While You Were BBQing

For those of you struggling to keep up after a beautiful holiday weekend, here's a quick roundup of recent news and health care goings on ...

• Whatever you think of Congressional oversight of FDA, this news out of China suggests there are harsher ways to deal with failure to lead a food and drug regulatory body. The New York Times is reporting this morning that Zheng Xiaoyu, who headed China's Food and Drug Administration from its foundation in mid-1998 until 2005, was sentenced to death today after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes.



• Via Reuters, analysts are wary that GSK's Avandia problems will hurt the regulatory chances of Sanofi-Aventis' Acomplia/Zimulti. We think rimonabant's chances were pretty slim to start with, but agree the current climate isn't helping the French drugmaker.



• Speaking of Avandia, the recent turmoil might mean serious trouble for GSK's long-term safety study Record. Patients are dropping out of the 4,450-patient trial in the wake of the NEJM study, says the NYT, and GSK is worried about whether it can complete the trail, which is scheduled to run through 2008.



• Via the recently redesigned Pharmalot, FDA has called out companies whose time-released cough and cold medicines incorporate the substance guaifenesin. Good news for Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, the only company with FDA approved drugs that contain the substance. Adams was up 10% on Friday on the Nasdaq. See the letter from FDA here, and the new sleek and sexy version of Pharmalot here. Looking good!