| FDA Approves Amgen's Prolia Drug Amgen received FDA approval for Prolia to treat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, in a surprise decision that comes almost two months earlier than expected. online.wsj.com |
Cord Blood America Names Managing Director of Its New Stem Cell Company in Germany (PR Newswire) Cord Blood America, Inc. is pleased to announce that Thomas Kolzau, Hamburg, Germany, an executive with a strong record of success in the medical, life sciences and bio/pharma industries, has been appointed Managing Director of Cord Blood America's 51 percent owned stellacure GmbH, the third largest cord blood banking service in Germany. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Furiex Pharma's Cash Will Likely Run Out Before Investors Feel Secure Farukh Farooqi submits: Furiex Pharmaceuticals (FURX), spun off from Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPDI) on 6/14/10, is a $10 stock with net cash (cash minus all liabilities) of $10 per share. It earns royalties on two drugs already in the market with potential milestone payments of $14.40 per share. It has three other programs in its R&D pipeline. According to some Street estimates, the value of Furiex’s royalties & pipeline is $30-$36 per share. The entire float has traded since the spin-off, and selling pressure may soon begin to recede. As part of the spin-off, 18% of the equity is set aside for management. In addition, the Chairman owns 6% of the outstanding shares. Spin-Off Background: On June 14, 2010, PPDI, a Contract Research Organization, spun off its drug discovery business to shareholders in a tax free transaction. The main motivation behind the spin-off was to separate a cash flow-generating, service business from a cash-utilizing, biotech division. PPDI has 118 mm shares and for every 12 shares of PPDI, shareholders got one share of FURX. FURX has a market cap of $100 mm, tiny when compared to PPDI's $2.9 billion equity cap. Hence, the spun-off stock is not likely to have much appeal for PPDI shareholders who are mainly interested in the CRO business or those can’t own a small-cap stock. Sure enough, FURX began trading in the high teens on June 1 and has dropped to $10 on no new news.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Wyeth's Ghost in the Medical Machine The Burrill Report submits: A study of documents unsealed in litigation against the pharmaceutical company Wyeth (WYE) show the drug giant paid ghostwriters to insert marketing messages into articles in medical journals, according to researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in a study published in PLoS Medicine. In July 2009, PLoS Medicine, represented by the public interest law firm Public Justice, and The New York Times, acted as interveners in litigation against menopausal hormone manufacturers by 14,000 plaintiffs whose claims related to the development of breast cancer while taking the hormone therapy Prempro. This resulted in a U.S. federal court decision to release approximately 1,500 documents to the public.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Study: Pill Slashes Risk of HIV Infection A study shows an existing antiretroviral drug can also ward off HIV infections in what researchers call a major advance in the quest to find medicines that prevent rather than simply treat AIDS. online.wsj.com |