Diabetes

DEERFIELD, Ill., and OSAKA, Japan — Takeda and its subsidiary settled the patent suits it brought against generic drug makers that sought to develop their own versions of its diabetes treatment.

MADISON, N.J. — Nearly one-third of pregnant women are not being screened by a laboratory test for gestational diabetes mellitus (gestational diabetes), according to a study of more than 900,000 American women published online Tuesday on the Obstetrics and Gynecology site.

PRINCETON, N.J. — A biopharmaceutical company exclusively will develop and commercialize oral formulations of a drug maker's insulins.

Emisphere will be paid $57.5 million in potential product development and sales milestone payments by Novo Nordisk — of which $5 million dollars will be payable upon signing — as well as royalties on sales. Further financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

SAN DIEGO — Drug maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals has submitted the first of a series of sections of a regulatory approval application for a biotech drug to treat patients with a rare lipid disorder.

WASHINGTON — More than 6% of women who gave birth in hospitals in the United States in 2008 had diabetes or developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy, according to a new analysis by the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

NEW YORK — A link may exist between diabetes and the use of inhaled corticosteroids to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to published reports.

HealthDay News reported that researchers analyzed data on 380,000 patients in Quebec, finding a 34% increase in the rate of new diagnoses of diabetes and progression of the disease among those who used inhalers, with greater risk among those using higher doses.

NEW YORK — Community-based healthcare models, and the nurse practitioners who work within them, are particularly helpful in assisting diabetes patients with such underlying health conditions as depression, according to a recent study published on Nurse.com.

DANBURY, Conn. — A drug maker specializing in the treatment of diabetes announced the retirement of its chief scientific officer.

Biodel this week said Solomon Steiner, who is a company co-founder, will remain on the company's board of directors. Prior to holding his chief scientific officer position, Steiner was chairman, president and CEO of Biodel from its inception in late 2003 through March of this year, at which point Errol De Souza was appointed to be the company's president and chief executive, and Charles Sanders was named board chairman.