Inside This Issue: Smoking Cessation
Top News Alerts: Product Updates, Deals & Financings
Featured Topic: Neurotech Executives Meet with Leaders in DC
Featured Company: Extab
Subscribe now to access over 30 articles covering developments in drugs, devices and diagnostics for the brain and nervous system.
The Smoking Hot Nicotine Addiction Market
It is estimated that 1.3 billion people worldwide use tobacco products. About one third of the world's male population smokes tobacco according to the World Health Organization. Forty-five million American adults smoke and, according to the CDC, at any given time, 70% want to quit. However, less than five percent of those who try remain smoke-free after a year. Smoking cessation is the largest drug addiction market in the country. Even though nicotine's psychoactive effects are very subtle, consisting mostly of a slight euphoria, increased concentration, and reduced appetite, it is a very addictive drug, and most smokers find it very hard to kick the habit. Treatments for smoking generally fall into two categories: substitution/replacement and withdrawal/craving mitigation...
Extab: UK Entrepreneur Never Quits but Hopes Smokers Will
Rick Stewart has been busy since leaving the UK neuropharmaceutical company Amarin a little over a year ago. Stewart, who co-founded Amarin as well as the drug delivery company SkyePharma, has a business background and over 15 years of experience in biotechnology. He is now involved with a number of new projects including the US neuropharma company Avicena and a UK based nanoparticle drug delivery company called AGT Sciences. He founded Extab in late 2008 with Sopharma to bring Tabex, a smoking cessation drug on the market in Eastern Europe, to the European Union and US markets...
Market Highlights: FDA Scrutiny Brings Somaxon to its Knees
Corcept (CORT) was up 43% based on new results showing effectiveness of its treatment Corlux in preventing antipsychotic induced weight gain (see story, page 3). The drug was originally being developed for psychotic depression but failed its most recent Phase III trial for that indication.Acorda (ACOR) shot up briefly due to speculation that it is in talks for a merger with Biogen Idec. The company submitted its NDA for a novel treatment for MS which improves walking ability (see story, page 3). Somaxon (SOMX) tanked after the FDA refused to approve Silenor (low dose doxepin) for insomnia after a 3 month delay in the review. The Agency raised questions about efficacy data as well as concerns over potential cardiac side effects. While no new trials have yet been requested yet, it appears the company is in for a long and uncertain struggle for approval and consequently for its own survival (see story, page 7)...
Companies Covered In This Issue Include: Addex, Celtic, Cytos, Evotec, GSK, Nabi, Pfizer, Sanofi, Somaxon, Targacept, Xenova, Lundbeck, Ovation, Adlyfe, Alfred Mann Foundation, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Aruna Biomedical, BiotechPartnering Solutions, Brain Aneurysm Foundation, BrainScope, Cognitive Drug Research, CureNeuro, Medavante, North American Neuromodulation Society, Neuromodulation Therapy Access Coalition, NeuroVentures Capital, Remegenix, StemCells Inc., Sound Pharmaceuticals, Acorda, SantoSolve, Victhom Human Bionics, Corcept, Merck, Newron, Medtronic, Johnson and Johnson, TorreyPines, Teva, Neuropharm, Stem Cell Therapeutics, NeuralStem, Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, Pfizer, Avigen, Somaxon, Transgenomic, Power3 Medical, Enzymotec, Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Bionomics, 4D NeuroImaging, CNS Response, Ely Lilly, NeuroSearch, Heptares, Zoll Medical, Alsius, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Durect, Enteromedics, Wyeth, Dynogen
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