Dendreon posted a fourth-quarter profit on the sale of its royalty stream for a Merck hepatitis C drug, while Dendreon’s cancer drug Provenge generated higher sales.

The Seattle-based company, however, said sales growth for Provenge would moderate for the first quarter. (Here’s the company’s earnings release.)

Dendreon shares were down $2.75, or 18.5%, to $12.11 in early afternoon trading.

Dendreon said it was making progress helping physician practices receive insurance reimbursement for the expensive Provenge. Reimbursement challenges had hampered Provenge’s financial performance following its introduction in 2010.

“While it’s not easy to introduce an entirely new treatment paradigm for an entirely new market, we have made important progress towards establishing Provenge as a foundation of care,” John Johnson, who last month took over Dendreon as chief executive, said on a conference call with analysts.

Dendreon’s product revenue for the fourth quarter was $77 million, up from $25 million a year earlier. The company’s sole product on the market is Provenge, a drug designed to harness the body’s immune system to fight prostate cancer. (Provenge was approved by the FDA in 2010.)

Dendreon said Provenge revenue was higher than expected for December because some customers accelerated orders.

But Dendreon expects first-quarter Provenge sales growth should be in the low single digits, based partly on fewer new patient enrollments.

Total fourth-quarter revenue was $202.1 million, boosted by a $125 million payment for Dendreon’s sale of its royalty interest in Merck’s Victrelis hepatitis C treatment to CPPIB Credit Investments Inc. Dendreon had acquired intellectual property related to the drug several years ago.

The royalty helped Dendreon post a fourth-quarter profit of $38.1 million, or 26 cents a share, reversing a year-earlier loss of $91.8 million, or 64 cents a share.

Stripping out certain expenses such as depreciation and amortization, Dendreon said it earned 45 cents a share for the latest quarter.

On the conference call, Johnson reiterated his plan to expand sales of Provenge, reduce manufacturing costs and advance the company’s pipeline of experimental drugs.

(This post originally ran on Dow Jones Newswires.)

Photo: Bloomberg News

The FDA has rejected Watson Pharmaceuticals’ application for a progesterone gel to prevent preterm labor in a certain group of at-risk women — those with a short cervix.

As Dow Jones Newswires reports, Watson says the FDA didn’t find the vaginal gel’s effect in those women met the statistical significance level for approval in the U.S. market, and called for additional clinical work .

In a statement, Paul Bisaro, Watson’s CEO and president said the company had requested a meeting with the FDA “to determine if a viable path forward can be established for this application.” The drug is already used in women undergoing certain fertility treatments.

The gel was developed by Columbia Laboratories and marketed by Watson. Columbia transferred the new drug application to Watson earlier this month, according to DJN.

The development isn’t a big surprise following last month’s FDA advisory panel vote against the drug’s approval. A key study covering 458 women in 10 countries, published last year, showed that women treated with the gel had a 45% reduction in the rate of early preterm delivery, compared to those on a placebo.

But the FDA noted in briefing documents that when only women in the U.S. were considered, the difference between the progesterone gel and placebo groups could have occurred by chance.

In December, a review that included that study and other previously published work suggested that using progesterone in gel or suppository form reduced the rate of early preterm birth by  42% compared to a placebo.

Preterm birth is defined as before 37 weeks of pregnancy and early preterm birth as before 33 weeks.

Image: iStockphoto

The FDA has rejected Watson Pharmaceuticals’ application for a progesterone gel to prevent preterm labor in a certain group of at-risk women — those with a short cervix.

As Dow Jones Newswires reports, Watson says the FDA didn’t find the vaginal gel’s effect in those women met the statistical significance level for approval in the U.S. market, and called for additional clinical work .

In a statement, Paul Bisaro, Watson’s CEO and president said the company had requested a meeting with the FDA “to determine if a viable path forward can be established for this application.” The drug is already used in women undergoing certain fertility treatments.

The gel was developed by Columbia Laboratories and marketed by Watson. Columbia transferred the new drug application to Watson earlier this month, according to DJN.

The development isn’t a big surprise following last month’s FDA advisory panel vote against the drug’s approval. A key study covering 458 women in 10 countries, published last year, showed that women treated with the gel had a 45% reduction in the rate of early preterm delivery, compared to those on a placebo.

But the FDA noted in briefing documents that when only women in the U.S. were considered, the difference between the progesterone gel and placebo groups could have occurred by chance.

In December, a review that included that study and other previously published work suggested that using progesterone in gel or suppository form reduced the rate of early preterm birth by  42% compared to a placebo.

Preterm birth is defined as before 37 weeks of pregnancy and early preterm birth as before 33 weeks.

Image: iStockphoto

Stem-Cell Discovery: Research published in Nature Medicine suggests a way to take stem cells from a woman’s ovary and convert them into normal immature eggs that appear to be viable, the WSJ reports. While scientists say the development, if borne out, offers a potential research avenue for fertility treatments, they also caution that many obstacles remain.

Video-Game Study: Research published in Pediatrics suggests those “active” video games aren’t necessarily giving kids a lot more exercise than traditional games for sofa-sitters, Reuters reports. While the active games may slightly increase caloric burn for kids, they aren’t likely going to help them meet their daily recommended 60 minutes of activity, an outside researcher tells Reuters.

Medicaid Cuts: Washington state’s plan to cut off Medicaid payment for certain non-urgent medical services when delivered in an emergency room is riling providers, the WSJ reports. The move aims to reduce health-care costs by diverting patients to more appropriate venues for care, but physicians and hospitals say some of the procedures and tests are necessary to rule out emergency problems and that they will end up stuck with the bill, the paper says.

Trying to Treat Cachexia: Two experimental drugs to treat cachexia, the weight loss and muscle-wasting that often accompany cancer, are in late-stage clinical trials and if all goes well, could be available in two to three years, the Los Angeles Times reports. A researcher not affiliated with either of the companies developing the drugs says the hope is that the drugs will not only help cancer patients have more strength to fight their disease, but will also prolong life.

Image: iStockphoto

By a number of indicators, people have been using fewer medical services during the economic downturn.

Screening colonoscopies apparently aren’t immune to that trend, according to a study appearing in the March issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The study finds that during the recent recession, commercially insured Americans had fewer of the tests to screen for cancer — a test that saves lives, according to research published just this week.

According to the analysis, there were about 500,000 fewer screening colonoscopies among commercially-insured people aged 50 to 64 than you’d expect during the most recent recession, which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. (The study used the National Bureau of Economic Research’s official designation for the recession.)

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends colorectal cancer screening using several methods, including colonoscopy, for adults aged 50 to 75. The analysis didn’t find that people forgoing colonoscopy were instead using other, cheaper methods, such as fecal occult blood tests or sigmoidoscopy.

Researchers looked at the rates of screening before and after the recession, then applied their findings to population data to come up with an estimate of 516,309 colonoscopies that would have occurred absent the downturn. Data came from 106 health plans and added up to a nationally representative picture of the commercially insured population, the authors say.

It doesn’t include people who didn’t have a screening colonoscopy because they lost insurance coverage during the recession, says Spencer Dorn, an author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And it doesn’t include Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries.

The analysis also found that when it comes to colonoscopy, cost sharing appears to be a deterrent. No matter the economic climate, people with higher out-of-pocket costs — $300 or more for the procedure — were less likely to be screened than those with lower costs, defined as $50 or less. That gap “widened during the recession,” says Dorn.

Under the health-care overhaul law, colonoscopy — and other preventive services — must be covered with no cost sharing by Medicare, Medicaid and new private-insurance plans. (“Grandfathered” plans that haven’t significantly changed their design are exempt.)

The drop in utilization seen in the study “could have negative consequences down the line,” says Dorn, in terms of cancers being caught at a later stage. (The screening study out this week suggests it might also lead to deaths from the disease.)

The CDC last year reported an increase in screening rates for colorectal cancer from 2002 to 2010, but that estimate included all 50- to 75-year-olds and didn’t break down what happened during the intervening years.

An Earlier Case of Counterfeit Avastin: A document from Roche shows that fake Avastin was seized in Syria in 2009, and the company says other isolated cases of counterfeit versions of the cancer drug have also popped up in recent years, the WSJ reports. The development highlights the increasing appeal of expensive injectable cancer drugs to counterfeiters. Earlier this month Roche warned that fake versions of Avastin had been found in the U.S., though it’s not clear if they reached or harmed patients.

How Deadly is Bird Flu?: An analysis published online in Science suggests that more people have contracted bird flu than the World Health Organization estimates, with a far smaller percentage of them dying from the virus, Reuters reports. The figures in the analysis would seem to lead to a death rate of less than 1%, Reuters says, compared to the WHO’s estimate of a fatality rate of 50% or more. But the WHO is sticking to its estimates and critics say the new analysis is flawed.

Suit Over Birth Control Coverage: Seven states sued the Obama administration, claiming the requirement that most employers’ insurance plans cover birth control with no co-payment violates the rights of Catholic institutions opposed to contraception, the WSJ reports. The Obama administration recently announced a revamped policy that pushed the coverage burden to a religious employer’s insurance company if the employer wanted to opt out of the mandate. The White House wouldn’t comment on the suit because it is pending.

Changing Care for the Elderly: More programs are emerging to provide care to the elderly at home, at specialists’ offices and at adult day-care centers rather than in the traditional — and more expensive — nursing-home setting, the New York Times reports. In 2007 there were 42 such programs in 22 states; now there are 84, in 29 states, the NYT says. Research suggests this approach can produce better patient outcomes.

Image: iStockphoto