Industry Blog

29
Dec 09

Cardinal Health announces new board member

Cardinal Health has announced the date of new board member Carrie Cox.

Ms Cox will begin her position on the board right away, the organisation exposed.

She has before taken such posts as executive vice-president and president of global pharmaceuticals at Schering-Plough and president of Pharmacia’s global pharmaceutical company.

Subsequent to the end of Schering-Plough’s merger with Merck in November, Ms Cox’s contract with the past corporation came to an end.

George Barrett, chairman and chief executive officer of Cardinal Health, believed that the firm is “excited” to be welcoming Ms Cox and her knowledge to the company.

“Carrie brings an extraordinary range of experiences from her 30 years in biopharmaceuticals and healthcare,” he said.

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11
Dec 09

Pharmaceutical step up on health care bill

The Senate will continue debate Monday afternoon on a popular suggestion to allow U.S. citizens to purchase cheaper drugs from distant countries, which led to a last-minute lobbying push by drug makers last week and bogged down discussions over a heath-care improvement bill.

The offer is one of numerous intense disputes that provoked a surge in lobbying by hospitals, insurers and other major industries attempting to persuade the legislation in their favor as lawmakers work through a handful of difficult issues. Medical providers, for example, are battling hard against a planned Democratic concession that would jettison a public insurance option in favor of a limited development of Medicare, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce flew dozens of corporate executives to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers.

The fight over the imported drugs pitch poses a predominantly difficult biased challenge for President Obama, who co-sponsored a similar bill when he was in Congress and who included support for the idea in his first budget.

But the pharmaceutical industry — which has been a key follower of health-care reform after getting an agreement with the White House earlier this year — has responded with a severe lobbying campaign aimed at killing the suggestion, focusing on Democratic senators from states with large drug and investigate sectors.

 

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19
Oct 09

Transformative Times for BioSante Pharmaceuticals

The last 75 days have been transformative for BioSante,” Bill Milling, Sr. Dir Operations for BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BPAX) told BioMedReports. Yesterday, the company announced positive safety data in its ongoing LibiGel Phase III clinical development program.

“First we closed a financing in August having raised $12 million,” explained Milling. “We then closed a merger on October 14 which brought in an additional $23 million and added a strong portfolio of cancer vaccines. Yesterday we reported very positive safety data in our LibiGel development program for the treatment of female sexual dysfunction. Overall, we now have enough cash to get through LibiGel clinical data and to an NDA.”

BioSante is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing products for female sexual health, menopause, contraception and male hypogonadism and yesterday they reported that the DMC reviewed all unblinded adverse events in the safety study including all “serious adverse events” and all “adverse cardiovascular and breast cancer events” in 1,055 women with 883 women-years of exposure. To date, there have been no deaths, one myocardial infarction and only three breast cancers reported. Therefore, in view of the DMC recommendation, the BioSante LibiGel Phase III development program will continue as planned.

BioSante targets submission to the FDA of a new drug application (NDA) by mid-2011.

Last week, BioSante and Cell Genesys, Inc. (CEGE) announced the successful completion of their previously announced merger into BioSante, under which BioSante now has acquired all of the outstanding shares of Cell Genesys common stock. That deal was valued at $38 million.

BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday that it completed an all-stock buyout of Cell Genesys Inc. and the combined company will focus on developing a topical testosterone gel intended to treat sexual dysfunction in women, but it also plans to develop Cell Genesys’ cancer treatment GVAX. Cell Genesys, based in South San Francisco, Calif., was developing GVAX, as an immune treatment for prostate cancer, but discontinued testing last year after one trial was likely to fail and another had an unexpectedly high rate of patient deaths.

The company said GVAX is now being tested as a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer, leukemia and breast cancer.

BioSante also now owns a stake in Ceregene Inc., a former subsidiary of Cell Genesys, which is developing gene therapies for neurodegenerative disorders.

Several analysts are feeling bullish about the stock and feel it has good potential given it’s current Phrase III trial, cash reserves, latest safety news and the BioVant™ H1N1 adjuvant in their pipeline.

In August, BioSante announced that BioVant™, increased the protective effect of vaccines for multiple flu strains, including a potential new vaccine against H1N1 (swine flu), which resulted in 100 percent protection from symptoms of illness, including weight loss, and death in animal studies.

Source: http://seekingalpha.com

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13
Oct 09

IMS Health: 2010 Global Pharma Sales To Rise 4%-6%

Source:  The Wall Street Journal (Online)

Global pharmaceutical sales are expected to increase 4% to 6% next year to more than $825 billion, though overall market growth likely will remain at historically low levels, according to research firm IMS Health (RX).

Executive Murray Aitken said, “While our outlook for the global market is more positive” than earlier this year, the industry still faces funding pressures, a potential gap between new drugs and expiring patents, potential health-care law changes and a weakened global economy.

Stronger-than-expected growth in the U.S. market contributed to the company raising its 5-year global-growth forecast by one percentage point to of 4% to 7%. It predicts the pharmaceutical market to expand to more than $975 billion by 2013. Pricing flexibility and inventory management contributed to the stronger-than-expected U.S. growth, said IMS, but it expects a significant gap between product introductions and patent losses over the next five year, limiting prospects.

Near-term U.S. pharmaceutical sales growth prospects have strengthened in recent months, aided by price increases and tight inventories. The U.S. market is expected to grow 4.5% to 5.5% this year and 3% to 5% in 2010.

IMS noted increases have slowed in countries where there is high out-of-pocket spending on drugs and steep economic downturns, particularly Russia, Mexico and South Korea. But strong growth is likely to hold up in some emerging markets, notably China, where pharmaceutical sales are seen rising more than 20% a year.

Author: Tess Stynes
Date: 13/10/2009
Location: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091008-706578.html

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