> Amgen has cut 100 jobs, a spokesperson tells the Pacific Coast Business Times. "Approximately 100 people in the United States were notified today. We are consolidating some of our clinical manufacturing and quality activities," the company told Times via e-mail. Report
> Dendreon is reportedly moving forward with plans to find an international licensing partner for the prostate cancer vaccine Provenge. The developer has hired JPMorgan Chase to help with the search. Report
> India's highest court has given Daiichi Sankyo the green light to proceed with its offer to buy an additional 20 percent of Zenotech Laboratories. Report
> Galapagos reached a milestone in its osteoporosis collaboration with Eli Lilly, triggering a payment of €2.5 million from Lilly. To date Galapagos has received a total of €3.9 million in milestone fees. Galapagos release
> The National Cancer Institute announced plans to team up with the Susan Love Research Foundation to create a database of one million women interested in participating in clinical trials. These women can then be tapped by epidemiologists at will. Report
> Angiotech Pharmaceuticals is preparing to raise $250 million over next 25 months. Report
> FDA panel says agency should move forward with plans to approve or license H1N1 vaccines before it receives clinical data. Report
Pharma News
> Another big day on the earnings front, with mostly good news all the way around. Wyeth beat forecasts, and so did Bristol-Myers Squibb. Sepracor and Ranbaxy also reported strong results. Here are some details. Report
> A few layoffs here, a few there, a few empty posts unfilled ... and pretty soon, you have 1,000 job cuts. That's the story this week as Amgen, Celera and IMS Health all reduced staffing. On the plus side of the ledger, however, GlaxoSmithKline postponed 200 layoffs in the U.K. as it gears up for swine flu. Report
> Pfizer goes to court next week in its first defense of the epilepsy med Neurontin. Report
> European regulators unexpectedly rejected Merck KGaA's Erbitux as a remedy for non-small cell lung cancer. And the company reported that second-quarter profits plummeted by 48 percent. Then, Merck stock fell 16 percent, making it a bad news trifecta. Report
> Sanofi-Aventis got another backer in its bid to defend Lantus from safety charges. European regulators backed the diabetes drug, saying that recent studies questioning its safety were flawed. But the agency requested that Sanofi conduct further research into Lantus and cancer. Report
And Finally... Chinese researchers have managed to use induced pluripotent skin cells--cells that have been reprogrammed to behave like stem cells--from mice to create healthy live mouse pups. The experiment, published in Nature, demonstrates that it is theoretically possibly to clone someone using ordinary connective tissue cells found on the skin. Report