Whether it was the holiday spirit or just wanting to clear their desks of applications, US regulators on 21 December granted an earlier-than-expected approval to NPS Pharmaceuticals to market Gattex (teduglutide) as a subcutaneous treatment for adults with short bowel syndrome (SBS) dependent on parenteral support.

Orexigen's lead candidate Contrave (naltrexone sustained-release/bupropion SR) has met the co-primary endpoints of three pivotal Phase III trials, COR-I, COR-II and COR-diabetes, for the treatment of obesity.

GW Pharmaceuticals is expanding its potential cannabinoid treatments to diabetes and metabolic disease after it signed a strategic alliance with Professor Mike Cawthorne at the University of Buckingham.

Lilly has demonstrated that its investigational selective oestrogen receptor modulator (SERM) arzoxifene is superior to its older SERM Evista (raloxifene hydrochloride) in increasing bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis in a Phase III study.