Just days after Sanofi-Aventis SA's official bid for Genzyme Corp., big pharma's pursuit of orphan drugs continued with Pfizer Inc.'s plan to buy out privately held FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. for rights to a drug for rare neurodegenerative disease transthyretin amyloid polyneuropathy (ATTR-PN). (BioWorld Today)

It's about time. A month of rampant speculation fueled by a flurry of media reports citing unnamed sources finally culminated in Genzyme Corp.'s publicly acknowledged receipt of a $69-per-share buyout bid from Sanofi-Aventis SA, and the big biotech wasted no time rejecting the roughly $18.5 billion offer as too low. (BioWorld Today)

Shares of EpiCept Corp. plunged 38.3 percent Monday after the FDA refused to accept its new drug application for Ceplene (histamine dihydrochloride) in combination with interleukin-2 as a maintenance therapy for acute myeloid leukemia and, instead, recommended an additional pivotal trial. (BioWorld Today)