Archive for July, 2009
NIEHS wants to be bigger player in health care reform
Thursday, July 30, 2009, 9:07 am No Comments | Post a CommentResearchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have long wanted to test some low-cost methods they thought could help prevent or treat chronic diseases, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
Next: A crucial decision
Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 9:14 am No Comments | Post a CommentThis is the last part. Continued from part 2.
Developing medicines is a minefield that Tranzyme Pharma has navigated well so far. But the Durham company is about to embark on one of its trickiest missions.
Q&A with Sheril Kirshenbaum, coauthor of "Unscientific America"
Sunday, July 26, 2009, 5:59 pm No Comments | Post a CommentWithin days of being published “Unscientific America” by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum triggered a heated debate about the compatibility of religion and science,, evidence-based research versus creationism and intelligent design, that has been going back and forth on the blogosphere.
BDSI stock drops on Onsolis approval
Friday, July 17, 2009, 12:19 pm No Comments | Post a CommentGetting its first product, a painkiller, approved for sale was a triumph for BioDelivery Sciences.
Champagne corks popped at BDSI Thursday, the day the Food and Drug Administration let the small Raleigh drug development company know that Onsolis, a potent pain patch for cancer patients, had passed all regulatory hurdles. On Friday, analysts congratulated BDSI CEO Mark Sirgo during a conference call. By Monday, BDSI expected to have about $27 million more in the bank, a payment its Swedish partner Meda promised upon regulatory approval of Onsolis.
“It’s been a long haul,” Sirgo told analysts in the call Friday. “This is a fantastic day for our company.”
So why did BDSI’s stock drop 5 percent on a day when it should have risen?
NIEHS researcher: "I'm the female reproductive system."
Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 6:32 pm No Comments | Post a CommentWhen you get a bunch of people over 30 to talk about sex, there’s a good chance the conversation will involve babies. Sprinkle in a healthy dose of Generation Xers and baby boomers and fertility is sure to come up.
Getting a ghrelin drug to market
Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 11:38 am No Comments | Post a CommentThis is the second part of three. Continued from part 1.
Work on promising ghrelin medicines has gotten to a critical stage a decade after Japanese researchers discovered the hormone that stimulates hunger and is linked to insulin production.
Cornerstone zeros in on a deal
Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 7:19 am No Comments | Post a CommentCornerstone Therapeutics, a Cary company that specializes in respiratory therapies, has offered to pay $5 million for the commercial rights to Factive, a respiratory anitbiotic that generated $16 million in sales last year.
Business forum: China is not for sissies
Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 7:38 pm No Comments | Post a Comment
A few weeks after being challenged by former Gov. Jim Hunt to go and recruit Chinese companies to North Carolina, Keith Crisco, the state’s new commerce secretary, offered a response at a China business forum Tuesday at Brier Creek Country Club.
Ghrelin: A new hormone is found
Monday, July 6, 2009, 9:24 am No Comments | Post a CommentINTRODUCTION
Tranzyme Pharma is one of dozens of drug development companies in North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, a biotech hot spot that is ranked third in the nation by number of companies. The Durham company has diligently advanced therapies based on a hormone that was discovered a decade ago, a technology also used by two rivals. Now, Tranzyme’s Board of Directors has to decide how to pay for the final development step and get its drugs to market: Go public, sell the company or go back to its investors hat in hand one more time.
This is the first part of three.
