TheStreet tracks the top 10 clinical trials to watch

TheStreet's top biotech stock ace, Adam Feuerstein, has culled through a mountain of releases and reports to come up with the 10 most closely-watched trial announcements expected in the second half of the year. His list includes: Ariad's Phase III data for the sarcoma drug ridaforolimus, which Merck licensed; AstraZeneca's zibotentan, which hopes to answer the question about who has the next Provenge to offer the market; as well as mid-stage data on BioMarin's Peg-Pal for phenylketonuria,...

HHS report underscores big shift to foreign drug trials

A new report from the inspector general of HHS highlights just how dependent drug developers have become on overseas clinical trials. And the New York Times raises some serious questions over the kind of regulatory oversight, or lack of it, that foreign drug trials are subject to. According to the HHS report, 80 percent of all the drugs approved in 2008 relied on foreign trials to some extent, with 78 percent of all enrollees recruited at foreign sites. And a total of 10 new drugs were approved...

Report: U.S. cancer trials are in a state of crisis

The system used to conduct cancer clinical trials in the U.S. is "approaching a state of crisis," with waste and inefficiency creating difficulties for those wanting to undertake these studies, an Institute of Medicine report has found. The National Cancer Institute supports a network of clinical studies. The largest component of this group is the Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program. For 50 years, the program has played a key role in testing promising therapies. And...