Switcheroo

There has been a pretty big deal made lately about Prevacid's switch to OTC, primarily on the marketing side of things (very visible in store displays and tv commercials), but is there another heartburn med heading in that direction? It has been discussed several times this year that Schering Plough has submitted a filing to the FDA to sell Zegerid (omeprazole and sodium bicarbonate) OTC as yet another treatment for heartburn. This transition was supposed to have been done several months ago, but the FDA put the brakes on it, delaying a decision till December of this year. Analysts (and Schering Plough) seem to think a favorable decision is on it's way, so be prepared for another big push for Zegerid in early 2010 like we've been seeing for Prevacid. Good news for those heartburn sufferers, bad news for those who don't like to make decisions...

Read more here

Also, if you have say...$300 million you can probably buy Human Genome Sciences. This company has been the subject of nebulous buyout rumors for some time now, but nobody has stepped up to the plate and as time goes on, it seems that HGS's position in the field is becoming more tenous. I guess investors aren't thrilled by the promise of the company's pipeline, which currently has several drugs in phase 2 or later testing or maybe they were scared off by the oddly positive (almost too good) results of HGS's new treatment for Lupus that was announced a couple months ago. Whatever the reason, keep an eye on this company...one more positive study result could tip the balance in the favor of a buyout...

Check out the pipeline here

Read the BioHealth Investor article here