'Diagnose and adios'*

Got cash to spare? Starting soon, Gates Foundation will accept it

This year the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation accepted its largest pledge ever — more than $30 billion from a high-powered investor named Warren. Next year it will accept its smallest — $35 from a 7-year-old girl named Olivia.

Read here.

Biogen, Elan Voluntarily Withdraw MS Drug

More info here.

Irish drugmaker Elan narrows quarter loss

Irish pharmaceutical company Elan Corp.'s first-quarter loss narrowed amid reduced operating expenses.

The company also said it is on track to seek approval for its highly anticipated multiple sclerosis drug, Antegren....

Elan is developing Antegren with Biogen Idec Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. In February, the two companies said they planned to file for approval of Antegren a year ahead of schedule. Biogen Idec already sells the MS drug Avonex.

More here.

Biogen Idec, Elan to submit MS drug for European approval

Biogen Idec and Elan Corp. plc said Tuesday that they plan to submit their multiple sclerosis drug Antegren for approval in Europe.

The filing will be made to the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products in the summer of 2004.

More here.

Converging on MS

A group of local doctors is forming an innovative treatment-and-research hub for multiple sclerosis, a mysterious, debilitating disease that, on a per capita basis, afflicts more people in Washington than in any other state.

The newly formed not-for-profit MS Hub plans to serve MS patients in a five-state region that includes Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii.
If it opens as planned in July, in a 40,000-square-foot clinic in Seattle's Metropolitan Park office complex near South Lake Union, it will be the largest such MS center in the world, said founding neurologist Craig Smith.

More here.

Craig runs a small clinic in Anchorage, no wonder it's been hard to get an appointment with him.

More info on MS and the Pacific Northwest:
Northwest research centers among leaders in unraveling mystery of MS
VA funds Northwest center to battle MS

"This is a great opportunity to improve care for 50,000 veterans in the U.S. who have multiple sclerosis," said Dr. Dennis Bourdette, co-director for the new MS Center of Excellence West. Bourdette also is a staff neurologist at the Portland VAMC, interim chair of the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University and co-director of the MS Center of Oregon.

Biogen Idec and Elan to Seek Earlier MS Drug Approval

Biogen Idec Inc. and Elan Corp. said they will apply for U.S. approval of their experimental Antegren multiple sclerosis drug by July, speeding potential clearance of the product by as much as year. Shares of both companies soared.

More here.

Elan Says Antegren Trial for Crohn's Successful

Irish pharmaceutical firm Elan Corp Plc raised market hopes for its much-vaunted experimental drug Antegren on Thursday after it announced successful results from a key clinical trial on Crohn's disease.

Data from Phase III studies of Antegren's effect on MS are expected by late 2004 or early 2005.

More here.

FDA Big Factor Behind High Drug Costs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with its costly and time-consuming drug approval process, is a big reason Americans pay far more for medicine than consumers in the rest of the world, U.S. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said on Tuesday.

More here.

Ecuador Maps 20-Year Plan to Slow Deforestation

The jungle was beautiful, but the picture on the right is the only old growth tree (yes it is a tree and not a cliff) we saw on a week long boat trip in Ecuador.

Ecuador, which lost more of its forest cover than any other nation in South America in the 1990s, is developing a 20-year plan to work with the private sector to plant new trees and protect old forest.

Chop here.

Central nervous system big money

Central nervous system (CNS) treatments are big business – and are growing at the fastest rate among the largest therapeutic categories. The global sales of CNS therapeutics are second only to those sold for cardiovascular ailments.

One of the fastest growing markets is in treatments for multiple sclerosis, which grew by 21 percent in 2002. Due to a frustrating history of ineffective MS treatments, doctors and patients are embracing these biotech innovations.

Read here.

Serono MS drug's U.S. expansion plan on track-CEO

Europe's biggest biotechnology company is heavily reliant on its MS drug and investors were disappointed with third-quarter U.S. sales. Serono shares have risen by around a fifth this year, closing at 890 Swiss francs on Friday.

Read it here.

Biogen Idec goes into buy mode

Hope they don't forget the people that got them where they are today, us Avonex users:

Over the next two years, Biogen Idec will spend a good part of its $1.5 billion cash reserve to fill its pipeline of drug candidates. Mullen said the buying binge will, in large part, determine the success of the $6.4 billion merger, which created the country's third-largest biotech company.

Read it here.

Introducing Biogen Idec, Inc.

Biogen Inc. and Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp. on Wednesday completed their planned merger, forming the third-largest biotech company after Amgen Inc. and Genentech Inc..

Read it here.

Follow the new stock here. Stock symbol BIIB.

Biogen Earnings Rise on Higher Drug Sales

"Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq:BGEN - news) said on Tuesday third-quarter earnings rose 31 percent, exceeding analysts' expectations, on increased sales of its multiple sclerosis drug, Avonex."

""Avonex sales worldwide are much better than expected, which will definitely give a psychological lift to Wall Street as Biogen prepares to complete its merger with Idec," said Jennifer Chao, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets."

Can't wait until the article reads "Avonex sales worldwide plummeted when a simple, inexpensive cure for MS was discovered. It caught the market off guard, " said Jennifer Tao, an analyst at ABC&R Capital Markets.

Read it here.

I curious to see what happens to sales of Avonex next quarter. The new prefilled syringe makes me and many others sick.

Teva Reports Q3 Net Income of $157 Million, Up 63%

"This has been yet another successful quarter, with record sales and net income, resulting from strong performance in our major markets and with our major products including Copaxone", said Israel Makov, Teva's President and CEO.

Just doing our part for the economy...

Read it here

Teva to Acquire Sicor for $3.25 Billion

"Teva, which makes generic drugs and the multiple sclerosis medicine Copaxone, said the deal is designed to gain Sicor's expertise in generic injectable drugs and its capabilities in duplicating the wave of biotechnology drugs that are coming on the market once those drugs lose patent protection."

Read it here.