Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., which has had dozens of drugs blocked by the U.S. health regulatores over safety fears since Tuesday, announced it had signed up former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani as a lobbyist, to provide advice and review compliance issues with the FDA. Further Details.

The U.K.-based Roche Pharma division has been suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) for at least 6 months for breaching its code of practice

Biotech firm VGX Pharmaceuticals said the FDA has approved the IND application for its DNA vaccine for cervical cancer therapy. The vaccine, named VGX-3100, will be evaluated in a phase 1 multi-center study in Q3 2008

The watchdog group Center for Public Integrity (CPI) reports that pharmaceutical companies spent a record $ 168 million dollars to influence U.S. congressional members last year. Top spenders were Amgen Inc. and Pfizer Inc. For the first time, more was spent on the Democrats than the Republicans. Further details.