> Shares of Acorda Therapeutics shot up after researchers released new late-stage data demonstrating that Fampridine consistently improved the walking speeds of MS patients. Release
> Japan's Santen Pharmaceutical and MacuSight have forged a research and development collaboration and license agreement for the Japanese and Asian development and commercialization of sirolimus for ocular diseases and conditions including wet age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. MacuSight gains $50 million upfront. Release
ASCO news:
> Celgene reported that a group of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma responded to Revlimid. Report
> TheStreet put together an interesting scorecard on the top news coming out of the conference. Genentech, Exelixis and Celgene all get a pat on the back for their data. Story
> Poniard is hoping its chemotherapy data will win the attention of a collaborator. Report
> Novartis touted data indicating that RAD001 could be effective against breast cancer. Release
> Antisoma presented positive data for ASA404. Story
> Talk about an image being worth a thousand words. A Wall Street Journal chart tracking new Chantix prescriptions since January shows the kind of downward slope you only want to see on a double black diamond ski run. Report
> To your list of patent-lawsuits-to-watch, add a set of cases over TriCor, the Abbott Laboratories cholesterol med. TriCor is 33 years old, but it's still on patent, thanks to a series of formulation and other tweaks Abbot made along the way. That's no small thing, either: TriCor snared $1.2 billion in 2007 sales. Abbott report
> The European Commission announced it's investigating Sanofi-Aventis for obstructing its big probe of anticompetitive tactics in the drug industry. Report
> Just as the heparin hoopla was starting to settle down, now China is reporting that six patients in Jiangxi province have died after injections of immunoglobulins. Report
And Finally... A new study suggests that children in the Northeastern U.S. suffer from a high rate of cancer. Article