| Emisphere: Set to Shake Up the B12 Market Joseph Ramelli submits:As promised, I checked in on Emisphere Technologies (EMIS) at Experimental Biology 2010 and it was definitely a worthwhile trip. I came into the conference thinking that high-dose Eligen B12 would offer a viable alternative to B12 shots and that it would be a successful product; I left convinced that it is a genuine B12 shot replacement that within 5 years will completely replace B12 shots. The data is really that good. There is absolutely no need for anyone to ever have a B12 shot again.At the conference I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Cristina Castelli, the Director of Clinical Development at Emisphere, and speaking with her at length about Eligen B12 and also in broader terms about Emisphere’s delivery technology. The poster had graphs that compared the Eligen B12 to B12 shots over the course of the trial. In all four of the data points that they monitored in the trial (serum B12, active B12, and reduction in methylmalonic acid and homocysteine) Eligen B12 came in extremely close to B12 shots, only trailing ever so slightly. I would like to point out that Emisphere structured the trial in a very conservative manner in that they took the readings the day after the B12 shot was injected, when the effect of the shot is at its highest. If they would have waited for two or more days after the shot to compare the two then it is highly probable that Eligen B12 would have had superior data to B12 shots. Either way, I view it as splitting hairs as for all intents and purposes the data is very similar.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Adolor's Pain Continues as Osteoarthritis Drugs Fail in Trial EP Vantage submits:Sometimes it does not just rain it pours. For Adolor (ADLR), this week has been a very stormy affair. First it announced Thursday that both its novel opioid drugs, ADL5859 and ADL5747, failed in a phase IIa osteoarthritis (OA) trial. Friday, this failure was further compounded by the fact that Pfizer’s (PFE) own OA drug tanezumab, a monoclonal antibody, had succeeded in phase III trials. Shares in Adolor reacted to the poor trial outcomes of ADL5859 and ADL5747 by dipping 15% Friday to $1.28, a five-year low. This leaves the company with a market value of $59.3m, below current cash levels of about $73m, and question marks hanging overhead, about whether Adolor could now be a suitable takeout target for a cash-hungry company.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Doctors Slam Insurers Over Rankings Doctor groups criticized growing efforts by health plans to steer patients toward certain physicians based on cost or quality, arguing in a letter to insurers that the rankings may be unreliable and unfair. online.wsj.com |
Counterfeit Drug Counts Are Tough to Swallow A commonly cited estimate that 10% of the world's prescription drugs are fake appears to be an exaggeration, in part because most global pharmaceutical sales happen in countries with minimal counterfeiting. online.wsj.com |
China Nuokang Bio-Pharmaceutical Inc. Announces Results of Annual General Meeting [GlobeNewswire] - BEIJING -- China Nuokang Bio-Pharmaceutical Inc. , a leading China-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development, manufacture, marketing and sales of hospital-based medical products, today announced the Company held its annual general meeting at 9 a.m. us.rd.yahoo.com |