first marketing agreement for China. The firm's flagship mouth ulcer product, Aloclair, will be sold by Auroren Pharmaceuticals. According to Sinclair, China is one of the world's...

TSL's 2006 revenues up 5% to $21M.(Tissue Science Laboratories)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... UK-based Tissue Science Laboratories released a trading statement for 2006 stating that revenues were about L10.7 million ($20.9 million), up 5%, though slightly below the L11.6 million forecast by analysts at Nomura Code. TLS said its...

Archimedes initiates Ph III Nasalfent trial.(Archimedes Pharma)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Reading, UK-based Archimedes Pharma has initiated a global Phase III trial program for Nasalfent, its nasal spray formulation of the painkiller fentanyl citrate, in the cancer setting. Up to 180 patients are being recruited into the...

Schering-Plough delivering on Action Agenda, with 4th-qtr profits up 62%.(Financial report)
February 5, 2007... When Fred Hassan took over as chief executive of then beleaguered US drugmaker Schering-Plough he promised he would turn the company around, and set in place an Action Agenda in 2003 which is now clearly proving itself (Marketletters passim)....

More contestants for Merck KGaA generics.(acquisitions)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Following German drugmaker Merck KGaA's announcement that it is looking at possibilities for divesting its generics business, India's Ranbaxy was the first to reveal its interest (Marketletter January 29). Such a deal was viewed to be too...

China's SFDA confirms copycat drug crackdown.(State Food and Drug Administration)
February 5, 2007... China's State Food and Drug Administration will take action to reduce the problem of copycat drugs being sold as "new" drugs, according to the agency's Director, Shao Mingli. The country's most senior drug safety administrator was speaking at a...

Drug sales up 5% in year to November 2006.(Retail pharmacy )
February 5, 2007... Retail pharmacy drug sales in 13 major markets grew 5% overall at both constant exchange rates and in US$ terms, during the 12 months to November 2006, reaching $386.23 billion, reports IMS Health's Retail Drug Monitor. The rate of increase...

Genentech shares dip 1.5% after stroke warning on predicted blockbuster Lucentis.
February 5, 2007... US biotehcnology firm Genentech says that its new wet age-related macular degeneration drug Lucentis (ranibizumab) might raise the risk of stroke. The company made these points in a letter posted on its web site which it also sent to...

EC clears Roche's Tarceva in pancreatic cancer.
February 5, 2007... Swiss drug major Roche's Tarceva (erlotinib) has been approved by the European Commission for the treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, in combination with a standard chemotherapy, Eli Lilly's Gemzar (gemcitabine HCl)....

Actelion reports strong early data on sleep drug.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Swiss drugmaker Actelion says that preclinical and placebo-controlled clinical trial data were published in the February edition of Nature Medicine which demonstrate that its orexin-OX1/OX2 receptor blocker, ACT-078573, induces characteristic...

SITS-MOST results confirm Actilyse's safety as a treatment for ischemic stroke.(Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-MOnitoring STudy)
February 5, 2007... German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim says that data from SITS-MOST (Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-MOnitoring STudy) confirm the safety of its tissue plasminogen activator Actilyse (alteplase) as a routine clinical treatment for...

Boehringer Ingleheim's Viramune achieves durable patient benefit in HIV trial.(Clinical report)
February 5, 2007... Long-term data from the NEFA (Nevirapine/Efavirenz/Abacavir) study indicates, according to German pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingleheim, that HIV-infected patients who switch from a protease inhibitor-based treatment regimen to a program of...

CHMP accepts GSK's H5N1 vacc for review.(GlaxoSmithKline)(Committee for Medicinal Products for Human)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... UK drug major GlaxoSmithKline says that its next-generation H5N1 split antigen pre-pandemic influenza vaccine has been accepted for review by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP). This vaccine utilizes its novel...

Grunenthal extends Ortho tapentadol license.(Grunenthal GmbH licensing agreement with Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Aachen, Germany-based drugmaker Grunenthal GmbH has extended its licensing agreement with the USA's Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical for tapentadol to include the Japanese market. Ortho-McNeil, which is a unit of health care major Johnson & Johnson,...

Debiopharm licenses Debio-0719 from Kirin.(licensing agreements)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Swiss drugmaker Debiopharm has entered an exclusive R&D and commercialization agreement with Japanese conglomerate Kirin Brewery for Debio-0719, a highly potent inhibitor of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) signaling, in early preclinical...

Ipsen licenses MSD's Adrovance in France.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Paris, France-based drugmaker Ipsen has licensed the domestic co-marketing rights to Adrovance, its fixed combination of alendronate sodium and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), from MSD, a unit of US drug major Merck & Co. Indicated for the...

Letter from the Editor; GSK rebuke over Seroxat trial.(GlaxoSmithKline)(Editorial)
February 5, 2007... The world's second largest pharmaceutical firm, GlaxoSmithKline - an amalgamation of "legend" companies such as Glaxo, Wellcome and Beecham of the UK and US group SmithKline - has had a fairly unblemished reputation until now, but a British...

Update: Rumors say Sanofi to merge with B-MS.
February 5, 2007... With the vital patent appeal trial in the USA over drug major Sanofi-Aventis of France and the USA's Bristol-Myers Squibb's co-marketed blockbuster blood-thinning drug Plavix (clopidogrel) ongoing, speculation has been rife about a merger...

Cipla's 4th-qtr 2006 net profit increases 5.2%.(financial news)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Indian drugmaker Cipla says that its net profit in the last three months of 2006 rose 5.2% on the like, year-ago period, to 1.84 billion rupees ($41.7 million). However, this was below the 1.97 billion rupees forecast average from a survey of...

Kobayashi's 4th-qtr 2006 net income up 12.5%.(Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.'s financial news)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Tokyo, Japan-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical says that, for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, its net sales and operating, ordinary and net income all demonstrated strong improvement on the previous year. Net sales amounted to 202.44 billion...

Kyowa's nine-month sales fall 1.5% to $2.2B.(Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company Ltd.'s financial news)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Japanese drugmaker Kyowa Hakko Kogyo says that, in the nine months ending December 31, 2006, its consolidated net sales fell 1.5% on the like, year-ago period, to 268.1 billion yen ($2.2 billion). The firm noted, however, that results were...

Japan stock market week to Jan 29, 2007.(Financial report)
February 5, 2007... Tokyo remained virtually flat in the week to January 29. The Nikkei 225 was up only 0.3%, maintaining the 17,400 level, while the Topix index ended up 0.2%. The sluggish market likely reflected that near-term positive factors had been priced...

FDA approves Pharmion's Vidaza for IV use.(Food and Drug Administration )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Colorado, USA-based biopharmaceutical firm Pharmion says that the Food and Drug Administration has approved an additional delivery method for its anticancer drug Vidaza (azacitidine). Specifically, the FDA has cleared the product for...

OctoPlus' Locteron enters Ph II HCV study.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Leiden, Netherlands-based drug delivery specialist OctoPlus says that it has initiated a Phase IIa trial of its drug Locteron, a controlled-release formulation of alfa interferon, as a treatment for chronic hepatitis C infection. The company...

DSM to publish A niger genome sequence.
February 5, 2007... Dutch pharmaceutical and nutritional ingredients firm DSM says that it will publish the fully-sequenced genome of the fungus Aspergillus niger in the February issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology. The company added that the data is derived...

Sunesis moves SNS-565 into stage 2 cancer trial.(Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... California, USA-based drugmaker Sunesis Pharmaceuticals says that it will advance the developmental compound SNS-565, a novel cell-cycle inhibitor, into the second stage of Phase II clinical trials as a treatment for small-cell lung cancer....

Norgine starts exporting Moviprep to the USA.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... UK-based specialty drugmaker Norgine says that it has begun exporting Moviprep (NRL994) from its manufacturing site at Hengoed, in Glamorgan, south Wales, to the USA. The product, which is indicated for bowel cleansing prior to colonoscopy, was...

Innogenetics and AdnaGen in EU distribution deal.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Belgian biotechnology firm Innogenetics NV and German counterpart AdnaGen say they have established a collaboration, under which they will distribute the latter's range of CE-certified diagnostic products in Europe. The accord covers AdnaTest...

Merck & Co's 4th-qtr income plunges 58%.
February 5, 2007... USA-based drug major Merck & Co has reported net income of $473.9 million, or $0.22 per share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, a drop of 58% from the $1.1 billion it recorded in the comparable period in 2005. The company said that the...

Wyeth's income up 17%, but shares fall 2.5%.(financial news)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... New Jersey, USA-based drugmaker Wyeth says that its profits for the fourth quarter of 2006 were $855.0 million, or $0.63 per share, up 16.8% from the $732.0 million it earned in the year-earlier period. The company said that higher sales of...

Japan's MHLW extends review period to 8 years.(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare plans to change the re-examination period for drugs containing new active ingredients from the current six years to eight years in principle. The Ministry has decided on the change because of...

Novartis patent law challenge in India.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Swiss drug major Novartis is bringing a law suit in India to challenge the patent law that the drugmaker argues, "could leave millions without access to affordable drugs," the on-line edition of Switzerland's Neuen Zuercher Zeitung reports. A...

Thailand's military govt breaks two patents.
February 5, 2007... The military government of Thailand, which took power last year, has announced its intention to utilize provisions of the World Trade Organization's agreement on intellectual property rights under the 2001 Doha Declaration, to issue compulsory...

Japan's MHLW proposes "drug lag" solution.(Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The early development of two drugs in Japan has been recommended to their relevant pharmaceutical manufacturers by the Study Committee on Usage of Unapproved Drugs within the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. These are: Bryan...

Sharp drop in UK animal extremist attacks.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... There were no assaults on the UK's animal researchers in 2006, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, while instances of property damage were also sharply reduced. The ABPI noted that this shows a sustained...

EU pediatric drug law takes effect.(European Union )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... "A huge opportunity for European research into children's medicines," is how the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry described the introduction in the UK of a new European Union legislative framework for pediatric clinical...

UK's NHS drug prices face OFT demands.(National Health Service)(Office of Fair Trading)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, which has set prices for the supply of prescription drugs to the UK's National Health Service since 1957, faces an imminent shake-up as a long-awaited report by the Office of Fair Trading is due to be...

UK's MHRA upholds advert complaint.(Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has published its ruling on a complaint concerning an advertisement for Somnwell (chloral betaine), an insomnia drug. UK-based Huntley Pharmaceuticals was ordered to remove...

New class of antidepressants similar in efficacy but side effects differ, says AHRQ.(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)(Clinical report)
February 5, 2007... Currently, the most commonly prescribed antidepressants are similar in effectiveness to each other but differ when it comes to possible side effects, according to an analysis released by the US Department of Health and Human Services'Agency for...

Europe's autoimmune disease therapy market driven by affordable, innovative solutions.
February 5, 2007... An expanding patient base, ongoing awareness campaigns and the acceptance of biologics by physicians are spurring growth in the European autoimmune diseases therapeutics market, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan. With over 70...

Abingworth raises Europe's largest ever life science fund.(Abingworth Management Ltd.)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Abingworth, a London, UK-based international life sciences investment group, has announced the final closing of its L300.0 million ($587.0 million) life sciences fund, Abingworth Bioventures V LP (ABV V). This is Abingworth's eighth life...

OGenerics: Rx for affordable medicine,O theme of GPhA conf.(Generic Pharmaceutical Association)(Conference news)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The US Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) will host its 2007 annual meeting, under the theme of "Generics: Prescription for Affordable Medicine," on March 1-3, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona. Featuring presentations from government, industry...

Headlines 25 years ago this week....
February 5, 2007... US Food and Drug Administration gives the go-ahead for speedy approvals of generic versions of some drugs ruled effective in the agency's Drug Efficacy Study Implementation (DESI) program, having previously said that these needed to go through...