A nosh, for those of you deficient in culinary indulgences, is another way of saying snack. And nosh, we must. You will, of course, relate to the analogy that there is much to chew on, yes? So grab a cup of something hot, or a bottle of something cold, and take a bite…
The widower of [...]

Have Glaxo and Novartis stumbled yet again? That’s the question raised in a look at Protein Sciences, a much smaller company using a DNA technology to develop flu vaccines that may prove faster than the methods being used by its much bigger rivals, Bloomberg News reports.
Losing the flu-shot race may be the latest in a [...]

Roche has filed suit against Ventana Medical Systems in hopes of convincing Delaware Chancery Court to invalidate a “poison pill” defense that could thwart its hostile $3 billion cash bid. The drugmaker, which is willing to pay $75 a share - a 45 percent premium - for the diagnostics company, contends the anti-takeover tactic would [...]

The FDA has just approved a bird flu vaccine made by Sanofi-Aventis. This will be used to combat the same H5N1 strain of the virus that keeps popping up in Asia and other countries.
“The licensure of the nation’s first vaccine is a significant milestone in pandemic preparedness,” says David Williams, ceo of Sanof-Pasteur, the drugmaker’s [...]

The big drugmaker is giving the med to all of its 5,300 US employees, many of whom work in Nutley, NJ, where it maintains a sprawling facility a half hour from Manhattan. The decision was announced yesterday during a six-hour meeting on preparing for bird flu, and each employee had an on-site check-up with a [...]

There were two studies and, in discussing the second one in particular, the drugmaker believes the results may boost chances that vaccination against a pandemic is viable.
“The data confirm that our pre-pandemic influenza vaccine has the ability to recognize and kill an H5N1 strain that is different to the one contained in the vaccine,” says [...]

A 14-year-old boy jumped to his death from his balcony a few hours after taking the med. Officials refuse to draw a clear link, but they’re getting worried. As of November, 54 people died after taking Tamiflu, 16 of whom were 16 years old or younger, says the Japanese government.
“The connection has not been made [...]

Even though there’s not much evidence the Sanofi-Pasteur vaccine for the H5N1 flu will protect most people, the advisory committee recommends the FDA approve its use. In a separate vote, the panel said the vaccine was both safe and effective. A vaccine must meet both standards to win FDA approval.
The votes came after FDA officials [...]

So if you’re a drugmaker, how would you answer these questions:
If only a few hundred people have been infected with bird flu and about half of died, how much vaccine do we need right now? And how soon will we need a lot? And how does that square with limited production capacity that’s devoted to [...]

At issue is suspicion that GlaxoSmithKline and others will use bird-flu samples, develop vaccines, make money and then not produce enough for Indonesians or other poor countries. So Indonesia is threatening to pull out of a World Health Organization flu surveillance network, the first time any nation has done so. Glaxo is furious.
“We are concerned [...]