Impactiviti Daily 012610

TODAY’S NEWS

Big change – Dan Vasella to step aside as Novartis CEO. This article also details the other internal leadership changes – very interesting.

Novo Nordisk gets approval for new diabetes drug Victoza – Federal health officials on Monday approved Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s once-daily injection for treating type 2 diabetes but said more safety studies are needed before it can be cleared as a first-line treatment for the disease. The Food and Drug Administration said it approved the drug, Victoza, to help lower blood sugar levels when coupled with diet, exercise and other diabetes medicines. It was not recommended as an initial therapy for patients who have not been able to control their diabetes with diet and exercise alone…more Meanwhile, Amylin waiting for once-weekly treatment to be approved.

Will 2010 be a big year for big pharma?

No matter what, I’ll still enjoy red wine – GlaxoSmithKline shocked the pharmaceutical industry in 2008 when it dropped $720 million to buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company working on drugs based on resveratrol, a chemical in red wine thought to combat the effects of aging. But now researchers at rival companies are openly questioning whether the compounds will work. They say they are unable to replicate key laboratory experiments backing the drugs’ promise…more