1. Valeant CEO Michael Pearson is on the mend. Pearson sent a memo to staff that he’s recovering but didn’t give a timetable for his return. The drugmaker named Howard Schiller as interim CEO of Valeant earlier this month. (Bloomberg)
2. GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson partnered with three British universities to raise money for an early-stage cancer research fund. Each of the three drugmakers agreed to contribute about $14 million over six years to Imperial College London, University College London and the University of Cambridge. (Reuters)
3. Drugmaker Oxford Pharmascience Group is looking for a big pharma partner. The company is looking for marketing support to help push its more palatable versions of painkiller ibuprofen and naproxen. The two drugs are supposed to be less harsh on the digestive tract. (Bloomberg)
4. Roche launched an internal probe into whether its cancer drug Avastin may have damaged the vision of 15 patients in India. The drug is often prescribed off-label for wet age-related macular degeneration. The Drug Controller General of India issued a public health alert on January 21 to monitor the drug and its use in ophthalmology. (The Economic Times)
5. The FDA expanded the approved indication for Bristol-Myers Squibb cancer drug Opdivo, broadening its use in combination with Yervoy to patients with metastatic melanoma. Opdivo, as a monotherapy, also had its indications expanded to include patients with the untreated BRAF-wild type of melanoma. (MedPage Today)
