March 2, 2006 – ImClone won FDA approval for the indication of squamous cell head and neck cancer for Erbitux, triggering a $250 million milestone payment; Merck gave up on a nasal-spray obesity drug and returned it to Nastech; BioDelivery Sciences received a non-approvable letter for Emezine, a buccal delivered therapy for nausea and vomiting; Keryx began a Phase II trial of KRX-0401 as a leukemia treatment; Biogen Idec and Elan published previously released data from two Phase III trials of Tysabri in the JAMA; Genta published data from a Phase II trial of Ganite, a gallium nitrate injection, that reduced cancer-related hypercalcemia; Pfizer will pay up to 325 million euros to in-license nitric oxide-donating technology from NicOx for use in ophthalmology drugs; Sangamo licensed a proprietary cell loading system from MaxCyte; Dynavax released updated results from a Phase II/III trial of Tolamba, a ragweed therapy; and Northstar Neuroscience, a medical device maker that is developing an electrical stimulator to treat stroke victims, filed for its IPO. The Centient Biotech 200™ was up a miniscule .85 of a point at 4056.33, a .02% rise. More details...
