News
Public Citizen joins FDA review
When Cephalon asked the FDA to expand the use of its opioid painkiller Fentora, did it see the shape of things to come at the Read more...
Did FDA counsel save Procrit ads?
Remember that DTC hearing in Congress last week, when Rep. Read more...
NC hospital nixes drug-sample handouts
While drugmakers and the Massachusetts legislature duke it out over the "no pharma freebies" Read more...
Painkillers little help against dementia
Hopes that painkillers might help stave off Alzheimer's disease were dampened by a large new study. Pfizer's Celebrex and the over-the-counter Aleve didn't benefit thinking skills as researchers had Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Ex-Exubera plant to shut down
Pfizer will shutter its sterile manufacturing plant in Terre Haute--where the now-defunct inhaled insulin product Exubera was made--by mid-2009, eliminating the facility's remaining 140 jobs. More Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Forest takes charge on Azor split; GSK launches Tykerb-Herceptin trials;
> Forest Laboratories will take a $44.1 million charge on termination of its deal to co-promote the hypertension drug Azor with Daiichi Sankyo. Read more...
Cholesterol drug market shifts
Big-name cholesterol meds are losing ground on two fronts. First, the Pfizer cholesterol drug Lipitor--its Read more...
Politics hampers heparin probes
On the one hand, we have Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt gladhanding Chinese officials as he announced the heparin supply is now safe--including the crude heparin coming from China's Read more...
CMOs growing 14 percent annually
With Big Pharma cutting back, CMOs are picking up the slack. The worldwide market for biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing reached $2.4 billion in 2007, a year-over-year leap of 14 percent, and Read more...
Did GSK ignore early abacavir warning?
Back in 2005, Swedish pharma monitors raised a red flag on the HIV fighter abacavir and its possible link to heart attacks, The Independent is reporting. Thirty-four patients taking abacavir had Read more...
Actavis hit with suit over recalled Digitek
Maybe not faster than a speeding bullet, but close. Lawyers already are filing a class-action lawsuit against Iceland's Actavis over the recalled heart drug Digitek, which was just pulled off the Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: U.S. 'a complete mess,' Indian CEO says
Dr. Reddy's vice chair and CEO G.V. Prasad predicts increasing difficulty obtaining financing and declining market caps industry-wide as the U.S. economy slows. But, he says, India and China will Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Squeaking hip devices worry patients, docs; Biotech M&A has yet to reach its peak;
> Replacement hips made with ceramic parts are squeaking in certain patients, some of which have sued Stryker; the company says the noisy side effect happens in less than 1 percent of implants. Read more...
Plavix copycat pops up in Europe
Call it generic Whac-a-Mole. Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb have bludgeoned copycat Plavix in the U.S., but competition is now popping up in Europe. Swiss drugmaker Schweizerhall Holding Read more...
AMA calls for tighter DTC regulation
We all expected Democrats to rake DTC ads over the coals during yesterday's hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight arm. We expected Chairman Bart Stupak to call for Read more...
Paid Research Reports
- Pipeline Insight: Nosocomial Vaccines - Minefield or Goldmine?
- Drug Approval Trends at the FDA and EMEA: Process improvements, heightened scrutiny and industry response
- Biotech 2008 – life sciences industry report (online & print)
- Is there a market for alcoholism pharmacotherapies?
- New report provides Rheumatoid Arthritis market insight

