Salix Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the rights for a drug that treats constipation in patients taking pain medicines.

The deal with Progenics Pharmaceuticals calls for Morrisville-based Salix to pay $60 million upfront, and payments worth up to $290 million more if the drug meets development and sales milestones in coming years.

Salix is one of the few small drug companies based in the Triangle with actual products and revenue. The company sells drugs to treat various gastrointestinal ailments, and has been adding more products to its portfolio.

Progenics' Relistor is an injected drug used in patients taking opioid painkillers, which often cause severe constipation. Progenics, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., sold $16 million of Relistor worldwide last year.

Salix shares fell 34 cents to $39.92 this morning. The stock is up 46 percent in the past year.
 

Grifols, the Spanish company seeking to buy Talecris Biotherapeutics for $4 billion, has extended a deadline for the deal to March 6.

The company reported in a regulatory filing today that it agreed to the date with U.S. antitrust regulators. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the deal to make sure it doesn't hurt consumers or lead to higher prices for medicines made from blood plasma.

In a previous filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Grifols wrote that it expected the FTC to rule this month, and wanted to close the deal by March 6.

Talecris has scheduled a meeting on Feb. 14 for its shareholders to vote on the proposed deal, which was announced in June.

Icagen plans to resume clinical trials of an experimental epilepsy drug after federal regulators lifted a hold on the tests.

Last fall, the Durham drug-development company stopped clinical trials after a patient experienced a "serious adverse event." Officials have said that no one died, but haven't disclosed what happened.

The company announced this morning that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Icagen's plans for further clinical tests. Icagen will determine its next steps shortly, said CEO P. Kay Wagoner, in a prepared statement.

Icagen shares rose 31 cents to close at $3.72. The shares have more than tripled since September, on investor optimism that several experimental drugs show promise.

Icagen also is developing pain treatments under a partnership with Pfizer.

GlaxoSmithKline wants to improve its image.

The drug maker is working harder to operate with integrity and transparency, said Deirdre Connelly, president of North American Pharmaceuticals, in a speech at a Washington conference on Monday.

"In some ways our industry lost its way, and failed to fully appreciate the evolving expectations of our stakeholders," Connelly said, according to prepared remarks GSK made available.

"Some of it is because industry bashing is good politics. Some it it is because we still make mistakes," she said. "No matter the reasons, at the end of the day, we must regain the public's trust in our industry."

GSK has been tarnished recently by a series of problems.

Hospira doesn't plan to resume production of a key lethal injection drug, which had been made at its massive manufacturing plant in Rocky Mount, after running into opposition from Italian authorities about making the drug in that country.

Halting production of sodium thiopental could disrupt executions in states already struggling with a shortage of the drug.

Hospira wanted to shift production of the drug from Rocky Mount to a plant in Italy that has "state-of-the-art production lines," said spokesman Dan Rosenberg. But Italian authorities insisted the company control the product's distribution to guarantee it wouldn't be used in executions, the Associated Press reports.

After discussions with Italian authorities, with Hospira wholesalers and within the corporation, Hospira decided it couldn't make that promise.

INC Research, a Raleigh company that assists drugmakers with clinical trials, said today that it has acquired AVOS Life Sciences of Morrisville.

AVOS' team of six and its products will become a new division of INC Research called AVOS Consulting, which will provide operational and financial analysis to life sciences companies. The division will be located at INC's Raleigh headquarters.

AVOS Consulting will help companies develop business models, assist with capital allocation, pricing and accelerated drug development models.

INC's nearly 2,000 employees help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies conduct clinical trials in 40 countries.

The company has about 575 employees in North Carolina, the majority of them in Raleigh.
 

GlaxoSmithKline will take a fourth-quarter charge of $3.4 billion to cover various legal costs related to its controversial diabetes drug Avandia and other products.

The British company, which has its North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park, announced today that it will take the charge as it continues to settle lawsuits tied to Avandia, which has been linked to increase risk of heart attacks.

The charge also is tied to costs related to an investigation by the U.S. attorney in Colorado into the company’s U.S. sales and promotional practices of certain products.

A Cleveland-based online media venture focused on medical industries is expanding its coverage to the Triangle.

MedCity News has recruited as its local correspondent Frank Vinluan, who has covered health care and other topics for the Triangle Business Journal. His last day at TBJ is today.

MedCity is just the latest example in a flurry of activity among startup media outfits hoping to take advantage of a shift among readers and advertisers to the Internet. One big challenge will be standing out from other online efforts, including traditional media companies with more resources, nonprofit-backed bloggers and more.

Inspire Pharmaceuticals reported that its potential treatment for cystic fibrosis failed to meet key treatment goals in a late clinical study.

The news disappointed investors, who sent shares of the company down in early morning trading. Inspire, which is moving its headquarters to Raleigh from Durham this month, has been counting on the drug to help it expand beyond its line of medicines for various eye ailments.

The company is studying denufosol tetrasodium as a treatment cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that causes thick mucus buildup in the lungs. The results from the so-called Tiger-2 test mark a setback after a previous, successful study of the drug.

"These Tiger-2 results were disappointing and unexpected given the treatment effect observed in the Tiger-1 trial," CEO Adrian Adams said in a prepared statement. 

Novartis plans to expand its massive Holly Springs vaccine plant, adding a $36 million research lab focused on preventive medicine and 100 jobs during the next two years.

This morning, state officials approved giving the Swiss drug maker incentives worth as much as $3.7 million if it meets hiring and investment goals. Holly Springs will also provide $1 million.

The new jobs will pay average wages of $106,200. Novartis also considered building the facility in Italy.

Novartis opened the $600 million Holly Springs plant last year, and expects to begin commercial vaccine production in 2013. The facility now employs about 230 people.