> Helix BioPharma raised $13.6 million in a private placement and plans to use the new funds to pay for an early-stage trial of a new lung cancer therapy. Article
> Shares of Britain's Vectura got a bounce after researchers announced that a combo COPD therapy being developed by Novartis improved lung function in patients enrolled in a mid-stage trial. Story
> BioDelivery Sciences International is closing a New Jersey lab and concentrating its efforts in Raleigh, NC. Report
> The U.K.'s National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence is recommending Eli Lilly's anti-clotting therapy prasugrel. But it wants the drug use restricted to certain higher-risk percutaneous coronary intervention patients. Article
> Sucampo Pharmaceuticals has yanked its European marketing application for the chronic constipation drug lubiprostone, which is already approved in the U.S. and is in late-stage studies in Japan. Story
> Cytopia Limited's Investigational New Drug Application for CYT387 has passed FDA review. Release
> Merck has started marketing its eye pressure drug saflutan in the UK and Spain. Story
Pharma News
> Judge Deborah Batts works fast. In Manhattan federal court yesterday, Batts slapped down Elan's request for an injunction against Biogen Idec, ruling instead that Elan had breached the two companies' Tysabri partnership. The judge gave Elan till Sept. 26 to fix the problem or risk losing its half-share of the multiple sclerosis drug. Article
> Half of Teva Pharmaceutical's workers at a Waterford, Ireland, plant are getting the axe. In the second plant-layoff announcement this week, the Israeli generics maker told workers that 315 jobs will go, via a mixture of voluntary buyouts and layoffs. Article
> Ever since the megamerger wave began, there's been a debate about whether small, strategic deals trump big-time combos. Add to that small-is-beautiful list Abbott Laboratories--and its current champion, Motley Fool. Report
And Finally... Researchers say that a controlled animal study has offered hard data to support the thesis that people put on weight when they eat at night. Our bodies evolved on a daily diet timed for daylight foraging. Now refrigerators keep the food supply available all night long, and that is spurring an epidemic of obesity. Report