QDIS Blog

Amgen is the latest to get into the merger mania and has offerd $420 million for Ilypsa.

Amgen to pay $420 mln cash for Ilypsa - MarketWatch

Amgen wants access to Ilypsa’a ILY101 a drug for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on hemodialysis.

Here is the press release.

Technorati Tags: Amgen, hyperphosphatemia, ILY101, Ilypsa

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Amgen has another merger in process, now with Alantos for $300 million.

RED HERRING | Amgen to Acquire Alantos:

Now they also are purchasing Ilpysa which I posted about recently. Altantos has a phase II drug for diabetes a somewhat crowded market. I personally think they may have overpiad for what they get.

I find it interesting that now even the biotechs are getting into the acquisition mania. It wouldn’t surprise me if Genetech starts on a buying binge just to keep pace.

Technorati Tags: Amgen, Ilypsa, Alantos

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I wanted to let readers know that the QDIS Blog now is mobile ready! If you want to look at the blog from a cell phone or other mobile device, then feel free. It will detect that you are accessing it on a mobile device and format it accordingly.

This was accomplished using a Wordpress plugin by Andy Moore. Here is the description:

Make your WordPress site accessible on a mobile phone with this plugin. Now your posts, pages, archives and comments can be viewed on a mobile device. Standards are supported, posts and comments can be submitted by phone and your WordPress mobile site is easily moneitized by AdMob.

http://www.andymoore.info/wordpress-mobile-plugin/

I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. I have checked it out on my mobile phone and it looks good IMHO.
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After upgrading to the latest Wordpress version about two weeks ago I had some problems getting my old theme to work. I finally got that fixed and the QDIS Blog is back now. The only minor issue right now is with the page navigation at the top. It now always says “99999″ pages. I’m trying to figure out how to fix that but for now, the blog is back with its normal look. out.

I hadn’t posted for a while because I was spending my free time trying to figure out how to get my old theme back so now that it is up and running, expect more posting.

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Since I use Ambien on occasion it was good to hear Dr. Reddy’s Lab is no approved to sell generic Ambien.

Dr. Reddy’s Gets Generic Ambien Approval - Forbes.com:

I was actually behind someone at my local pharmacy recently and they were concerned they thought they had been given the wrong prescription since they did not recognize the name. The pharmacist explained that it was the generic version of Ambien. This could be a big blow to Sanofi-Aventis since they had sales of $1.2 billion in the last year.

While Dr. Reddy’s Lab is the first, there will be several others and the competition will bring down the price. At least 10 other companies have approved generic versions.

Both my wife and I use it on occasion and I love it. I especially use it when traveling to get my body in sync with the local time. I should note that it has recently come under scrutiny and the labeling has been strengthened to warn about possible side effects.

Technorati Tags: Ambien, Sanofi-Aventis, zolpidem tartrate

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CNN Money had an article back in late May that discusses how the major pharma companies are becoming more like biotechs.

Biotech drugs contribute heavily to Big Pharma sales - May. 29, 2007:

This isn’t too surprising if you consider the fact that biologic drugs have no generic competition. It only makes good business sense to be looking at products have a much longer life-cycle. In 100 years or so, I think it will be difficult to differentiate biotech from pharm in the way we think of them today. I don’t think the small molecule discovery and development will ever go away but I do think you will see budget decisions geared more towards the development of biologicals.

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I will be traveling on business to southern CA next week and so will likely not be able to post much.

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