Biogen Idec & Genentech Down on Rituxan Related Deaths

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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From BioHealth Investor

by H.S. Ayoub
BioHealthInvestor.com

Shares of Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) and Genentech, Inc. (DNA) are down in after hours trading on Monday after issuing a letter to physicians and other prescribers regarding updated safety information for Rituxan, Genentech’s blockbuster drug.

The letter outlines two deaths in patients receiving Rituxan for treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). The problem? Rituxan is not approved for treatment of SLE. The deaths occured while using Rituxan off-label.

This is not the first time Genentech had to issue a Dear Physician Letter regarding Rituxan caused deaths. The company, along with IDEC Pharmaceuticals (before merging with Biogen), issued such a letter way back in 1998 regarding "eight post-marketing reports of severe infusion-related adverse events associated with the use of RITUXAN (rituximab) that resulted in fatal outcomes".

Biogen Idec is down by 4% while Genentech has lost more than 1% in after-hourse trading on Monday.

http://www.biohealthinvestor.com/

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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