By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – A pair of newer drugs proved no better, and by some measures inferior, to the older and cheaper chemotherapy agent paclitaxel in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, according to results of a late stage study.

Weekly dosing of paclitaxel appeared to result in significantly longer progression-free survival, or how long it takes for the disease to worsen, than Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Ixempra, researchers found. Paclitaxel therapy also led to fewer toxic side effects than Celgene Corp’s Abraxane, the 799-patient study found.

May 30 (Reuters) – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who last
year failed to get his nominees elected to the board of Forest
Laboratories Inc, plans to back another slate of
directors at the drugmaker’s next shareholder meeting, according
to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Icahn holds 9.92 percent of Forest shares — up from 9.2
percent last August — making him the company’s second-largest
shareholder behind Wellington Management’s 12.8 percent stake,
according to Thomson Reuters data.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – After years of trying to convince potential clients of its superiority over chief rival Medco, Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is now finding the company it bought for $29 billion was doing a lot of things right.

Express Scripts is less than two months into digesting its massive acquisition that made it the clear leader in managing drug benefits for Americans, doubling the number of prescriptions it processes a year to about 1.5 billion.

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) – Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc
, a maker of laboratory equipment, said it will focus on
expanding sales in emerging markets to help drive annual revenue
growth in the mid-single-digit percentages over the next five
years.

Thermo executives, speaking at an investor meeting in New
York on Wednesday, set a goal of deriving 25 percent of company
revenue from emerging markets by 2016, up from 19 percent
currently.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – More than 40 percent of patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis achieved clinical remission from the debilitating condition after a year of taking an experimental drug developed by Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, according to data from a pivotal late-stage trial.

The biologic drug, vedolizumab, met the goals of the Phase III trial with highly statistically significant advantages in rates of remission, clinical response and bowel healing compared with a placebo, researchers said.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – Patients taking a kidney cancer drug being developed by Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc were half as likely to need a break from the medication due to side effects than those on the widely used medicine Nexavar, according to data released on Wednesday.

There were also significantly fewer patients taking Aveo’s tivozanib who required a dose reduction than those on Nexavar.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – A Pfizer Inc lung cancer drug appears to be a highly effective treatment for children with a rare but aggressive type of lymphoma and other cancers, according to data from an early stage study released on Wednesday.

The drug, crizotinib, was able to stall tumor growth and in some cases eradicate all signs of particularly aggressive cancers with minimal side effects, researchers said.

By Lewis Krauskopf and Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) projected full-year profit that could fall short of Wall Street’s target in its first forecast since closing a $29 billion purchase of Medco Health Solutions.

The U.S. pharmacy benefit manager also reported first-quarter profit below analysts’ expectations on Thursday, as it spent more ahead of its massive integration of Medco.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline will need to sweeten its $13 per share bid for Human Genome Sciences to about $15 per share to win over its top investors and get a deal done, according to a Reuters survey of analysts on Wednesday.

The number represents an average of predictions that varied from $13 to $18 by 13 analysts who follow at least one of the drugmakers. They were polled shortly after British-based Glaxo said it would take its $2.6 billion offer directly to shareholders after it was rejected by Human Genome’s board.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – Dendreon Crop (DNDN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday that first-quarter sales of its Provenge prostate cancer vaccine rose 6.5 percent over the prior quarter to $82 million, and that it still expects only modest sequential growth through the rest of 2012.

The company forecast second quarter sales of Provenge would grow by low single digits over first quarter sales. Its shares fell more than 11 percent. Provenge is the company’s only approved product.