Standard & Poors says that the drug industry will have a good year despite public scrutiny of drug prices and generic competition. “Despite near-term uncertainties over pricing and patent expirations, we think pharmaceuticals remains one of the healthiest and widest-margin U.S. industries,” says Herman Saftlas, an S&P analyst. “We see…more...

Nextrials, a California technology firm, announced a long-term deal with Novacea. The drug company will rely on Nextrials’ Prism application (which includes electronic data capture, inventory management, and drug safety features) for a Phase III trial of a prostate cancer drug. In a news release, Novacea praised the 100 percent…more...

European regulators will write simple versions of drug safety bulletins. In technical parlance, the EMEA says, summaries of European public assessment reports (EPARs) will be intended for ordinary patients. Each summary will have explanation of how the drug works, what ailments it should be used for, how it was studied,…more...

The Congressional Budget Office estimates a severe flu pandemic could sicken 90 million people and kill 2 million Americans, or approximately two-thirds of one percent of the U.S. population. A pandemic could also push the economy into a recession, the CBO predicted. The likelihood of an influenza pandemic in any…more...

Johnson & Johnson has informed the FDA that its Evra birth control patch may double the risk of blood clots. The patch contains a higher dose of estrogen than is found in the pill form of the same product. The FDA had expressed its concerns about the patch last year,…more...

XClinical, a European firm specializing in patient diaries and electronic data capture, has moved its USA subsidiary to Bethesda, Maryland. The company’s new location is only a few miles from the I-270 biotechnology corridor and the National Institutes of Health. more...

Phase Forward announced that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the U.K.‘s regulatory agency, has implemented the company’s Lincoln Technologies pharmacovigilance signal detection and signal management software, WebVDME. The software will be used by MHRA clinicians, pharmacists and scientists to examine reports of suspected drug side effects from…more...

Phase Forward said revenues for the 2005 fourth quarter rose 18% to $23.6 million, versus $20.1 million during the same quarter of 2004. The big company was profitable in 2005 under GAAP accounting rules. That was not the case in 2004. Roughly 41 percent of revenues are from services, not…more...

After digesting $19 billion in acquisitions, Oracle will cut 2,000 jobs and post a restructuring charge of $725 to $800 million. The latest charge, the database company said, is due to the Siebel acquisition, and mostly reflects real estate costs and severance payments. After the firings, the company will have…more...

Institutional Investor, in a new survey of corporate social responsibility, takes the pharmaceutical industry to task. Pfizer, in particular, was singled out for shutting down public outreach efforts when company news turned sour last year. “The company has stopped communicating effectively,” Institutional Investor reports. more...