J&J CFO: Recession pain won't get worse; Pfizer tops pharmas for social media use;

> Johnson & Johnson doesn't expect the recession's effects to worsen and is counting on new drugs to stanch losses to generic rivals before the year ends, Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso said. Report

> Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis have the highest "social share of voice" among pharmaceutical companies using social media, according to a ranking by social advertising company ViTrue. Report

> At a time when most Indian companies are looking to cut costs, pharmaceutical firms are handing out generous bonuses and raises--as much as 40 percent--saying they're trying to retain their top talent. Report

> A Polpharma unit agreed to buy 75 million new shares in insulin producer Bioton for $4.6 million; it's the second infusion of capital for Bioton in about a month. Report

> Merck inked a licensing deal with Santen, aiming to sell the company's glaucoma and ocular hypertension drug tafluprost in North and South America, Africa and western Europe (excluding Germany). Release l Report

> Goldman Sachs has been the investment bank of choice for drugmakers negotiating megadeals, as pharmaceuticals M&A props up the otherwise depressed market for deals. Report

> Ipsen said it is still in talks with the FDA to detail any possible side-effects of its anti-wrinkle treatment Reloxin, signalling a delay in its marketing approval. Report

> Hercules-CA based bioinformatics company Eureka Genomics has signed a merger agreement with Nanobac Pharmaceuticals. Report

> Amsterdam-based SpePharm Holding has filed a €35 million claim against BioAlliance Pharma for the "brutal termination" of a licensing agreement for the commercialization of the antifungal drug Loramyc. Report

> Struggling Cell Therapeutics has raised enough money to stay afloat. The Seattle-based biotech says it has gained $15 million from a single investor. Report

> Researchers at the National Cancer Institute have developed a new type of cancel trial that they say may speed up discovery of new drugs. The Phase 0 trial involves giving small doses of a drug to a few patients for a short period of time. Report

> Dendreon released the highly-anticipated results from a Phase III trial of Provenge, the first therapy designed to trigger an immune response to combat prostate cancer. The trial met the primary endpoint of improving overall survival compared to a placebo control, and the drug's safety profile appeared to be consistent with prior trials. Report

> The South San Francisco-based start-up iZumi Bio has teamed up with the pioneering stem cell scientist Shinya Yamanaka to commercialize new therapies developed from stem cells created through cellular reprogramming. Report

> Developers have a new target to consider in the scientific fight against fat. Report

> A slate of biotech companies are devoting time and a considerable amount of money to study the ways in which misfolded proteins spur disease--and the therapies that can cure the ailments. Report

> Canadian regulators have approved Simponi (golimumab), a biologic developed by Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough. The drug--an update to the blockbuster Remicade--is indicated for severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Report

And Finally... Suffering even one severe bout with low blood sugar appears to increase the risk of dementia in older adults with Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Report