Citing an unfavorable risk-benefit ratio, Pharmasset Inc. said it was dropping late-stage hepatitis B candidate clevudine and refocusing resources to its earlier-stage pipeline aimed at the increasingly crowded hepatitis C virus space. (BioWorld Today)
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," has long been the motto of die-hard biotech investors, who have continued funneling cash into troubled firms - sometimes even in the wake of disastrous clinical results - hoping that the next trial, or the next product will be the success story.
Despite rumors (or perhaps hopes) that GlaxoSmithKline plc might follow recent news from Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc. with its own mega-merger, the London-based pharma firm has opted for a more modest venture, pooling its HIV portfolio with Pfizer's in an unusual display of cooperation between pharmaceutical competitors. (BioWorld Today)
