Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - August 2008 - (Page 6)

6 News & Analysis August 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe News & Analysis For more on these news stories and all the latest breaking pharma news, look at our website www.pharmexeceurope.com, which now features daily updates, interactive surveys and dedicated sections for your particular area of interest. NEWS Europe’s clinical trial loss is Asia’s gain A new report has found that Asia is the new hotspot for clinical trials and that South Korea has seen the largest gains in oncology trial sites in 2007, compared with figures for 2004. In the report, published in this month’s Good Clinical Practice Journal (GPCj), Citeline analysts examine the trend for oncology trials, with author Alice Ng Fink commenting: “Looking at 2004 versus 2007, 47% of the oncology clinical trials started in 2004 had sites in North America, and that share increased to 53%. In 2007, however, Asia and western Europe were the regions of largest gain and loss, respectively, for newly initiated oncology clinical trials in 2007 compared to 2004.” “Overall we are seeing a 50% increase in the number of oncology trials started in Asia in 2007 versus 2004,” Fink adds. “South Korea, in particular, saw a 2.5-fold increase. In western Europe, we see the opposite, with all major European countries, with the exception of Spain, seeing decreases.” “Cocaine dependence is an important public health problem in the United States and Europe, but it’s been somewhat of a neglected area in terms of medical research” said Synosia’s chief executive officer and president Ian Massey. “There are no medications currently available to treat cocaine dependence specifically. Current treatment focuses on cognitive behavioural therapy but we believe there is a real opportunity to develop a drug therapy that would change the way the body responds to cocaine.” Cracking cocaine dependency Synosia Therapeutics has announced the start of a clinical trial to evaluate what could become the first drug therapy to treat cocaine dependence. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase IIa trial enrolling non- Oncology trials in Asia have increased by 50% in the last three years. treatment-seeking cocainedependent volunteers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is investigating the safety and efficacy of nepicastat (SYN-117), a selective dopamine B-hydroxylase (DBH) inhibitor when administered with cocaine. One of the key objectives of the study is to evaluate the effect of nepicastat on the subjective response to cocaine and includes a number of measures of the es etty Imag images/G blue jean rewarding effects of cocaine. Modulation of the subjective experience of cocaine is believed to be predictive of clinical efficacy in the treatment of cocaine dependence. Teva to buy Barr Teva Pharmaceutical is to buy the rival generic drug company, Barr Pharmaceuticals, for more than $7 billion in order to expand its presence in the US and Eastern European markets. Barr shareholders will receive $39.90 in cash and 0.6272 of a Teva American Depositary Receipt for each share they own, or a total purchase price of $66.50 per share. Teva is already the largest generic drug maker in the world, reporting $9.4 billion in sales in 2007. Barr has been selling a generic version of Bayer's birth-control pill Yasmin in the US since July and also has the rights to sell a generic version of the ap C attention deficit tion hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall XR starting in April 2009. UK Roche suspended from ABPI The UK unit of Roche last month had its membership of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) suspended for at least six months in connection with serious breaches of the APBI Code of Practice between 2003 and 2005. Chris Brinsmead, president of ABPI said: “Breaches of the Code are viewed seriously and this is reflected by the suspension.” The breaches came to light when a former employee of Roche claimed that the company had sold “large quantities” of the obesity treatment, Xenical, to the operator of a chain of private diet clinics. Roche was also reported to have agreed to provide $108317 for operator to purchase another clinic. The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority ruled that the supply of the drug was “inappropriate” and, on appeal, ruled that the supply was “possibly prejudicial to patient safety.” Roche's re-entry to the APBI is reliant on an audit of the company’s procedures. Offline forces still dominate OTC buying While nearly one in five UK consumers refer to informal sources online for information about digital cameras and mobile phones, only a fraction of them (3%) do the same for over-the-counter medicines, according to new research by Millward Brown’s UK http://www.pharmexeceurope.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - August 2008

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - August 2008
Contents
From the Editor
News and Analysis
Calendar
The Calm Before the Storm
Steering Pharma in Russia
Built on Sand
Renaissance Man
IT Meets IMI
Send for the Software Specialists
Know Your eMarket
Last Words

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - August 2008