> Alan Rubino, former Hoffmann-La Roche senior executive, and Timothy Rothwell, former Chairman, CEO, and President of Sanofi-aventis U.S., have collaborated to form New American Therapeutics. The company has acquired all rights to manufacture and sell Denavir, a topical antiviral drug. New American release
> French cancer diagnostics company ExonHit Therapeutics has backed out of a deal to acquire Pittsburgh-based RedPath Integrated Pathology. The deal, which was first announced in April, was worth $22.5 million in cash and stock plus $9.5 million in sales milestones. Item
> San Diego-based SpectraScience, which develops non-invasive cancer detection products, is undertaking a strategic restructuring of its business in an effort to allocate its resources "in a more disciplined and focused manner" as it seeks to find a full-time CEO. News
> A death row inmate scheduled to die in Arizona argued last week that the drug intended for his execution, sodium thiopental, may be a fake or expired and therefore ineffective or unsafe; a federal judge has stayed his execution in order to weigh his challenge. Article
> Though Arena is closing in on possible approval for lorcaserin, the company will still have to cut costs with layoffs, according Matthew Herper, a Forbes blogger. According to his sources, Arena will have about $150 million in cash at the end of the year, but their spending hasn't left a lot of wiggle room. Blog post
> Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University are using cooperative five-year grants totaling $4.7 million to develop nanoparticles as diagnostic and therapeutic tools against cancers, TechJournal South reports. The two combined grants come from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnerships (CNPP) program. News
And Finally... Turns mononucleosis may be much worse than the initial infection. Scientists at The Wistar Institute have found various viruses, and even cancer, can hide out in the Epstein-Barr virus, a key component of mono infections that can lie dormant in cells well after the illness. And the researchers are now using microRNA to flush the virus from patients' systems. Release