Article 457: Merck, sanofi aventis, AstraZeneca Rated Top Pharma Companies in Europe

• The Thomson CenterWatch 2006 European Site Survey marks the fifth time CenterWatch has surveyed investigative sites—those front-line researchers conducting clinical trials—in Europe. Merck earned the top score, the second time the big pharma company has been rated the best drug developer by the investigators who work with them. AstraZeneca also saw its fourth appearance near the top, and Sanofi Aventis seems to be building on its merger, with tremendous improvement over the average of Sanofi-synthelabo's and Aventis' scores in previous years...

Article 458: Rising Stars in the Central Lab Market

• Thomson CenterWatch estimates the central laboratory market will grow at a double-digit pace for each of the next four years. The industry segment is expected to grow an average of about 13% a year. The major players in the clinical trial central laboratories business are the contract research organizations Covance, Quintiles, MDS Pharma, PPD and ICON, and the large reference laboratories Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp...

Article 459: EMEA Opens SME Office

• The European Medicines Agency has opened a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Office to provide administrative and procedural assistance to small and medium-sized biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies trying to develop and market new medicines.

Article 460: Eye on: Lung Cancer

• Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States for both men and women, accounting for about 29% of all cancer deaths. In 2005, the American Association for Cancer Research estimates that there were about 172,570 new cases diagnosed, accounting for 13% of all cancer diagnoses and making lung cancer the second most commonly diagnosed cancer. CenterWatch has identified a pipeline of 25 drugs in various stages of development for lung cancer.