Pharma News 10_03

Is Eli Lilly the “mystery suitor” for ImClone? – Eli Lilly & Co. is in advanced talks to buy cancer-drug developer ImClone Systems for $70 a share, or $6.1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter…more And why the big interest in ImClone? Business Week says “it’s the pipeline.”

Prasugrel delayed…again – Once again, the FDA has delayed its approval of prasugrel, a blood thinner that Lilly and its partner, Daiichi Sankyo, have been hoping will one day compete against Plavix, which is marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis…more

Judge: Amgen yes, Roche no – A federal judge in Boston ruled the drugmaker infringed on Amgen’s patents with its Mircera anemia med, essentially upholding a preliminary decision issued in February. The order by US District Court Judge William Young deals a big setback to Roche, which already cut costs after its plans to market Mircera flopped…more

Credit crunch? Roche says, nah…we still want Genentech – The market isn’t so sure Roche can raise the money to buy Genentech, but Roche seems pretty confident…more

Encouraging data for Pfizer’s HIV drug – The Pfizer Inc. AIDS drug maraviroc helps thwart the HIV virus in nearly half of people who have developed resistance to other treatments, according to two related studies published on Wednesday…more

Pfizer bailing out of some therapeutic areas for drug development – Pfizer Inc  will drop efforts to develop medicines for heart disease, as part of a reshuffling of its research activities that the pharmaceutical giant plans to announce on Tuesday, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Pfizer also is expected to announce it will abandon therapies for obesity and bone health to focus on more lucrative areas such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, WSJ said on its online site…more More here from Forbes

The Pfizer pipeline: current status – Even as Pfizer is bailing out of drug research for heart disease, the company’s late-stage pipeline has increased to 25 projects from 16 in the past six months…more

A potential Viagra competitor derived from a plant with…well, a pretty bizarre name!

Merck drops experimental weight-loss pill – The drugmaker made the decision after spending months reviewing trials showing the taranabant obesity pill caused psychiatric side effects. You may recall that a late-stage trial showed the drug didn’t yield the hoped-for weight loss of 5 percent at the 2 mg dose the drugmaker hoped to sell…more

Daiichi Sankyo cleared to buy Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy.

From PharmExec – specialty drug prices spiking.

Big settlement by Cephalon on out-of-bounds marketing practices. Whistleblower vindicated.

What’s $1.2 billion between competitors? Ask Boston Scientific…

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