> The FDA has lifted a partial clinical hold on Icagen's photosensitive epilepsy drug ICA-105665. The agency had placed the hold on the drug back in March as a result of some preclinical data. Icagen is now planning proof-of-concept trials of the drug for both epipelpsy and pain. Release
> Merck's vaccines chief, Margie McGlynn, who oversaw the launch of cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, among other products, will step down on November 1. No replacement has yet been named. Report
> H. Lundbeck and partner Solvay Pharmaceuticals have decided to stop all joint R&D activities for Solvay's compound bifeprunox in development for maintenance treatment of schizophrenia. Report
> Research Triangle Park-based Talecris Biotherapeutics has filed a pair of amendments to its original IPO filing, indicating that the company still plans to go public. Report
Pharma News
> Nycomed isn't stopping at its bid for Solvay's pharma division. The Swiss company has snapped up rights to 20 branded generic drugs, aiming to beef up its business in central and eastern Europe. Release
> More manufacturing problems, more FDA action. This time it's Teva Pharmaceuticals in the stocks--but veterinary meds, not people drugs. Report
> Eli Lilly has made good on its disclosure promise. The company released its new "faculty registry," a compendium of consulting payments to doctors for the first quarter of this year. Grand total: $22 million, according to Dow Jones. Story
Biotech IT News
> The Image Management Archive System helps trial sponsors centralize the collection of large imaging data sets for clinical trials, while providing online accessibility and secure storage. Report
> Self-service mashup capabilities--which let non-IT workers handle some business intelligence (BI) development tasks from within their browsers, Excel spreadsheets, and other client applications--can reduce pressure on IT staffs while satisfying the ongoing need to develop and revise reports, dashboards, cubes, and other analytic applications and data structures. Report
> Conflicting results in dialysis dose studies may have been caused by limitations in the statistical methods used. Early techniques yielded some results showing longer survival times for patients receiving a higher dose of dialysis, while other results indicated that a corresponding relationship did not exist, according to a Science Daily article. Story
> EMC has begun offering CSC's FirstDoc as a preferred regulatory compliance application. FirstDoc is based on the EMC Documentum enterprise content management platform. The application helps life sciences companies meet 21 CFR Part 11 requirements for electronic records and signatures. Piece
And Finally... The NIH has awarded systems biology company GeneGo a small business research grant to develop a database and systems biology tool-set to study mutations and sequence heterogeneity in human genes. Article