Japanese pharma plans to outsource some functions while bringing others closer to its headquarters.

Tokyo’s Astellas Pharma says it will take a $108 million (¥11 billion) loss as it shutters two U.S.-based pharma units and scales back its research operations in the United States. 

The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets, and other business mishaps.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative is calling India to account in its latest “Special 301 Report,” an annual review of the state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement by U.S. trading partners. 

Despite what the trade representative called India's “limited progress” on improving its weak intellectual property rights legal framework and enforcement system in 2012, the office is keeping the country on its Priority Watch List, flagging it as a problem trading partner along with nations such as Algeria, China, and Russia.

Move intended to combat sites that peddle counterfeit versions of the drug.

Viagra, Pfizer’s little blue pill for erectile dysfunction, has long been sold over the Internet, or at least look-alike pills claiming to be Viagra. In a join-them-to-beat-them strategy, Pfizer is striking back at counterfeiters who sell over the web by launching Viagra.com to give men who prefer to buy the drug online a trusted source. 

State-by-state, legislators are considering balance between ease of access and safety.

Florida legislators have voted to enact a law allowing prescriptions for biologic medicines to be automatically substituted with lower-cost biosimilars, joining other states in easing future market access for the new therapies. 

Company will complete analysis of data, but won’t continue development.

Baxter International is quitting development of immunoglobulin, an Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate, after a late-stage trial of the experimental therapy showed that it failed to reduce cognitive decline and preserve functional abilities in patients with mild to moderate forms of the disease. 

Gene therapy is getting new attention, following the approval in Europe of UniQure’s Glybera, the first gene therapy approved in the western world. We spoke to Elemer Piros, managing director and senior equity research analyst for Burrill Securities, which recently held an institutional investor conference about gene therapy. Piros discussed the state of gene therapy, what progress has been made in the area, and why the field is of growing interest for Big Pharma. Burrill Securities, a division of Burrill & Company, publisher of the Burrill Report, has not received any compensation from companies mentioned in this podcast during the past 12 months, nor are any of the companies Burrill Securities clients.

Biotech’s new agreement is third collaboration in less than three years.

Latest in a string of venture funds focused on seed and early-stage biotechs.

The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets, and other business mishaps.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee panel voted 13 to 1 against recommending approval for Astellas Pharma and Aveo Oncology's experimental drug for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer. Although patients taking tivozanib had statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival compared to those taking sorafenib, a drug marketed by Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals as Nexavar, the improvement was slight and patients taking sorafenib had better overall survival, at 29.3 months versus 28.8 months for those taking tivozanib.