Biotechnology news from around the world.
- Bayer pleads to shareholders
- Biogen wins injunction over Serono
- German Government blasts Bayer
- Novartis reports first half growth
- Private Corporation encourages stars to copyright their DNA
- Roche ends patent dispute with Schering-Plough
- Roche's profit unchanged
- US responds to stem-cell policy
Bayer pleads to shareholders
21 August 2001 – Bayer AG today published a full-page letter in the German business daily, Handelsblatt, urging shareholders to be patient. Shares in Bayer have slumped and the company is facing legal action following the recent withdrawal of Baycol, its cholesterol-lowering drug. The letter said that the company had been 'shaken', but was not threatened in its foundations because it is not exclusively focussed on pharmaceuticals.
[Source: The Age – Reto Gregori]
Biogen wins injunction over Serono
20 August 2001 – US biopharmaceutical company, Biogen Inc, has won an injunction prohibiting Serono International SA, Europe's largest biotech company, from publicising misleading claims against Avonex, Biogen's drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The Geneva court determined Serono's claims were false and misleading to doctors and people with MS and 'presented the prospect of causing irreparable harm to Biogen'. Serono's claims that its drug Rebif worked better than Avonex were based on data that was never submitted to an appropriate regulatory authority.
In related legal actions, a Swiss court rejected Serono's request for a preliminary injunction against Biogen, and a German court issued two separate injunctions against Serono preventing various claims.
[Source: prnewswire.com]
German Government blasts Bayer
18 August 2001 – German pharmaceutical company Bayer was today criticised by the German Government for failing to tell health authorities for nearly two months that its top-selling anti-cholesterol treatment could have lethal side-effects. Lipobay / Baycol was removed from the worldwide market recently after being linked to 52 deaths. The German Health Ministry has ordered an investigation into the drug.
[Source: The Australian Financial Review]
Novartis reports first half growth
16 August 2001 – The Novartis Group has posted overall first-half sales of CHF 15.5 billion, an increase of 11 per cent in Swiss francs. Income from associated companies, primarily Chiron, increased CHF 53 million to CHF 77 million. Net financial income increased CHF 26 million to CHF 952 million.
[Source: Bionews.net]
Private Corporation encourages stars to copyright their DNA
15 August 2001 – The DNA Copyright Institute is encouraging famous individuals to copyright their DNA the BBC reported today. Mr Crump, the Institute's founder believes that getting hold of a famous person's DNA against their will would not be difficult and that enough DNA to generate a clone was left behind by a person talking on the telephone. Although copyright protection would not necessarily prevent someone being cloned against their will, it could offer them a legal remedy Mr Crump claimed.
[Source : BBC News]
Roche ends patent dispute with Schering-Plough
13 August 2001 – Swiss drugs and diagnostics company Roche Holding AG said today that it has resolved a patent dispute with US rival Schering-Plough over peginterferon products, Reuters has reported. Peginterferon is a new treatment for hepatitis C which analysts say has a potential market of $US590 million per year in sales. Under the agreement, the two groups have agreed to cross-licence each other with regard to peginterferon products, allowing them to market their respective products. They have dropped all patent litigation. Schering-Plough's Peg-Intron and Rebetol have been given US FDA approval, while Roche's Pegasys is still awaiting FDA approval but has been approved by Swiss authorities.
[Source: Reuters]
Roche's profit unchanged
18 August 2001 – Drug company Roche Holdings announced a first-half profit of SFr2.98 billion, almost identical to the half-year profit recorded a year earlier, the Australian Financial Review reported today.
[Source: The Australian Financial Review]
US responds to stem-cell policy
11 August 2001 – US President George Bush's decision on Thursday to allow Federal funding for research on existing stem-cell lines has been met with criticism by scientists. The president ruled out financing for research on any new lines on the basis that the government should not encourage further destruction of embryos. The decision was further justified by the existence of 60 self-sustaining cell colonies worldwide, but critics doubt whether this number really exist, or whether many of them are of sufficient quality, The New York Times reported today. The use of these cell lines may also be difficult given that many of them are owned by private companies. A positive spin on the decision is that private funding may be given a boost many scientists had been avoiding private support fearing that it would jeopardise their chances of receiving federal funding.
[Source: Company Announcement]
