Making Sense of a Tumultuous Year
Podcast: December 18, 2009

As 2009 began, a legislative battle around healthcare reform and a troubled economic environment stood ready to set the stage for the year. But a series of jaw-dropping acquisitions, robust partnering activity and a pick up in venture capital made the year a big one on the financing front. In the first part of a two-part interview G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company and the publisher of The Burrill Report, discusses the events of 2009, how the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry adapted to a changing environment, and the meaning behind the numbers. Read More Here

No Deal
Facet rejects Biogen’s $493 million offer, looks for new buyer.
Facet Biotech shareholders rejected Biogen Idec's bid to acquire the company for $493 million or $17.50 per share, while leaving the door open to a higher bid from Biogen or other potential suitors. For it’s part, after threatening to launch a proxy fight to unseat Facet’s board, but soon after a midnight December 16 deadline it set came and went, Biogen said it would allow its “best-and-final” offer to expire. Read More Here

A Vote of Confidence
Seattle Genetics nails $365 million cancer drug deal with Takeda.
Seattle Genetics has scored a $365 million deal for commercialization of its late-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment SNG-35 with Millennium, Takeda's U.S. cancer subsidiary. The deal provides a boost to the Seattle-based company, which days earlier saw Genentech end its partnership over a separate lymphoma drug SNG-40. Seattle Genetics halted development of SNG-40 in October because data from an ongoing mid-stage clinical trial showed patients were not benefitting from the treatment. Read More Here

Curbing the Appetite
Controlling a key enzyme in the brain may lay the groundwork for treating obesity. 
Researchers at Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital say that inhibiting an enzyme called Sirt1 in the brain appears to help reduce food intake, a finding that potentially lays the foundation for new obesity treatments. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, suggests that Sirt1 behaves differently in the brain than in organs, such as the liver and pancreas, where other studies have focused. Read More Here

Beta Islet Cell Phones
Mobile phones could help parents monitor blood sugar of their diabetic children.
Parents of diabetic children are eager to enlist the use of mobile phones in an effort to ease the chore of monitoring their children's blood sugar and glucose levels according to a recent online survey. Read More Here

After failure, Gilead Likely to Discontinue Development of Hypertension Drug
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps.
Gilead Sciences said darusentan, the company’s experimental drug to treat resistant hypertension, failed in a late-stage clinical trial. Darusentan, an endothelin receptor antagonist, did not achieve its two primary endpoints in a comparison to a placebo. Read More Here

A Victory for Big Pharma
U.S. Senate rejects amendment that would have permitted drug reimportation.
The U. S. Senate rejected an amendment to the healthcare reform bill that would have permitted Americans to buy U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved prescription drugs from other countries. The measure, which got only 51 of the 60 votes needed to pass, was opposed by the White House and the pharmaceutical industry. Some feared if passed, it would derail efforts to pass healthcare reform legislation. Read More Here