Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - (Page 3) News Ablynx’s €3 million milestone Belgian biopharm company Ablynx is set to receive milestone payments totalling €3 million from Boehringer Ingelheim. The payments are part of its strategic alliance for the development and commercialisation of Nanobodies, a novel class of therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments. Ablynx and Boehringer Ingelheim entered into an agreement in September 2007 to collaborate on up to 10 different Nanobody therapeutics across a range of multiple therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and respiratory diseases. The deal covers potential milestone payments of up to €125 million for each Nanobody developed, as well as undisclosed royalties to Ablynx. For more on these news stories and all the latest breaking pharma news, look at our website www.pharmexeceurope.com Investigators biased towards good news Clinical trials showing a positive treatment effect are much more likely to be published in scientific journals than those with negative findings, a new review from The Cochrane Library (UK) has found. “This publication bias has important implications for healthcare. Unless both positive and negative findings from clinical trials are made available, it is impossible to make a fair assessment of a drug’s safety and efficacy,” says lead researcher, Sally Hopewell, of the Cochrane Centre. Cochrane’s international team of researchers found that negative results were published less often, and when they were published would take between one and four or more years to appear in journals than studies showing positive results. Results from one of the five studies in the review indicated that investigators and not editors might be to blame. Cochrane researcher Kirsty Loudon said: “Registration of trials and their results would help people conducting systematic reviews to look at both published and unpublished evidence to reach reliable conclusions.” UpperCut Images/Getty Images Best new antidepressants named Pfizer’s Zoloft and Forest Laboratories’ Lexapro are the most effective and welltolerated antidepressants among a group of 12 new drugs, according to an analysis published recently in medical journal The Lancet. The research team reviewed 117 studies from 1991 to 2007 that compared the response and drop-out rates of the drugs among more than 25,000 men and women with major depression. Overall, Zoloft (sertraline) and Lexapro (escitalopram) were best when it came to both reducing symptoms after eight weeks and dropout rates during the studies. However, the team, which also found that Organon’s Remeron and Wyeth’s Effexor were more effective than the other drugs studied, did not look at things like side-effects, toxicity, how well people functioned socially while on the treatments or cost-effectiveness. Digital Vision/Getty Images Sanofi to join acquisition rush Sanofi-aventis’s (France) new chief executive Chris Viehbacher has signalled that the company is gearing up for new expansion. Mr Viehbacher, who replaced previous Sanofi CEO Gerard Le Fur last year, has said that he is interested in acquisitions to both expand and diversify its range of businesses. It is believed that the company could raise €17bn–€20bn. 4 NEWS Pfizer’s ‘stomach turning’ UK cinema ad 5 CALENDAR Upcoming industry events 7 ACTAVIS EXCLUSIVE CEO Sigurdur Oli Olafsson talks to Pharm Exec Europe 10 DIAGNOSTICS Change your patients, not your drugs http://www.pharmexeceurope.com http://www.ablynx.com http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/corporate/home/home.asp http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/mr000006.html http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/corporate/home/home.asp http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/mr000006.html http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/mr000006.html http://www.ablynx.com http://www.frx.com http://www.pfizer.com/products/rx/rx_product_zoloft.jsp http://www.frx.com http://www.remeron.com http://www.thelancet.com http://www.effexorxr.com http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 Contents From the Editor News Calendar Actavis Exclusive Diagnostics Business Ethics On the Move Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - News (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - News (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Calendar (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Calendar (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Actavis Exclusive (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Actavis Exclusive (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Actavis Exclusive (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Diagnostics (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Diagnostics (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Diagnostics (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Business Ethics (Page 13) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Business Ethics (Page 14) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - Business Ethics (Page 15) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 11, 2009 - On the Move (Page 16)
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