An HIV/AIDS treatment developed by GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is now being studied with Siemens (NYSE:SI) to develop companion diagnostics that doctors can use to select patients appropriate for the treatment.The partnership with ViiV Healthcare, GSK’s AIDS drug joint venture with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), will study the drug Selzentry in a phase 3 study comparing it to another [...]

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) released fourth-quarter 2011 and full-year financial results Tuesday, which happens to be Charles Dickens’ birthday. Somehow I think it’s fitting that Britain’s largest pharmaceutical company discussed its finances on the same day that one of its greatest writers was born. GSK’s results and outlook mark a strong contrast to Britain’s second-largest pharma company, [...]

There’s a new angel investment fund in North Carolina’s Research Triangle with capital to feed early stage life science and technology companies.Triangle Angel Partners, or TAP, has formed with participation from more than 40 investors in the Triangle and raised $2.3 million, WRALTechWire reports. Financial backers include Rich Lee, the former CEO of data center [...]

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is settling more than 20,000 Avandia cases in a deal reached in court-ordered mediation.Bloomberg News reports that the British pharmaceutical giant reached the deal last month as part of the company’s efforts to resolve legal issues over the last decade surrounding the former blockbuster type 2 diabetes drug.

Generic competition for GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) AIDS drug Epzicom is on its way around the world, if not the United States. Yet.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given tentative approval for a formulation of the drug made by Cipla, a pharmaceutical company based in Mumbai, India. The tentative approval comes under expedited review from the [...]

Neglected tropicals diseases affect more than one billion people globally, but they have not figured prominently in pharmaceutical industry plans.Those priorities look to be changing with today’s announcement that 13 pharma companies, including GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), are joining with public sector and nonprofit partners to control or eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The partnership includes the [...]

As Medicon Valley‘s visitors introduced themselves to their Research Triangle Park, North Carolina hosts, members of the Scandinavian delegation took care to note whether they speak Danish, Swedish or both.Medicon Valley is the life sciences cluster in Northern Europe that encompasses eastern Denmark and southwest Sweden. The cluster, spanning the Oresund Strait, includes 4 million [...]

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is not giving up finding a role for enlarged prostate drug Avodart as a prostate cancer treatment.A study published today in The Lancet suggests that Avodart, also called dutasteride, could slow prostate cancer’s progression in men who have low-risk prostate cancer under active surveillance. But an editorial also published today in The Lancet [...]

Multiple sclerosis patients using Biogen Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB) drug Tysabri now have access to the first test that can help determine their risk for developing a rare but potentially fatal brain infection that affects some patients using the drug.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared the blood test which can help doctors determine whether MS [...]

Vaccine maker Medicago (TSX:MDG) has developed a technology that can turn tobacco leaves into vaccines quickly and inexpensively, and the biotechnology company’s new North Carolina site stands ready for influenza vaccine production.But when Medicago unveiled its new Research Triangle Park facility last November amid great fanfare, CEO Andrew Sheldon said he couldn’t disclose Medicago’s other [...]