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Race to market cancer vaccine

In a race to market the first vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts drug manufacturers Merck & Co Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline plc are in head-to-head competition.

7 Apr 2005

pSivida moves to full development programme of pancreatic cancer product

pSivida Limited has announced that it has initiated a full development programme of its proprietary BrachySil product in a second key cancer indication. Development has commenced to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this novel brachytherapy product in pancreatic cancer, with the clinical programme scheduled to commence before the end of 2005.

7 Apr 2005

Experts available for comment on controversy over a nevirapine

The controversy over a nevirapine clinical trial conducted in the late 1990s threatens to limit the use of a drug that has saved hundreds of thousands of babies in the developing world from HIV infection, according to experts from the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

7 Apr 2005

Pfizer separately agrees to suspend sales of Bextra due to FDA evaluation of risks of rare but serious skin reactions

Pfizer said today it will work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add expanded risk information in the Celebrex label following an FDA decision announced this morning to require boxed warnings of potential cardiovascular risk for all COX-2 pain relievers and all NSAIDs, including older non-specific drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen.

7 Apr 2005

Animi-3 may offer hope for rheumatoid arthritis

Animi-3, a prescription medication from PBM Pharmaceuticals, Inc., contains ingredients that may have a beneficial, protective effect in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

7 Apr 2005

Pfizer withdraws Bextra from market

Despite an expert panel stating last month that the three COX-2 drugs Vioxx, Bextra and Celebrex were safe enough to be marketed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has this week told drug manufacturer Pfizer to remove the drug Bextra from the market and a statement by Pfizer confirms that the European Union regulators have done the same.

7 Apr 2005

Florida sues drug company for Medicaid fraud

Charlie Crist, Florida's Attorney General is taking three pharmaceutical companies to court for $25 million, accusing them of illegally inflating prices on generic drugs used to treat depression, schizophrenia, seizures and angina.

6 Apr 2005

Branded drug companies give generics a taste of their own medicine

To defend market share, more branded drug companies today release generic versions of their branded drugs before other generic companies enter the market, according to a study by pharmaceutical intelligence firm, Cutting Edge Information.

6 Apr 2005

Pentagon too slow responding to Anthrax scare

A report by officials in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia says the Pentagon was too slow in informing local officials about the recent anthrax scare in Defence Department mail facilities and gave antibiotics to workers without coordinating with public health officials. It says the Homeland Security Department (DoD) "needs to be involved earlier in such incidents".

6 Apr 2005

Britain becoming "pill for every ill" society

A report by the influential Commons Select Committee on Health, criticises the drugs industry for promoting the wider use of medication in a bid to increase its profits, and says Britain is being turned into "pill for every ill" society by the multibillion-pound drugs industry, which encourages patients to take medication even for "unhappiness".

5 Apr 2005

Canadians spend over $21 billion on drugs

Drugs continue to be the fastest-growing category of health care spending in Canada and a new report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the Drug Expenditure in Canada 1985-2004 report, shows that total spending on drugs is expected to have reached $21.8 billion in 2004, five times the amount spent on drugs in 1985.

5 Apr 2005

Genomics and proteomics to increase the efficiency of drug discovery and development

While the United Sates is still the world leader, Europe is having a good deal of success in the field of advanced genomics and proteomics research. Significant government funding together with the presence of large pharmaceutical companies has made Europe a major competitor in the efforts to deploy genomics and proteomics as vital tools in drug discovery and development.

5 Apr 2005

EvoGenix expands capabilities through US acquisition

EvoGenix and Absalus own complementary technologies which, when combined, are capable of streamlining the identification of new antibody drug candidates and improving the development of safe and effective human therapeutic antibodies.

4 Apr 2005

Australia gets a Jumbo online pharmacy

Australian Jumbo Corporation Limited (JUM) has announced an aggresive move into the online pharmacy business with the public release of the JumboPharmacy website.

4 Apr 2005

Ranbaxy settles NHS generic drug claim

Britain's Department of Health and Ranbaxy (UK) Ltd have jointly announced settlement of the claims brought against Ranbaxy for alleged anti-competitive cartel conduct in connection with the supply to the NHS of generic drugs between 1996 and 2000.

4 Apr 2005

Meth abuse and curbs on cold medicines

As states and Congress rush to put common cold, cough and allergy drugs behind the pharmacy counter to curb illegal methamphetamine production, no one has asked consumers what they think about these restrictions -- until now. Harris Interactive asked nearly 3,000 consumers about these and related issues in a national survey commissioned by the National Consumers League (NCL) and Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

4 Apr 2005

New ion channel drug targets to emerge in pharmaceutical discovery

The identification and structural determination of channel proteins, and their validation as therapeutic targets using high throughput cell based and multiplexed screening technologies, have furnished an increase role for ion channel targets in the drug discovery and development pipelines in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

4 Apr 2005

Tarvacin shows significant anti-viral activity

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals today announced that there will be two presentations, April 4 and 6, at the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) annual meeting in San Diego, California, indicating the anti-viral potential of its Tarvacin antibody. Dr. Melina Soares of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas will present pre-clinical data titled "Targeting inside-out phospholipids on viruses in a guinea pig model of Lassa fever."

4 Apr 2005

$2.6 million complaint filed against Illinois by British Ecosse Hospital Products

Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois has had a legal complaint demanding nearly $2.6 million filed against him by a British wholesaler Ecosse Hospital Products Ltd. for 254,250 doses of a flu vaccine ordered by Blagojevich to provide thousands of flu vaccine doses for Illinois.

4 Apr 2005

New once a day asthma treatment approved by FDA

More than 5,000 people die from asthma each year in the United States. Although asthma deaths are infrequent, they have increased significantly during the last two decades.

4 Apr 2005