FDAnews Drug Daily Bulletin

Oklahoma has jumped on the drug importation bandwagon, announcing it is weighing a plan to allow its residents to buy prescription drugs from overseas.

The FDA has posted briefing information on its Feb. 16-18 joint advisory committee meeting to examine risk-benefit considerations for Cox-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and related agents.

Although both paid and unpaid consulting arrangements between NIH scientists and private industry will end under the agency's new ethics rule, some observers believe informal communications should continue while others predict a bleak future for public-private partnerships.

The NIH has announced a new policy calling for increased public access to research articles resulting from NIH-funded studies.

Onondaga County, N.Y., is suing 70 leading national pharmaceutical companies.

West Pharmaceutical Services has announced its acquisition of Monarch Analytical Laboratories of Maumee, Ohio.

Cerus will immediately pay $34.5 million to Baxter Capital and provide a promissory note for $4.5 million, payable with interest in December 2006, to end a legal battle.

Massachusetts Senate President Robert Travaglini (D) has introduced a bill that would endorse human embryonic stem cell research in the state and void a 30-year-old law that requires such research to be approved by county district attorneys, The New York Times reports.

Diabetes care leader Novo Nordisk has completed a definitive agreement to sell its entire shareholding in Ferrosan to a holding company, making the Altor 2003 Fund the new majority shareholder in the Ferrosan group.

Pharmaceutical services giant Cardinal Health is floating plans to build a biotech manufacturing facility in Raleigh, N.C., that could cost as much as $500 million and create 1,500 jobs over 10 years.

Glenmark Laboratories has sold 16 percent of its equity in the company through a private placement to UK-based Springhill Bioventure Fund and UTI Venture Fund for a consideration of around $5 million.

Voyager Pharmaceutical, the biopharmaceutical company focused on diseases of aging and development, has announced the receipt of commitments for a $16 million private financing.