Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc. to develop Aurora kinase inhibitors in cancer encountered a bump in the road after preliminary safety data indicated a potential cardiovascular effect in one patient treated with lead candidate, MK-0457 (VX-680). (BioWorld Today)

Remember FDA-stalled oritavancin? The hospital-based glycopeptide antibiotic acquired in 2001 by InterMune Inc. from Eli Lilly and Co. (which developed the compound as a replacement for vancomycin, which still takes an estimated 80 percent share of the market) was bought by Targanta Therapeutics Inc around Christmas four years later. (BioWorld Financial Watch)