'Diagnose and adios'*

Biogen Idec Lobbying Efforts

I pay about $1,800 a month for Avonex. Here's one way Biogen spent $1.2 million, paying lobbying firms.

Pharmaceuticals spent $226,999,560 on lobbying last year.

All I can say is F*CK Them!

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Tags: healthcare

Biogen Idec to cut 17 percent of work force, sell assets

Drug maker Biogen Idec Inc. on Thursday said it will lay off 650 workers, or about 17 percent of its work force, as part of a plan to reduce annual expenses by $200 million to $300 million.

More here.

Elan Faces SEC Inquiry Into Trading

Elan Corp. (ELN.I: Quote, Profile, Research) (ELN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is probing securities trading around the Feb. 28 announcement of the suspension of sales of the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.

Probe here.

Elan shares dive on drug setback

Shares in Irish drugmaker Elan have plummeted once more after a third case of disease linked to Tysabri, its multiple sclerosis treatment.

Elan suspended the drug after two patients were found to have caught the rare disease, one of whom later died.

The newly revealed case - which also ended with the death of the patient - could mean Tysabri never makes it back onto the market, analysts warned.

By the close of trading, Elan shares were down 56% to 2.43 euros.

More here.

Biogen, Elan Voluntarily Withdraw MS Drug

More info here.

Biogen, Elan Suspend Tysabri After Death

Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation Plc on Monday suspended sales of their much-heralded new multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri after a patient died from a rare but frequently fatal central nervous system disease.

More here.

Biogen Idec Retools After FDA Clears Drug but Not Its Moniker

It seemed as if the Food and Drug Administration liked everything about Biogen Idec's new drug for multiple sclerosis.

Early this year, the FDA encouraged Biogen Idec and its partner, Elan Pharmaceuticals, to submit an application for approval a year ahead of schedule. The companies sought clearance based on one year of data from a pair of pivotal clinical trials, instead of two years, as originally planned. The agency said it would give the experimental drug priority review, cutting four months off the wait for an answer.

The agency's Nov. 23 ruling gave the companies the go-ahead to sell the drug as a stand-alone therapy or in combination with Avonex, Biogen Idec's big-selling MS drug.

Wall Street analysts called the dual approval a home run.

But there was one thing the regulators didn't like about the new drug: the name.

More here.

Amazon Indians battle in Ecuador over logging

Me travelling with the Huaorani

Penti Baihua, a community leader of the Huaorani Indians, knew there was more to the massacre of 26 members of a rival Amazon tribe than mere revenge.

In May 2003, nine Huaorani warriors from the village of Tiguino killed 26 Tagaeri men, women and children. They justified the massacre of nearly one- fifth of a tiny tribe that shuns outsiders as payback for a 1993 murder. But Colombian loggers may have instigated the raid so they could seek lucrative stands of Spanish cedar and a mahogany called aguano abundantly found on Tagaeri land, according to recent interviews with government officials, police investigators and several Huaorani leaders.

"They (the loggers) were scared of the Tagaeri and went to Tiguino," said Penti Baihua, a Huaorani leader who spoke with several of the nine raiders after the attack. "They told them: 'We'll give you gasoline and bullets if you kill the Tagaeri. We want to work in that area.' "

More  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.

IVAX, Serono say oral cladribine trials for MS positive

The Swiss pharmaceuticals group Serono and its US partner IVAX Corp. posted positive results from two clinical trials with an oral formulation of cladribine, a potential new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).

"This is a major step in the development of the first oral disease modifying treatment for multiple sclerosis."

That would be nice.

Swallow 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.

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.

Two settle over claims of curing diseases

A former Elburn trustee and an Aurora man who claimed to have cures to diseases like multiple sclerosis will be paying almost $7,000 to people who once sought their help.

Read it here.

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.

Serono Posts Strong 3Q On Rebif, Weaker Dollar

"Swiss pharmaceutical company Serono SA Thursday reported a solid rise in third quarter net profit on healthy revenue growth, driven by sales of its key drug Rebif and a weaker dollar."

Read it here.