ALSO NOTED: CFOs are pharma's new power players; Progen axes staff in restructuring; MethylGene inks collaboration deal;and muc

> Australia's Progen is laying off workers in a restructuring that includes outsourcing the commercial manufacture of PI-88. Release

> Who's pharma's power forward these days? The CFO. Or so concludes Ernst & Young after slicing and dicing two global surveys. As companies shift focus from driving sales growth to managing returns, CFOs will have to be increasingly proactive. Report

> MethylGene will get $2 million up front and up to $50.5 million in milestones in its newly signed collaboration deal with Otsuka Pharmaceutical. MethylGene will be responsible for the design, synthesis, characterization and initial screening of kinase inhibitors. Otsuka will be responsible for and fund efficacy and toxicology studies, as well as preclinical and clinical development of compounds. Otsuka is also responsible for the global commercialization of any resulting product. Release

> When FDA reviewers cram, do they perform poorly on the test? A new study concludes that yes, when drugs are approved right on deadline, they're more likely to cause safety problems later. The Harvard analysis, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, concludes that drugs approved in the two months leading up to the deadline are four to five times more likely to be withdrawn or require serious safety warnings. Report

> The FDA will allow copper alloys to be sold as a weapon against bacteria and microbes. Report

> Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical has inked a discovery deal with Evotec. The collaboration applies Evotec's fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlution, to identify small molecular weight compounds active against a protease target. Release

> Novelos Therapeutics has raised $5 million in a private placement. Release

And Finally... People with larger stomachs in their 40s are more likely to have dementia when they reach their 70s, according to a new study. Release