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DOJ Seeks Stay in Stem Cell Ruling
Podcast: September 7, 2010

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an appeal to the recent preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court judge that halted federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. At issue is Judge Royce Lamberth’s broad interpretation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which prohibits the U.S. government from funding research in which a human embryo is destroyed. We spoke to Ken Taymor, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and Economy about the judge’s ruling, the Justice Department’s request for a stay, and the legal and legislative fights ahead. Read More Here

Takeda Signs On to Back Contrave
Court overturns Obama Administration guidelines.
Japan's Takeda is placing summer’s second major bet on an obesity drug with a $50 million investment in Orexigen's Contrave, a combination drug meant to help people tackle the biology and behaviors behind overeating. Payments of more than $1 billion await Orexigen if it hits unspecified regulatory and sales-based milestones in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the countries covered by its new deal with Takeda. Read More Here

Roche Plans Cost-Cutting as It Feels Pressure from Reform, Delays, and Failures
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, stung by recent setbacks and concerned about tightening healthcare budgets, said it will institute a cost-cutting plan. At the same time, the company, which offered no detail on how deeply it would cut costs or where it would seek savings, said all parts of the organization are undergoing review and analysis and it would have specific measures in place and the potential impact on staffing by year end. Read More Here

Another Specialty Buy for Pfizer
FoldRx acquisiton adds to neuroscience portfolio.
Pfizer has agreed to by FoldRx, a privately held specialty drug developer targeting protein misfolding for an undisclosed initial payment plus milestones. The purchase builds on the drug giant's growing interest in niche drugs, a category it has begun to develop as a potential source of new revenues capable of partially stemming the losses it will incur when Lipitor goes off-patent in 2011. Read More Here

Boon for Biodefense
Cellerant and Achaogen rack up millions in new contracts.
Two small California biotechs, Cellerant and Achaogen, have secured new multi-million dollar federal defense contracts to develop technologies for combating potential bioterrorism threats with clinical stage therapies. Read More Here

USDA and DOE Fund Biofuel Genomics Research
Grants aim to accelerate development of plants better suited for bioenergy production.
Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $8.9 million in research awards under a joint DOE-USDA Plant Feedstocks Genomics for Bioenergy initiative aimed at improving and accelerating genetic breeding programs to create plants better suited for bioenergy production. The awards are part of efforts to create a domestic fuel industry and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Read More Here

Scientists Find Protein Behind Alzheimer's Plaques
Research suggests new treatments modeled on the cancer drug Gleevec.
Beta-amyloid is believed to be the culprit in Alzheimer's disease. It is a protein that accumulates in the brain and causes nerve cells to weaken and die. But drugs designed to eliminate plaques made of beta-amyloid have a fatal problem in that they need to enter the brain and remove the plaques without attacking healthy brain cells. New research, published in the September 2 issue of the journal Nature, suggests that treatments modeled on the blockbuster cancer drug Gleevec could be a solution. Read More Here

Crossword A Day Does Not Keep Mental Decline Away
Brain exercises may slow loss of cognitive abilities, but speed up dementia later.
People who think exercising their brain will keep them sharp as they age may find they are working against themselves in the long run. New research shows that mentally stimulating activities such as crossword puzzles, reading, and listening to the radio may, at first, slow the decline of thinking skills, but speed up dementia in old age. Read More Here

Commentary: Knowing What You Know
Comparative effectiveness research comes to the FDA – but in a good way – sort of.
Take a breath. There’s some news about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and comparative effectiveness research. Relax – it’s not what you think (or what the people at Consumer’s Union want). Read More Here

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