Tekmira Pharmaceuticals top developer have said that the President and Chief executive Officer of the company and Dr Mark Murray have presented a business overview at the BIO CEO & Investor conference 2010.
Hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the 12th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference took place February 8-9, 2010 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Drug-manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. announced on Sunday that it would spin off its Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. in order to focus on its bio-pharmaceutical business.
Under the deal, Bristol-Myers will give its shareholders roughly $1.11 of Mead Johnson shares for each $1 in Bristol share they tender.
The accurate ratio will be determined by a 10 per cent discount to the daily volume-weighted average prices of Bristol-Myers and Mead Johnson shares from December 8 to December 10.
New York-based Bristol-Myers, which possesses 83 per cent of Mead stock, said that the deal was a part of its divestment strategy that would transform it from a traditional drug firm into a bio- pharmaceutical company.
James M. Cornelius, Chief executive of Bristol-Myers said, “With a successful execution of this split-off, we fully consider ourselves a BioPharma company.”
The exchange offer is scheduled to expire on December 14.
Source: topnews.co.uk
Source: Builder and Engineer Online
Plans for a £37m Bioscience Campus in Stevenage, Hertfordshire were announced today by Business, Innovation and Skills Secretary, Lord Mandelson.
The project aims to create a world-leading hub for early-stage biotech companies, operating under a model of open-innovation and collaboration.
The Campus will offer each company access to specialist skills, equipment and expertise, to help stimulate innovation in drug development. By sharing knowledge each company will also increase its chance of success, while retaining its independence so entrepreneurship can flourish.
Speaking ahead of the announcement at the Technology Strategy Board’s Innovate09 Conference, Lord Mandelson said: “The Stevenage Campus represents a huge investment in the future of Britain’s bioscience industry and is a strong new platform for the work of our Office for Life Sciences.”
It’s estimated that development of the campus could create up to 1,500 new jobs, most of which will be high-skilled. It will initially be home to around 25 companies, co-located with GlaxoSmithKline on its existing research site, with plans to increase capacity at the park fivefold over the next 10 years.
Location: http://www.builderandengineer.co.uk/news/environment/bioscience-centre-planned-for-stevenage-4532.html
Date: 13/10/2009
Source: Bloomberg Online
Abbott Laboratories is close to an agreement to buy Solvay SA’s pharmaceutical unit for about 4.8 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to get full control of the TriCor cholesterol pill, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.
An agreement may be announced as soon as tomorrow, said the people, who declined to comment publicly because the talks are private. Nycomed A/S, of Switzerland, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., of Japan, also contended to buy the unit, the people said.
Buying Solvay’s drug business would be a change of course for Abbott Chief Executive Officer Miles White, who has been acquiring medical devices and eye products to reduce reliance on medicines. Abbott is battling generic competition to its anti- seizure treatment Depakote and risks losing sales of the arthritis drug Humira — the company’s biggest product with $4.5 billion in revenue last year — as consumers cut spending.
The purchase price includes 4.5 billion euros in cash, with up to 300 million euros in contingent payments between 2011 and 2013, said a person with knowledge of the situation. The milestones relate to whether products perform well, the person said. The deal also may include other costs, this person said.
TriCor Co-Promotion
Abbott, of Abbott Park, Illinois, and Brussels-based Solvay co-promote TriCor, which generated $1.34 billion in revenue last year for Abbott and 511 million euros for Solvay. The companies also work jointly on TriLipix, a cholesterol treatment introduced this year. The Brussels-based maker of pharmaceuticals, chemicals and plastics has been weighing an initial public offering or sale of its drug unit since April.
Erik De Leye, a spokesman for Solvay, and Melissa Brotz, an Abbott spokeswoman, declined to comment in telephone interviews today.
Solvay, which introduced one of the first modern antidepressants in 1983, ranks as the world’s biggest producer of soda ash, used to make glass and modify the acidity of shampoos. The company gets much of its annual revenue from the automotive and construction industries, among the hardest hit by the recession.
The drug business produced revenue of 2.7 billion euros last year, or 28 percent of Solvay’s total sales. The company focuses on two therapeutic areas — cardiometabolics, which includes its best-selling product Tricor, and neuroscience, including the Duodopa treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Top-Selling Products
TriCor, known chemically as fenofibrate, is used to reduce triglycerides and adjust cholesterol levels. Solvay’s other top- selling products are Androgel, a testosterone gel, and Creon, a pancreatic enzyme to treat cystic fibrosis.
Solvay, founded by the Belgian family of the same name, said in April it was considering options for the drug unit amid a wave of acquisitions in the industry. The possibilities included selling it to another company, forming a partnership, keeping the operation or selling shares in an initial public offering.
Abbott rose 39 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $47.33 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Sept. 25. Solvay fell 1.17 euros, or 1.5 percent, to 74.73 euros in Brussels trading.
Nycomed, whose owners include Nordic Capital and a buyout unit of Credit Suisse Group AG, offered 4 billion euros to 4.5 billion euros for the Solvay unit, people familiar with the situation said on Sept. 25. Nycomed wanted to buy the business to expand in preparation for an initial public offering in 2011, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Sept. 11.
Authors: Albertina Torsoli and Jacqueline Simmons
Date: 27-09-2009
Source Location: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0FL48DrJ_fM
With an aim to launch vaccine for Influenza H1N1 A Virus (swine flu) in India, Cadila Pharmaceutical will seek the government’s nod in two days for initiating clinical trials in this regard.
Cadila Pharmaceutical Ltd (CPL) had set up a joint venture ‘CPL Biologicals Pvt Ltd’ with the US-based vaccine maker Novavax for manufacturing and developing a host of vaccines, including for swine flu, in India.
“The joint venture is going to file the application with the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) in the next two days for phase-I clinical trials for swine flu vaccine,” CPL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr I A Modi told PTI.
Modi expressed confidence that Cadila would be the first Indian pharma company to launch the swine flu vaccine in India by December. “If we get the permission of DCGI soon, then with the advanced technology available from our partner, (we) would be able to launch it in India by December this year,” Mr Modi said.
With its existing facility, Cipla can produce up to one million doses of the vaccine per month, which can be scaled up to two million doses, Mr Modi said. “Novavax has already received permission for clinical trials from the US Federal Drug Administratio n and if we get it soon, we can simultaneously start the trials,” he added. - PTI.
Javelin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: JAV - News) today described its initial review of top line results from a Phase III study of Ereska™ (intranasal ketamine 30mg). This randomized, multicenter, double-blind, 1:1 placebo-controlled study assessed the safety and analgesic efficacy of repeated doses of Ereska over 6 hours in 259 patients with acute moderate-to-severe pain following orthopedic surgery.
The predefined primary outcome measure for this trial was the summary of pain intensity differences over a 6 hour period after initial drug dosing (SPID-6). The baseline- and site-adjusted means (plus or minus standard errors) for SPID-6 were 78.2 ± 12.4 for the Ereska group and 47.9 ± 12.3 for the placebo group, yielding a borderline P-value of 0.053. (The standard for statistical significance in pivotal clinical trials is a P-value of 0.05 or less.) Having had only a brief period of time to review select data from the trial, our initial assessment is that a high degree of intersubject variability likely impacted the P-value of the primary endpoint. In addition, certain clinically relevant secondary endpoints that we have been able to review so far, including patient global evaluations, were statistically significant in favor of Ereska.
Ereska was generally well tolerated in the trial. Of particular note, the incidences of psychological side effects were equal to or less than 3% in subjects given Ereska and were typically mild and transient.
The Company will thoroughly examine all aspects of this trial. In a recent interaction with the FDA, prior to the availability of this trial’s initial data, the Division offered to review the results of this study.
Government is refusing to accept factoring invoices of companies which supply the Government Health Procurement Services to control the national deficit, The Malta Business Weekly has learnt.
The issue that government is refusing to accept factored invoices was first highlighted a few weeks ago by The Malta Independent on Sunday. At the time, pharmaceutical importers were subsequently assured by government that it had agreed in principle to accept factoring for all pharmaceutical importers.
This newspaper is informed that various pharmaceutical importers have “sold” their invoices to HSBC Bank Malta in an attempt to ease their cash flow problems following a credit period of 150 days imposed by government. Moreover, payments by the Government Health Procurement Services entity, previously known as the Government Pharmaceutical Services, were until recently few and far between.
Following intense lobbying it is understood that HSBC accepted the 150 days credit period demanded by government instead of the maximum 120 days.
In the process, it is also believed that the bank wrote a couple of heavy worded letters to government, which however failed to elicit the expected response.
