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Biotech / Medical : Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc (BCRX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (91)	3/6/2007 12:56:17 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 269

yahoo.reuters.com U.S. flu drug maker teams up with Japan's Shionogi Mon Mar 5, 2007 10:29pm ET WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BCRX.O: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Monday it signed an exclusive license agreement with Japan's Shionogi & Co. Ltd. to make its peramivir flu drug. Peramivir would be the third influenza drug on the market in a class called neuraminidase inhibitors, which experts hope would be useful against both regular seasonal flu and the dangerous H5N1 avian influenza virus. "Shionogi is the leading infectious disease company in Japan, and this agreement further validates the therapeutic potential and commercial viability of peramivir in the treatment of influenza," Randall Riggs, BioCryst's senior vice president for corporate development, said in a statement. Jon Stonehouse, chief executive officer of Birmingham, Alabama-based BioCryst, said the companies "will collaborate to evaluate other injectable formulations of peramivir." "Shionogi will retain Japanese marketing rights to all injectable formulations while BioCryst retains marketing rights for the rest of the world outside of Korea," Stonehouse said. Under the agreement, Shionogi will have the rights in Japan in exchange for a $14 million up-front payment. "Not only will this deal help speed up foreign development of the peramivir program, but it provides another source of excellent validation, much like the $100-plus million contract from (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) did," said the Medical Technology Stock Letter, edited by California-based analyst John McCamant. In January, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded BioCryst a $102.6 million, four-year contract for advanced development of peramivir to treat influenza. The Medical Technology Stock Letter said BioCryst was undervalued by stock traders. There are four existing flu drugs but the two older ones, amantadine and rimantadine, are no longer considered effective. Roche (ROG.V: Quote, Profile , Research) and Gilead Sciences' (GILD.O: Quote, Profile , Research) Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, is the first choice against both seasonal flu and H5N1 avian influenza. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L: Quote, Profile , Research)(GSK.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and Biota Holdings' (BTA.AX: Quote, Profile , Research) Relenza, or zanamivir, can also be used. But both are in short supply and flu viruses can mutate quickly and evolve resistance to drugs, so experts want more choices. Seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide every year and a pandemic of flu would kill many more. Many scientists fear H5N1 avian influenza could easily cause a human pandemic with a few more mutations. So far, the virus has infected 277 people and killed 167 of them.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (91)	3/21/2007 9:45:00 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 269

Japanese Doctors Warned Not To Give Tamiflu To Teenagers After Reports Of Abnormal Behavior AP - 3/21/2007 7:36 AM - Updated 3/21/2007 7:37 AM TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese doctors were warned on Wednesday against prescribing Tamiflu to teenagers after several young patients taking the bird flu-fighting drug reportedly exhibited dangerous behavior. The Health Ministry issued emergency instructions Tuesday to a Japanese Tamiflu distributor, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., to warn doctors not to give the drug to teenagers, a Chugai official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. Chugai began distributing warnings to doctors, hospitals and pharmacies across Japan on Wednesday, the official said. Martina Rupp, a spokeswoman for Swiss manufacturer Roche Holding AG, said the company didn't understand the Japanese government's rationale for the action. ``No causal relationship has been established between Tamiflu and these reports, and we don't see this as an appropriate course of action,'' Rupp told The Associated Press. Concerns over Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, have spiked in Japan after a boy and a girl, both 14, fell to their deaths from their condominiums while taking the drug in separate incidents in February. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it received more than 100 reports of delirium, hallucinations and other unusual psychiatric behavior, mostly in Japanese children treated with Tamiflu, between Aug. 29, 2005, and July 6, 2006. The Japanese government has not released detailed figures. The FDA added a new precaution to Tamiflu's label in November, bringing the U.S. label more in line with the Japanese one that already warned that such abnormal behavior could occur. Both Roche and the FDA have said that severe cases of the flu can spark the abnormal behavior displayed by some patients. Two 12-year-old boys also taking Tamiflu both broke legs after jumping out of their houses in separate incidents in February and March, the official said. Tamiflu, one of the few drugs believed to be effective in treating bird flu, is widely used in Japan to treat influenza.