| Finding Moats in the Diagnostic Lab Industry (Morningstar) Diagnostic Reference Labs: Narrow Moat Firms Have Strong Prospects us.rd.yahoo.com |
Exelixis Gets a Compound Back Derek Lowe submits: Exelixis (EXEL) has long been a bit of a puzzle to outside observers. The company has developed a number of clinical candidates in oncology (many of them kinase inhibitors, I believe). In fact, for a while there, they seemed to have developed more clinical candidates than a company that size should have been able to manage. It was a bit alarming to employees of larger companies in the area. And figuring out what the structures of these things were wasn't so easy, either. I once had the unenviable assignment of trying to break down a stack of their patent applications to see if I could find the lead structure for one of their compounds, and after a week or so I had to concede. None of my usual tricks worked - untangling and charting out the synthetic pathways from the experimental section to see the common threads, looking for sudden upticks in the amounts of intermediates or final compounds being prepared, looking to see if some compounds had been more completely characterized than others, and so on. No, these folks had done a fine job of sweeping up after themselves, and over the years I've run into other people who came to the same conclusion.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Good News for Cell Therapeutics Zacks.com submits: Cell Therapeutics Inc. (CTIC) received a boost when the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) validated the expanded Pediatric Investigation Plan (PIP) filed by the company in July this year for its lead candidate pixantrone. The candidate is being developed for the treatment of relapsed or refractory, aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in patients who have not responded to other treatment options. The PIP provides the outline of the process that the company intends to follow to study the drug in children. The validation of the PIP is an important step toward the submission of a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) and the subsequent approval for pixantrone. Following the validation, the Pediatric Committee (PDCO) of the EMEA will scrutinize the PIP and comment on or approve the content of the plan. The approval of the PIP will enable the company to submit the MAA for its lead candidate in Europe later in the year. The pediatric program intends to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pixantrone compared to chemotherapy drug doxorubicin in children (aged between 6 months and 18 years).Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Conservative Duo Tests Health Law President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul faces a widely watched legal test when a federal judge in Florida hears arguments in a lawsuit brought by 20 state attorneys general. online.wsj.com |
School, Homework, Pump Iron Strength training, once limited to high school football teams, has become a standard workout feature in other youth sports—and is fast catching hold among kids who don't play organized sports at all. online.wsj.com |