Author: Peter Mansell

A coalition of funders has awarded a total of £20 million (€26.8 million) under the umbrella of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) to five new Centres of Excellence, set up to conduct research on a broad range of public health issues such as health inequalities, obesity, exercise, smoking, alcohol and drugs.

Merck & Co and Schering-Plough have temporarily suspended television advertising for their combination cholesterol treatment Vytorin (ezetimibe + simvastatin) in the US, as Vytorin prescriptions and the companies’ share prices buckle under the fall-out from the now notorious ENHANCE trial.

Only 17 drugs are in active development for maternal health indications, while only one new class of drugs for pregnant women has been licensed in the last 20 years, a study has found. Among the nine new chemical entities (NCEs) in preclinical or clinical development for maternal health, there are no new classes of drugs in clinical trials for primary obstetric applications.

Arkitek Studios, a US company that specialises in developing visual content for science, technology and education, is claiming the first-ever use of 3D animation as part of the informed consent procedure for a Phase I clinical trial.

Eli Lilly has gone on the offensive over suggestions that it has suppressed negative clinical trial data on its antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine hydrochloride).