April 9, 2007 – Late last week, Agilent agreed to pay $245.5 million for Stratagene, a fellow tool company; Johnson & Johnson paid $300 million to buy Dabao Cosmetics Co., the largest cosmetics company in China; J and J also said the FDA has recommended stronger warnings on the bladder drug Ditropan; Benda Pharma will buy a 57.57% stake in Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech Co, which has a gene therapy product approved for cancer; Ariad will switch the proposed patient population for its Phase III trial of AP23573 back to metastatic sarcoma; the Merck drug Arcoxia faces an uphill battle when it goes before an FDA advisory panel later this week; Caliper Life Sciences will provide in vivo profiling experiments for Pfizer; and the FDA approved use of HepaGam B, a product from Cangene Corporation, to prevent the recurrence of hepatitis B. The Amex Biotechnology Index was off .28%. More details...
