Author: PharmaTimes

The profile of AstraZeneca’s cholesterol-lowering agent, Crestor (rosuvastatin), took another knocking yesterday after it was linked to the death of a patient, possibly through the muscle-wasting condition, rhabdomyolysis.

The world’s second biggest biotechnology company, Genentech, reported a strong 38% rise in full-year 2004 earnings per share to $0.73 versus the same period last year [[16/01/04b]], in what the company is calling a year of “significant achievement,” with two key drugs winning coveted US Food and Drug Administration approval [[27/02/04a]], [[22/11/04d]], and the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma therapy, Rituxan (rituximab), breaking through the $1.7 billion mark. However, the firm saw its share price slide during after-hours trading after it marginally missed its financial forecasts.

American Pharmaceutical Partners’ share price sky-rocketed by more than 47% during trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange yesterday to a new 52-week high after the company revealed that it had won US Food and Drug Administration approval for Abraxane (paclitaxel) in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

Bayer is to reacquire some of the marketing rights to its erectile dysfunction offering, Levitra (vardenafil), from UK partner GlaxoSmithKline, at a cost of 208 million euros in cash, the two firms revealed this morning.

US citizens hoping to buy prescription drugs from internet sites based in Canada could be banned if plans currently being debated win approval, according to Industry reports.