Author: Peter Mansell

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

The growing complexity of clinical trial protocols is making life more difficult for site personnel and study volunteers alike, warns a new study by the US-based Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (Tufts CSDD). The outcome, it says, is longer clinical trials and increasing problems with recruiting and retaining patients.

The Development Solutions division of Irish contract research organisation (CRO) ICON has boosted its early-phase trial and respiratory capabilities by forming a partnership with the UK-based Medicines Evaluation Unit (MEU).

The controversy over long-delayed and unflattering data from a clinical trial of Merck & Co and Schering-Plough’s combination cholesterol treatment Vytorin continues to gather pace, with lawyers circling and the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce stepping up its investigation of the blockbuster drug.

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative has hooked up with Austrian biotechnology company Intercell to evaluate the potential of recombinant malaria antigens from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in combination with Intercell’s novel proprietary adjuvant IC31.