Roche has been chastised about an ad featuring Sally Field. In the ad, she touts Boniva, the company's osteoporosis drug. "The print ad is misleading because it overstates the efficacy of Boniva," the FDA complains. The agency goes on to assert that Roche's claims are not warranted by clinical evidence. These sorts of warnings are routine across the industry, of course, but unusual for the formerly infallible biotechnology division of the big Swiss firm. Here's the warning letter.

Acurian announced it had located 600 patients for a program of nine diabetes trials, a cohort of subjects equal to 30 percent of all the patients needed. The sponsor was not identified. In Acurian's largest diabetes research project to date, the company tapped its database of 8 million diabetic patients (half of all U.S. diabetics, the company says) to generate 20,000 referrals who received a postal mailing. "We are well positioned to help sponsors recruit, enroll and retain diabetes patients in all corners of the globe,” Acurian senior VP of operations Roger Smith said in a news release. Here's a ClinPage story.

ExL Pharma has announced its 13th annual conference for investigator-initiated trials. This year's meeting will be held in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, on April 14 and 15. Among other presentations, AstraZeneca will discuss best practices to help investigators learn the fair market value of their services to industry. The agenda is here.

Synarc, an imaging core lab, has recruited Peter Milner to augment its cardiac imaging services for clinical trials. A cardiologist based in California, Milner helped to found three biotechnology companies: CV Therapeutics Inc, ARYx Therapeutics and Optivia Biotechnology. Synarc didn't specify Milner's title, leaving open the possibility he may be playing a consulting role. Here's a release.

Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) announced a new version of its guidelines to help sponsors structure the data in case report forms (CRF). It can be viewed here. Our story on the effort is here.

During the first portion of the Obama administration, the FDA was run by two dual co-leaders, Margaret Hamburg and Joshua Sharfstein. That arrangement appears to have ended with this month's departure of Sharfstein, who took the top health job in the state of Maryland. Now the FDA's top lawyer, John Taylor, will fill Sharfstein's job on an interim basis while the agency seeks his permanent replacement. Taylor started an FDA career in 1991 but has also spent time at Abbott and BIO, the biotechnology lobbying group. It's not clear whether Hamburg will continue to share her duties or take a more traditional, single-manager role. Here's a brief story in the trade press.

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