Hey guys, we’re taking a small break while we expand the Iguana Universe. IguanaBio has been growing, fast. While we grow, we’ll also be revamping and blogging less over the next several months. It’s been an awesome 2009 and our fans have been nothing less than loyal and amazing. So, to keep the gossip going while we do some “restructuring” – we’ll be on Twitter. You can follow us right here.
We also encourage everyone to check back for updates on the new IguanaBio and for updates on our new database, which should launch in a few months.
In the meantime, please contact us if you have any juicy info, gossip, press releases, news stories or just want to ask a question.
For recruiters and employers, our jobs board will remain active. If you are interested in being featured in our job docket, shoot us an email at hr AT iguanabio DOT com. Post a job here to reach... Read More
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- The Street's Adam Feuerstein Slams CTIC, Pixantrone Data (27)
- Cell Therapeutics, Pixantrone Gets Fan Site...Obsession Continues (19)
- The Street's Adam Feuerstein Addresses Anti-Semitic Hate Mail (16)
- Cell Therapeutics' OPAXIO: Hype or Truth? (13)
- Did Vatalanib Work for Patrick Swayze? (12)
- Cell Therapeutics: The MJ of Biotech? (12)
- The 1Q Graveyard Roundup: CTIC Escapes, La Jolla's Last Shot, Somaxon Death Inevitable (11)
Sanofi Stays Strong: Lantus Scripts, Another Generics Acquisition
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Sanofi’s (SNY) Lantus (insulin glargine [rDNA origin] injection) has been out of the news for a while. Today, Reuters is reporting that prescription data is holding up despite the recent cancer scare earlier this month.
As a result, Morgan Stanley raised SNY to “overweight” from “equal-weight” citing that its concern about lost sales of the diabetes drug Lantus was “unfounded.”
From Reuters:
Morgan Stanley, which upgraded the stock to “overweight” from “equal weight” on Tuesday, now believes the downside risk to Lantus revenues will be closer to 5 to 10 percent, rather than the more than 50 percent that had been modelled initially.
Its analysts now forecast Lantus sales will rise to 3.8 billion euros ($5.43 billion) in 2015. Merrill Lynch is more bullish, predicting 5 billion by 2014, or double last year’s level of 2.45 billion.
Other analysts still caution that Lantus could be hit by more
negative news in September when the European Association of the Study
of Diabetes, whose journal Diabetologia published... Read More
Head CLIA Laboratory – PharmaScouts, Inc., Costa Mesa, California
VP of Process Development – SciGenium, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Other Jobs
Director of Finance, Life Science Research – Thermo Fisher Scientific, CO
Clinical Science Specialist- Field Based – Tercica, Brisbane, CA
Medical Science Liaison – Inventiv Health, Dallas, TX
Medical Science Liaison (MSL) – Novartis, East Hanover, NJ
Medical Science Liaison/Snr Medical Science Liaison – Elan Pharmaceuticals, South San Francisco, CA
Sr. Director, Business Information and Analysis – Amylin Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, CA
Science Marketing Writer – Illumina, San Diego, CA
Amgen (AMGN) announced its earnings today, says second-quarter profit rose 40%. [Bloomberg]
AMGN also said it’s partnering with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to jointly market denosumab in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. [WSJ Health Blog]
Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) reported positive news from its CML program. [Reuters]
Argolyn Bioscience enters The Graveyard. [The Charlotte Observer]
Finally, do sales reps have sex with docs? Two words: SHAY. DEEE. [BNET Pharma]
Anonymous Tip? Comments? Contact us: hr AT iguanabio DOT com
Pfizer Wrap-Up: Nigeria Settlement, Neurontin Cases and Twitter
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Pfizer (PFE) has had some recent news lately – most of it relating to lawsuits…let’s take a look…
PFE and Nigeria’s Kano State have reached an out-of-court settlement of $75M for the 1996 Trovan trials that led to the deaths of 11 children. Up to $35M will go towards a fund that will pay subjects who were in the study, $30M for healthcare initiatives chosen by the Kano State government, an $10M to reimburse Kano State for legal costs. Though PFE has continuously denied the allegations that Trovan killed any of the children in the meningitis trial, PFE attorney Anthony Idigbe confirmed the settlement today: “Yes, we have agreed on the out-of-court settlement and we will sign the agreement on Thursday. With that, the case will formally be withdrawn.”The State of Kano filed civil and criminal suits against PFE in May 2007 demanding over $2 billion in damages. [AP]
The first PFE Neurontin (Gabapentin) trial began today over claims that Susan Bulger... Read MoreSanofi in $784M Deal With India’s Shantha Biotechnics
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Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to buy a 78% stake in India vaccine maker Shantha Biotechnics. Sanofi will invest EUR 429M ($613M USD).
Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi’s vaccine division, will acquire H ShanH, a subsidiary of France’s Mérieux Alliance, which bought the majority stake in Shantha Biotechnics only three years ago.
Sanofi Pasteur VP Pascal Barollier said this:
”Shantha is a strong and modern company. What’s in the pipeline is interesting and it has a strong product portfolio. Shantha also has a reputation in India and outside, particularly with the WHO.”The Shantha deal continues Sanofi buyout trend. In April, Sanofi acquired Mexico’s Laboratorios Kendrick and Brazil’s Medley SA for $680M. It also “bought” BiPar Sciences early this year, whose PARP inhibitor program has just begun a Phase 3 trial in triple-negative breast cancer.
Check out the Bloomberg story.
Anonymous Tip? Comments? Contact us: hr AT iguanabio DOT com
Avila Therapeutics Raises $30M From Novartis Option Fund
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Avila Therapeutics, Inc. has raised $30 million in a Series B financing from the Novartis Option Fund. Other investors included Abingworth, Advent Venture Partners, Atlas Venture and Polaris Venture Partners.
The funds will be used to advance Avila’s covalent bond technology/drugs, which have the ability to “silence” proteins and completely shut down their activity. The technology allows for increased selectivity, longer duration of action and potential activity in mutational resistance. Avila plans to target the HCV Protease (NS3) for hepatitis C and Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (Btk) in B-cell cancers and autoimmune diseases.
Avila Therapeutics CEO Katrine Bosley said this:
“With the Novartis Option Fund we are very pleased to expand our circle of industry-leading investors. Avila has made tremendous progress in developing and demonstrating the promise of covalent drugs. This financing provides us with a strong financial foundation and firmly validates our investors’ belief in Avila’s future and the best-in-class potential of covalent drugs.”Read the full press release at... Read More
Head CLIA Laboratory – PharmaScouts, Inc., Costa Mesa, California
VP of Process Development – SciGenium, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Other Jobs
Director of Finance, Life Science Research – Thermo Fisher Scientific, CO
Underwriting Advanced Medical Technology Life Science – CNA, New York, NY
Medical Science Liaison – Inventiv Health, Dallas, TX
Manager, Pharmaceuticals/Life Sciences-Forensic Practice – KPMG, Los Angeles, CA
Medical Science Liaison/Snr Medical Science Liaison – Elan Pharmaceuticals, South San Francisco, CA
Sr. Director, Business Information and Analysis – Amylin Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, CA
Science Marketing Writer – Illumina, San Diego, CA
Last Week’s Top Ten – Merck Layoffs, No Ampligen, Swayze Loosing Steam and Wyeth…
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It’s time again for last week’s Top Ten! The week was definitely filled with a lot of surprises. Monday started off with a HUGE bang as Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) announced it had defied analysts and offered a glimpse of promise for patients with lupus.
The week was also innundated with earninngs from big pharma all while Hemispherx Biopharma (HEB) and Cell Therapeutics (CTIC) made some news. In the middle of all this, Nycomed/Solvay bankers scratched their heads and Pfizer (PFE) got busy with pink slips.
OK, here we go – last week’s Top Ten – the posts that made us all laugh, cry, gasp and say “Why are they doing this?”
10 – Wyeth: Tomorrow is the Big Day…
9 – Hemispherx Conference Call Comes and Goes…
Eiger Biopharmaceuticals Starts HCV Trial with Old Antihistamine Clemizole
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Eiger Biopharmaceuticals has started recruiting patients to test an old drug – an antihistamine – called Clemizole in previously untreated patients with hepatitis C (HCV).
In February, Eiger raised $7.1 million in a Series A financing from InterWest Partners and Vivo Ventures to advance the company’s “novel small molecules into the clinic rapidly for the benefit of patients.” It turns out the drug is not so novel. Clemizole is an antihistamine that has been around for a long time – decades. In fact, there’s not much information on the web. Pubmed (click here and enter Clemizole) has the best collection of Clemizole articles, most of which deal with anecdotal studies in conditions such as rhinitis and pruritis (itching). There’s no information on whether the drug was ever approved anywhere — although it might have been decades ago. It’s mainly been the subject of lab and clinical investigations.
In August 2008, Stanford University’s... Read More
The London Paper is reporting that tens of thousands of swine flu sufferers in London are dealing with a Tamiflu “lottery” because of a lack of distribution centers and potential difficulty in transportation.
In all of London, only ten distribution centers have been set up. Unbelievable! That’s hard to fathom given that the entire city has a population of 7,000,000. In fact, according to the London Paper, the entire working population of London — 300,000 — is served by one pharmacy that closes at 6pm. Also, people who live in rural areas or are far from distribution centers will find it hardest to get to where they need to go.
John Lister of London Health Emergency said this:
“The locations seem to have been chosen at random. It’s a lottery as to whether you will be living near a distribution center or not. Poorer people may not be able to get to these centers. We are going to... Read MorePatient Assistance Programs – Two Sides of the Drug Coin
1 Comment |
BusinessWeek’s latest pharma article on Patient Assistance Programs is quite interesting, and sheds some light on both sides of the same coin: patients who have been saved by pharma’s assistance and those who have suffered.
Patient Assistance Programs are set up by most large pharma to help with the costs of prescription medications, particularly expensive therapies such as biologics and expensive disease modifying therapies. Some pharmas also assist underinsured patients through co-pay programs, as do many states.
From BusinessWeek, here’s the case of Carla Miller:
Six years ago, Carla Miller was an active woman who
enjoyed outdoor activities such as camping. Then things started to go
wrong. “I just had tremendous pain that would kind of come and go,”
she says. “It started in my knees and then it moved to my hands and
feet.” She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune
disease that attacks the joints. Two years ago Miller, now 53,
discovered she also had a rare disease that affects her lungs. “If I
moved... Read More
Head CLIA Laboratory – PharmaScouts, Inc., Costa Mesa, California
VP of Process Development – SciGenium, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Other Jobs
Clinical Science Specialist- Field Based – Tercica, Brisbane, CA
Sr. Business Systems Analyst-R&D Business Partnering – Shire Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, PA
MSL (Medical Science Liaison) Philadelphia/Baltimore — 54549BR – Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Summit, NJ
Manager, Product Planning – Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA
Equity Research Associate – Biotechnology / Life Sciences – Needham & Company, New York, NY
Sr. Director, Business Information and Analysis – Amylin Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, CA
Clinical Science Assoc-Thera – Genzyme, San Antonio, TX
2Q Earnings Wrap Up
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) income rises 36 percent, beats analyst estimates. [Nasdaq]
Wyeth’s (WYE) profit rises 13 percent, also beats analyst estimates. [Bloomberg]
Shares of Celgene (CELG) spiked over 20 percent on positive data for Revlimid as a first-line treatment for multiple myeloma. Net income up 19 percent [Reuters]
Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) also beat estimates on 55 percent increase revenue for Soliris. [Reuters]
News, Money and Drugs
Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) ripe for a buyout, partner. [Bloomberg]
But I guess so is every other biotech, so says CNN. [CNN]
Another... Read More
Amgen (AMGN) has laid off 100 workers.
Pacific Coast Business Times is reporting that AMGN confirmed the layoffs yesterday and that the positions eliminated were in clinical manufacturing and quality-control. We previously reported that AMGN would lay off about 101 employees on May 1 as part of its global “restructuring” efforts.
AMGN spokeswoman Sarah Rockwell said this about yesterday’s pink slips:
“Approximately 100 people in the United States were notified today. We are consolidating some of our clinical manufacturing and quality activities. Each of the individuals notified was offered comprehensive severance benefits that include a minimum of six months salary, up to a year of company-paid health coverage and outplacement services, among other benefits.”Check out everything we’ve ever posted on AMGN. The bloodbath continues, again.
Anonymous Tip? Comments?... Read More
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