QDIS Blog

VaxGen has had problems recently with the US government canceling the anthrax vaccine project.

VaxGen moves to change after anthrax setback / Brisbane company receives $51.3 million in Celltrion sale

They have sold their interest in Celltrion which operates a manufacturing plant in Inchon Korea for $51 million and now have about $96.6 million in the bank which should keep them going for a while depending on their burn rate. However, they are going to be taking a new direction and it will be interesting to see what they become and how they purpose to get there. However, as the article points out VaxGen is now 0 for 2 in their projects (their lead AID drug failed in Nov. 2003) meaning it will be hard to convince investors they have potential and are worth investing in.

Technorati Tags: vaccine, VaxGen

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

This article from about a week ago cuaght my eye on Yahoo. It is about the need for collecting long term safety data for two approved diet drugs in the US and another one tat is under review by the FDA. THe three drugs are Xenical (orlistat), Meridia (sibutramine) which are approved and Acomplia (rimonabant) which is under review. The article mentions an article in journal Lancet.

Long-term data needed on anti-obesity drugs - Yahoo! News:

I tend to agree especially since they all seem to have the potential for serious side effects which show up even with just short term use. As I have said here many times, they risk and reward need to be weighed for the use of any drug. There may be cases where the potential benefits outweighs the negative. However, my concern with drugs such as diet drug are the potential for misuse and over-prescribing of such drugs. Given Americans obsession with dieting and weight loss, these drugs have a huge potential for problems and I agree that more long term safety data is needed.

Long term safety data will likely be one of the primary topics for FDA reform this year from the Democrats in Congress especially in the House of Representatives.

Other Resources

XENICAL.com Home
Meridia (Sibutramine HCl)
Accomplia: The New Weight Loss Drug (Rimonabant)

Technorati Tags: Acomplia, Meridia, orlistat, Rimonabant, sibutramine, Xenical

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |

Just wanted to let readers know that DrugResearcher.com has started a new feature called Drugs Movving Into the Clinic that will cover drugs entering into clinical trials.

Drugs moving into the clinic this week:

Hopefully this will continue and I look forward to browsing it each week to see a consoldiated list of all the company reporting IND filings and phase I clinical trials.

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |