Author: Claire Bowie

Guilford Pharmaceuticals

The global pharmaceutical market in 2010 is expected to grow 4%-6% on a constant-dollar basis, exceeding $825 billion, driven by stronger near-term growth in the US market, according to the latest figures from IMS Health.

The FDA’s latest quarterly report from its Adverse Event Reporting System has spotlighted a number of drugs with a potential safety issue or that have had new safety information attributed to them between January and March of this year.

AstraZeneca’s multibillion-dollar drug Seroquel (quetiapine) was in the spotlight again this week after internal documents showcased at a pre-trial examination of John Patterson, now-retired executive director of product development, suggested the company asked its salesforce to promote the drug as “weight neutral” despite evidence it caused “clinically significant” weight gain.

Swiss giant Novartis has snapped up the rights to market a potentially first-in-class antibiotic from Paratek Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed sum, bolstering the company’s armamentarium in this field following its acquisition of Protez Pharmaceuticals in June last year.