Month: January 2014

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc said its chief executive would leave and it would cut its workforce by about 45 percent, as it moves its focus away from drug discovery to completing the studies of its drugs in late-stage development. The company said Arthur Sands, CEO since 1995 and a co-founder, intends to develop a succession plan with the board. “I think Arthur Sands could have easily done the transition to commercial, but possibly the board felt they wanted someone with direct commercial experience”, Wedbush analyst Liana Moussatos said. “Most of the value of the company is wrapped up in these late-stage drugs,” Morningstar analyst Karen Andersen said.

Merck & Co Inc’s experimental blood clot-preventing drug vorapaxar should be approved, based on “robustly positive” clinical trial results, according to a preliminary review of the data by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The review, posted on the FDA’s website on Monday, comes two days ahead of a meeting of outside medical experts who are expected to recommend whether it should be approved. The FDA usually follows the advice of its advisory panels. The drug, which would be sold under the brand name Zontivity, is designed to prevent heart-related deaths, cardiac arrests and strokes in patients who have had a recent heart attack.

After a six days of no sleep, Sainah Theodore physically destroyed her home and was committed involuntarily to a hospital mental ward for five days. Lab tests showed the herbal pills contained two drugs not approved by the FDA in over-the-counter products, according to her lawsuit.        

The diet aims to teach you how to choose healthy foods and portions and to develop healthy lifestyle habits so that you can maintain a healthy weight …