Impactiviti Daily 061810 Top Pharma News

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TODAY’S NEWS:

Prostate cancer drug treatment (Sanofi) approved on the fast track. But – a warning flag for S-A about possible Lantus/cancer link.

Bayer and OncoMed to co-develop oncology drugs in new agreement.

Novartis‘ blood cancer drug Tasigna gets approval for earlier use with CML.

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SocialRx – pharma social media resources. A page full of goodies, newly updated from us here at Impactiviti. Enjoy!

PLUS

Sex pills for women. Count me among the skeptics. And, medical flops of the decade (from Forbes).

JUST FOR FUN

Impactiviti Daily 050710 Top Pharma News

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TODAY’S NEWS

Valeant goes for the niches. Deliberately.

Eli Lilly still chopping positions – Eli Lilly and Co. plans to cut 200 sales and marketing support jobs Friday in its U.S. biomedicine group, with more than half of those cuts taking place in Indianapolis, a company spokesman confirmed Thursday. The cuts are the latest wave of the drugmaker’s previously announced plans to chop 5,500 jobs worldwide by the end of 2011 in response to financial pressures…more

InVentiv to be acquired by private equity firm.

Bayer gets new type of contraceptive approved – The Food and Drug Administration approved Natazia, which is the first in the U.S. to deliver doses of its two female hormones at four times during the drug’s 28-day treatment cycle, the agency said today in a statement…more. But then, what about that mystery recall of Yaz last year – who knew??

I don’t know, Mr Harper (Forbes) – isn’t it more accurate to say that an application has been rejected, rather than that a drug has been rejected, when a Complete Response Letter is issued? The semantics are important.

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Down – like, seriously depressed? Get Some Help.

PLUS

More doctors giving drug reps the cold shoulder. And, sunlit leaves in dark shadow (pic).

JUST FOR FUN

Astonishing stuff – A Showcase of 3-D Street Art Paintings. How do people do this?

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Impactiviti Daily 042210 Top Pharma News

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TODAY’S NEWS

Novartis gets niche transplant drug approved in US –  Drug developer Novartis AG said Thursday it received Food and Drug Administration for the organ-rejection drug Zortress. The drug was first approved outside the U.S. six years ago as Certican and is available in more than 70 countries. It is used to prevent organ rejection in kidney transplant patients. The company reported $118 million in sales in 2009…more. Meanwhile, ex-Novartis executive moves on to head up Bayer HealthCare.

Merck growing its vaccines business with an acquisition.

Patient adherence: an immensely costly problem – Medical costs of patient non-adherence to therapy costs the US $106 billion each year, according to an Express Scripts study, and missed opportunities for use of cheaper meds and delivery systems costs another $57 billion…more

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PLUS

The Intersection of Life, Business, and Social Media. According to me. In 2 graphics.

JUST FOR FUN

Ten lovely bridge designs.

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Impactiviti Daily 011310

TODAY’S NEWS

FDA warning letters to Lilly, Bayer, Amylin, Cephalon.

Wow: ARBs for hypertension reducing Alzheimer’s symptoms? – Drugs commonly used to lower blood pressure, sold by AstraZeneca Plc, Sanofi-Aventis SA and Merck & Co., may also reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from Boston University analyzed the medical records of more than 800,000 U.S. veterans and found those taking angiotensin receptor blockers were up to 24 percent less likely to develop dementia than patients on other medications. Patients already diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease were half as likely to be admitted to a nursing home and had a 17 percent reduced risk of dying if they were taking the medications…more

FTC wants to put a stop to the “pay-to-delay” deals – Jon Leibowitz will hold a press conference today to ask Congress to include a provision in the health care reform bill to end deals in which brand-name drugmakers offer payments or other inducments to generic rivals to delay copycat versions of best-selling meds…more

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Product/Therapeutic training development (pharma/biotech/devices). Live training, modules, eLearning – we’ve got the expertise and customer-centric approach in our vendor/partner network. Contact us (stevew at impactiviti dot com, or phone at 973-947-7429) for recommendations.

PLUS

Social Media, Opportunity, and Serendipity – my guest post on the Hive Awards blog.

JUST FOR FUN

Visual awesomeness. Photo of Martian dune field. Quite spectacular!

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Impactiviti Daily 110209

TODAY’S NEWS

Takeda buys into Amylin‘s weight-loss drug portfolio – Takeda will pay $75 million upfront for medicines including Amylin’s pramlintide/metreleptin and davalintide, in the second phase of testing needed for U.S. regulatory approval, Osaka- based Takeda and San Diego-based Amylin said in a statement…more Plus, quickie update on three other anti-obesity drugs being developed by various companies.

New lupus treatment (HGS/Glaxo) looking promising on pathway to approval – Human Genome Sciences Inc said its experimental lupus drug Benlysta was successful in a second large clinical trial, paving the way for approval of the first new treatment for the disease in 50 years…more

Vertex HepC drug cures 80% – The hepatitis C cure rates of greater than 80% across all four patient groups of the study are also the highest ever recorded in any telaprevir study to date and exceed the cure rates reported in separate studies of boceprevir, a competing hepatitis C drug under development by Schering-Plough…more

Let’s investigate: Amgen and Shire are the latest.

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PLUS

Not counting on blockbusters – changes, and the future, at Sanofi-Aventis.

JUST FOR FUN

Bayer turns its headquarters into a giant billboard. Pretty eye-catching (watch the video clip).

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Impactiviti Daily 092109

See the newly-re-launched Impactiviti Collection e-newsletter! Here’s a link to the on-line sample; you can sign up to receive the Connection (~every two weeks) right here.

TODAY’S NEWS

It’s going to be a big week for Social Media in Pharma. Here’s the scoop.

Cancer drug Nexavar shows efficacy in breast cancer – Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals‘  cancer pill Nexavar has demonstrated impressive results in treating breast tumours, brokerage Baird said on Monday, citing an abstract from a medical congress…Patients given Nexavar plus Xeloda had a 74 percent improvement in the time they lived without their disease progressing….more

AstraZeneca and Nektar Therapeutics in big licensing deal – Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will develop Nektar’s late-stage drug to treat opioid-induced constipation, NKTR-118, and NKTR-119, which is in its early-stage studies to treat pain without the side effects of constipation…more

Avastin for melanoma? That could be exciting. Melanoma has been notoriously resistant to everything thrown at it.

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Negotiating Skills. Presentation Skills. There’s an Impactiviti partner for those. Our best-in-class training providers can customize a program for your needs. Contact us (stevew at impactiviti dot com, or phone at 973-947-7429) for information and recommendations!

PLUS

Everything you always wanted to know about Instructional Design Models. It’s actually a lot more than I want to know! Hat tip: Ellen Wagner

JUST FOR FUN

100% accuracy for the weather? Announcing…The Weather Channel Classic! (spoof)

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Today’s Top News in Pharma 071509

FDA to Watson on 24-week Trelstar: Ummm, not yet. Oh, and to Bayer and J&J for Xarelto: Ummmm, not yet.

Bayer’s Yaz and blood clots – the legal wrangling continues.

Solvay selling out on pharma, narrows it down to 2 bidders – Solvay has whittled down the list of bidders for its pharmaceuticals business to Nycomed, the privately held Swiss company, and Abbott Laboratories of the US…more

Transplant drugs have to alter labels to include increased risks – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today said that it will require manufacturers of some immunosuppressant drugs used in kidney (renal) transplantation to update their labeling to reflect an increased risk of infections…more

More bad news on hormone therapy – Women who took hormone replacement therapy after menopause had a sharply increased risk of ovarian cancer, researchers in Denmark are reporting…more

It’s very early, but this Roche potential cancer drug shows some interesting promise. Glioblastoma is a real problem, in need of some new therapies. And, speaking of early, here’s a very counter-intuitive positive result for an Alzheimer’s treatment. Like, 180-degrees counter-intuitive!

PLUS: From Forrester Research – How to Create a Social Application for Life Sciences without Getting Fired ($$ report).

AND: What are the pharma company early adopters doing on Twitter? Here’s the overview, with stats.

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Today’s Top Three in Pharma 060409

OK, so it’s a “baker’s three” (8) today. Makes up for yesterday’s zero…!

Patent-holder urges FDA to NOT approve prasugrel (from Lilly/Daiichi Sankyo).

Novartis getting cold feet at the Alcon altar? – Novartis betrothed itself to Alcon, but it may not follow through with the engagement. CEO Daniel Vasella told Bloomberg that his company might just pass on its option to buy a majority stake in the eye-care company…more

Abbott and AstraZeneca apply for combo drug approval – CERTRIAD is an investigational compound containing the active ingredients of CRESTOR and TRILIPIX under development by Abbott and AstraZeneca for the treatment of mixed dyslipidemia…more

Hope for treating resistant TB? – An experimental drug that starves the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis makes conventional therapy five times more effective against drug-resistant TB, doctors reported on Wednesday. The company-run study found that the Johnson & Johnson drug TMC207, if added to a standard cocktail of five other TB medicines, cleared traces of the tuberculosis bacteria in the sputum of 48 percent of the volunteers after eight weeks. Only 9 percent of patients given the five older drugs alone showed that type of improvement…more

Genzyme buys up rights to Campath from Bayer (for potential MS treatment)

Takeda‘s nex-gen diabetes drug (alogliptin) delayed in Europe also. Major blow.

Questions swirling around Roche/Genentech‘s Avastin – Cancer researchers are beginning to ask why Roche‘s very expensive and very lucrative drug Avastin is not providing bigger survival gains for cancer patients… “Is it a home run drug? No,” says Jennifer Litton, a breast cancer specialist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. “When I’ve seen it work, it works phenomenally, but we need to get smarter as to who those people are that get those dramatic responses.”…more

PLUS – what is J&J up to? Here’s the preview…

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Today’s Top Three in Pharma 040209

Solvay shopping its drug business. Belgian conglomerate Solvay is eying an exit of the drug business with a sale of its pharmaceutical division that could be worth upwards of €5 billion, or $6.6 billion. Solvay didn’t go into details about why it might give up its fastest-growing and most profitable division. But after talk of a deal involving Solvay, the company issued a statement Wednesday saying it was exploring “various options for its pharmaceutical activities,” and that this review involves “discussions with third parties.”

Watson wins an important round with J&J on Concerta going generic.

Genzyme takes over rights to MS and Oncology drugs from Bayer HealthCare – Genzyme has scooped up key worldwide rights to the leukemia drug Campath–which is being studied as a treatment for MS–and two cancer therapies from its development partner Bayer HealthCare in a deal with a potential $2.8 billion payout.

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Today’s Top Three in Pharma 032009

FDA panel recommends approval of J&J/Bayer anti-clotting drug – Government health advisers said Thursday the benefits of an experimental anticlotting drug from Johnson & Johnson outweigh its risks, including bleeding and incomplete data about liver side effects. The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of cardiology experts voted 15 to 2 in favor of J&J’s rivaroxaban, which if approved, would be the first new pill-based anticlotting drug in a half-century

Stiefel putting itself up on the block? – Stiefel Laboratories Inc, a privately held pharmaceutical maker, is considering selling itself in a deal that could be worth several billion dollars, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The potential sale has drawn interest from a number of major drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Novartis AG,  and GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

The new Massachusetts sales and marketing rules are out for pharma. Let the compliance begin.

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