Salix soars on rifaximin data

Shares of Salix Pharmaceuticals are up more than 50 percent since the Morrisville company, which specializes in gastrointestinal treatments, announced results from two late-stage studies.

The studies showed rifaximin works better than placebo in treating non-constipation irritable bowel syndrome. Salix already sells rifaximin for traveler’s diarrhea under the name Xifaxan.

Treatments for non-constipation IBS generate about $2.2 billion in annual sales, but patients and doctors are looking for more choices with fewer side effects.

Salix stock dropped below $6 a year ago as the company struggled with generic competition. The day the rifaximin study results came out, Salix shares soared as high as $21.34. Since then, they’ve been close to $20 and attracting the attention of Credit Suisse pharmaceuticals analyst Catherine Arnold, who has tagged Salix an appetizing acquisition target for large drugmakers looking to boost revenue.

Pozen hires executive to broaden its scope

Pozen, a Chapel Hill drug development company, hired a chief commercial officer to develop licensing and marketing strategies for its drugs in development. Elizabeth Cermack, a former Johnson & Johnson executive, specializes in sales and marketing.

Founded in 1996, Pozen has long relied on partnerships with large drugmaker to help develop and market its medicines. Migraine pill Treximet, its first drug to receive regulatory approval, is sold by GlaxoSmithKline, which also helped develop it. Pozen also has a partnership with AstraZeneca to develop and bring to market Vimovo, an experimental painkiller that is easy on the stomach.

But the company, which never ventured into sales and marketing before, recently announced plans to broaden its scope and fly solo bringing to market its family of aspirins that promise to be gentler on the stomach.

GSK waits while competition gets ahead

GlaxoSmithKline, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, hopes to get approval for Cervarix, a vaccine that blocks a major risk factor for cervical cancer, before the end of the month.

A Food and Drug Administration panel recently recommended the vaccine get cleared for sale after a series of delays. If the FDA follows the recommendation, Cervarix would become available in the U.S. three years after Merck’s version Gardasil was approved.

GSK is also still awaiting FDA approval of its H1N1 vaccine. Four competitors already got the regulatory nod.

Geography of innovation

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to appropriate $100 million in fiscal year 2010 to renew economic development efforts at regional innovation hot spots.

A report supports those efforts, saying that areas such as the Silicon Valley, an information technology cluster, and biotech clusters in Boston and the Research Triangle Park area, are critical components of national competitiveness.

The federal government already funds about $150 billion of research and development per year.

North Carolina’s biotech industry, which is concentrated in the Triangle, is considered the third largest by number of companies. But the Triangle is also home to information technology and medical device clusters that together created more than 5,000 jobs between 1998 and 2006, according to the report.

Deals and regulatory actions

Bayer CropScience added a research collaboration to other recent deals aimed at coming up with better genetically modified crop seeds.

The German company, which has its U.S. headquarters in RTP, will partner with Precision BioSciences of San Diego. The deal is the third in a row to improve Bayer CropSciences’ ability to compete in the GM seeds market.

In recent weeks, the company bought rights from Texas Tech to improve the fiber quality from cotton seeds and announced it would buy its RTP-neighbor Athenix.

More about why Bayer CropScience is dealing here.

Other company news:

• Cornerstone Therapeutics, a Cary company specializing in respiratory treatments, received approval to buy the rights to an antibiotic from Oscient Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts company that has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• The Food and Drug Administration told Pozen that the Chapel Hill drug development company’s request to approve PN400, a painkiller that causes fewer stomach ulcers, is complete. The FDA notice triggered a $10 million milestone payment from British pharma giant Astra-Zeneca, Pozen’s partner. Pozen filed the request in June and the FDA is expected to rule on it in 2010.
• BioDelivery Sciences International will close its research laboratory in Newark and consolidate operations at corporate headquarters in Raleigh. All four positions in Newark will be eliminated to save about $1 million in operating costs per year. More about BDSI here.
• Shares of Icagen get a lift after a mid-stage study shows that the Durham drug development company’s experimental asthma drug eases allergy-related attacks.

Reality shows aim at preventing HIV spread

Family Health International, a Durham organization that aims to improve public health worldwide, is behind two reality shows to prevent the spread of HIV.

“Bongo Star Search” is a competition for would-be pop stars in Tanzania and “You’re the Man” is a competition that challenges stereotypes of what it means to be a man in Cambodia.