> Japan's biggest drug maker, Takeda Pharmaceutical, is moving its R&D headquarters from Japan to Illinois in the next few months. And in a bid to further shake up its development efforts, the pharma company has outlined a host of executive appointments for its realigned global development operations. "Takeda is making meaningful changes in structure and governance through this reorganization...which we believe will further strengthen our global operations structure," said President Yasuchika Hasegawa in a statement. Report
> FDA staffers say that a new diabetes pill submitted by Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca, saxagliptin, meets the agency's standards for cardiovascular safety. That news boosted BMS' shares ahead of an expert panel review. Report
> Adding $1.8 million in severance pay for two senior execs, Millipore gave its top team a 51 percent increase in pay last year. Story
> The FDA has granted fast track status to Seattle Genetics' cancer drug SGN-35. Release
> Hyperion Therapeutics says its pleased by the top-line results from their Phase II study of HPN-100 for the treatment of urea cycle disorders. Hyperion release
> Remember the suitor that briefly threatened to disrupt the Pfizer-Wyeth courtship? Well, the Wall Street Journal reports today that Company X is none other than Abbott Laboratories. The company approached Wyeth in mid-December, but decided not to make a bid "amid concerns over price and other issues," the paper reports. Report
> Ten billion dollars of stimulus money has begun coursing its way through the NIH to researchers. After years of bitter complaints about the federal government's reluctance to expand its R&D budget, the new billions are expected to swiftly add new projects and personnel in the research field. Report
> In a sign of the times, Donald Garcia, the medical director for Austin-based CRO FutureSearch Trials, says he's been seeing more executives turn out for a new trial for depression. Report
> Pump up the volume: Shire has enlisted the help of GlaxoSmithKline in growing the U.S. market for Vyvanse. The ADHD drug, Shire's follow-up-slash-replacement for its blockbuster attention deficit treatment Adderall, currently has about 12 percent of the U.S. market; with Glaxo's help, analysts say, the drug could add $500 million to its predicted 2014 revenues of $1.3 billion. Shire report
> Scientists at Penn have built a protein from scratch that can carry oxygen, a big step toward creating artificial blood. And in a key breakthrough, the proteins they have built are waterproof, which prevents cellular damage. Report
And Finally... Two start-up companies are using new technology to resurrect old but crude strategies to combat hypertension, believing that they can achieve significant improvement in health without the side effects. The Wall Street Journal reports that the companies offered data at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology that indicated they were on to something big. Report