FDA panel backs Qnexa

FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 20-2 on Wednesday that the benefit-risk profile for Qnexa from Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) supports approval to treat obesity.

Orexigen, Arena up after hours on Qnexa vote

Shares of obesity companies Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:OREX) and Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) were up in after-hours trading following an FDA panel's vote in favor of obesity product Qnexa from Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS).

Collegium raises $22.5M in series B

Receptos raises $10.8 million

Vascular Magnetics raises $7M in series A

SPARC planning rights issue

Korea approves Medipost's mesenchymal stem cell therapy

Medipost (KOSDAQ:078160) said the Korean FDA approved Cartistem to treat osteoarthritis.

EMA to publish list of ongoing drug evaluations

Starting March 1, EMA will begin publishing a list of all the products that are under review by the agency's CHMP.

Independent findings from European and U.S. teams suggest combining BRAF inhibitors with EGFR inhibitors could treat colorectal cancers resistant to monotherapy with either type of drug. Both groups are now planning clinical trials with such combinations.

U.K. researchers have generated a peptide-RNA conjugate that can be delivered noninvasively to the brain and has a therapeutic effect in Parkinson's disease models. The group is now elucidating the neuroprotective mechanism and determining the smallest RNA domain needed for the effect.

Two groups have identified new strategies to treat or prevent hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially lethal complication of Escherichia coli infection. One method involves repurposing Sanofi's Mozobil CXCR4 antagonist, and the other uses the natural metal ion manganese to neutralize the toxin that causes HUS.


A Scripps Florida team has pinpointed a receptor complex in the hypothalamus that may play a role in the increase in appetite caused by dopamine receptor antagonists used to treat schizophrenia. The challenge now is to design next-generation antipsychotics without the appetite-related side effects.

Treating MLL leukemias with menin inhibitors; protecting against surgical ischemia/reperfusion injury by activating the amino acid starvation response; ameliorating AD by antagonizing NAT8 and NAT8B; and more...

An in vitro transmigration assay to model the BBB; a mouse model of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; and more...