GSK unveils $300M vaccines plant; FDA recommends seizure therapy; Abbott licenses nanotech;

> GlaxoSmithKline unveiled a $300 million vaccine manufacturing facility it's developing in Pennsylvania as it gears up for a major push into the U.S. market. While a host of vaccine manufacturers have been moving outside the U.S., Glaxo says that it is moving vaccine manufacturing closer to the U.S. market, where it could more easily meet any demand triggered by a sudden flu pandemic. GSK report

> Ovation Pharmaceuticals announced that an advisory committee at the FDA is recommending approval of its seizure therapy. Report

> Abbott Laboratories has inked a deal to use nanotechnology developed by Liquidia to deliver siRNAs that target cancer cells. Story

> Peplin is touting positive results for its lead product candidate, PEP005 (ingenol mebutate) Gel, in its Phase IIb actinic keratosis dose ranging clinical trial for the treatment of AK lesions on head locations. Release

> Cell Therapeutics announced today that it received $7.5 million under the joint venture transaction with Spectrum Pharmaceuticals to commercialize and develop Zevalin in the United States. Release

> Tekmira Pharmaceuticals says it expects to receive a minimum of $11.2 million over the next three years from its partner Alnylam Pharmaceuticals for process development and manufacturing services. Release

> Look for a new marketing push behind GlaxoSmithKline's weight-loss drug Alli. The company signed Wynonna Judd to campaign for the over-the-counter pill on TV and the web. Report

> Amid new speculation that Pfizer might snag Shire in a buyout deal, the specialty pharma is following through on its strategy to switch patients to its newest ADHD med Vyvanse as blockbuster Adderall XR nears the end of its patent. Shire is hiking the price of Adderall by 20 percent, a boost that confounded analysts expecting a smaller increase. Report

> More deal news: Merck CEO Richard Clark (photo) pegs acquisitions as a priority for 2009. The company has the resources to make "whatever investments are needed," the exec told analysts and investors at a Goldman Sachs conference yesterday. Report

> Put another name on your possible-FDA-chief list: Dr. Jane Henney (photo), a professor at the University of Cincinnati who ran the agency for the last couple years of President Bill Clinton's administration. Report

> The CRO PPD has broadened its ties with Merck after completing a vaccine testing deal that includes buying the pharma company's 130,000-square foot plant in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Report

> An expansive Wyeth is in talks to acquire vaccine maker Crucell--one of the last of the big independent vaccine makers--in a deal that the Wall Street Journal reports could value the Dutch company at more than $1.35 billion. Crucell confirmed that talks are ongoing, but declined to divulge any details. Report

> Bioengineer Fiorenzo Omenetto at Tufts University is using silkworm cocoons to develop new biosensors that can be inserted into patients and used as a tracking device to monitor a person's post-surgical progress or a chronic disease like diabetes. Report

And Finally... A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows the resistance of the avian flu virus to a major class of antiviral drugs is increasing through positive evolutionary selection, with researchers documenting the trend in more than 30 percent of the samples tested. Release