Branded

INDIANAPOLIS — A few months after launching its multichannel platform to inform and educate patients about healthy eating, physical activity and stress management, drug maker Eli Lilly has debuted a new YouTube channel.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The Food and Drug Administration has accepted a regulatory approval application for a drug made by Vivus for treating erectile dysfunction.

Vivus said it expected the Food and Drug Administration to complete its review of the application for avanafil by April 29, 2012.

"We are pleased with FDA's acceptance of our NDA," Vivus president Peter Tam said. "If approved, avanafil could be a valuable treatment alternative for the 18 million men in the United States that suffer from ED."

PHILADELPHIA — Overweight people with lower back pain is more intense than people of normal weight with back pain, according to a recent study published in the Sept. 15 issue of Spine.

The study sets up another comorbidity associated with being overweight.

LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Francesco International on Tuesday released a Rx-to-OTC projection report covering potential switches through 2016. The potential switches include drugs prescribed for chronic use or for asymptomatic conditions — two switch hurdles that to date have not cleared the Food and Drug Administration approval process.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway on Tuesday announced its offering of flu shots in its grocery stores — positioning its flu season inoculation as more convenient to drug stores.

"Safeway makes getting a flu shot more convenient than most other retailers offering immunizations, because consumers visit grocery stores on a regular basis," the supermarket chain stated. "In an average month, 49% of those surveyed said they visit grocery stores most often, compared [with] 8% who said they visit drug stores most often."

NEW YORK — Pfizer has completed its initial cash tender offer for all the shares of drug maker Icagen that it doesn't already own, Pfizer said Tuesday.

Pfizer, which already owns an 11% stake in Icagen, announced Thursday that it would acquire a majority stake in the company. As of Friday, when the initial tender offer period expired, about 4.6 million shares of Icagen had been put up for sale; combined with Pfizer's existing stake, this represents about 64% of the North Carolina-based maker of drugs for pain, epilepsy and inflammation.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The longer a person maintains a body mass index qualifying him or her as "obese," the greater risk he or she incurs in developing diabetes, a new study released Tuesday found.

MINNEAPOLIS — Novo Nordisk has expressed its support of new diabetes education programs created by four Minneapolis-based community organizations.