> Manhattan Pharmaceuticals has closed on its joint venture agreement with Nordic Biotech Venture Fund II K/S to develop and commercialize Hedrin for head lice for the North American market. Manhattan Pharmaceuticals pocketed a $2 million cash payment plus $2.5 million of equity in the newly established joint venture, named Hedrin Pharmaceuticals K/S. Release
> Abbott, Genentech, and WEHI have joined in a tripartite research collaboration to discover anti-cancer drugs. Release
> Stem Cell Therapy International and South Korea's Histostem have announced plans to merge. "We are very pleased with the opportunity for us to be working with Histostem. They have made remarkable progress in the field of umbilical stem cell research and therapy," says Calvin Cao, CEO of SCTI. Release
> Genentech has expanded its license regarding Sagamo BioScience's proprietary zinc finger DNA-binding protein nuclease (ZFN) technology. Release
> Tough luck to unwary buyers, Chinese regulators say. The country's drug safety agency said today that it strictly controls chemicals for use in pharmaceuticals but it's not ultimately responsible for product safety. Report
> A new analysis of the blockbuster anemia drugs sold by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson concludes they raise the risk of death among cancer patients by about 10 percent. Report
> The FDA piggy bank isn't near full enough to overhaul operations as they ought to be, agency chief Andrew von Eschenbach admits. And that's a big admission; von Eschenbach is in essence agreeing with critics who've said his agency simply isn't up to the task of ensuring drug and food safety. Report
> Here's a study guaranteed to put almost every drugmaker on the defensive. Researchers analyzed every antidepressant study they could get their hands on--including a bunch of unpublished data obtained via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act--and concluded that, for most patients, SSRI antidepressants are no better than sugar pills. Report
And Finally… Cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis have spiked to their highest level ever and may start spreading even faster. The highest rate was in a city in Azerbaijan, where one in four cases of TB is unresponsive. Article