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Roche starts acquisition process of ARIUS - fast tracks access to screening platform for antibody therapeutics

Roche and ARIUS Research Inc. have announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement for Roche to acquire ARIUS in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately C$191 million.

23 Jul 2008

Roche acquires Mirus to advance RNAi delivery research

Roche (Basel) and Mirus Bio Corporation (Madison, WI, USA) announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Roche will acquire Mirus Bio Corporation, a privately-owned US company based in Madison, Wisconsin, that focuses on the discovery and development of innovative nucleic acid based technologies, including a proprietary RNAi (Ribonucleic Acid interference) delivery platform.

22 Jul 2008

Luna awarded NIH grant for fullerene-based nanomedicines as allergy treatments

Luna Innovations Incorporated has announced the award of a $1.6 million Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the use of fullerene-based nanomedicines as a pathway to treat allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

22 Jul 2008

Use of rheumatoid arthritis drug to treat Alzheimer's causes concern

New research into the treatment of Alzheimer's disease using a popular rheumatoid arthritis drug has caused some concern.

22 Jul 2008

West Virginia prescription drug program showing growth, success within first three months

West Virginia Rx, a new state-managed prescription drug program that allows uninsured state residents to obtain medications at no cost, is on track to enroll 10,000 people within its first year, the Charleston Gazette reports (Kabler, Charleston Gazette, 7/17).

22 Jul 2008

Access to rheumatoid arthritis drugs 'curbed' for sufferers in the UK

Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis in Britain have been warned that their access to a particularly effective class of drug will in future be limited.

20 Jul 2008

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries to buy Barr Pharmaceuticals

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Teva will acquire Barr, the fourth largest generic drug company worldwide.

18 Jul 2008

EpiCept and GNI partner to develop anti-viral hepatitis drug in Asia

GNI Ltd and EpiCept Corporation have announced that they have reached agreement to develop a new therapeutic drug, EP1013, in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, for late-stage viral infection-induced hepatitis. EpiCept will retain the rights in the rest of the world. GNI’s wholly owned subsidiary, Shanghai Genomics, will start preparation for pre-IND and clinical development in China immediately.

17 Jul 2008

New center for protein therapeutics formed by UB pharmaceutical scientists

Pharmaceutical researchers at the University at Buffalo have joined forces with scientists from several of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to tackle fundamental research questions that need to be answered to advance development of promising protein-based drugs.

15 Jul 2008

Heart death risk cut by early warning drugs tests

The likelihood of people dying because their medication has a side effect that affects the electrical activity of the heart is being reduced - thanks to a better understanding of why this happens and the development of tests to predict it.

From The University of Manchester 14 Jul 2008

FDA makes changes to drug approval process

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that it is revising the way it communicates to drug companies when a marketing application cannot be approved as submitted.

9 Jul 2008

Samaritan Pharmaceuticals granted IND from FDA for HIV drug

Samaritan Pharmaceuticals has announced that it has filed an IND (Investigational New Drug) application for SP-6310 in the treatment of HIV-infected patients with abnormal cortisol levels.

8 Jul 2008

Eli Lilly to buy SGX Pharmaceuticals

Eli Lilly and Company and SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the companies have signed a definitive merger agreement providing for the acquisition of SGX in an all-cash transaction. SGX, based in San Diego, California, is a biotechnology company focused on drug discovery and development in the area of oncology.

8 Jul 2008

Black box warning for epilepsy drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is calling for the strongest type of warning to be placed on drugs which are used to treat epilepsy.

8 Jul 2008

AMDL granted FDA clearance to market blood test for colorectal cancer

AMDL has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a letter of substantial equivalence to an existing predicate device and granted clearance to market the AMDL-ELISA DR-70(R) (FDP) as a safe and effective blood test for monitoring patients who have been previously diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC).

7 Jul 2008

California pharmacies expect disaster after Loss in lawsuit loss to stop 10% Medi-Cal provider cuts

Today, a state court denied eight retail pharmacies' motion to stop the ten percent Medi-Cal provider cuts. The pharmacies sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) from Sacramento Superior Court against the California Department of Health Care Services and its director Sandra Shewry to block the cuts from being implemented.

4 Jul 2008

Revised study maintains link between FDA approvals made soon before deadlines, safety risks

Harvard University professor Daniel Carpenter has made revisions to a study published in March that found prescription drugs hurried through the FDA approval process are more likely to later be linked to safety risks, but he maintains that the study's conclusions are still accurate, the Wall Street Journal reports.

4 Jul 2008

GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis found guilty of overcharging Alabama Medicaid Program

An Alabama state court jury on Tuesday found pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis guilty of defrauding the state Medicaid program by charging artificially high prices for medications and ordered the two companies to pay more than $114 million in restitution, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

4 Jul 2008

Back log of 900 whistle-blower lawsuits at Department of Justice

Whistle-blower lawsuits alleging that pharmaceutical companies and government contractors defrauded the federal government have created a backlog of more than 900 cases at the Department of Justice, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, more than 500 of the cases involve the health care and pharmaceutical industries, as well as Medicare and Medicaid.

3 Jul 2008

Pharmacy Practice Research Trust calls for UK wide strategy for pharmacy practice research

A UK wide research strategy to support the development of robust evidence to inform commissioning and clinical decision making is needed if pharmacy services are to be integrated into care pathways says the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust (the Trust) in a response to the UK Government's white paper on the future of pharmacy.

2 Jul 2008