The biggest news of the day was the swine flu pandemonium, which we feel was blown a bit out of proportion, but that’s OK. We hope it gets contained and no one gets real sick and that no more deaths are reported. Anyway, let’s recap what drug companies made off like bandits as a result of the pandemic…

Swine Flu

• Baxter said it is working with the WHO to develop a swine flu vaccine ASAP. Baxter has a cell-based technology that allows the company to produce vaccines more rapidly in the event of a pandemic than a decades-old method that uses eggs and can take weeks or months longer. [The Chicago Tribune]

• GSK and Roche are also trying to get a vaccine out, but says that any treatment or preventative is months away. [Bloomberg]

• Gilead, Novavax, Biocryst and a score of other companies developing flu drugs saw their stock prices skyrocket. In most cases, a development stage antiviral for any sort of flu (influenza, bird flu, etc) was enough to send a stock into orbit. [Bloomberg]

Other News, Money and Drugs

• Pronova is suing Teva, trying to stop Teva from selling generic Lovaza. [Forbes]

• Allergan must be happy. research now shows that Botox can be used to manage BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) [PR Newswire]

• The FDA has approved Johnson & Johnson’s Simponi (golimumab) for three rheumatic diseases: moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. [PharmaTimes]

• Xconomy is reporting that Phenomix has laid off 16 employees. [Xconomy]

• Celgene has authorized the repurchase of up to $500M of the company’s common stock through April 2011. [FierceBiotech]

• Finally, ProtAffin AG, an Austrian developer of drugs that target cell-surface glycan structures, has raised $18.4M USD in Series B funding. Atlas Venture and S.R. One Ltd. co-led the round, and were joined by return backers Aescap Venture, Entrepreneurs Fund and Z-Cube. [peHUB]

Image from boston

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