Right on the heels of my previous blog entry about an analyst saying a Medicare reconsideration of its anemia drug reimbursement policy may be in the offing comes this news out of the agency.
The U.S. Medicare agency said Monday that, unless it receives new evidence, it will not reverse a decision to cut payments for certain uses of anemia drugs, including Amgen's Aranesp.
Because it's so extraordinarily rare--if not unheard of--for one analyst to publish research specifically to refute another analyst I thought this is blogworthy. Last Friday, FBR biotech analyst Jim Reddoch told clients in a research note that he was downgrading ImClone Systems to Market Perform in the wake of the robust data released last week on Erbitux...
Millennium Pharmaceuticals said on Tuesday initial results from a large trial of its cancer drug Velcade as an initial treatment for multiple myeloma were so good that the trial was stopped early to allow patients in the control group to receive the therapy.
French biopharmaceutical company Flamel Technologies said Wednesday it signed a development and license agreement with the pharmaceuticals unit of drug developer Wyeth.
Yesterday, I blogged that messages to each of David Maris' lawyers seeking comment on Biovail "dropping" or "settling" its case against the former Bank of America Securities analyst had gone without a response. Well, this morning I got this email from one of his attorneys tossing the ball back in Biovail's court:
Is the Senate coming to the rescue of patients, investors or both? That's the question being raised after the passage of a non-binding resolution telling Medicare to "immediately reconsider" its new policy to cut anemia drug use and reimbursement. Analysts are stunned by the move.
So, I thought I'd be spending today monitoring the webcast of the FDA Advisory Committees that are meeting to decide whether doctors should use less of the anemia drugs from Amgen and Johnson & Johnson to treat kidney dialysis patients.
The New York Post broke the news today that Biovail Corporation, Canada's biggest biotech, is dropping its lawsuit against a hedge fund, a research outlet, Bank of America Securities and its former specialty pharmaceuticals analyst David Maris. "60 Minutes" did a piece on the lawsuits last year. Shortly after being sued, Maris left B of A. He and the company never disclosed..
For some time now I've been occasionally blogging about the data on a once-a-week version of Byetta that are expected in the fourth quarter sometime. This is a long-acting release (LAR, for short) version of the current twice-a-day injectable drug for diabetes from Lilly and Amylinspacer. Alkermes makes the technology that extends the drug's release.
U.S. health regulators charged Boston Scientific with inadequate record-keeping and reporting following the deaths of five patients implanted with an experimental device to treat a dangerous ballooning of the body's main artery.
Highly publicized government warnings that antidepressants could cause suicidal thoughts in adolescents may have scared off parents and doctors alike, meaning fewer depressed children are being diagnosed, U.S. psychiatrists say.
Call it a stellar, mythic merger. This morning Isis Pharmaceuticals (named after the goddess in Egyptian mythology) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (named after the center star in Orion's belt) announced they're forming a joint venture called Regulus Therapeutics, LLC (named after the brightest star in the constellation Leo). I'm sensing a theme here.