With swine flu comes the drug companies

The FDA gave its okay for emergency use of BioCryst's Peramivir as a last ditch treatment for those people sick with H1N1. This was discussed previously, but while the approval is excellent news for health care professionals, it is also good news for BioCryst's portfolio. Fierce Biotech and Reuters also report that the pursuit of investigational flu therapies won't end there: there are a number of other companies including Daiichi Sankyo, Nexibio, and Toyam Chemical that are developing their own products that could very well see similar regulatory authorizations for use prior to a formal marketing approval.

Read more here from Fierce Biotech and Reuters

I would say that BioCryst is the immediate winner here, but keep an eye on the others as flu season progresses in the northern hemisphere...


Arena reported some nice looking results from its recent phase 3 studies (the BLOOM program) examining Lorcaserin for weight loss. BioHealth investor reported that investors did not respond well to the news, but I still believe that Arena's product has the most potential for long term success as a weight loss agent.

Check out the Arena Press Release and the BioHealth Investor report here


Finally, European regulatory authorities are investigating the underreporting of additional PML cases in Tysabri users...potentially bad news for Biogen. It will be hard to say if any additional restrictions on Tysabri use will be imposed because people believe it is the most effective treatment for MS out there and the small risk of PML is worth it. Stay tuned as the story unfolds...

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