GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Denmark-based Genmab received some good news with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval for Arzerra (ofatumumab), a monoclonal antibody for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a slowly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.  Arzerra is approved for cancer patients who are no longer responding to the current available treatment options using fludarabine and alemtuzumab. Following the approval, Genmab has become eligible to receive a milestone payment of DKK 116 million (approximately $23 million) from Glaxo.  Earlier, in May 2009, Arzerra had received a positive recommendation from the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) in which the panel had voted 10-3 in favor of the drug. They had found that Arzerra provided some clinical benefit to patients with CLL whose disease was refractory to fludarabine and alemtuzumab.  Arzerra has been approved by the FDA under the accelerated approval process ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 14, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: American International Group (AIG), Morgan Stanley (MS), Elan Corporation (ELN), Biogen Idec (BIIB) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

AIG to Sell Taiwan Life Unit

American International Group (AIG) said on Monday that it has decided to sell its stake of almost 98% in Taiwan life insurance unit Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. for about $2.2 billion to a group led by Hong Kong-based

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Elan Corporation (ELN) recently received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the company’s disclosure of two brain disorder cases (in July 2008), often fatal, tied to the use of its drug Tysabri for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Elan has a marketing agreement with Biogen Idec (BIIB) for Tysabri. In addition, the subpoena asked for detailed information regarding clinical trial data on bapineuzumab, a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Recently, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) paid $885 million for an 18.4% stake in Elan in addition to $500 million for a majority stake in the company’s Alzheimer's disease pipeline. As a reminder, in July last year, both Elan and Biogen announced the occurrence of two cases of brain infection, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), in patients taking the drug. Meanwhile, 11 such cases have been reported by the companies ...

Elan Corporation

(Public, NYSE:ELN)

About

Elan Corporation, plc (Elan) is a neuroscience-based biotechnology company. Its principal research and development, manufacturing and marketing facilities are located in Ireland and the United States. Elan’s operations are organized into two business units: Biopharmaceuticals and Elan Drug Technologies (EDT). Biopharmaceuticals engages in research, development and commercial activities primarily in neuroscience, autoimmune and severe chronic pain. EDT focuses on the specialty pharmaceutical industry, including specialized drug delivery and manufacturing.

The following article was written and contributed by a highly regarded investor and member within the StocksHaven Investments community, Nicholas DeCesare:

Any long term holder of Elan can’t be happy with the stock price over the past year. In fact, shares have gone from the mid 30’s in the summer of 2008, to around $7 a share. Since announcing a deal with

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div style="text-align: justify;"span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_JustifyFull" title="Justify Full" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 13);ButtonMouseDown(this);"img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Justify Full" class="gl_align_full" border="0" //span/spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"Biogen-Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB)/span is getting some cautious commentary after the co reported another case of PML in Ex-U.S.,confirmed June 23, 2009. This is the 10th confirmed PML case since Tysabri was relaunched in July 2006. This patient had received 30 doses of Tysabri therapy.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- Deutsche Bank is downgrading BIIB shares from Buy to Hold/span, as they believe the shares are now fairly valued. Firm notes that when they upgraded, they argued that at about $42/ share BIIB shares were pricing in an overly pessimistic Tysabri scenario (i.e. that it would decline dramatically or even be pulled from the market). Tysabri, however, continued to grow. In their opinion, the stock is now pricing in reasonable Tysabri expectations and no longer warrants being one ...