Bay Area biotech CEO con­vict­ed of si­phon­ing off $2.6M to buy a home; Mer­ck wins Alzheimer's nod for in­som­nia pill

→ A Bay Area biotech ex­ec has been con­vict­ed of de­fraud­ing his own com­pa­ny. The US at­tor­ney’s of­fice says that Lawrence Ger­rans was con­vict­ed on sev­er­al counts, in­clud­ing ly­ing to the FBI. Ger­rans was CEO of Sanovas, a med­ical de­vice com­pa­ny, where he was ac­cused of si­phon­ing off $2.6 mil­lion in or­der to buy a home in San Ansel­mo.

→ It will be months (at least) be­fore we know if the FDA will ap­prove ad­u­canum­ab as a treat­ment to stop the pro­gres­sion of Alzheimer’s, but an­oth­er symp­to­matic treat­ment has ar­rived. Mer­ck‘s in­som­nia med­ica­tion Bel­som­ra (su­vorex­ant) has been giv­en an ex­pand­ed la­bel to cov­er peo­ple with mild-to-mod­er­ate Alzheimer’s. Peo­ple with Alzheimer’s of­ten have dif­fi­cul­ty sleep­ing, and a study last year showed Alzheimer’s pa­tients tak­ing the drug had im­proved to­tal sleep time and wake­ful­ness af­ter sleep on­set. Ei­sai‘s new in­som­nia med, Dayvi­go, is al­so be­ing test­ed in Alzheimer’s pa­tients.

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