> Shares of Alkermes and Amylin jumped this morning after the developers announced that the FDA had agreed to review their application for the diabetes drug exenatide, which is widely regarded as a likely blockbuster. Story
> Indiana's Nanovis says that it expects to create more than 40 jobs over the next three years as it continues work on its bone regeneration technology. Report
> GTC Biotherapeutics has gained the rights to autoimmune therapies discovered at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. Merrimack gets milestones and royalties along with the Series C stock that GTC holds. Release
> Alnylam is donating more than 1,500 patents it holds on RNA1 technology to a patent pool set up by GlaxoSmithKline to help advance new therapies for 16 neglected tropical diseases. Story
> JAMA has eased its policy of gagging people who complain about study authors who failed to reveal a conflict of interest. Report
> Cangene Corporation today has acquired all issued and outstanding shares of privately held Twinstrand Therapeutics. Release
> Novartis' high blood pressure drug Rasilez has been approved in Japan. Report
Pharma News
> Decision Resources came out with a report showing that drug costs in Europe are an average of 40 percent less than in the U.S.--a price differential that shows why reimportation was ever raised in the first place. Report
> Big Pharma hit the White House yesterday, with PhRMA president Billy Tauzin ushering CEOs into a meeting on the cost-saving agreement hammered out last month. While they were there, they discussed some other agenda items, too. Namely reimportation of prescription drugs, an idea President Obama endorsed during the campaign but drugmakers adamantly oppose. Report
> After an 18-month probe, E.U. antitrust regulators say they're embarking on a campaign for sweeping change in the pharma business. Report
> For the second time in a week, the FDA is talking painkillers. This time, it's Darvon and Darvocet, and they'll get a boxed warning of the risk of fatal overdose. Report
> If three doses is as good as four, why pay for another? That's the question raised by a new study of Wyeth's pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar. Prevnar report
Manufacturing News
> Influenza vaccine production is the subject of an agreement between Neugenesis and the international nonprofit PATH. Report
> Novasep, a producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients and purification technologies, has acquired Henogen, a contract manufacturing organization that provides bioprocess development and manufacturing services. Novasep report
> AdvantaPure has unveiled a tag for high-volume items that require repeated gamma sterilization. The high-purity products manufacturer says that GammaTag 500 withstands repeated exposure to gamma radiation. RFID article
> Netherlands-based semiconductor company NXP has announced an effort with Siemens on a pharmaceutical RFID-based supply chain. Report
And Finally... Catastrophic epilepsy--characterized by severe muscle spasms, persistent seizures, mental retardation and sometimes autism--results from a mutation in a single gene, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Report