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Sebelius on Vaccines

24 Nov 2009

Discussing whether a new $487M investment from the government will help speed up the production of the most important vaccines, with Kathy Sebelius, Health & Human Services secretary and CNBC's Mike Huckman.

The New Formula for Faster Vaccines

24 Nov 2009

Novartis is opening on Tuesday the country's first plant to produce flu vaccines using cell cultures. These vaccines are faster, better and cheaper to make than egg-based methods, reports CNBC's Mike Huckman.

Novartis Opens 1st US Plant for Flu Vaccine

24 Nov 2009

Cholesterol Drug Battle: Niaspan vs. Zetia 16 Nov 2009
Abbott Laboratories' Niaspan beat Merck's Zetia in a new study. CNBC's Mike Huckman has the details.

Cardiologist Grades Cholesterol Drug Study

16 Nov 2009

Abbott Laboratories' Niaspan beat Merck's Zetia in a new study. Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic, shares his reaction with CNBC's Mike Huckman.

Merck's Cholesterol Drugs Under Pressure

16 Nov 2009

A new study is putting Merck's cholesterol drugs under pressure today, reports CNBC's Mike Huckman, with Ken Frazier, Merck Global Human Health president.

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CNBC ON DIGG

A New Direction For Dendreon?

Published: Monday, 12 Oct 2009 | 1:15 PM ET

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By: Mike Huckman
CNBC Reporter

Dendreon [DNDN Loading... () ] is growing in more ways than one. At a time when so many drug companies are letting people go, Dendreon is on a hiring binge to ramp up for the anticipated launch of its prostate cancer drug Provenge. But it's also expanding its board of directors.

White House Advisor Sees 'Substantial Change' in Jobs Trend

Luke Timmerman, who covers biotech for Xconomy, broke the story late last Friday that DNDN is creating two more seats. And they aren't no-names. One of them is the soon-to-be CEO of Genentech, Ian Clark, and the other is a former exec at Eli Lilly [LLY Loading... () ].

You'd think that when a company like Dendreon snags a couple of industry heavy hitters that there'd be a certain amount of fanfare. But whether or not it's on purpose DNDN's doing this one on the down low. There's no press release on it, just a couple of SEC filings detailing the amount of stock the two new guys are starting out with. And they popped up on the ol' late-on-a-Friday. Either Timmerman, who is based in Dendreon's hometown of Seattle, birddogs that stuff or someone tipped him off.

Dendreon and Genentech have been hooked up for years on another experimental drug. But the selection of Genentech's incoming CEO as a director has the DNDN message boards lighting up with speculation over this being a precursor to something bigger. Dendreon's looking for a Provenge partner for outside the U.S. Genentech, which is now fully owned by the Swiss drugmaker Roche, is the king of oncology medicine. Some analysts have also suggested Dendreon could get taken out.

I don't know what it means, if anything. How about you?

Update: Well, wouldn't you know? At 1 p.m. ET on Monday, three days after the SEC filings showed up, Dendreon issued a press release about the two new directors.

Questions? Comments? and follow me on Twitter at mhuckman