The Day In Review: Januvia From Merck & Co., Inc. Gets First Approval

August 8—Merck won Mexican approval for use of diabetes drug Januvia; Apotex launched its generic version of Plavix; Inspire Pharma stopped a trial of an antiplatelet drug because of bleeding problems; CuraGen began a Phase I trial of PXD101 for advanced hematologic malignancies; Cell Therapeutics said the safety committee advised continuing the Phase III trial of pixantrone against NHL; Neurocrine fired another 100 employees; Valentis sold assets to Cobra Biologics for an undisclosed amount of cash; Celsis International paid $30 million to buy In Vitro Technologies; and Novartis said its two-year study of a vaccine showed an 80% effectiveness rate against meningococcal B disease. The Centient Biotech 200™ ended the session with a 15 point loss at 3613.83, a drop of .42%. The S&P 500 was down .34% and Nasdaq gave up .56%. More details....