Schering-Plough's sizable biotech unit will help Merck's sagging drug development pipeline.
The judgment overturns a June 2009 ruling in favor of Johnson & Johnson's biotech unit Centocor.
In October 2009, the biotech unit and a former Stryker president, Mark Philip, were indicted by a federal grand jury for misleading the Food and Drug Administration about the use of the products.
Judge Stanley R. Chesler of Federal District Court in New Jersey denied a preliminary injunction requested by Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Biotech unit, which makes Procrit, the only other drug approved in the United States for chemotherapy-induced anemia.
Stryker's biotech unit engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices that increased sales of products used to strengthen and promote growth of bones, Massachusetts said in a filing in state court in Boston.
As with J&J's biotech unit, Centocor, Scios will remain under the control of its current management.
We have written lots of plans," says Glaxo microbiologist David Payne, who heads a biotech unit devising new antibiotics.
The proposed configuration is likely to perform favourably in other biotech unit operations that require mixing and/or sharp residence time distribution such as precipitation.
The drug, the leading candidate of Pharmacia's Sugen biotech unit, was one of the first to try to kill tumors by cutting off their supply of blood.
In a letter to Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-Biotech unit, the Food and Drug Administration criticized the company for promotional materials that suggested doctors use Procrit to help anemic chemotherapy patients increase their red blood cell levels to normal.
Witty has abandoned me-too drugs–shutting down research into depression, anxiety, pain and other mature categories and created 40 tiny biotech-style units that have autonomy.
