Results tagged “Drugs and Finances” from Drugs & Medicaments

LONDON (Reuters) - Ablynx, a Belgian biotech company using llama DNA to develop a new class of drugs, has signed a deal worth up to $212.5 million with U.S. healthcare group Wyeth, the two companies said on Monday.

The agreement will allow Wyeth to develop a new generation of anti-TNF treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis using ultra-small antibodies.

Ablynx is pioneering medicines called nanobodies, which it believes could treat conditions including arthritis, thrombosis, cancer and Alzheimer's disease. It expects to start testing them on humans early in 2007.

Esperance Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Baton Rouge, whose nanoparticles target and kill some of the most common types of cancer cells, has secured $9 million in financing from three venture capital firms.

The money will allow Esperance to begin testing its anticancer agent to make sure it is safe and does not have toxic side effects, said Ross P. Barrett, managing partner of Themelios Venture Partners.

Themelios, Louisiana Fund I of Baton Rouge and Research Corporation Technologies Inc. of Tucson, Ariz., put up the $9 million.

In deciding whether pharmaceuticals are fit for prescribing to patients, the Food and Drug Administration uses agency scientists to review the voluminous submissions from sponsoring companies. For about a third of new drugs,^[1] the agency also convenes a meeting of an advisory committee comprised of outside experts whose opinions are expected to be impartial and in the interests of the public health.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that financial conflicts can affect a committee vote. In 2005, the FDA convened a meeting to discuss the toxicity of the COX-2 inhibitors Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra. Had the committee members with ties to industry been precluded from voting, the committee would have voted against continued marketing for Vioxx and Bextra; instead all 3 drugs received favorable votes.^[2,3]

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., one of the nation's biggest drugmakers, said Thursday that its third-quarter earnings plunged 65 percent because two key drugs struggled with generic competition and results a year-ago were swelled by a one-time gain. It also raised earnings guidance for the year and said one of the government investigations into a patent deal has been expanded.

The company earned $338 million, or 17 cents a share, in the July-September period, compared with $964 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier when it sold its U.S. and Canadian consumer products business.

Pfizer Inc.'s potential blockbuster drug torcetrapib may be delayed until 2011, clouding plans to replace top-selling cholesterol medicine Lipitor when its patent expires.

Officials at New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, said last week that U.S. regulators may want long- term studies showing the drug when combined with Lipitor prolongs lives and prevents disease before approving it. Analysts lowered their profit estimates after the comments on torcetrapib, which is designed to boost levels of so-called good cholesterol that removes plaque from arteries.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may not finish until late 2008 its evaluation of imaging studies showing whether the drug shrinks fatty substances that clog arteries and trigger heart attacks, John LaMattina, president of global research and development at Pfizer, said in a conference call. Analysts say the review may run a year later than expected and the drug, which some projected to generate $1.6 billion in sales by 2009, may be delayed by one to three years as a result.

FORMER junior biotech Pharmaxis took its biggest step towards becoming a fully-fledged pharmaceutical company yesterday, winning a Swedish licence for its asthma drug Aridol.

Shares in Pharmaxis surged 4 per cent or 11c to $2.78 after the announcement, with analysts predicting it would earn 80 per cent gross margins on Aridol amid projected global revenue of $250 million.

Discovered, developed, manufactured and marketed over 12 years in Australia without offshore backing or collaboration with a big pharmaceutical company, the drug is claimed to allow accurate asthma diagnosis for the first time.

By Lois M. Collins and Geoffrey Fattah, Deseret Morning News, 19 Oct 2006

Brigham Young University and one of its professors are suing pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, claiming BYU was defrauded of profits of at least $1 billion and credit for work that led to the blockbuster drug Celebrex.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, weaves a tale of a trusting university that didn't know much about patents in biomedical breakthroughs and that was allegedly deceived by an experienced drug company.

The medication, in the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) class, is one of the so-called "super-aspirins." Celebrex and its second-generation drugs have had sales of more than $20 billion. The super-aspirin blocks the COX-2 enzyme, reducing pain and inflammation without triggering the sometimes-deadly gastrointestinal effects of some other NSAIDs, including aspirin. COX is scientific shorthand for the enzyme cyclooxygenase.

MONTREAL (CP) -- Revenue Canada is seeking $2 billion from pharmaceutical giant Merck Frosst in unpaid taxes, a newspaper report suggests.

Sources said that the federal department sent a notice to the company the first week of October. It is seeking taxes on a portion of the global profits from its popular drug Singulair.

The asthma treatment was developed in Montreal. But Merck transferred a part of its profits from the drug to Barbados.

Merck Frosst is one of the most important pharmaceutical companies in Canada. It employs 1,600 workers, including 1,100 in Montreal.

MADISON, N.J. — U.S. pharmaceutical company Wyeth said Thursday third-quarter net income climbed 33 per cent, helped by sales of the anti-inflammatory drug Enbrel and its Prevnar vaccine.

Quarterly profit grew to US$1.16 billion, or 85 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $869.9 million, or 64 cents per share, during the same period last year.

Results include a four-cent per share charge related to a plan aimed at cutting costs and boosting productivity and a five-cent gain related to the reduction of certain deferred tax asset valuation allowances.

As spotted on The Motley Fool dotcom, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly plans to acquire ICOS Corporation, which is its partner in the erectile-dysfunction drug Cialis.

The terms of the acquisition call for Lilly to pay about $2.1 billion in cash for ICOS, which represents $32 a share and an 18% premium to the closing price of ICOS shares yesterday.

Not directly related to Drugs and Medication, but still a very interesting story by MSNBC

The Justice Department accused the former head of the Food and Drug Administration with falsely reporting that he had sold stock in companies when he continued holding shares in the firms governed by FDA rules.

Roche and Trimeris report high results for Q32006.

Roche - due to Tamiflu, cancer drug, and anti-influenza drugs.

Trimeris - due to its HIV drug Fuzeon.