Strategies & Technologies Driving Drug Discovery to Market
Merck, Pfizer Team Up On Diabetes Pill
April 29, 2013 12:26 pm | News | CommentsMerck & Co. will work with Pfizer Inc. to develop a new combination pill designed to treat Type 2 diabetes. The experimental pill will combine Merck's drug Januvia, Pfizer's experimental pill ertugliflozin, and metformin, an older diabetes drug.
Auxilium Spending $585M on Actient
April 29, 2013 12:10 pm | News | CommentsAuxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced the purchase of Actient Holdings LLC from private equity firm GTCR for $585 million. In the process Auxilium said it will get two testosterone drugs, impotence treatments, and two respiratory drugs.
Estrogen Fuels Autoimmune Damage
April 29, 2013 8:00 am | News | CommentsA new study may help explain why women are more prone than men to a form of liver damage by implicating the hormone estrogen in the development of autoimmune hepatitis. The study reveals that estrogen and interleukin-6 collude to form a powerful duo that leads to immune cell misconduct.
Bayer Paying $1.1B For Conceptus
April 29, 2013 7:47 am | News | CommentsBayer has agreed to buy California-based Conceptus for around $1.1 billion to expand the kinds of birth control it offers. Conceptus makes Essure, an irreversible birth control method in which small metal and polyester coils are inserted to block a woman's fallopian tubes.
Actavis, Purdue Settle Oxycontin Lawsuits
April 26, 2013 3:47 pm | News | CommentsActavis Inc. and Purdue Pharma LP are settling a patent dispute, and Actavis will be able to sell a generic abuse-resistant version of Purdue's painkiller OxyContin starting in 2014. Actavis expects more than $100 million in gross profit from generic OxyContin sales through 2015.
Abbvie Q1 Earnings Tops Estimates
April 26, 2013 1:13 pm | News | CommentsAbbVie Inc. topped Wall Street expectations in its first three months as a standalone company. On Jan. 1 Abbott Laboratories completed the spinoff of AbbVie, which markets the company's branded prescription drugs, including the blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug Humira.
Software Aids Medicine Tracking
April 26, 2013 11:44 am | Product Releases | CommentsCognex Corp. announced the latest version of the In-Sight track & trace identification and data verification solution for healthcare serialization. This version address additional requirements for pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to achieve unit-level product traceability.
Raindance Working with Clients
April 26, 2013 11:37 am | Product Releases | CommentsRainDance Technologies Inc. announced a service partner program for its growing base of research customers who are developing next-generation sequencing-based genetic testing panels to identify and characterize inherited diseases, cancers, and other human health conditions in research projects.
Small Chillers Provide Robust Cooling
April 26, 2013 11:23 am | Product Releases | CommentsA range of chillers from PolyScience provide up to 1290 watts of cooling at 20°C, making them ideal for use with rotary evaporators, jacketed incubators, small reaction vessels, spectrophotometers, chromatography columns, condensers, and other devices that require robust heat removal.
EMA Panel Recommends Nuedexta
April 26, 2013 10:31 am | News | CommentsA panel that advises the European Medicines Agency recommended that Avanir Pharmaceuticals' Nuedexta be approved as a treatment for pseudobulbar affect. The drug is already approved in the U.S. Being able to sell the drug in Europe would likely increase Avanir's revenues.
European Regulators Reject Xeljanz
April 25, 2013 5:00 pm | News | CommentsPfizer Inc. said that the European Union's committee of medical experts has rejected the company's drug Xeljanz for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The European Medicines Agency committee recommended against approving the drug because its benefits did not sufficiently outweigh its risks.
Shareholders Criticize J&J for Mistakes
April 25, 2013 3:52 pm | by Linda A. Johnson | News | CommentsJohnson & Johnson shareholders took the health care giant to task during its annual meeting, citing repeated product recalls, ethical lapses and excessive executive pay. CEO Alex Gorsky took it in stride, promising improvements and saying J&J is making progress.
Pfizer Aims To Cut Generics Impact
April 25, 2013 3:11 pm | by Linda A. Johnson | News | CommentsPfizer Inc. CEO Ian Read said that continuing expirations of drug patents through 2015 will restrain revenue growth, but the world's largest drugmaker is trying to offset that with launches of several medicines and research to create new ones.
Suppressing Protein May Stem Alzheimer's
April 25, 2013 1:01 pm | News | CommentsScientists have discovered a potential strategy for developing treatments to stem the disease process in Alzheimer’s disease. It’s based on unclogging removal of toxic debris that accumulates in patients’ brains, by blocking activity of a little-known regulator protein called CD33.
FLIPR Calcium Assay Offers High Yield
April 25, 2013 12:12 pm | Product Releases | CommentsMolecular Devices has launched the FLIPR Calcium 6 Assay Kits, the latest addition to their range of calcium assay kits to address diversified GPCR and ion channel targets.
