GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to buy privately owned biotech company Domantis Ltd, a specialist in developing a new generation of antibody drugs, for 230 million pounds ($452.8 million).
Swiss drugmaker Novartis' cancer-fighting drug Gleevec can still help treat chronic myeloid leukemia even after five years of use, a new study showed on Wednesday.
While I'm in the car--not driving--on my way to the airport to go to the FDA Advisory Committee meeting on drug-coated stents I wanted to pass along some news from the Eli Lilly analyst meeting this morning in New York that I just left.
Johnson & Johnson has suspended enrollment in a late-stage trial of an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug it is co-developing with Schering-Plough because of short-term logistics problems.
Merck is standing by its forecast of flat earnings for 2006 and projected slightly higher 2007 results, in line with Wall Street expectations, as the drugmaker grapples with generic competition for a number of its medicines.
Bristol-Myers got some good news Tuesday afternoon-- and CNBC's Mike Huckman had the story. A new report from the Journal of the American Medical Association says long term use of Plavix--reduces significant health risks. The JAMA report says that if patients stay on Plavix for two years--the drug will greatly reduce or eliminate heart attacks.
So, it took the torpedoeing of torcetrapib to get new Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler to finally talk to us. He came on "Power Lunch" today for his first TV interview since taking the helm more than four months ago. A former litigator, he is media savvy, telegenic and a smooth-talker. I don't know why he didn't come on before he was put in the position of serious crisis management with a major hole to fill in the company's drug pipeline and about a ten percent decline in the stock price.
Investors in the pharmaceuticals industry have now turned their attention to possible acquisitions by Pfizer after the drug-maker halted trials of a new cholesterol drug.
Saturday night Pfizer dropped a bombshell. Two days after the company announced it planned--if all went well--to file for FDA approval of its developmental cholesterol pill Torcetrapib in the second half of next year, Pfizer suddenly pulled the plug on the drug. Tests had shown this pill raises good cholesterol and lowers bad. But the FDA says early Saturday morning Pfizer's Independent Data Safety Monitoring Board told the company about people who died in a clinical trial.
Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler expressed disappointment about the failure of the company's new cholesterol drug but said Pfizer plans to continue growing through strategic acquisitions.
The world's biggest drug company is seeing its market value get much smaller this morning. Shares of Pfizer are getting hammered after the company dropped a bombshell over the weekend about clinical trials of torceptrapib/atorvastatin (T/A), a drug thought to be a promising new way to lower cholesterol. CNBC’s Mike Huckman sorted out all the details on this morning’s “Squawk Box.”
At 12 p.m. ET, shares of Pfizer were trading about 13% lower - largely because the company halted development of torcetrapib--a new cholesterol treatment. The drug was supposed to fill the void when Lipitor--its best-selling drug--loses patent protection in 2010. (Lipitor sales totaled $12.2 B last year.)
Shares of Onyx Pharmaceuticals fell nearly 30% on Monday after data showed that its kidney cancer drug Nexavar did not work in patients with advanced skin cancer.
A record number of U.S. corporate bosses have left their jobs this year, in part reflecting the widening stock options backdating scandal, according to data released today.
Today is World AIDS Day--and it comes at a time when health experts are considering new strategies in an attempt to change the environment of AIDS transmission. The rate of H-I-V infection is growing, with more than four million new cases each year. One biopharmaceutical company whose portfolio includes several HIV treatments--is Gilead Sciences.
Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, raised its earnings guidance for the year and promised a number of late stage products out of its pipeline in the coming years.
Pfizer said Tuesday it will trim its U.S. sales force by 20% as part of an ongoing review process announced in October.