> Novartis won a small victory in India when a judge told that country's Intellectual Property Appellate Board to hold its horses until the court could decide whether to shuffle board membership at the company's request. Seeking redress after its smackdown in a patent dispute over Gleevec, its blood cancer drug, Novartis has asked the IPAB to appoint a new technical board member. Report
> Publix crowed about its new free antibiotics program but wasn't so forthcoming about its plans to quash a price-matching program on a host of generics sold by Wal-Mart at $4 per prescription. Company officials won't confirm the end to those deep drug discounts, but pharmacy reps told the Orlando Sentinel that the free antibiotics were to replace the $4 meds. Article (WSJ sub. req.)
> Drug wholesaler Cardinal Health posted a healthy 5 percent increase in revenue for the quarter, but managed to almost triple net profits to $902.2 million on sales of $22.26 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 87 cents per share, but the company pulled out $2.33. Report
And Finally... In a commentary for the New England Journal of Medicine, the chairman Clifford J. Rosen called for the FDA to revamp diabetes drug trials to include those clinical outcomes--a move that would make trials longer and more costly. Any bets on how loudly Big Pharma would protest? Article (WSJ sub. req.)