Eli Lilly and Company has announced the availability of a smaller insulin vial containing 3ml of insulin, for people with diabetes being treated in a hospital, in the US.
The new smaller vial - for the comapny’s Humalog and Humulin R-U100 - is intended to provide hospitals more flexibility when evaluating insulin storage, delivery and distribution options.

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Bayer Schering Pharma has announced the enrollment of first patients in an international clinical Phase III trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of florbetaben PET imaging in the detection of beta-amyloid deposition in the brain.
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Results from two Phase III studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2009 show statistically significant benefits via the addition of Vectibix to both first- and second-line chemotherapy for wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer. These positive data could help Vectibix to overcome Erbitux’s first-to-market status and usurp its current position.

The Phase III PRIME study investigated first-line FOLFOX4 (5-fluorouracil, leucovorin and oxaliplatin) with or without Vectibix (panitumumab; Amgen) in 1,183 metastatic colorectal cancer patients The addition of Vectibix to standard chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant increase in progression-free survival of 9.6 months in wild-type KRAS patients, versus 8.0 months for chemotherapy alone (p=0.0234).

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US biotech Novavax has initiated a pivotal two-stage study for its H1N1 influenza vaccine in Mexico. Novavax’s strategy of pursuing approval for the vaccine in smaller markets before targeting the US represents an alternative and faster route to market. Given the many benefits of this strategy, Datamonitor believes that it may be adopted by other small vaccine companies in the future.
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Qiagen, a Netherlands-based provider of molecular sample and assay technologies, has launched a new influenza A/H1N1 test which enables both the highly sensitive and specific detection of the novel influenza A/H1N1, the virus that causes swine flu, as well as of all other known influenza A and B virus strains.
According to Qiagen, the new artus Influenza/H1 RG/LC RT-PCR Kit provides highly accurate results in approximately 40 minutes. In addition, Qiagen’s new kit can also detect infections with other known influenza A and B strains likely to emerge and disseminate in the population during the upcoming flu season. The rapid turn around time of the company’s new test can result in faster reporting of results which is a key factor in monitoring and controlling outbreaks.
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Schering-Plough has reported long-term positive data with vicriviroc, its investigational CCR5 receptor antagonist, from an ongoing, open-label extension of the Phase II Victor-E1 study in treatment-experienced HIV-infected patients.
According to Schering-Plough, the results showed that vicriviroc plus optimized background therapy achieved durable virologic suppression and increased CD4 cell counts, and was generally well tolerated over two years of therapy.
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Abbott Laboratories has reported that the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration has approved its Xience V everolimus eluting coronary stent system for the treatment of coronary artery disease.
According to Abbott, Xience V is the only drug eluting stent to have demonstrated superiority over the Taxus paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system in the primary endpoints of two randomized, pivotal Phase III clinical trials.
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Well crafted, positive results for AstraZeneca’s Brilinta and an unexpected coup for Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa dominated the headlines following this year’s European Society of Cardiology’s Annual Meeting in Barcelona. Both announcements have a number of important implications for the wider cardiology market, from both therapeutic and commercial perspectives.
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MediciNova, a developer of small molecule therapeutics, and Avigen, a biopharmaceutical company, have entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which MediciNova’s wholly owned subsidiary will merge with and into Avigen.
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General economic trends worldwide will affect the over-the-counter (OTC) pharma market from 2009 onwards, with both market restraints and opportunities present. The potential of this market remains significant, despite general economic uncertainty.
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