> Acorda Therapeutics will have to wait awhile before it gets a decision on fampridine. The FDA has extended its PDUFA date by three months, to January 22, 2010, after Acorda submitted additional information on the therapy. Some analysts are looking for an early-2010 launch of the MS therapy, which delivered promising data on improving patients' ability to walk. Story
> Depomed has won a $500,000 milestone payment from Covidien. Story
> Centice, which makes drug verification and safety products, raised $6.1 million in a Series C. Report
> Aerie Pharmaceuticals announced positive results from a Phase IIa study of its Rho-kinase inhibitor, AR-12286. The study evaluated the safety, tolerability and efficacy of three different doses of AR-12286 in 88 patients with primary open angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. Release
Pharma News
> Are drug labels too optimistic? A New England Journal of Medicine commentary claims they are, at least in the U.S. Report
> Is the National Alliance on Mental Illness too close to Big Pharma? Could be, if money tells the story. After years of refusing to detail its funding sources, the advocacy group has had its piggybank busted wide open by Congressional investigators. Article
> If you want to know what a company's really doing, don't read the earnings numbers. Take Eli Lilly, for instance. As the Wall Street Journal Health Blog finds, Lilly has been hiring so far this year. Report
> Today's Q3 earnings headliners include Merck, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, and Schering-Plough. Report
Vaccine News
> Swine flu may be sickening millions of people, but it's adding a healthy hue to the financial performance of the vaccine industry. Report
> One of the reasons vaccine manufacturers have been enjoying a boom in business comes from the huge push to vaccinate children around the world. Report
> The campaign to inoculate the American population against swine flu is getting off to a troubled start. Article
> The government experts sitting on the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices won't be going to bat for Merck when it comes to the use of Gardasil for young men and boys. Report
And Finally... Rats exposed to high doses of amphetamines at an age that corresponds to the later years of human adolescence display significant memory deficits as adults--long after the exposure ends, researchers report. Release