Author: Claire Bowie

Sanofi Pasteur MSD’s top-selling Gardasil has been thrust into the spotlight again after the European Medicines Agency said there have been two sudden and unexpected deaths in young women who had received the vaccine as a prevention against developing cervical cancer.

Europe’s drug regulator, the EMEA, is to strengthen labeling for GlaxoSmithKline’s antidiabetic drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) to recommend against its use in patients with ischemic heart disease and/or peripheral arterial disease.

GlaxoSmithKline and partner Adolor will have been cheered yesterday after a US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel narrowly voted 9-6 that its mu-opioid receptor antagonist Entereg’s (alvimopan) benefits outweigh its risks. The news potentially clears the way for full approval next month; a full decision on market clearance is expected by 10 February.

Bristol-Myers Squibb yesterday revealed it has exercised a pre-existing option and will take Exelixis’ XL139 into the fold. The compound is a small molecule inhibitor of the so-called hedgehog pathway, which is thought to play a critical role in a variety of disease processes, including cancer.

While the obesity epidemic is indisputable – as is the consequential health burden on society – the growth in use of antiobesity agents is failing to mirror the burgeoning patient population because of a lack of reimbursement by governments, according to a new report from market analysts Datamonitor.