| Asda, Sainsbury Lower Cancer-Drug Prices U.K. supermarket Sainsbury will match rival Asda on retail pricing for cancer drugs after the Wal-Mart chain said it will sell treatments on private prescription at cost price. online.wsj.com |
Forest Pharma Makes a Big Deal About Diabetes The Burrill Report submits: By Michael FitzhughForest Laboratories (FRX) is pouring $50 million into a deal with TransTech Pharma intended to bring new glucose-lowering diabetes drugs to market. Combined with milestone payments, the agreement could yield $1.1 billion for TransTech in total. Forest will also pay TransTech royalties on worldwide product sales and cover all development and commercialization costs. TransTech Pharma, based in High Point, North Carolina, retains the rights to the Middle East and North Africa. “We believe this novel class of compounds has the potential to be a major therapeutic advance in the treatment of diabetes," says TransTech CEO and founder Adnan Mjalli. The small molecule compounds covered by the agreement rely on liver-selective Glucokinase Activators, which represent a novel class of glucose-lowering agents for the treatment of diabetes, Forest says. Glucokinase Activators, such as TransTech's lead diabetes molecule, TTP399, help lower blood glucose in diabetic patients in large part by inducing glucose-stimulated insulin release in the pancreas and by inducing glycogen formation and glucose breakdown in the liver. Amgen (AMGN) and Array BioPharma (ARRY) inked their own deal for a small-molecule glucokinase activator program in December of last year, creating an exclusive worldwide pact that came with an upfront payment of $60 million for Array and potential additional milestone payments. In April, Forest abandoned its marketing rights to a diabetes mellitus drug being developed by Phenomix just as positive late-stage data on the drug emerged, leaving Phenomix looking for a new partner.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD)Q2 2010 Earnings CallAugust 5, 2010 5:00 PM ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Governments Ditching Public Hospitals Faced with debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort. online.wsj.com |
What Amylin's Diabetes Treatment Complete Response Letter Means for Avanir Rockford Coscia submits:Tuesday, Amylin (AMLN), Alkermes (ALKS), and Eli Lilly (LLY) announced receipt of a complete response letter (CRL) for Bydureon – a once-weekly treatment of Byetta (exenatide), a currently approved once-daily treatment for diabetes. As approval was widely expected for the second go around for Bydureon (a CRL was issued in March of this year), Amylin's share price plummeted after its rejection – dropping over 50% to start the day. Alkermes' share value was also down as much as 25%. As all of the above companies are well above the $1 billion market cap that I provide as somewhat of a coverage limit, I devoted very little attention to the above FDA decision. Additionally, there wasn’t much news to speak of – approval was widely expected. Very, very few, outside from apparently this guy, thought this wasn't an extremely likely approval. The decision, however, does impact a stock that is of especially high interest to some of my readers, Avanir Pharmaceuticals (AVNR).Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |