> Eli Lilly agreed to pay $300 million for a Monsanto business that produces a controversial hormone used to boost milk production in dairy cows. Report
> LifeCycle Pharma sold the royalty stream from its first commercialized product, the cholesterol med Fenoglid, to Cowen Healthcare Royalty Partners for $105 million. Report
> Celgene's Vidaza won the FDA's blessing for a new indication to treat higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, making it the first drug approved for all MDS risk categories. Release
> Biovail named Peggy Mulligan, a game-theory consultant, as its new CFO; she will replace interim CFO Adrian De Saldanha. Report
> India-based Lupin has bought a minority stake in the Australian drugmaker Generic Health to expend its presence in the $8.71 billion pharma market in that country. Report
> Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay $30 million to acquire rights to an experimental treatment for blood cancer from PDL BioPharma. Report
> Further bolstering its ambitious vaccine program, Pfizer has teamed up with Cytos Biotechnology to develop, manufacture and commercialize vaccines for a defined number of human diseases. Report
> Scientists were able to identify the antibodies that still circulate in the blood of survivors of the deadly 1918 flu outbreak and found that they still proved to be a potent antidote to the disease. Report
> Just how important Gardasil has become to Merck's top line is underscored by a New York Times article analyzing the impact of what the pharma company calls "educational programs" and just about everyone else refers to as a very effective marketing campaign. Report
> A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine questions the cost-effectiveness of Gardasil in older women, saying that the payback is reduced by their increased exposure to the virus that causes cervical cancer. Report
> Bristol-Myers Squibb is paying $30 million upfront in a licensing deal for PDL BioPharma's experimental blood cancer vaccine elotuzumab. And will it pay up to $680 million more if the Phase I cancer therapy hits all of its development and sales milestones. Report
> Northwest Biotherapeutics startled investors with the news that it has only $1.1 million of cash on hand--enough to fund operations through September. Report
> Fresh on the heels of its Phase III disaster with the Alzheimer's drug Flurizan, Myriad Genetics announced that it has brought in JPMorgan Chase to help it conduct a strategic review. Report
> New analysis from Nature on the Phase II-IV clinical trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov shows that oncology studies led all therapeutic areas, followed by central nervous system disorders, cardiology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, and respiratory diseases. Report
> Advanced Cell Technology may be running out of cash, but the biotech still knows how to garner headlines around the world. The company is reporting that it has been able to gin quantities of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells. Report
And Finally... Researchers have discovered key details of how rheumatoid arthritis destroys bone. Report