natrecor news from FierceBiotech

> Here's a good estimate of how much it costs when a drug goes into free-fall: $440 million. That's how much Johnson & Johnson is writing off on Natrecor, a heart failure treatment that went Read more...

Two Bay area biotechs, Alza and Scios, are in line for some big layoffs as Johnson & Johnson slims down its pharma Read more...

> Barr Pharmaceuticals has raised its bid for Pliva to $2.5 billion. Report

> Synta Pharmaceuticals has released positive Phase IIB data for STA-4783, a heat shock protein 70 inducer that activates natural killer cell-mediated tumor killing in metastatic melanoma. Median progression free survival for patients receiving STA-4783 plus paclitaxel was 112 days versus 56 days for …

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The Duke Clinical Research Institute has been enlisted to launch a major new study of Johnson & Johnson's Natrecor to test its safety and efficacy. Natrecor is a therapy designed to treat patients whose hearts stop beating properly, leaving them gasping for breath. J&J bought Scios three years ago for $2.4 billion primarily to gain control of Natrecor. Some 7,000 volunteers will be enlisted in the trial, which is being initiated after a string of reports raised questions about …

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Plagued by reports of dangerous side effects, Johnson & Johnson says it will spend $100 million to retest its heart failure drug Natrecor. Its subsidiary, Scios, says it will test 7,000 patients in the U.S., Canada and Europe. No lead researcher has been selected for the study. Specialists have voiced their concern that the drug has been used in an outpatient setting instead of being restricted to the hospital.

- read this New York Times report

With sales of its heart drug Natrecor hampered by reports of safety concerns, Johnson & Johnson announced that about 150 of Scios' 900 employees will receive pink slips. Sales and marketing workers will be among the most heavily hit, along with employees in the unit's Fremont, CA headquarters. Sales peaked in 2004 at $400 million but began to slide as medical experts raised possible links to kidney problems and death. The Justice Department is also looking at whether Scios improperly …

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Johnson & Johnson's Scios unit has reported that drug investigators failed to report the deaths of two patients taking the controversial heart failure medication Natrecor during a study of the drug. The trial investigators had reported five deaths of patients taking Natrecor within a thirty-day trial period in 2001 and early 2002. The company did not say how the deaths were omitted but said that including the additional deaths would not have changed the safety profile of the drug. The …

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> Lured by Canada's reputation for cheaper medicines, many Americans have been paying a premium for generic drugs that can actually be cheaper in the US. Story

> The New York Times examines the fiercely independent work of a panel of experts Johnson & Johnson assembled to look into safety concerns involving Natrecor. …

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Dr. Mario Ehlers discusses how new biomarkers can reduce the risks from pharmaceutical drugs.

The problem of serious physical risks associated with pharmaceutical drugs is not going away. While the arthritis drug Vioxx, pulled from the market by its manufacturer last year after it was shown to double the risk of heart attack and stroke, remains the most high-profile …

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Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have subpoenaed Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Scios for documents related to the sale of Natrecor, its drug for congestive heart failure. Some critics contend that Natrecor increases the risk of kidney problems and even death in some patients. Researchers reported in a small study April 20 that they found evidence that patients given Natrecor appeared much more likely to die in the first month after treatment than those given traditional medication, …

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