Healthcare Business Recap: Lilly ABANDONS This Drug, ArQule Shares COLLAPSE

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stops the development of its mGlu2/3 schizophrenia drug, following a recent analysis which indicated that the treatment would not likely succeed in a second Phase III trial, since it already had failed a prior evaluation. In addition, another mid-stage trial that was testing Glu2/3 as an adjunctive treatment with atypical antipsychotics, could not meet the main study objective.

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The proposed $4.5 billion acquisition of Amerigroup Corporation (NYSE:AGP) by WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE:WLP) will probably not be impacted by the unanticipated exit of the former’s Chief Executive Angela Braly. The quickened pace of the deal’s time line, which now has the transaction closing in the fourth quarter is seen as positive by many analysts, and a few see the AGP Chief Executive Jim Carlson as a successor to Braly.

Shares of biotech firm ArQule, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQL) collapse on word that its Asian partner has temporarily suspended patient enrollment in its ongoing Phase 3 Attention trial on the recommendation of a safety review committee in Japan. Reports of suspected cases of interstitial lung disease in the enrollment are said to have caused the problem.

Children given the Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) cystic fibrosis treatment Kalydeco are at risk of developing cataracts, says the FDA. Kalydeco is given to a subset of cystic fibrosis patients, which comprise about 4 percent of the 30,000 patients in the United States.

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