Praxis released a new version of its patient recruitment software, with enhanced views and reports available via an internet portal. Says the company: “PraxisDirect 2.0 collects Praxis pre-qualified candidate data through the centralized recruitment center, as well as integrates data from sponsors IVRS/CTMS systems.” Here’s a release.

MDS Pharma reported a quarterly loss of $10 million on revenue that dipped 3.6 percent to $321 million. The company guided Wall Street lower in its expectations for 2008 revenues and profits. A restructuring is ongoing, with the Canadian firm shedding 200 jobs over the summer. 

Synteract and Vince & Associates Clinical Research have been recapitalized by Gryphon Investors. Ellen Morgan, CEO of Synteract, stated, “We are excited about our partnership with Gryphon and the opportunity it affords us to deepen the services we provide to our clients both in the U.S. and internationally. We look forward to expanding our relationship with VNA in the future, particularly with regard to central nervous system trials.” Here’s the release.

Stanford University will try to cut back on pharmaceutical underwriting of continuing medical education (CME). Drug companies will be allowed to contribute to a general CME slush fund, but not select specific courses about, say, statins or antidepressants. A few other medical schools have taken a harder line on CME, including the University of California-Davis and programs in Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, Colorado and Kansas. Here’s an article in the New York Times.

Barron’s has a subscription-only article about the most- and least-admired companies, based on a poll of money managers, who were asked to rank the world’s 100 largest companies. Johnson & Johnson is #1, Procter & Gamble is #2. Rounding out the top 25 are Roche’s Genentech division, Abbott Laboratories and Monsanto. Pfizer came in at #41. The bottom of the list is also interesting. It holds sketchy Russian and Chinese firms—and Citibank.

The FDA will publish a “watch list” with new drug safety issues. It will be updated every three months. “The appearance of a drug on this list does not mean that FDA has concluded that the drug has the listed risk, or that FDA has identified a causal relationship between the drug and the listed risk,” the agency said. “It is on the list only because FDA has identified a potential safety issue.” Purple glove syndrome, anyone? Here’s the official statement. This is the current list.

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