Osiris Therapeutics Inc.'s double-barreled Phase III blowup last week with Prochymal for graft-vs.-host disease sent shivers through the stem-cell therapy community, vindicating nay-sayers who'd been predicting failure of the leading product candidate.

Last week's Phase III miss in Parkinson's disease psychosis by pimavanserin, the 5-HT2A inverse agonist from Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Biovail Corp., shone the spotlight once again on the "better-than-expected placebo effect," a persistent biotech bugaboo - a hazard that makes investors and scientists cringe.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s missed Phase IIa endpoint last week with retigabine for pain in postherpetic neuralgia leaves intact the promise proven in Phase III for epilepsy - albeit a promise somewhat limited by the dosing schedule of the potassium channel opener, subject of a lucrative year-ago deal with GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Prostate cancer, deadly though sometimes slow-moving, gets far more press, but benign prostatic hyperplasia - enlargement (usually associated with age) of the male gland that contributes alkalinity to sperm fluid, letting the reproductive tadpoles swim longer - represented a $3.7 billion market last year. And plenty of players are on the case.