Pfizer reported Friday that is has completed its acquisition of Durham-based Icagen.

Icagen is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer. Icagen's stock ceased trading on NASDAQ on Friday.

Icagen and Pfizer announced the $56 million deal in July, but some large investors complained the $6 share price was too low.

Pfizer was able to convince enough shareholders to go along with the deal after extending the deadline twice.

Icagen was founded in 1992 by P. Kay Wagoner, a former GlaxoSmithKline Plc research executive who focused on developing new ways to treat pain.

None of the company's drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for sale in the U.S. market.

While rumors persist about drug researcher PPD’s possible takeover by a private equity group, an analyst report this week suggests the company has room to expand as its clients increase their research and development funding, staff writer Tori Stilwell reports.

More of PPD's clients plan to boost spending on the clinical part of drug development, the company's main business, according to Garen Sarafian, an analyst with Citigroup Global Markets who follows the company.

“That naturally favors PPDI,” Sarafian said, referring to the company’s stock ticker. He also cited the company’s “lean” cost structure and strong leadership as an explanation for why he started coverage of the company with a “buy” rating.

A Durham company that helps test medicines and other products for pharmaceutical firms, universities and other customers has raised $13.1 million in venture financing.

Metabolon will use the money to hire additional workers and to expand its business. The company is developing its own tests, including one to detect insulin resistance, which can lead to Type 2 diabetes.

Founded in 2000, Metabolon expects 2011 revenue to rise to about $20 million.

The company has raised about $45 million in venture financing, and recently was named as one of 13 candidates for an initial public offering of stock by Fortune magazine.

Pfizer, which has offered to buy Durham's Icagen for $6 per share, wants to be clear: It won't pay a dime more.

In response to pressure from Icagen investors who are unhappy with the value of the offer, Pfizer sent a letter today to Icagen's board.

With the takeover offer set to expire on Aug. 31, "we thought it appropriate to reaffirm unambiguously, as we made clear when negotiating the merger agreement with you, that $6 per share is our best and final price," the letter states. "Pfizer will not pay more."

The so-called tender offer requires that a majority of Icagen investors agree to the deal. "If a majority of shares are not tendered, however, we still will not raise our offer," wrote Douglas Giordano, Pfizer's senior vice president of worldwide business development.

Durham drug-development company Icagen approached dozens of companies during the past three years about a possible acquisition before finally announcing its takeover by Pfizer last month.

But Icagen and its investment adviser J.P. Morgan Securities were rejected repeatedly, Icagen reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the summer and fall of 2009 alone, the quest involved contacting about 40 companies "to discuss possible strategic alternatives."

The SEC filing describes Icagen's long struggle to find a larger partner that would provide money needed for further research of experimental drugs to treat epilepsy and other ailments.

In July, Icagen and Pfizer announced the deal worth $56 million, or $6 per share.

But the companies are facing pressure from several large investors who say that price is too low. 

Chapel Hill drug company Pozen said today that a federal court in Texas has issued a favorable verdict in the company's legal efforts to protect one of its portfolio medicines from cheaper, copycat competitors.

Pozen has been trying to block generic versions of Treximet, the migraine medicine it sells with partner GlaxoSmithKline.

In April, Pozen announced that a federal judge in Texas had issued a preliminary injunction barring Par Pharmaceutical from producing or selling a cheaper version.

That order arose out of a previous patent infringement lawsuit that Pozen filed against three generic drug makers: Par, Dr. Reddy's and Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Teva entered into a settlement agreement with Pozen in April 2010 under which it was dismissed from the litigation, but agreed to be bound by the court's ruling.

The latest ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas says Dr. Reddy's and Par cannot have generics approved by the FDA until 2025.

The Texas lawsuit is one of two Pozen has filed to protect its medicines.

Two large Icagen investors say that Pfizer's $56 million takeover offer for the Durham drug-development company is too low and will push for a higher price.

Pfizer announced on July 20 that it planned to buy the remaining shares of Icagen it doesn't already own for $6 each.

But Merlin Nexus and New Leaf Venture Partners believe that Icagen's shares could be worth up to three time as much, the investment firms wrote in a letter last week to Icagen's board and chairman Charles Sanders. The firms disclosed the letter in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday.

"We believe the purchase price dramatically undervalues Icagen’s assets, and is not in the best interests of all stockholders," they wrote.

Merck plans to slash up to 13,000 more jobs by 2015, the latest large pharmaceutical corporation seeking to offset slowing sales by cutting costs.

Merck expects to continue hiring in growth areas of its business, including emerging markets. The company also will stick with expansion plans at its massive Durham operations, which packages and eventually will grow vaccines to protect against chicken pox and other diseases.

Officials expect to hire more than 150 people at that campus this year, adding to the 450 jobs created during the past few years.

Merck also continues to expand a packaging facility in Wilson that employs about 350 people.

Company spokesman David Caouette told the Associated Press that 35 percent to 40 percent of the new job cuts will be in the U.S., but that he couldn't provide specifics.

The cost-cutting news follows a similar strategy at other big drug makers, including Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. Faced with increasing generic competition and lower reimbursements from government health programs, the companies are reducing expenses, pushing harder to find promising new drugs and fine-tuning their business to appease investors.

A small Chapel Hill company developing a safer form of aspirin reported a bigger-than-expected net loss for the second quarter.

Pozen's loss of $6.4 million came as the company spends millions to develop  aspirin for patients who are at risk of developing gastric ulcers. The company expects to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for the drug late next year.

Revenue for the second quarter fell to $4.6 million, which was also less than Wall Street analysts had expected.

Most of Pozen's revenue comes from its Treximet migraine medicine, which is sold by larger partner GlaxoSmithKline, and its Vimovo arthritis pain reliever, sold by AstraZeneca. Pozen receives royalties from the sales.

GlaxoSmithKline reported a decline in quarterly sales this morning, but CEO Andrew Witty said the drug maker expects to see healthier results during the next year.

Revenue fell about 4 percent to $10.9 billion, after converting from British pounds, hurt by weaker sales of the controversial diabetes drug Avandia, the Valtrex herpes treatment and pandemic flu products.

Excluding those products, GSK sales rose 5 percent, boosted by higher revenue in Japan and various emerging markets.

The British corporation also reported a profit of $1.8 billion, reversing a loss during the same period last year.

The company, which employs about 4,400 people in the Triangle, has slashed costs and thousands of jobs worldwide in recent years to offset slower sales growth.